Mercedes-Benz EQE Review (2022-present)
Mercedes-Benz EQE cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Incredible interior
Roomy for passengers
Good to drive
Cons
Entry-level model lacks key equipment
Windscreen pillars limit visibility
No estate model offered
The CarGurus verdict
The Mercedes-Benz EQE is one of the longest-range EVs on the market, and it also has easy performance, decent rapid charging potential, supreme refinement and extreme modernity in the way it looks and feels.
Crucially, the EQE is also a car that feels very much a Mercedes-Benz, and one that is a convincing alternative to its own internal combustion engine choices. We’d like better visibility and rear passenger headroom, but there’s no doubting that the EQE is a worthy successor to the E-Class, and promises great things for the electric executive class as it evolves with the times.
What is the Mercedes-Benz EQE?
Quite simply, the EQE is Mercedes-Benz’s battery electric E-Class, and it’s the future of the company. You might think that it looks a bit different than the German luxury car firm’s business saloon, and you’d be right; Mercedes-Benz produces its fully electric cars alongside its conventional internal combustion engine models, as a different model line.
The design is also, well... a bit odd, because it’s been honed for maximum efficiency, which explains the differing styling from the conventional E-Class. That slippery shape doesn’t just aid economy, but also refinement, with the EQE feeling airy inside, as well as supremely quiet.
The EQE also rides on the same, new bespoke electric vehicle architecture that underpins the EQS – dubbed the EVA2 platform. For the EQE the platform is shortened and contains a slightly smaller 90kWH lithium-ion battery. That’s still enough for an official WLTP range of over 400 miles on a full charge, with rapid charging at 170kW allowing the EQE to top up from 10% to 80% in around 32 minutes.
How Practical is it?
The Mercedes EQE is a battery-powered saloon, and the battery pack’s position, as well as its shape – which Mercedes-Benz describes as ‘one-bow’ – means the car feels significantly more spacious inside than its conventionally-powered E-Class relation. The wheelbase is slightly longer, and that makes for more rear passenger legroom, although we’d argue that headroom is actually better in a conventional E-Class as the EQE’s swooping roofline might make some taller rear passengers feel a little hemmed in. There’s useful oddment storage dotted around, too.
The roofline of the EQE might make it look like a hatchback, but it has a regular saloon bootlid, which opens to reveal a usefully sized and shaped boot. Its 430-litre capacity is more C-Class than E-Class in maximum capacity, though, and the hatchback boot of a Tesla Model S is certainly more practical. You can fold the rear seatbacks down in the EQE for longer and larger loads, though. should it be required.
Unlike many cars in the EV class, there’s no ‘Frunk’ (front trunk – boot in UK parlance), Mercedes-Benz instead using that space for a HEPA (High Efficiency Absorbing Filter) system to clean the cabin air.
What's it Like to Drive?
Refinement is a true star quality of the EQE. Even on winter tyres over ice and snow it is supremely quiet, and on our mix of varied UK motorway, town and country roads the near-total absence of wind and powertrain noise is verging on unsettling.
Ride comfort is good, too. On the 21-inch alloy wheels and air suspension of our test car there was very little to complain about other than a bit of jarring over sharp-edged potholes. Every other ripple and bump is soaked up with ease in the EQE, although we haven’t tried the car on its standard coil spring suspension, so we’ll have to wait before we can deliver a verdict on that.
As for performance, the EQE is offered in either 300 or 350+ variants. Both are rear-wheel drive and offer an official WLTP driving range of between 350- and 388 miles, while power and 0-62mph time varies from 241bhp and 7.3sec in the 300, to 288bhp and 6.4sec in the EQE 350+.
The Mercedes-AMG EQE 53 is the one for you if you want Tesla-like drag race ability, as it brings all-wheel drive and 617bhp for a 3.5sec 0-62mph sprint time. WLTP official combined range is down to 291 miles, though.
What’s appreciable in the EQE 350+ that we drove, is the linear smoothness of the power delivery. It doesn’t feel as savage in its step-off acceleration as in many EVs, and that’s deliberate. Mercedes-Benz’s engineers are more concerned about sustained acceleration and smoother performance, and that’s also beneficial to the battery management.
It doesn’t feel like a really sporting saloon, but it does feel well balanced and responsive, with steering that’s light yet gives a decent sense of what’s going on at the wheels, and a nose that’s keen and predictable to fling into fast corners. As you’d expect, it is an effortless motorway cruiser, too. We only drove the rear-wheel-drive EQE 350+ in dry conditions so it’s hard to comment on whether there will be traction issues in the wet, but the four-wheel-drive EQE that we tested on snow and ice proved secure yet playful. Hopefully, this four-wheel drive system will be coming to the standard EQE range soon.
Braking is, for the most part, undertaken regeneratively, with the actual brakes only used when the systems sense the need for it. It’s a good system that you can turn off entirely, or toggle through two other levels of regen via the steering wheel paddles. There’s also an adaptive mode that automatically varies the regenerative braking if it senses a car or junction ahead. We’d like better brake pedal feel, but generally the EQE is an extremely satisfying and easy car to drive.
Technology and Equipment
The Mercedes EQE is available in AMG Line, AMG Line Premium, AMG Line Premium Plus and Exclusive Luxury trims, while the Mercedes-AMG EQE 53 gets its own range-topping equipment levels.
Avoid the base AMG Line if you can, as it misses out on some obvious options, although it is good news that every EQE gets a reversing camera, heated seats, wireless phone charging, panoramic glass sunroof, LED headlights and leatherette upholstery. The AMG Line Premium is our pick, as it adds keyless entry, electric seats with memory function, four-zone climate control, ambient lighting and 20-inch alloy wheels. Premium Plus is the best seller, which is understandable since it adds a more advanced semi-autonomous drive mode, air suspension, Burmester sound system, head-up display, 360-degree parking camera, heated windscreen and more. Exclusive Luxury gets open pore walnut wood trim, real nappa leather, heated steering wheel and rear seats, and various style upgrades including the ‘Electric Art’ exterior and interior finish.
You can’t get the EQS’ ‘Hyperscreen’ complete touchscreen dash in the EQE, but every model gets a 12.8-inch portrait touchscreen, complete with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, navigation with charger search function, over the air updates, natural voice recognition and more. There’s even fingerprint recognition, so that you can log yourself into the car’s systems and enjoy all your own settings easily. AMG Line Premium Plus adds augmented navigation and a head-up display to the 12.3-inch digital colour driver’s readout that’s standard on every EQE. It’s a good system, that’s generally easy to use and logically laid out although the screen can be a bit laggy sometimes – especially in CarPlay.
As you’d expect, the EQE has excellent safety standards and is complete with a full suite of adaptive driver aids including adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition and autonomous emergency braking. AMG Line Premium adds blind spot warning, while the trims above that get the Driving Assistance Package Plus that means the car will warn you if you’re about to open the door and there’s a cyclist or car approaching, and it’ll even use the route in the car’s nav to help automatically adjust the car’s speed and responses.
Besides the lack of tailpipe emissions, a huge draw for consumers to cars like the EQE is the low running costs, thanks in no small part to the exemptions for fully electric cars from VED road tax, as well as significant tax breaks if you’re using it as a company vehicle. The EQE’s efficiency and range will allow most users to charge more readily at home, where you can set charging times, via the car’s screen or linked phone app, to benefit from cheaper electricity tariffs.
Real-world range proved good in the Mercedes EQE 350 that we tested. We saw an indicated 350 miles in summer conditions, even with a lot of motorway miles included (electric cars are always most efficient at slower speeds and in warmer weather), and we’d expect a winter real-world range to be more like 250 to 300 miles. Assuming you’re charging at home most of the time, the EQE will certainly be cheaper to fuel than a comparable petrol or diesel car, with cost per mile coming in at around 13–15p per mile depending on the car’s efficiency, assuming you’re paying 40p per kWh at home. If you make the most of cheap overnight tariffs, that price can fall to as little as 3p per mile. That’s compared with around 15–20p per mile for a petrol or diesel car doing some 40-50mpg. Being so aerodynamic does mean that this is also one of the most efficient large EVs; only Tesla will rival it for touring efficieny, so it’ll be cheap to charge up even by the standards of other electric cars.
Let’s face it, though - EQE isn’t cheap. Especially as the reality is that most buyers will go for a model that pushes the price up towards £90,000 list price. Pricey as that it, it’s actually still competitive on price with alternatives like the Tesla Model S and Audi e-tron GT.
Mercedes-Benz offers the EQE with a standard three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty, while the lithium-ion battery is covered by a 155,000-mile, 10-year warranty that promises the battery will be replaced or refurbished if it drops below 70% of its capacity when new. That’s a usefully longer battery warranty than in just almost any other EV. For further peace of mind, data from the fleet of electric vehicles on the roads today that are already reaching 10 years and older, shows that modern, lithium-ion EVs are losing only around 10-15% of their range potential over ten years and 100,000 miles – potentially more like 20% if you rapid charge regularly.
However, as an overall brand, Mercedes placed an underwhelming 23rd out of 29 brands tested in the 2022 Driver Power survey, and with the new EQE and EQS models being untested by owners it’s hard to say for sure what reliability will be like.
- The EQE is charged via a CCS or Type 2 socket that’s in the car’s rear flank, where you’d expect the fuel filler cap to be on a petrol or diesel car. These are the European standard socket types that almost every electric car uses, and are compatible with the vast majority of public charging points across the UK and Western Europe.
- As decent as the battery range is, a quick and easy charge will be what helps persuade customers over from internal combustion engine cars. The EQE will accept charge at a rate of 170kW from a rapid charger, and that’s enough to allow a 10%-80% charge in around 32 minutes. If you’ve only got 15 minutes to spare, that same fast charge can add as much as 155 miles. Charging simplicity is Mercedes-Benz’s aim, too, with its centralised payment/billing system meaning no fiddling about with apps and pre-payment at the various differing chargers/companies, which should mean ‘pull-up, plug-in’ convenience everywhere.
- Despite the popularity of the estate version of the conventional E-Class, those wanting an EQE estate will be disappointed: it’s not expected in the model line-up, with the EQE SUV fulfilling that role instead. If you really want a premium electric estate, the Audi A6 e-tron is one of very few non-SUV options available to you, and the BMW i5 Touring is also due in a few years.
- For maximum range: The Mercedes-Benz EQE 300 in basic AMG Line trim gets the best range, as it also gets the smallest wheels. We’d still urge you towards AMG Line Premium trim, though, as it gets an official combined WLTP range of 377 miles, which is not much of a sacrifice in range given the additional comforts (and re-sale values) that you get.
- The fastest one: The Mercedes-AMG EQE 53 4Matic+. You can rely on Mercedes-AMG to take Mercedes-Benz’s models to another level with performance and that’s no different as the world charges towards electrification. Naturally, the 617bhp comes at the cost of range, but the 290-mile claimed range is still impressively usable despite the supercar performance on offer.
- The best company car: The Mercedes EQE 300 AMG Line Premium. The slightly lesser performance isn’t likely to bother most drivers on a day-to-day basis, as it’s hardly a slouch. Spend the money you save by going for the entry-level powertrain, on going for the AMG Line Premium trim with its better equipment. If you can stretch to Premium Plus in order to get the head-up display and more, then it will feel like a usefully more hi-tech and luxurious car – albeit, also a much more expensive one.
