TESTER’S NOTE I’m not the biggest fan of Mercedes’ MBUX infotainment system, but how the sat-nav shows chargers along your route, grouped by power rating and filtering out those already in use, really is very impressive. MS
TESTED 7.4.22, FR ANKFURT, GERMANY ON SALE NOW
MERCEDES-BENZ EQE 350+ Stuttgart creates an electric equivalent of the E-Class in its quest to outdo Tesla
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ercedes-Benz means business with the new little brother of the EQS luxury limousine: a super-slippery travel soap of an electric executive car, rather than a full-sized bar. Specifically, the EQE means global fleet business. Unlike the bigger EQS, this new pure-electric saloon will be built in Beijing as well as in Bremen. And eventually coming down to a sub-£70,000 entry price, it should take significantly more sales than its longer and pricier relation. This is every inch the downsized EQS, for better and worse, from its teardrop-shape outline to its almost seamlessly smooth surfaces and ever so gently arcing ‘one bow’ silhouette. Being a bit shorter in the hind quarters might better balance its looks, I suppose, but honestly, Mercedes can still put down my name in the ‘unconvinced’ column on the design feedback spreadsheet. I just hate to see one of the originators of luxury car design abandon so many of its proven conventions for the sake of the clean break from the old motoring
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world that it’s now so desperate to represent. A long bonnet, balanced proportions and a planted stance are what define a desirable car, visually at least; but Mercedes’ EQ sub-brand seems to be going down a much more bland and anonymous route, however first-rate the associated aerodynamics may be.
The EQE uses a shortened version of the EVA2 car architecture that the EQS blooded, with a wheelbase some 90mm shorter. It carries two drive battery modules, rather than three, under the cabin floor for 90kWh of usable capacity, rather than 108kWh. In the UK, we will get the EQE 300, EQE 350+ and twin-motor,
Smooth surfaces and simple lines are all in the name of efficiency
four-wheel-drive AMG 53 versions of it (the uppermost and lowermost coming along slightly later than the mid-ranger), while other markets will get the four-wheel-drive EQE 500 and AMG EQE 43 versions as well. Suspension on the bottomend derivatives is via steel coils as standard, while upper-level cars get Airmatic air suspension instead. Interestingly, only the AMG EQE 53 will be available with either the four-wheel steering or the optional MBUX Hyperscreen infotainment system seen on the bigger EQS, at least as far as Mercedes UK is concerned. Evidently, Milton Keynes wants to save some key gadgets for the range-topping model. The other top-level difference between the EQE and EQS is that the latter has a liftback cargo bay and the former a separate boot. The EQE’s luggage-carrying capacity is still pretty sizable, though. However, no doubt as a result of that plunging roofline, the rear cabin is disappointingly short of head room. Mercedes UK will fit a panoramic glass roof on all EQE
