Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 Review: a Luxurious Tesla Rival

• The brand new EQS is Mercedes-Benz’s first shot at taking over Tesla within the US. 
• The electrical luxurious sedan boasts as much as 350 miles of vary, a hanging assortment of screens, and an inside stuffed with high-end supplies. 
• The well-optioned EQS 580 mannequin that Mercedes lent me price round $141,000. 

Tesla is now the best-selling luxury car brand in the US. In case you wanted extra proof that the way forward for the auto business is electrical, nicely there you go. 

However what’s absolutely a feather within the cap of Elon Musk is a gut-punch to storied, high-end manufacturers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz that had been all the time the go-to selection for patrons with some extra cash to spend.

The Germans have had sufficient. 

Late final yr, Mercedes launched its first battery-powered automobile for US patrons: the EQS sedan. I took a spin within the luxurious four-door to see precisely what Tesla is up towards and got here away impressed by the Benz’s extra-long vary, buttery-smooth experience, and breathtaking inside.

(Mercedes lent me a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive 2022 EQS 580 full of choices that got here out to $141,000. The bottom EQS 450+ has a single motor, rear-wheel drive, and begins at simply over $100,000.)

What stands out: A luxurious inside filled with cool tech

Attempting to do two vastly various things without delay generally is a recipe for catastrophe, however the EQS efficiently straddles the worlds of old-school luxurious and forward-thinking know-how.

It is exceptionally snug inside due to soft leather-based seats with massaging, cooling, and heating features. Higher but, you not often must raise a finger to get comfortable. Simply shout one thing like “Hey Mercedes, I need a therapeutic massage,” and the automobile obliges.

From its turbine-style air vents to its leather-wrapped steering wheel, all the things you contact feels extremely sturdy and costly. Intensive, colourful ambient lighting and an enveloping, crisp sound system imply you are by no means itching to get out of the serene EQS and return to the noisy, soiled actuality of life. 

The centerpiece of the sedan’s inside is the 56-inch “Hyperscreen,” which, relying in your disposition in direction of screens in vehicles, may be dazzling or daunting. I am someplace within the center. 

Truly three separate shows behind a single sheet of glass, the Hyperscreen is unquestionably plenty of display and will be distracting. But it surely’s snappy, intuitive, and provides some helpful options. 

If you come as much as a flip with the navigation system switched on, a forward-looking digital camera view pops up on the display with a blue arrow pointing to the exit you should take. Pull up the automobile’s effectivity settings and it’ll inform you how a lot your A/C consumption and different habits are impacting vary. There’s even a “Maximize Vary” button that saves vitality by turning off the show and optimizing different settings. 

A fingerprint scanner on the middle console permits drivers to entry their particular preferences for the seats and different settings. 

Importantly — and in contrast to Tesla — Mercedes did not stuff each single essential operate into the touchscreen or conceal fundamental settings behind too many menus. The local weather controls, for instance, completely dwell on the backside of the principle show. 

The front-passenger show does not appear to do something totally different from the middle display, and I am unable to fairly see when it could be helpful. 

Driving the EQS

All electrical vehicles drive remarkably easily since they do not shift gears or make noise. However the EQS is not any electrical automobile. It is the brand new flagship from a model famend for transporting heads of state and different deep-pocketed of us in complete consolation. So it does just a little further. 

The EQS delivers that silky electric-car expertise on one other stage. It glides quietly and effortlessly down the highway, its air suspension absorbing bumps alongside the way in which. 

The sedan does not burst ahead with the brutal acceleration of rivals from Porsche and Tesla. It is extra supposed for peaceable freeway cruising than whiplash-inducing 0-60 sprints. Nonetheless, the EQS 580 makes a wholesome 516 horsepower and can really feel like a rocket to most patrons. 

Like in different EVs, hitting the accelerator triggers a futuristic-sounding engine noise to be pumped into the cabin. I used to search out this kind of plainly synthetic driving soundtrack lame, however the extra I drive EVs, the much less I thoughts it. It may be good to have some extra attention-grabbing sensory suggestions than simply wind noise. 

And you may hit the accelerator all day lengthy, for the reason that EQS 580 is rated by the Environmental Safety Company for 340 miles of vary. (The 450+ can go 350.) That is lower than opponents from Tesla and Lucid Motors, however any vary estimate with a “3” in entrance of it feels reassuring in a time when public charging stations aren’t on each avenue nook.

Commonplace rear-wheel steering implies that regardless of the EQS’s land-yacht dimension it slides into parking spots and carves round sharp corners like a Good Automobile. And an excellent adaptive cruise management system helps out on lengthy freeway stints by sustaining a pace, following lane traces, and even altering lanes when prompted by the flip sign. 

There’s one factor flawed with the way in which the EQS drives. When regenerative braking is energetic, the brake pedal feels disconnected and you should press it surprisingly far to really feel any resistance. 

Our impressions: The way forward for luxurious is right here

As Mercedes’s electrical flagship, the EQS flexes one of the best of what the model can do. It is luxurious and comfy, whereas delivering tons of vary and attention-grabbing tech. In case you can spare no expense and wish an electrical automobile that returns the favor, you possibly can’t go flawed with an EQS.