New electric luxury saloon slots in below the EQS limo and has an official range of up to 388 miles On sale Now Price from £74,345
Max Adams Max.Adams@haymarket.com
BACK IN THE late 1970s, Triumph described the wedgy TR7 sports car as “the shape of things to come” as designers moved away from the curvaceous shapes that filled the market. Fast forward from the disco era to today and the low-drag demands of electric vehicles (EVs) are having a similar effect in dictating how the cars of tomorrow will look, and that’s why the new Mercedes-Benz EQE looks nothing like the traditional ‘three-box’ shape we’ve grown accustomed to for luxury saloons.
And it seems the Stuttgart brand is committed to this shape, because it’s pretty much a scaled-down photocopy of the larger EQS, just with a truncated rear. The smaller EQE shares the same filled-in front grille, streamlined silhouette, pop-out door handles and cascading rear roofline as the EQS in order to slip through the air with minimal effort.
However, because of the EQE’s shortened rear end and the fact that only high-spec models get fancy air suspension to lower the whole car at speed to further reduce drag, it’s a fraction less wind-cheating than its bigger sibling. And aerodynamic efficiency is important if the EQE is to have enough range to compete with other electric saloons such as the BMW i4 and Tesla Model 3, not to mention the luxurious Genesis Electrified G80.
There are three versions of the EQE to choose from. The 300 and 350 are rear-wheel drive, the former having a 242bhp motor that takes it from 0-62mph in 7.3sec, while the 350’s more potent 288bhp motor trims that time down to 6.4sec. Neither will challenge the entry-level i4 for acceleration, let alone the G80 or Model 3. For that, you’ll need the 616bhp, four-wheel-drive AMG 53 4Matic, which can zip to 62mph in just 3.5sec.
However, in reality, even the EQE 350 we’ve tried so far never feels slow. Being electric, it has instantaneous response, so you can merge into traffic confidently and get up to motorway speeds in less time than it takes most combustion-engined luxury cars.
And the 350 doesn’t fall behind the competition on the issue of range. In fact, in entry-level AMG Line trim with 19in alloy wheels, it matches the official 388-mile figure of the less powerful 300, both versions sharing the same 89kWh (usable) battery. That means either EQE will go farther on a charge than the i4, G80 and even the extremely efficient Model 3 Long Range. The EQE’s 170kW charging capability enables a 10-80% battery boost in just 30 minutes if you use
