Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV review

The EQE SUV doesn’t drive badly per se, it’s just boring and doesn’t behave with the same aplomb as the regular EQE saloon. That rides wonderfully on motorways. The taller SUV occasionally succumbs to some turbulence. Mercedes tries to talk up the car’s sportiness, but don’t believe a word of that.

It’s a heavy car at upwards of 2.5 tonnes, and engineering talent will only go so far in terms of disguising that level of heft. The cars with rear steering (the back wheels turn up to 10 degrees to aid handling) are the best of the bunch, with assertive turn-in and better manoeuvrability around town.

The standard air suspension manages the immediate bumps and shocks of the road quite well, and it’s designed to keep the ground clearance consistent whatever’s going on below. It keeps itself busy enough keeping the car’s weight in check, but the whole thing ends up feeling peculiarly floaty, inducing a touch of seasickness.

That’s a big old dash, can you even see out of the car?

The windscreen is curiously tiny for such a large car; a consequence of the rakish silhouette Mercedes was trying to achieve. Your driving position will take a bit of finesse (the seats are at least electrically adjustable as standard), and you might get harangued by the instrument panel.

It tracks your eyes to check you’re paying attention/not watching the passenger side television (if the Hyperscreen is fitted) when your eyes should be on the road, but proves more irritating than anything else. And the less said for the active speed limit assistant, the better.

The thick A-pillars and wing mirrors are also an issue, obliterating your view. You find yourself doing a lot of shuffling around in your chair to check oncoming traffic. Likewise the high bonnet obscures the area immediately in front of the car: you’ll be relying a lot on the safety systems and cameras to avoid prangs. This is bizarre for a car that sits on a bespoke electric platform, not a bodge job that used to be home to a diesel.

Is it typically EV quick?

There’s no real middle ground with the EQE SUV: the 500 does 0–62mph in 4.9 seconds and feels too quick, in that joyless, rollercoaster fashion that so many overpowered electric cars have in common these days. The 53 exacerbates that to the point of extreme discomfort as the chassis is pushed way beyond what it can cope with.

The 350 is brisk enough off the line (6.6s to 62mph), but you have to really mash the accelerator on the move to get it going for an overtake or out of a corner. So that one feels sluggish sometimes. There really is no happy medium in the range. Blame the weight.

The brakes are a little grabby when they switch to the mechanical stoppers, but there’s smart regen that reads the road and traffic ahead for one-pedal driving. Or you can use the steering wheel paddles to choose between strong, normal or off.

Is it efficient?

We have managed decent figures from an EQE SUV: around 3.5mi/kWh in warm weather in the 350, and 3.1mi/kWh in much colder UK temperatures, this time in the more powerful 500. However, you can only really get those numbers in gentle, steady state driving. The car’s aerodynamics are good, but as soon as you slow or accelerate and the car has to work against all that weight, it’s a different story.

Both models will get from 10–80 per cent on a 170kW charger in 32 minutes, and a full charge will take 14 hours on a home charging unit. The most efficient version is the entry-level EQE 350 AMG Line, which manages 334 miles on a charge. The worst is the EQE 53 Night Edition Premium Plus, which only manages 260 miles because of its enormous 22s. Bad for range, tyre roar and comfort. Why, Mercedes?