Mercedes has confirmed that it will build the EQA at its plant in Hambach, France, where the electric Smart models are currently made, following an investment of €500 million (about £438m). It will be the first Mercedes model to be built in France.

The new entry point of the Mercedes EQ electric car sub-brand will go on sale in 2020. Set to offer a 249-mile range and be priced to directly rival the £34,075 BMW i3, the EQA will be part of a 10-car EQ line-up due in showrooms by 2022.

Before stepping down as Mercedes boss in 2019, Dieter Zetsche said: “The EQ line-up will cover different vehicles and one of them will be a compact car.”

Mercedes is pushing to enhance the productivity of its global plant network, with the Hambach site becoming specialised in EVs. This will help the brand to increase its EV production output without affecting the supply of petrol and diesel models.

Mercedes production chief Markus Schäfer said the Smart plant will grow to "become a part of our global compact car production network, with the lead plant in Rastatt, Germany".

The EQA concept

The starting point for the EQA is a new electric vehicle platform developed by Mercedes for use in all upcoming EQ models. Known internally by the codename EVA (electric vehicle architecture), it has been conceived to allow the new model to be built alongside Mercedes' conventional compact car models in the same factories that produce the A-Class, B-Class, CLA, CLA Shooting Brake and GLA.

The flexible platform is planned to support either front-, rear- or four-wheel drive, with either one or two electric motors and a scalable battery mounted low down within its flat floor structure, operating on an 800V electrical system that can provide rapid charging.

The Concept EQA holds clues to the final make-up of the production-spec model. As with the EQC concept, an illuminated black panel incorporating distinctively styled laser-fibre headlights is used up front, ensuring the Concept EQA instantly stands out from the existing range of compact Mercedes models.

The high-tech front end also acts as a virtual radiator grille. It is programmed to alter the appearance of the new car dependent on the driving mode. In Sport, it depicts what Mercedes describes as a flaming horizontal wing, with a blue hue extending out from an oversized three-pointed star emblem. In Sport Plus, the black panel changes its look to mimic the shape of the Panamericana grille of AMG models, complete with vertical louvres.

A similar black panel treatment is used at the rear, where it visually extends the depth of the rear window and serves to house the Concept EQA's full-width OLED tail-lights.