I think EQXX is confirmation Mercedes messed up with the EQS, EQE, etc cars.
22 months crash programme. Kaellenius knew they are awful, a dead-end, and awful to look at. The whole raised bonnet line, leading to a towering bottom of windscreen, is reminiscent of the Volvo 'P3' cars of the mid 2000s, S80, S60 II etc, when Volvo went the same way, after the svelte, low bonnet, low frontal area, of the previous generation cars, 'P2'.
The EQXX is a glaring repudiation of the current EQ 'EVA2' cars - basically binned already.
The soap bar, high, rising bonnet line, massively sloping windscreen, in practice gave no aero benefit. So what was the point?
EVA2 was Mercedes - the sloth behemoth, just cranking out what the next level up wanted - following orders. EQXX is the skunk works - Motorsport engineers, and younger, embarrassed Merc engineers, showing what they could do.
Might be enough to save Kaellenius's bacon - he's not an engineer - marketing/PR. He probably signed off on the final EVA2 cars, without understanding how naff they were, or not having the courage to say, 'No. That's awful'.
EQXX also shows us once again how the whole 'alien tech', '10 years ahead' Tesla thing is now so circa 2020. Also, 0-60 mph <3/4 secs, for serious, luxury, sporting cars.
You'll sell 5, 10 times as many $/€100k luxury/sporting EVs with 1,000 km range, as those that do 5-600km, but also do 0-60 in ~3 secs.
The boast of 40-, 50-, 60-somethings will not be I hurt myself and my family with greater than 1g acceleration, but I charge only once every 2 weeks/a month - the Eco kudos.