2023 Mercedes-EQ EQE SUV Up Close: Is This the Goldilocks Luxury Electric SUV?
It’s official: SUVs look better than sedans
There’s really no way to color this opinion: EQS and EQE sedans look weird. Its swing-forward appearance, with a long sweeping roofline that extends from the front wheels to the trunk, looks quite unlike anything from the automaker – there’s very little Mercedes DNA in the shape, causing fans to make some heartburn. Not so with the SUV versions, which look a lot like their traditional Mercedes showroom counterparts and have a much better family relationship to the brand, I feel. Yes, there are some elements that electric vehicles entail, like the enclosed grille and LED lighting throughout, but the EQE SUV’s two-box design looks simply like a more aerodynamically improved version of the attractive GLE SUV, which is certainly a good thing.
Different strengths and similar weaknesses
Sharing a platform with the EQE Sedan, as well as the EQS Sedan and SUV, is a good thing because it brings with it the outstanding strengths of the new EVA2 architecture: range, power, battery size, and steering and handling versatility. You get the same big battery in an EQE SUV as it does in a sedan, and while we don’t know the SUV’s range yet, if it’s similar to the sedan’s numbers (which we found perfectly acceptable in our car testing), range anxiety wouldn’t be an issue. . Recharging won’t be done either, as the EQE SUV is slated to be able to charge at 170, allowing a 10%-80% charge in just over half an hour, which is also better than average.
Other strengths of this platform include strong acceleration, smooth driving characteristics and impressive agility thanks to the available rear wheel steering function. The amount of game-changing functionality in cars, trucks and SUVs cannot be overemphasized. It improves maneuverability in ways that transform large, lumbering vehicles into agile passengers, able to snake through city streets and perform maneuvers in ways that may seem unexpected but are not. Every car should have this, and it’s great to see that it’ll be on an EQE SUV, too.
