O.k. Let's address the elephant in the electric room: car purists and enthusiasts alike have repeatedly balked at the industry shift to EVs. Maybe you are one of these people. Personally, I feel like it's just another option. It's like the outcry against performance brands for converting to automatic transmissions instead of a manual. "I can't get a base model Porsche 911 with a manual?!" And with recent government decisions impacting EVs, we've seen brands like Ford halt production of certain models all together. But when it comes to luxury, EVs make sense. Take, for instance, the 2026 Mercedes-Benz EQE 320+ SUV. It's quiet, quick, and has a comfortable interior that looks like something from 2050. Leading the appeal for the 320 + is a respectable price of about $65,000 and three features that will have even the staunchest of car dudes creating a build sheet for this compact SUV. Living With The 2026 Mercedes-Benz EQE 350 + SUV For One Week Source: Bradley Hasemeyer / Hot Cars / Valnet One of the greatest aspects to driving the EQE SUV is how simple it is. If you've never driven an EV before, you will still feel right at home. Use the key to push the unlock or walk up to the car, the door handles pop out, you pull the door open and sit inside. Then you have a start button in the same place you'd expect the ignition to be. And you just drive. Lots of other EVs on the market like the 2026 Lucid Air take a different approach. With them, you don't even have a key, just a card. And you don't start the car, you get in and put your foot on the brake and it comes to life. This can feel overwhelming for someone new to the EV life and Mercedes-Benz knows that.The exterior isn't my favorite era of Mercedes-Benz design and has been dubbed "jelly bean." But what Mercedes is lacking on the outside, they are making up for on the interior. It's beautiful. It offers 64 different ambient lighting options, upgraded Neva Grey/ Biscaya Blue leather ($1,620), and a "waterfall" dash made from real wood. The shape provides great visibility for everyone in the car and the giant pano roof made it feel airy.Source: Bradley Hasemeyer / Hot Cars / Valnet Of course, half of the reason you buy a Benz is for the performance. And even though this is the base trim for the EQE SUV, the 315 hp and 417 lb-ft of torque is more than enough for this mid-size SUV. Mercedes also spec'd this one out with some extra goodies like my new favorite feature, the 10-degree rear-axle steering ($1,300), AIRMATIC air suspension ($1,900), and 21" AMG wheels ($1,100). Combining all these performance elements into an SUV with a lower center of gravity thanks to the heavy battery in the floor, and you have the recipe for an SUV that beats most gas competitors off the line, and handles a curvy road more like a sedan. One downside to all this fun is what costs you in range. The fully charged EQE SUV will only carry you 270 miles and my experience was how quickly that estimate will fall. This Base Model EQE 320 + SUV Has More Torque Than A Porsche Cayenne, BMW X5, Or Audi SQ5 Car guys/girls know you can talk about horsepower specs all day long, but torque is where the fun happens. That's the beauty of EVs. They are torque machines. This is because the nature of an electric powertrain is to have every lb-ft of tire-twisting torque available from a stop. Usually, you have to build into that speed, hence the idea of a "torque curve." This is when you feel the engine really pushing you and usually happens around 2,500-5,000 on the tach.But with 417 lb-ft available from the red light, even the base model EQE 320 + SUV flies. And that's just the base model. If you want to truly obliterate asphalt, the AGM EQE SUV brings 717 lb-ft of torque to the tarmac. That's more than a Lamborghini Urus. And that Bull is running with a hybrid electric powertrain as well as the twin-turbo V8. My whole point is that for anyone who loves to drive, they will certainly love the bang for buck you get with the 2026 Mercedes-Benz EQE 320 + SUV with 417 lb-ft of torque in the base model.2026 Mercedes-Benz EQE 320 + SUV 21 If You Want Toasty Buns, Mercedes Can Make It Happen Whenever, Wherever. Nearly every morning before heading to work or taking the kids to school, I find myself leaning outside the front door pointing my Acura MDX key fob high in the sky to remotely start the car and warm up the inside. Getting your kids to school is hard enough. Trying to convince them to jump in a refrigerator on wheels is impossible. This isn't a big deal, mind you, but if I forget, or I do it too early, then the five-minute run time expires, and it stops conditioning the cabin, it can be annoying.You need not worry about this with the 2026 Mercedes-Benz EQE 350 +. Though it's not unique to Mercedes, the ability to set the cabin temperature to what you want and let the car do the math of when it needs to turn on and for how long in order to create a 78 degree cabin, is wonderfully helpful. You can set it with the app, or in my case, through the infotainment screen. I told it I wanted to have it ready to go M-F at 78 degrees. And just like that, a 20-degree morning becomes a little easier as my seat, steering wheel and cabin were all toasty and ready for me and the kids. It's one more argument for how EV life can be really convenient. If Crayola And Mercedes-Benz Did A Collaboration, It Would Be Ambient Lighting Ask any photographer and they will tell you, lighting is everything. You know this as well. Think about when you wake up in the morning. You don't blast those bright blue overhead lights. You start off soft with a warm lamp or light near you bed. Maybe you don't have kids and can sleep until the sun itself wakes you up. Congratulations. Mercedes knows how important lighting is as well and offers 64 different ambient lighting options in the 2026 EQE 320 + SUV. It might be hard to quantify just how cool it feels in the evening to open the door on the EQE SUV and be met with what seems to be an S-Class-like experience.Source: Bradley Hasemeyer / Hot Cars / Valnet You have beautiful leather, a giant wooden dash, and this incredible lighting. It runs from door to door, creating a unified cocoon of cozy. And we aren't talking a few colors here. Mercedes gives you 64 colors! That's as many crayons that came in those old Crayola boxes we had at school. I can't even name 64 colors. But if you can, great. You simply say, "Hey, Mercedes, change the ambient lighting to hunter green," and you are now in a German forest.Source: Bradley Hasemeyer / Hot Cars / Valnet But Mercedes-Benz didn't just say, "lights are cool." They integrated them into the vehicle processes. Let's say you put the EQE 320 + SUV into sport mode. The cabin lighting and dash all adjust into a sort of dark red coloring. And I loved that when I adjusted the temperature of the climate, the LED lighting would respond. When you increase the temperature on the driver's side, a red flash would start at the center console and radiate out across the dash and into the door panel ending at the B-pillar. Put the emergency flashers on, and the LEDs inside on dash blink as well. It all adds up to a completely different experience of luxury, and something most non-EV drivers have never even experienced. Final Thoughts: Mercedes-Benz Makes Owning An EV A No-Brainer The automotive world certainly has polarizing views on EVs, but Mercedes is making it hard to say no. The price is right. The features are handy. And the luxury is there. And in a world with a million gas-powered SUV options, there aren't that many electric luxury SUVs that will make as much sense as the 2026 Mercedes-Benz EQE 350 + SUV.