Mercedes-Benz has made no bones about its electric intentions. In just two years, the Mercedes-EQ lineup has grown to include not one, not two, but five models in Canada. Thing is, the range-topping EQS sedan and SUV didn’t cut the mustard, and the EQB is pricey for what it is. Will the 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQE 500 SUV be more of the same?
Our biggest sticking point with the EQS sedan and SUV revolved around how they didn’t quite seem like Mercedes’ best foot forward, particularly as the “flagship” of the EQ lineup. The EQS 580 SUV may look lovely inside, and it’s chock full of all the whiz-bang, here-and-now tech you’d expect, but strip away the gimmicks and the overall environment felt more akin to something worth about thirty grand less. So, you can probably understand our trepidation with the EQE 500 SUV — good thing the EQE is about thirty grand less.
Much like its near-twin sibling, the EQE sedan, the EQE SUV is available with three electric powertrain options. The base EQE 350 is powered by two permanent-magnet electric motors — one on the front axle, the other out back — good for a combined 288 horsepower and 564 pound-feet of torque. On the flip side of the lineup, the EQE AMG turns the wick all the way up to 617 hp and a meaty 701 lb-ft of torque, good enough for a decidedly swift, sub four-second zero-to-100 km/h run, according to Mercedes. Our EQE 500 tester splits the difference between the two, with a still-generous 402 horsepower and a 633 lb-ft of torque on tap.
Regardless of the model you pick, all EQE SUVs use a 90.6 lithium-ion battery pack and a single-speed automatic transmission. While Americans can spec their base EQEs with rear-wheel-drive, all-wheel-drive is standard across the lineup here in Canada. Range, well, ranges between an estimated 377 kilometres in the AMG model, up to 433 in the EQE 500.
The EQE 500 is nothing if not zippy. Officially, Mercedes-Benz quotes a zero-to-100 km/h run in 4.9 seconds. Although we didn’t break out our stopwatch, we think it’s a modest estimate; even with this mid-spec powertrain and about 5,600 pounds to motivate, the EQE 500 delivered the kind of fierce, chest-kicking acceleration off the line you’d expect from an electric car with 600-plus instant torques. It’s a bit less dramatic when you mash the skinny pedal at speed, but it’s still plenty swift. You don’t have to think twice about merging or passing — just point and shoot.
Beyond going fast in a straight line, the EQE 500 SUV addresses two of our other sticking points with the EQS siblings — overly numb steering, and inconsistent brake pedal feel — reasonably well. It’s rare that anyone but the snootiest of enthusiasts truly cares about steering feel; the EQE’s steering is still very light, but it feels far less disconnected and more responsive than the EQS. As well, the brakes feel much better: unlike the EQS, the EQE doesn’t randomly decide you’ve pumped the pedal too much and smacks your head into the headrests when you’re on the brakes.
The rest of the EQE’s road manners are up to snuff. It soaks up bumps, rough pavement, and other imperfections extremely well, and doesn’t object too much if you decide to explore its limits on a tight on-ramp. Wind and road noise are pretty much non-existent; if you aren’t a fan of the EQE’s three spaceship soundtracks, you can disable them for an even more serene ride. There’s just something about driving an EV through rain at night that always hits right.
On charging and range, Mercedes quotes 433 kilometres on a single charge for the EQE 500. Of course, that’s in “ideal” conditions; in the mid-autumn chill during our evaluation, we eked out just over 350 kilometres before chickening out and plugging in with a 12-per-cent charge remaining. When you do plug in, Mercedes quotes a 10-to-80-per-cent charge in just over half an hour on a Level 3 fast-charger, and using a Level 2 charger, you’re looking at nine and a half hours for a 10-to-100-per-cent charge. That ladders up to our experience; we went from 12 to 100 per cent after a full day at the office.
Visually, the EQE SUV is precisely what we’d expect from the Mercedes-EQ lineup. Like the rest of the lineup, the last letter in its name coordinates with its gas-powered equivalent bearing the three-pointed star. In this case, it’s the GLE; the two are roughly as wide as each other, but the EQE is about 4.4 inches lower and 2.4 inches shorter overall, but the EQE looks markedly different. With its big, gloss black panel up front mimicking a grille, egg-shaped side profile, and LED lightbar spanning the rear end, the EQE SUV is more of a shrunken EQS than an all-electric GLE.
Inside, the familial resemblance to the EQS is even stronger. Mercedes’ optional Hyperscreen takes pride of place in our particular tester. Despite the name, it’s essentially three separate screens behind a gloss black panel spanning across the dashboard. We almost prefer the base infotainment setup — a floating, portrait-oriented touchscreen, plus a separate digital instrument cluster — as it swaps the massive swathe of gloss black for the trim of your choice, including some lovely wood options that add some much needed warmth to the interior. Nevertheless, Mercedes’ MBUX infotainment leans heavily on voice controls; they work well and the displays themselves are sharp and responsive, but if you prefer not to talk to your car, the minimal physical switchgear may be off-putting.
As for the rest of the cabin, fit-and-finish and overall quality is … fine. The EQE doesn’t feel cheap per se; some of Mercedes’ material choices still don’t feel worth the price tag — more on that later — but it’s less egregious than the EQS. Visibility all around is quite good, there’s plenty of headroom and legroom regardless of where you sit, but cargo space is tight, with 520 litres with the seats up and 1,675 when folded on tap. It’s usable enough, but the 2024 Kona — a “subcompact” crossover — has more cargo space. The EQE’s lack of a frunk doesn’t help much, either.
Beyond the Hyperscreen, the EQE SUV is loaded up with all the tech and driver assists you’d expect in this day and age. The “augmented reality” navigation overlay is a neat party trick, the 360-degree camera system in particular is sharp day or night, and Mercedes’ highway driving assist doohickey feels remarkably natural, especially the automated lane changes.
At $104,900 to start — our particular tester rang in at $127,330 as-tested, with the Hyperscreen accounting for almost $10,000 of that — the EQE SUV doesn’t fully snuff out all the shortcomings of the EQS, but at roughly thirty grand less, they’re a bit more forgivable. Still, there’s a sense that the EQE’s competitors give you more for less; the Audi Q8 E-Tron undercuts the EQE by a decent chunk of change, and the BMW iX feels much more polished.
That’s not to say there’s nothing to like about the 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQE 500 SUV — it’s quick, comfortable, and MBUX literally tells jokes — but those options fatten up the bottom line real quick.
