This Mercedes EQA concept is a 270bhp electric hatch

Something more down-to-earth from Frankfurt now. A small hatchback. But of course not that down-to-earth, as it's from Mercedes' EQ brand, meaning it's all electric. Meet the Concept EQA.

A means A-Class size. But don't imagine the body styling gives us much of a clue to the next A-Class. Mercedes is adamant that its EQ cars will look very different from its combustion lineup.

We hear that the production car, due about 2020, will have five doors, but otherwise not differ much from this Concept.

Mercedes says it will have two motors, with a maximum stomp of up to 270bhp depending on version. Battery ranges of up to 400km (250-odd miles) will be available.

Mercedes – together with the VW Group, BMW and Ford – is installing a charger network that will let you do long trips across Europe, filling this size battery in just 20-odd minutes. In addition to plug-in charge station ability, the concept also envisages inductive charging, where you just charge by parking over a buried electrified plate.

The production EQA will launch about a year after Mercedes' first EQ car, the EQ crossover that was shown as a concept a year ago in Paris. But also, the company will also bring the electric Smarts under the EQ banner.

The design strikes us as less bar-of-soap than the EQC. Even so, the sparseness of lines and creases does mean the proportions and surfaces of the production car will have to be just spot-on. One rather superb detail is the lights – they embody little spiral filament-like elements, as if the windings of an electric motor.