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The all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQS is among the many most chic automobiles on the highway proper now, an understated exterior wrapped round a luxurious inside, that includes all of the niceties you’d anticipate from an S-badged Merc with the easy acceleration of an EV and stellar experience high quality besides. The flagship EV is, fairly merely, excellent.
It’s additionally very costly, large and unique.
Fortunately, there’s now a extra inexpensive possibility — effectively, barely extra inexpensive, anyway. Welcome to the Mercedes-Benz EQE: an all-electric sedan that’s a couple of foot shorter, 230 ponies much less highly effective, goes 45 fewer miles on a cost, and, crucially, prices $30,000 much less.
Regardless of all that, don’t name this a downgrade.
The EQE is an ideal alternative for anybody who doesn’t fairly want the size, efficiency or that little bit of additional vary of the EQS.
Exterior
If there’s one factor improper with the EQE it’s the look. The place the EQS manages to be considerably globular but stately from the skin, the EQE is nameless front-to-rear.
It’s not a nasty wanting automobile by any means, mainly a nine-tenths-scale model of the EQS, however with its amorphous profile it simply form of disappears right into a car parking zone.
The detailing on the nostril appears to be like recent; the three-pointed star sits daring and centered inside a radiating subject of stellar echoes, an association way more interesting than the pretend grilles discovered on plenty of different EVs.
It’s all downhill from there, although.
The way in which the traces circulation from the bulbous headlights to the pert tail lights with nary a crease in between doesn’t do a lot to get the juices flowing.
There may be, not less than, a great motive for the anonymity: The EQE has a exceptional 0.20 coefficient of drag, serving to it ship a remarkably good 305 mile EPA-rated vary within the rear-drive, EQE 350+ configuration.
The upper-power, all-wheel-drive EQE 500 you see right here nonetheless doesn’t have official EPA figures, however in superb situations it shouldn’t be too far off. In my testing, I averaged 2.0 miles per kilowatt-hour, which might imply a theoretical most vary of 180 miles from the 90-kWh battery pack, however my situations have been hardly superb. This EQE not solely got here on snow tires, which typically supply a ten to fifteen% vary penalty, however throughout some extraordinarily chilly climate with icy and infrequently moist roads. Your mileage needs to be a lot better.
Inside
That nondescript exterior is in sharp distinction to the inside.
It’s maybe a couple of steps down from the final opulence of the EQS however you’d hardly understand it.
The EQE 500 you see right here has the ($2,100) AMG Line inside package deal, which implies sport seats, a racier steering wheel, some further branding, and the contrasting crimson seat belts.
There’s additionally beneficiant Alcantara and microfiber surfaces all through, which pair fantastically with the Black Linden wooden on the dashboard. That, plus the gorgeous turbine vents, make for a clear, trendy, stunning sprint.
That Multifunction Sport steering wheel is a bit busy, with quite a few capacitive contact surfaces controlling every thing from the cruise management to gauge cluster modes. Nevertheless, not like the thumb-controls on the Volkswagen ID. 4, every thing right here is effectively separated and straightforward to make use of with out wanting down. I by no means discovered myself toggling the improper management. Solely the headlight buttons are a little bit clumsy, hidden below the dashboard on the left, however they’re so exactly automated that I not often needed to fear about that.
If there’s one downside right here, it’s the amount of the house.
Inside, the EQE can really feel a bit cramped. The way in which that uber-stylish dashboard sweeps in makes issues simply really feel a bit claustrophobic, and whereas there may be loads of headroom up entrance, it’s a little bit restricted out again regardless of the panoramic glass roof.
Legroom, not less than, is respectable, and all of the seats are snug. Even when there isn’t plenty of room to maneuver round you gained’t really feel a lot must squirm. Massaging up entrance simply provides all of the extra motive to settle in and benefit from the journey.
There’s respectable storage, a large cubby beneath the middle console and beneficiant pocket contained in the arm relaxation as effectively. The trunk is slim however nonetheless presents 15 cubic ft of storage, up from the 13.1 within the E-Class sedan.
Tech
The EQE is swimming in tech, help and security options, beginning up entrance with the very good Digital Gentle LED headlights, an $1,100 possibility. They’re extremely shiny with faultless auto-dimming and plenty of surprisingly enjoyable further options. They’ll paint an arrow on the asphalt when altering lanes on the freeway, for instance, and even spotlight the highway markings do you have to begin to wander out of your lane.
The EQE you see right here doesn’t have the epic Hyperscreen dashboard, with shows that run just about your entire size of the dashboard; I didn’t miss it.
This automobile’s 12.8-inch middle show remains to be beneficiant, whereas the 12.3-inch gauge cluster is remarkably feature-packed. You’ll not be missing for info.
Nor customization. The EQE is among the many most tweakable automobiles I’ve ever pushed. You’ve a bevy of drive modes at your disposal, limitless ambient lighting colours, three pretend engine noises, 5 gauge clusters (every individually customizable), eight seat therapeutic massage routines, versatile charging charges and occasions, 4 regenerative braking ranges, and even a trio of particular person HVAC modes to allow you to prioritize driving distance vs. tush toastiness. It may be a little bit overwhelming, however I like which you can make this automobile drive precisely the way you need it, and Mercedes’ clear MBUX interface makes all of it straightforward. And sure, there’s wi-fi Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, too.
So far as security and help options go, the usual suite of options on the EQE presents nearly every thing you may need, together with entrance and rear automated emergency braking with pedestrian detection and adaptive cruise, which ensures the automobile maintains a protected following distance and stays throughout the pace restrict.
The lane-keeping and adaptive cruise techniques are extraordinarily good. The EQE stays rock-solid in its lane and easily flows with site visitors. If there’s something lacking, it’s some form of hands-off mode like yow will discover in some Cadillacs and Fords, nevertheless it’s coming — ultimately.
Driving dynamics
The EQS will not be a sports activities automobile and the EQE very a lot follows in the identical template. Nevertheless, with 402 horsepower and 633 pound-feet of torque on this EQE 500 4Matic, it actually accelerates like one. In Sport mode the EQE is raring, its acceleration paired with considered one of three considerably foolish however enjoyable pretend engine noises.
The automobile’s comfort-tuned suspension is a bit on the comfortable facet and the automobile pitches and rolls like a dinghy by way of the corners, however even on Pirelli Sottozero winter tires it had loads of grip. In the meantime, the ($1,300) rear-steering system makes every thing much more full of life than it could in any other case be, additionally enabling spectacular U-turns. You’ll want by no means fear a couple of three-point flip once more.
The sensible alternative
You may get into an EQE 350+ with rear-wheel-drive, for $74,900. This one, although, got here out a great bit greater. The bottom worth on the sooner, extra highly effective EQE 500 4Matic is $88,000. Add in all of the choices talked about above plus a couple of extra, like $1,750 for the crimson paint and $1,620 for the beautiful linden wooden, plus an $1,150 vacation spot cost, and you’ve got an as-configured worth of $104,470.
For that cash you may get your self right into a base EQS, however then you definately’d have to start out the choices recreation over again. For me, a well-equipped EQE is the sensible alternative. It ticks all of the packing containers for what luxurious electrical motoring needs to be at present whereas pointing to a shiny way forward for calm, cosseting, emissions-free motoring.
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