The 2024 Mercedes-AMG EQE 4Matic+ Sedan is a bit of a polarizing figure. Mercedes can make some attractive vehicles — the S-Class and AMG GT quickly come to mind — so it’s a bit of a head-stratcher as to why Mercedes eschewed their traditional styling in favour of what can only be described as an oversized jellybean.
There are some legitimate reasons, the most obvious being a very slippery drag coefficient of 0.22, but I don’t think that’s it. Form-over-function is a tale as old as time, but I don’t think that’s entirely what’s going on here. Instead, I think Mercedes deliberately decided to differentiate the EQE AMG for the sake of being different, and the results are certainly mixed. I didn’t like the look at first, but it grew on me to the point where I eventually thought it looked decent. It pulls off the jellybean shape better than the EQS, with better overall proportions and more athletic styling cues as part of the AMG treatment.
The large faux grille retains the signature look we’ve seen on other EQ models, and the lighting elements up front and out back look modern. The “rainfall” sequence from the headlights when you unlock the car, plus the puddle lights projecting Mercedes’ three-pointed star onto the ground, look novel. The 20-inch, split-five-spoke wheels include a functional disc to help with aerodynamics. It all manages to work and even seems cohesive given what Mercedes is going for, despite the EQE AMG not making the best first impression. Maybe Mercedes is onto something?
The interior is far less controversially styled, and unequivocally futuristic. Like most EVs, it’s dominated by screens. With the EQE AMG in particular, we’re talking three: a digital gauge cluster, a 17.7-inch central touchscreen, and a third 12.3-inch display for the passenger, all hidden behind one piece of class. Mercedes calls this treatment the MBUX Hyperscreen and often misleadingly touts it as a single 56-inch screen — or at least, that’s how I interpret their marketing material. Still, despite technically being three separate screens, it’s a showstopper my passengers and I all enjoyed.
Mind you, it’s a $9,900 option; if you skip it, you still get a separate digital gauge cluster, a portrait-oriented 12.8-inch display, and some nice wood trim to fill in the gaps. As much as I like the Hyperscreen, I’d pocket the near-$10,000, especially when the passenger screen feels all but useless — which isn’t exclusive to Mercedes.
The rest of the interior is typical Mercedes, mostly high-quality with a mix of materials like leather, Alcantara, and lots of glossy surfaces. In the past, Mercedes went a little overboard with the shiny stuff, but the EQE AMG has just enough shiny stuff to make things visually exciting, yet not so much as to feel cheap. The ambient lighting is fantastic, with a sharp-looking LED strip spanning across the entire dash and front doors, along with glowing accents around other controls. There’s even an LED strip that runs vertically across the side of the front seats. It’s very customizable in terms of colour, with the front LED providing a soft, shifting wave of colour as you drive, and even ties into certain controls, like turning up the temperature. At night, it feels like you’re in a first-class airplane cabin — at least the ones they show in movies.
Beyond the screens, the EQE AMG is loaded with more novel tech. The digital gauge cluster offers a number of views including one decidedly spaceship-like option, more (tiny) screens on the steering wheel to adjust your drive mode and suspension settings — as cool as they looked, they seemed a bit overkill — and practically a binder’s worth of active safety and driver assists; the EQE’s auto-park and auto-lane-change assist are among the best I’ve experienced. And as always, Mercedes’ fantastic Burmester sound system sounds crisp at any volume. There’s a lot to all the tech the EQE AMG offers, but it integrates quite seamlessly overall, and Mercedes’ MBUX infotainment UI is easy enough to navigate and you figure it out rather quickly.
The EQE AMG is fitted with a 90.6 kW battery that charges at up to 170 kWh — good but not great — and range is estimated at up to 362 kilometres on a full charge. Like most EVs, this is a best-case estimate; in my (very cold) week with the EQE AMG, I couldn’t do better than 288 km on a full charge. It wouldn’t charge at the maximum rate, either, taking me an hour and a half to go from 10 to 70 per cent on a 50 kW public fast-charger, though reliable public fast-charging can be a gamble. I do appreciate that Mercedes gives you minimum and maximum range estimates, helping conservative folks like me who’d rather anchor on a lower estimate to be on the safe side.
Now, let’s not forget the EQE AMG is a performance car. Just as we (usually) don’t care about fuel economy about a gas-powered AMG, let’s ignore range and efficiency for a second and talk performance. There’s a lot of it here: the EQE AMG produces 617 horsepower and a monstrous 701 pound-feet of torque, routed to all four wheels. Your steering inputs are routed to all four wheels, too, with the EQE AMG’s rear-wheel steering helping not just in three point turns, but also with sharp dynamics overall. The suspension is surprisingly stiff; overall ride quality is fine, but I expected the adaptive suspension to have more breadth to its settings. Even comfort mode didn’t settle the EQE AMG down completely, which I found a bit odd, but at least part of that could’ve come down to our tester’s winter tires. Grip is prodigious, with power doled out with ease in a straight line and surprisingly capable in the corners too, despite a hefty 5,600-pound curb weight.
After spending a week with the 2024 Mercedes-AMG EQE 4Matic+ Sedan, I grew to somewhat like the styling, but I couldn’t figure out if it’s because I simply got used to it, or because almost everything else this electrified Benz does is wonderful, including its striking interior, heaps of modern tech, and boisterous performance. Either way, the EQE is a winner in my books, so long as you’re willing to swallow its hefty $140,000 price tag.
