Tested: 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS450+ Electrifies Luxury
The less powerful version of the EQS offers relative value and impressive range for a six-figure outlay.
PUBLISHED: JAN 4, 2023
The less powerful EQS model offers relative value and impressive range for a six-figure outlay
www.caranddriver.com
UPDATE 1/3/23: This review has been updated with test results.
After you've driven nearly every car for sale over the last 20 years, it's natural for the cars of the past to enter into your thoughts when driving something new. Humans compare experiences to gain perspective, which explains why we were daydreaming about Rolls-Royces while driving Mercedes-Benz's new electric luxury four-door, the EQS450+.
Like a Rolls-Royce Phantom, the EQS is a capsule of luxury and silence that pours itself down the road with unerring grace. Unlike a hard-to-swallow Rolls, the EQS looks like an Advil Liqui-Gel. It's a lozenge of a car with what Mercedes claims is the lowest drag coefficient—0.20—of any car on sale. That slick bod whips through the air, barely disturbing it, and leads to near silence at extra-legal highway speeds. At a more reasonable 70 mph, we recorded just 64 decibels of noise inside the cabin.
The 107.8-kWh battery sandwiched in the floor assists in keeping road noise to a minimum. That big battery also allows the EQS450+ to go an estimated 350 miles between charges, according to the EPA. Yet we were able to cover 400 miles on our 75-mph highway test, putting this Benz just behind our current long-range EV champ, the Lucid Air Grand Touring. Find a Level 3 DC hookup and the EQS can go from 10 percent charge to 80 percent in a claimed 31 minutes. On a typical Level 2 setup, the EQS takes just over 11 hours to go from 10 percent to 100 percent.
Moving the electrons around in the battery is a single motor driving the rear wheels that makes 329 horsepower and 417 pound-feet of torque. It's not nearly as quick as the 516-hp EQS580, but it'll shove you into the massaging seats. After the initial thrust from a stop the acceleration tapers off, but 60 mph is yours in 5.4 seconds. In more relaxed driving, the right-now torque affords the EQS the same sort of effortless waftability that Rolls-Royce has been touting for decades."
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Test results~
POWERTRAIN
Motor: permanent-magnet synchronous AC, 329 hp, 417 lb-ft
Battery Pack: liquid-cooled lithium-ion, 107.8 kWh
Onboard Charger: 9.6 kW
Peak DC Fast-Charge Rate: 200 kW
Transmission: direct-drive
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: multilink/multilink
Brakes, F/R: 15.4-in vented disc/14.9-in vented disc
Tires: Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5
255/45R-20 105H Extra Load MO
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 126.4 in
Length: 207.3 in
Width: 75.8 in
Height: 59.6 in
Passenger Volume, F/R: 58/45 ft3
Cargo Volume, Behind F/R: 63/22 ft3
Curb Weight: 5530 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 5.4 sec
100 mph: 13.6 sec
1/4-Mile: 14.0 sec @ 101 mph
130 mph: 25.1 sec
Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec.
Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 5.5 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 2.1 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 3.0 sec
Top Speed (gov ltd): 130 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 167 ft
Braking, 100–0 mph: 351 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.90 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 83 MPGe
75-mph Highway Range: 400 mi
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 97/97/97 MPGe
Range: 350 mi.