This car will eventually replace the venerable S-Class atop Mercedes’ automotive pyramid. The world is quickly going electric and if prognosticators are right — many automakers are claiming they won’t sell internal-combustion engines in the E.U. after 2030 — then the battery-powered EQS may rise to the top more quickly than we imagine.
So how does it fare in the ultra-competitive world of luxury sedans? Driving spent a week reveling in the 580’s sumptuousness to find out.
It brings power to the people (who can afford it)
The EQS, at least in this non-AMG guise, is no Tesla Plaid. But it does boast some 516 horsepower — 329hp from its rearmost motor, and 219 ponies up front. I can’t imagine needing more. Its 4.3-second sprint to 100 kilometres might not match the Model S’, but, seriously, how quickly do you really need a three-ton touring sedan to accelerate?
More importantly, how often will you use that “Ludicrous” acceleration? Once when you leave the showroom for the first time, and maybe once more when you take your Porsche-driving neighbour for a ride? In the meantime, the dual-motor EQS — the 580 features Mercedes’ eATS AWD system — fairly leaps off the line and will keep you pinned in your seat more than long enough to lose your license.
That said, if your inner juvenile delinquent really does need to challenge Teslas, AMG is working on a “boosted” EQS which, in standard form will muster 649 hp and, if you pony up for the optional Dynamic Plus package, 751 hp. Those still aren’t Plaid numbers, but please tell me you don’t “need” to get to 100 kilometres in less than the 3.4 seconds the AMG EQS scorches tarmac in.
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
It shows Mercedes remains the master of innovation
Like S-Classes past, much of the EQS’ technology is industry-leading. Take something as seemingly innocuous as regenerative braking. Now, we all understand that the reversing of polarity of the electric motors during braking provides a necessary recharging of battery. What we also know is that said regen braking can often feel artificial.
Well, Mercedes-Benz has a solution for that. The EQS’ ECU gets around this awkwardness by depressing the brake pedal to the equivalent the driver would have where they applying the braking force rather the computer. In other words, if the car is slowing itself down, but you decide that you need stronger retardation, you’ll find the brake pedal in the exact position it would have been if you’d been braking all along. I tested it with various levels of off-throttle regen — the paddle-shifters on the steering column let you adjust the level of regen desired — and it was perfectly intuitive. Well done, Mercedes!
It’s also worth noting Mercedes’ has honed its rear-axle steering system, which can rotate the rear wheels up to 10 degrees. Most such systems — including some by Mercedes — limit the amount of rear wheel steer to 4 or 5 degrees. By doubling that figure, the EQS almost completely disguises its girth.
Despite, again, being almost as big as the current S-Class — with a 2,585-kilogram curb weight — without the advantage of steering the rear wheels in conjunction with the fronts, the EQS might well steer like a tank. But, by turning the rear wheels in the opposite direction of the fronts — at up to 60 km/h — the 580 seems to shed about a metre of its 3,210-millimetre wheelbase with a turning radius of just 10.9 metres. Again, well done, Mercedes!
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
Its interior is everything an S-Class Benz should be
To call the EQS580’s interior merely “sumptuous” is to have never have been coddled by its glove-soft leather, or fiddled with its aluminum paddles. Or, for that matter, laid head to a headrest that makes the down comforter on your favourite chaise lounge seem positively board-like in comparison. I may like my seating — and headrests — a little firmer, but for most, the EQS seating is a hedonism even a Roller would covet.
I say that because it includes multiple massage modes (“Mobilizing” was my favourite), enough seat adjustments to confound an astronaut, and an absolutely dizzying array of ambient colour lighting. There are, of course, four zones to the automatic climate control, a head-up display with augmented reality navigation, and there’s so many cubbyholes — a particularly large one under the centre console — that you’re almost assured to lose your keys if they’re not AirTagged.
It’s also roomy. The EQS is barely 10 millimetres shorter than a standard-wheelbase S-Class and, with the cab-forward design allowed by the absences of twin-turbo’ed V8, the cabin is huge. There’s legroom a-plenty, and in the front at least – the rear is a little compromised by the sloping roof design — so is headroom. Even trunk space abounds despite that severely sloping rear roof, the EQS’ cargo space a positively cavernous 22 cubic feet — more, in fact, than the more conventionally-styled S-class — and an SUV-like 63 cu. ft. if you drop the rear seats.
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
Its infotainment system display is absolutely huge
Top-of-the-line EQS’s get something called a “hyperscreen,” which is essentially the entire breadth of the dashboard turned into 56-inches of organic-light-emitting-diode curved glass. In fact, there’s actually three screens involved: a 12.3-inch item for the gauge set; another for the passenger; and an absolutely gargantuan affair that dominates the centre of the car. All told, Mercedes says there’s 376 square inches of screen splayed across the EQS’ dashboard.
As you’d expect from Mercedes, their brilliance is munificent, the information displayed plentiful and the graphics entertaining. The gauge cluster can be customized to pretty much anything you want, from the traditional speedo and tachometer, er, power output gauge; to having the entire screen dominated by the navigations system’s mapping.
The main display is, as I said, huge. No squinting for specific apps here. It’s also fairly easy to toggle between apps and each app’s information and/or service is fairly easy to access. Indeed, compared with previous MBUX system, Mercedes seems to have unclogged the EQS’ apps and eliminated some of the sub-menus that made access data a little frustrating. That said, there was one thing I didn’t like about the EQS.
Its infotainment system is still too complicated
While individual apps have been simplified — the on-screen “Comfort” controls, for instance, have been simplified — holistically, all the controls and switchgear integration can seem a little haphazard. For instance, you can follow your battery’s “percentage” through the “info” app. It’s straightforward enough. A big picture of the car with the battery reading beside it. Complete simplicity. Except that there’s another “EQS” app that also monitors battery, this time with more detail.
It also allows you to limit how much you charge the battery — supposedly in a quest for more efficiency. So you can, in fact, program the system to stop charging at 80 or 90 per cent when the charging rate starts tailing off — saving you money if you’re charging at Electrify Canada, which charges by the minute. However, despite MBUX promising that it’s easy to modify that limit, my screen got cranky and stopped at 80 per cent when I had set the system up to allow 100 per cent charging.
And further complicating things is that the range estimator is a tiny little six-point-type display just below the speedometer on the gauge screen. Worse yet, there are two ranges “estimated,” one predicting how far you could go in optimum conditions (it was hugely optimistic); and the other a more realistic estimation that relied on current driving conditions (it was only off by 10 per cent or so).
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
And, like all Mercedes, there was a plethora of buttons. So many buttons. And so unnecessarily high-tech. Take, for instance, the cruise control’s speed setting. A thoroughly modern “haptic touch” affair, you’re supposed to be able to, like most cruise control systems, easily toggle speed up and down with touch of a button. But, because it’s so small — so, so many buttons! — and sensitive, it always exaggerated my requests either to speed up or slow down. So, whenever I wanted to increase my speed from, say, 120 to 125 kilometres per hour, instead of just a few touches of the “set +” button on the steering wheel, I had to go old-school. I’d throttle the big EQS with the gas pedal, and then reset the manually.
Not the end of the world, by any means, but not what I expect from a top-of-the-line Merc. And to be sure, with time, I would, no doubt, adapt to its idiosyncracies — and, indeed, S-Class owners seem to revel in their ability to navigate their cars’ complexities — but I think the entire tech package needs to be more cohesive and uncomplicated.
That said, I love the Energizing Air Control system with a giant HEPA filter. I suffer from acute allergies, so its ability to to filter particles down to PM2.5 — which includes nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides as well as common, everyday allergens — was so very, very appreciated. The system also reduces odours with 600 grams of activate charcoal (for an adsorption area equivalent to 150 football fields, say Mercedes). The MBUX system also monitors the Energizing system’s cleansing ability. In my suburban Toronto test drive, for instance, the EQS claimed that the 12 PM2.5 particles it was detecting outside were being reduced to but a single micro-inhalant once the HEPA/charcoal filter had done its business.
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Photo by Chris Balcerak
One oddity as a result of the new giant air filter is that there is no front hood. As in, it’s fixed. The entire “frunk,” it seems, is occupied by the HEPA filter and fan, so Mercedes has fixed the front hood permanently shut, and it can only be serviced at an authorized dealer. One unintended consequence is that windshield washer fluid must now be added via a flap-covered snorkel on the left front quarter panel, where most EVs have their charging port. It is indeed a brave new world.
As a first effort at an all-EV platform, the EQS is pretty impressive. It’s ginormous 107.8-kilowatt-hour battery promises, at least via the EPA, some 547 kilometres of range. Its 516 hp is more than sufficient for a non-AMG luxury sedan, and its high-tech four-wheel steering system belies its immensity.
We always knew it would be an amazing luxury touring sedan with all the luxury one expects from Mercedes, rife with the technological advancements the company always imbues in its top-of-the-line sedan. That some of its toys and gadgets can be a little fiddly and frustrating is of little matter: S-Class Benzes have always been thus, and I suspect its owners wear the tribulations of learning MBUX’s idiosyncrasies like some red badge of nerdiness. In other words, it is simply Mercedes brought to the battery-powered world.
The 2022 EQS 580 starts at $146,500 and my well-optioned version — with Nappa Leather interior and the Premium package, which includes the vaunted 10-degree rear-axle steering system — came in at $162,160.
Keyword: 4 Things I like about the 2022 Mercedes-EQ EQS 580 4Matic