LARGE AND IN CHARGE
With a massive boot and a range of 453 miles, the new Mercedes all-electric EQS has a bright future
“It’s a game-changer,” said the man from Mercedes as he delivered the svelte and rather smooth all- electric EQS to my doorstep.
What he meant was that this 450+ with the AMG Line Premium trim has a range of 453 miles and can be charged from 10 to 80 per cent in just 31 minutes – if you can find a 110kW charger – and in just 15 minutes that will add 186 miles on to your range. If not, overnight will take 10 hours.
The bottom line, however, is that you get a lot of miles from your charge and, as electric technology gets more and more sophisticated, the range will simply get greater.
This electric car is the f lagship of the Mercedes range and, unsurprisingly, is packed full of tech and driver systems.
The thing I like about Mercedes is that, whi le other electric car manufacturers shout and make quite the song and dance about the breadth and depth of their technology, Mercedes just gets on with it behind the scenes until one day it produces a machine like this. The top-of-the-range S series, it is apparently its most aerodynamic car yet, which will help even more with that range issue. It has quite a brooding presence at the kerb with a wide grille and elongated headlights, 21in alloys, a beautiful coupe rear sloping over a panoramic sunroof and the AMG body kit. And this, one of the largest boots I have seen. If you thought Piers Morgan had a big mouth, you really need to look at this – and that’s with the rear seats up. The rear seats, like the front, are heated and everything is beautifully done in leather with lots of high-gloss black and chrome on the inside. This EQS does not have a touchscreen, oh no, it has a hyperscreen, a massive iPad-type tablet in the middle of the dash with heating and air con separately under it. The instrument cluster is equally large and striking, with ambient lighting throughout. Now the lovely man from Mercedes had kindly registered me as a driver with my own password, so that every time I got into the car and switched on, it greeted me personally. By the same token, when I left, it kept telling me not to forget my phone. This could have been annoying were it not for the fact that, time and again, I left my phone in the car.
The drive? Well, it was kind of what I had expected – but more. It was silent, powerful, dynamic, luxurious. This rearwheel-drive car responds to your every whim, it takes you into and around places with an astonishing ease and the mileage was remarkably true to life.
My husband, fiddling with the modes, accidentally put it into Eco. I discovered this on the motorway and switched it back to Comfort and the car just leapt forward. I decided to wait until the roads were quieter to attempt Sport.
This is not a cheap car but Mercedes is throwing a lot of extras at it such as a three-year subscription to Mercedes me Charge, giving access to public charging providers, and a one-year subscription to Ionity with free rapid charging.
Mercedes does not do things in a rush but it does them properly and this car is the shape of things to come from a manufacturer with bags of experience and an eye to the future.