MUST TRY HARDER

MERCEDES-AMG EQS 53

AMG, A BRAND SO LONG SYNONYMOUS WITH

bellowing V8s, has for the first time attached its badge to an EV. The results are... curious. Look, we like the standard EQS 450 because electric’s strengths enhance the car’s raison d’etre: to be smooth, silent and sophisticated. But this is an AMG. The firm has tried to follow the normal recipe: angrify and add noisiness, but the roars and snorts are artificially inserted through the hi-fi. The brakes have no feel, the seats no support, the ride is less settled. It’s actually agile and capable, neutral through corners and stonkingly fast down the straights. But it’s not a born entertainer or anything close. And you’re paying a huge amount for it.

So AMG hasn’t performed a miracle and managed to make electric fascinating. Nor did Porsche with the Taycan (but that’s still far more satisfying than this). Not a super saloon in the way we usually recognise one, but instead a tech palace that happens to get along roads swiftly and capably. In its soap-profile bodywork and screen-a-tron dash it’s a decade ahead of anything else out there, but tech evolves fast.

This is a car that is interesting, fascinating to use and be around, but hardly fun to drive. But then who ever bought an S63 AMG because it was fun to drive? Yes it made a good noise, but really it was about the prestige. Snap.