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The all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQS is among the many most elegant vehicles on the street proper now, an understated exterior wrapped round a luxurious inside, that includes all of the niceties you’d count on from an S-badged Merc with the easy acceleration of an EV and stellar journey high quality as well. The flagship EV is, fairly merely, superb.
It’s additionally very costly, huge and unique.
Fortunately, there’s now a extra inexpensive choice — properly, barely extra inexpensive, anyway. Welcome to the Mercedes-Benz EQE: an all-electric sedan that’s a few 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 scale, efficiency or that little bit of additional vary of the EQS.
Exterior
Picture Credit: Tim Stevens
If there’s one factor fallacious 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 trying automotive by any means, mainly a nine-tenths-scale model of the EQS, however with its amorphous profile it simply type of disappears right into a car parking zone.
The detailing on the nostril seems to be recent; the three-pointed star sits daring and centered inside a radiating discipline of stellar echoes, an association way more interesting than the faux grilles discovered on a whole lot of different EVs.
It’s all downhill from there, although.
The way in which the strains move 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, at the least, a very good motive for the anonymity: The EQE has a outstanding 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 splendid circumstances 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 circumstances have been hardly splendid. This EQE not solely got here on snow tires, which usually supply a ten to fifteen% vary penalty, however throughout some extraordinarily chilly climate with icy and infrequently moist roads. Your mileage needs to be significantly better.
Inside
Picture Credit: Tim Stevens
That nondescript exterior is in sharp distinction to the inside.
It’s maybe a number of steps down from the overall 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 additional branding, and the contrasting purple seat belts.
There’s additionally beneficiant Alcantara and microfiber surfaces all through, which pair superbly with the Black Linden wooden on the dashboard. That, plus the gorgeous turbine vents, make for a clear, fashionable, lovely sprint.
Picture Credit: Tim Stevens
That Multifunction Sport steering wheel is a bit busy, with quite a few capacitive contact surfaces controlling the whole lot from the cruise management to gauge cluster modes. Nevertheless, in contrast to the thumb-controls on the Volkswagen ID. 4, the whole lot right here is properly separated and simple to make use of with out trying down. I by no means discovered myself toggling the fallacious management. Solely the headlight buttons are a bit of clumsy, hidden beneath 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 area.
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’s loads of headroom up entrance, it’s a bit of restricted out again regardless of the panoramic glass roof.
Picture Credit: Tim Stevens
Legroom, at the least, is first rate, and all of the seats are comfy. Even when there isn’t a whole lot of room to maneuver round you received’t really feel a lot have to squirm. Massaging up entrance simply offers all of the extra motive to settle in and benefit from the journey.
There’s first rate storage, a large cubby beneath the middle console and beneficiant pocket contained in the arm relaxation as properly. The trunk is slender however nonetheless provides 15 cubic toes of storage, up from the 13.1 within the E-Class sedan.
Tech
Picture Credit: Tim Stevens
The EQE is swimming in tech, help and security options, beginning up entrance with the excellent Digital Mild LED headlights, an $1,100 choice. They’re extremely brilliant with faultless auto-dimming and many surprisingly enjoyable additional options. They’ll paint an arrow on the asphalt when altering lanes on the freeway, for instance, and even spotlight the street 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 automotive’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.
Picture Credit: Tim Stevens
Nor customization. The EQE is among the many most tweakable vehicles I’ve ever pushed. You will have a bevy of drive modes at your disposal, infinite ambient lighting colours, three faux engine noises, 5 gauge clusters (every individually customizable), eight seat therapeutic massage routines, versatile charging charges and instances, 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 bit of overwhelming, however I like which you could make this automotive drive precisely the way you need it, and Mercedes’ clear MBUX interface makes all of it simple. 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 provides virtually the whole lot you may need, together with entrance and rear automated emergency braking with pedestrian detection and adaptive cruise, which ensures the automobile maintains a secure following distance and stays throughout the velocity restrict.
The lane-keeping and adaptive cruise methods 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 type of hands-off mode like yow will discover in some Cadillacs and Fords, but it surely’s coming — ultimately.
Driving dynamics
The EQS just isn’t a sports activities automotive 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 definitely accelerates like one. In Sport mode the EQE is raring, its acceleration paired with certainly one of three considerably foolish however enjoyable faux engine noises.
The automotive’s comfort-tuned suspension is a bit on the tender facet and the automotive 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 the whole lot much more full of life than it will in any other case be, additionally enabling spectacular U-turns. You’ll want by no means fear a few three-point flip once more.
The good alternative
You will get into an EQE 350+ with rear-wheel-drive, for $74,900. This one, although, got here out a very good bit greater. The bottom worth on the quicker, extra highly effective EQE 500 4Matic is $88,000. Add in all of the choices talked about above plus a number of extra, like $1,750 for the purple 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 you then’d have to begin the choices recreation over again. For me, a well-equipped EQE is the good alternative. It ticks all of the bins for what luxurious electrical motoring needs to be at present whereas pointing to a brilliant way forward for calm, cosseting, emissions-free motoring.
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