This really seems to be the year that Mercedes-Benz brings the fight to Tesla and the world’s other electric-vehicle automakers with the full fleshing out of its new EV sub-brand, Mercedes-EQ. Mercedes now offers electric luxury SUVs in tall, grande and venti sizes, with the entry-level compact EQB, the EQS SUV and the newest one in the lineup, the EQE SUV, which the automaker has just unveiled. While it’s the only one I haven’t yet driven, I did get an up-close look at it at a media event in Denver recently. And if you think an EQS SUV might be a bit too big and an EQB SUV might be a bit too small, well, the 2023 Mercedes-EQ EQE SUV holds a lot of promise as being the luxury electric SUV that hits just right.
It’s Official: The SUVs Look Better Than the Sedans
There’s really no way to sugarcoat this opinion: The EQS and EQE sedans look weird. Their swoopy cab-forward look, with a long, sweeping roofline running from the front wheels to the trunk, just looks so unlike anything from the automaker — there’s very little Mercedes styling DNA in the shape, which is causing fans of the make some heartburn. Not so with the SUV versions, however, which are far more similar to their conventional counterparts in the Mercedes showroom and have a much better familial tie to the brand, I feel. Yes, there are some EV-necessitated elements, such as the closed-off grille and LED lighting all around, but the EQE SUV’s two-box design simply looks like a more aerodynamically optimized version of the attractive GLE SUV, and that is most definitely a good thing.
Different Strengths, 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 new EVA2 architecture’s notable strengths: range, power, battery size, and ride and handling prowess. You get the same big battery in the EQE SUV as you do in the sedan, and while we don’t know the range just yet for the SUV, if it’s similar to the sedan’s numbers (which we found to be quite acceptable on our test drive of it), then range anxiety won’t be an issue. Neither will recharging, as the EQE SUV is slated to be able to charge at 170 kilowatts, allowing for a 10%-80% charge in just over half an hour, which is also better than average.
This platform’s other strengths include strong acceleration, smooth ride qualities and astonishing agility thanks to the available rear-wheel-steering function. It can’t be overemphasized just how much of a game-changing function this is for cars, trucks and SUVs. It improves maneuverability in ways that turn big, lumbering vehicles into agile runabouts, able to snake through city streets and perform maneuvers in ways that would seem unthinkable but aren’t. Every vehicle should have this, and it’s great to see that it’ll be on the EQE SUV, as well.
One advantage that both the EQE SUV and larger EQS SUV have over their sedan counterparts is inside: The headroom that’s so compromised in front, and even more so in back, due to the sedans’ swoopy rooflines is not a problem in the SUVs. In the EQE SUV, there’s plenty of room in the second row for full-sized humans to sit comfortably upright, something that can’t quite be said for the EQE Sedan. The wheelbase might be a couple inches shorter, meaning that legroom might not be quite as copious in the SUV as it is in the sedan, but there’s still plenty to be had, making the EQE SUV the more comfortable choice for carrying passengers.
Where the EQE SUV stumbles a bit is in the same places that the rest of the EQE and EQS lineup falters: information overload from an explosion of screens, confusing displays that bombard you with fancy animations and difficult to decipher controls, and touch-sensitive everything that becomes one huge distraction from driving. Combine that with the same oddly high dashboard and digital instrument cluster that requires you to assume an arms-up driving position, and it looks like the same foibles that we didn’t care for in the EQE Sedan and EQS models will carry over intact for the EQE SUV. Perhaps ameliorating our complaints will be the arrival of an EQE AMG SUV, which looks menacing inside and out and should deliver enough blisteringly fast performance to make us forget these quirks. Maybe.
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Keyword: 2023 Mercedes-EQ EQE SUV Up Close: Is This the Goldilocks Luxury Electric SUV?