The Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV blends limousine luxurious and elegance with seven-seat household practicality – and provides giant households an electrical various to the GLS.
The most important and costliest of the electrical SUV vary from the three-pointed-star model additionally comes loaded with gear and house for the household – at a value.
For now there’s just one mannequin, the EQS450 with twin electrical motors. Down the observe Mercedes-Benz will add a extra luxurious Maybach variant with lashings of chrome and much more luxurious.
Even so, the EQS450 – which is priced from about $205,000 drive-away – has loads of equipment, together with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and 12.8-inch OLED central touchscreen. A 17.7-inch centre display and 12.3-inch passenger show is a part of the $6700 Hyperscreen, one in every of many choices provided.
There’s additionally a crisp 15-speaker Burmester sound system with Dolby Atmos for next-level encompass sound efficiency. Plus a panoramic glass roof, head-up show, four-zone air flow and digital headlights with 1.3 million pixels to place gentle round different street customers.
Basically a stretched model of the not too long ago arrived EQE SUV, the EQS SUV provides 262mm to the size – with an additional 180mm between the entrance and rear wheels – and is 32mm taller, in addition to a whisker wider.
It has an analogous swoopy look to the EQE, with an AMG Line design pack exterior and three-pointed stars dotted throughout the futuristic grille.
However the EQS SUV’s drawcard is having the ability to cart loads of folks, with a third-row seat added.
How a lot room you’ve received in that third row will depend on the generosity of these within the center row, which just like the entrance seats slides and folds electronically. However you’ll be manually reducing the third row to fold it flat, in flip changing a slender 195-litre load space into one thing extra helpful.
A flat ground and spacious cabin work properly for 5 folks, though it doesn’t really feel as spacious as its prolonged exterior could counsel.
Whichever seat you’re in you’ll be pampered with luxurious, particularly in the event you choice the $11,700 Consolation Pack that provides a rear leisure system, heating for the second and third row seats and the identical plush pillows on the entrance seats for the rears.
Leather-based is liberally unfold all through and there’s top quality finishes from the doorways to the dashboard, the latter an imposing slab that dominates the entrance of the cabin.
The centre console between the entrance occupants homes a deep binnacle and there’s a bag-friendly cavity beneath the principle floating unit, a useful addition to the plethora of properties for paraphernalia.
There’s Benz’s fashionable array of slider dials and contact pads from the steering wheel to the principle show; it pays to familiarise your self with the centre display and customisable instrument cluster, at which level you’ll be able to unlock a dizzying array of options.
Beneath means, the EQS SUV is eerily quiet, helped by double-glazed glass and EV silence. Its indicators are quieter than different Benzes to take care of that cabin tranquillity.
Add plush air suspension and it makes for a serene journey, albeit one infused with some jiggling over small bumps from the low profile 21-inch tyres.
Twin electrical motors make a mixed 265kW and 800Nm, which is beneficiant, however the porky 2.9-tonne physique offers these motors a sizeable process to shift.
It’s claimed to take 6.0 seconds to succeed in 100km/h, which is appropriate and makes for easy on a regular basis efficiency. There’s a helpful surge from a standstill though these kilos maintain the EV eagerness you could count on from 800Nm in test.
Brakes are responsive and highly effective, however there’s an inconsistency to the pedal really feel that requires extra focus to take care of a good price of deceleration.
The steering is properly weighted and reassuring, some delicate rear-wheel steering (as much as 4.5 levels) tightening the turning radius at metropolis speeds and serving to the 5.1-metre-plus EQS tuck right into a hairpin.
However the EQS450 SUV is targeted on on a regular basis consolation quite than overt sportiness. That’s partially as a result of weight that offers it a planted really feel however takes the sting of athleticism.
It’s the kind of automotive that can take in the kilometres effortlessly and maintain you cozy doing it.
Talking of which, the EQS SUV has a 107.8kWh battery good for 483km of WLTP vary.
Throughout our predominantly nation street drive the automotive used about 21kWh per 100km, which is spectacular given the majority of the automobile.
Charging will be completed at as much as 11kW with an AC wallbox, resulting in a full cost in about 10 hours. Choice the 22kW charger ($1800) and that point halves.
Quicker DC charging will be completed at as much as 200kW for a 10-80 per cent cost in as little as 31 minutes.
All of which makes for an electrical SUV that ticks the EV bins with out setting any new benchmarks. As an alternative, the hassle has centred on luxurious and pampering, two issues the EQS does properly.
VERDICT 3.5/5
Seven-seat SUV pampers with tech and plush driving consolation, nevertheless it’s not as huge inside as its exterior dimensions suggest.
MERCEDES-BENZ EQS450 SUV
Value: From about $205,000 drive-away
Guarantee/servicing: 5 yrs/limitless km, $4280 for five yrs/125,000km
Security: 10 airbags, autonomous emergency braking, lane maintain help, 360-degree parking support, blind spot warning, driver monitor, rear cross site visitors alert, Pre-Secure with Aspect Impulse
Energy: Twin electrical motors, 265kW/800Nm
Vary: 483km
Spare: Restore equipment
Boot: 195L (as a 7-seater), as much as 880L (as a 5-seater)
