The trail to electrification, for some automakers, doesn’t include a variety of guardrails. The auto world has seen a fusillade of recent EV manufacturers—and a few have already run out of rocket gasoline, within the type of {dollars} and runway. There’s an EV model reckoning coming, and it received’t be fairly or low cost.

Different manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, have extra pores and skin within the automotive recreation, and have taken a extra cautious method. Their EV glide path has to taper off gas-powered SUVs whereas it boosts and amplifies its maiden electrical autos. They should soar, with out strangling off the moneymaking a part of the enterprise. They need to hope all of it works out almost completely.

The 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV makes complete sense in that framework. It’s a chunk of forward-thinking know-how when it comes to security and infotainment, in addition to the surroundings. As an electrical utility automobile, it hedges a lot of costly bets with its 400-volt charging, 279 miles of most vary, and its Electrify America charging resolution, whereas others have developed customized charging networks and brawny battery packs that spin out musclecar-like efficiency.

An AMG model with 677 hp will are available in 2024, however for now the EQE 500 4Matic SUV sits on the high of the three-model lineup. It’s the swiftest and sharpest blade to take into battle with autos just like the BMW iX and the Audi Q8 E-Tron, whereas it splits the distinction in worth and measurement between the Tesla Mannequin Y and X crossovers.

The 2023 Mercedes EQE SUV seems easily tapered outdoors, whereas it’s festooned with digital shows inside.

How briskly is the Mercedes EQE 500 SUV?

I drove the EQE SUV lineup final week in Portugal, focusing for a day on the five hundred 4Matic model. With seating for 5, it’s a relative of the EQS sedan and SUV, with a smaller battery pack and a extra taut form. 

Retaining a reasonable tempo by means of some mild Lisbon visitors that dissolved as we neared the browsing coast of Nazaré, the EQE 500 4Matic SUV dealt with undulating roads the straightforward approach: by dispatching them.

The way it will get there, in electrical drive, is from a scaled-down resolution just like the 108-kwh one within the EQS sedan and SUV. Base variations of the EQE SUV carry a single motor within the entrance that groups with a smaller battery pack, and reel out 288 hp. Within the 500 4Matic version, a second motor on the rear drives complete output to 300 kw between the 2 motors. In all, the five hundred 4Matic churns out 536 hp and 633 lb-ft of torque, which Mercedes says will clip 0-60 mph runs in 4.6 seconds. Prime pace’s set at 130 mph. It’s fast in goal phrases, although it’s removed from the crazed acceleration that may concern from a Tesla Mannequin X. 

Like its EQE 350+ SUV kin, the twin-motor, all-wheel-drive version masks its acceleration in a few methods. The heft of the 90.6-kwh battery pack that varieties its ground mutes the responses, for one. It checks in at almost 5,600 kilos, or about the identical as a three-row GLS SUV. The extra essential piece is available in its suspension design: with adaptive dampers, air springs, and rear-axle steering, the EQE SUV deploys chips and circuits and code to whittle down its precise measurement into one thing nearly smaller.

A superb stability between trip and dealing with precision can be one of the compelling causes to purchase the EQE SUV, and the clearest victory over automobiles from Tesla and Lucid, thanks principally to the energy-consuming adaptive suspension. 

A base 350+ version manages with a entrance strut and rear multilink suspension. I drove the five hundred 4Matic with the accessible adaptive setup over a couple of hundred miles of moderate-speed byways north of Lisbon, the place its composure and configurability stood out. The EQE SUV will get drive modes that vary from Eco to Consolation to Sport and Offroad, with an Particular person notch that lets drivers decide and select from steering weight to suspension damping. Finally, the EQE 500 4Matic SUV felt finest left in Sport, and on large sweeping surfaces.

Coupled with the rear-axle steering system—it may possibly transfer the rear tires as much as 10 levels out of part with the fronts under 37 mph, to scale back the EQE SUV’s turning radius—the Sport-set trip let the electrical SUV slip by means of a number of the squeezier esses with out fuss. It might reduce by means of improbably tight turns, although it’s large and heavy and that in the end dictates whether or not you’ll make it between the subsequent brace of 400-year-old buildings. Consider it as a digital weight-loss program, one which makes the mid-size EQE SUV appear smaller because it pivots and does its deep knee bends on the pavement.

Whereas it does so, its regenerative braking system might be paddled by means of 4 modes to recapture some power misplaced to stopping, or to cease the automobile solely.

It received’t be rushed by means of probably the most difficult straits, although. Even in Sport, the EQE SUV commits solely to the quantity of steering weight it must recommend the burden positioned on the tires. With the 21-inch wheels that may come on U.S. fashions, it jostles and thuds frivolously because it passes over large pace bumps, earlier than it clobbers them with a mix of mass and suspension complexity. 

Mercedes’ Hyperscreen surroundings received’t come to the EQE SUV, however its portrait-style display screen and digital gauges tuck in effectively among the many aluminum and leather-based.

EQE SUV: wonderful inside, exterior’s…wonderful

The EQE SUV bears the design language of its EQS and EQE siblings. It’s vaguely eggy from the entrance, with a broad shiny band of star-studded trim fixed to the nostril by a giant three-pointed star, with cat-eyed fairing into the fenders. A 3-way intersection of windshield, mirror, and fender traces wears a badge that masks the transition, and within the again the EQE SUV tapers dramatically within the title of aerodynamics. It pales in distinction subsequent to the GLS and G-Class SUVs—however doesn’t take any punches inside, the place the knock-off S-Class cabin’s an authorized knockout. Decked out with a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster, a 12.8-inch touchscreen with a reasonably well-sorted model of MBUX software program—to not point out wi-fi Android Auto and Apple CarPlay—it’s marvelous when configured with mocha brown nappa leather-based and laser-slitted Burmester speaker grilles. It units a excessive bar for electric-car luxurious with out resorting to Hyperscreen-style visible overload, even earlier than you decide certainly one of its 4 soundscapes: it generates its personal noises from Roaring Pulse to Silver Waves and Vivid Flux, even a brand new one dubbed Serene Breeze. Co-branding with Gwyneth Paltrow’s empire appears inevitable.

Whereas it’s suitably comfy up entrance for even most tall passengers who can get cooled seats with therapeutic massage modes—and within the second row of seats, for as much as three large ones—the EQE SUV doesn’t fare as effectively in cargo areas because the equally sized GLE-Class. There’s no third-row seat choice, and the EQE SUV has 14.0 cubic ft of cargo house behind the rear seats, 59.0 cubic ft behind the entrance seats. That first quantity’s smaller than the last-generation GLC, whereas the latter quantity’s a number of cubic ft greater. 

The bottom EQE 350+ SUV prices slightly below $80,000, with both a single or twin electrical motors. The five hundred 4Matic version prices $90,650 and comes with 20-inch wheels, the adaptive air suspension and rear-axle steering, leather-based upholstery,  and AMG Line exterior trim. To go along with its commonplace automated emergency braking, blind-spot displays, and lively lane management, a $2,100 Unique bundle provides  augmented actuality navigation, adaptive cruise management, and automated lane adjustments. A head-up show will get bundled into the $3,850 Pinnacle bundle. 

The EQE SUV might be charged from 10-80% in 32 minutes, Mercedes says, on a DC fast-charger that may hit its 170-kw max acceptance charge.

How do I cost an EQE SUV?

As for tax credit and charging, the EQE SUV qualifies for as much as $3,750 in tax credit, and will web the remaining $3,750 from the IRA when its battery materials origin is ascertained. The EQE 500 4Matic SUV will web out at 269 EPA-rated miles of vary, Mercedes says, and comes with two years of limitless DC fast-charging at Electrify America stations, doled out in 30-minute increments. It’s a stopgap resolution till Mercedes builds out its personal community of 400 charging stations, which it guarantees by 2027. The EQE SUV takes 32 minutes to cost at a 170-kw charge from 10-80%—or, on a house connection, might be absolutely charged in 9.5 hours with a Degree 2, 240-volt setup at 32 amps.

There’s nonetheless a 677-hp AMG version to come back, however as of now, the EQE 500 4Matic SUV caps this mannequin vary with composure and content material. Extra vary, 800-volt charging, and sooner acceleration lie sooner or later for the EQE SUV. For now, it contents itself with its execution, significantly in its inside and its infotainment and security options. Its glide path debuts as a warning one; it actually leans into the “glide.”

Mercedes-Benz paid for journey and lodging in order that we might carry you this check drive evaluation of the EQE SUV.