Atlanta doesn’t exactly have the most impressive press fleet; While most of my colleagues regularly get press cars, my loans tend to be a little more tenuous. I knew this when I moved here, but luckily Mercedes really wanted me to experience it the new loading hub that recently opened next to its North American headquarters, offering the only car in the Atlanta press fleet so I can take a look at it — an AMG EQE SUV.
Ideally, I would have driven to my old stomping grounds in the mountains of North Georgia to more closely test the AMG part of the crossover’s ridiculously long name. Unfortunately, I’m also completely unfamiliar with the charging infrastructure up there and the last thing I want is to run out of juice in a socialist car surrounded by Marjorie Taylor Green supporters.
The headline numbers are the EQE’s 617 horsepower and 0-60 acceleration of 3.4 seconds, but more important is its torque: 701 pound-feet. It’s not enough to do four-wheel burnouts, but once the thing’s gone, it’s fine goes. The acceleration would be almost physically unpleasant if it weren’t so addictive – and almost a little frightening. Later acceleration runs felt less tame, so I either found just the right speed to hit maximum Gs or my body adapted.
If you have $110,000 worth of options and want an incredibly powerful luxury cruiser, you’ll probably be very happy with the AMG version of the EQE SUV. At least if your cruises are relatively short; A range of 235 miles isn’t much, and in a car that encourages you to accelerate just for fun, we wish you good luck getting anywhere close to that range.
I’m not at all the target market for a six-figure electric luxury SUV, but as a daily driver and (albeit smaller) highway cruiser, it did its best to win my heart with its incredibly comfortable and supportive seats. One-pedal driving and its ridiculous torque. Man, I love torque.
And while its non-AMG counterparts probably feel much more comfortable on Atlanta’s poorly maintained roads, I had no complaints with the suspension in Comfort mode. The biggest downside to the car that I noticed was that it took a lot longer than expected to get the seat adjusted just right. Well, that and the range. And the styling.
Honestly, since I can charge in my apartment, range isn’t that much of an issue for me. If I had to visit my aunt in Charlotte, I could just stop along the way and charge while I ate lunch. Anything further away than Charlotte and I’ll probably fly. I don’t know if I want something with a range of less than 150 miles, but practically speaking I probably don’t even need that. I know most people wouldn’t buy an electric vehicle with a range of less than 300 miles, but for me personally that’s not that big of a problem.
The real crux of the matter is the styling. Every time I got out of the EQE I looked back, hoping that with enough time behind the wheel the design would suddenly click. I wanted to change my mind and understand that aerodynamics are important in an electric vehicle, but that just didn’t happen. Which is fine. The styling isn’t for me and I like cars that other people don’t like. It just doesn’t feel right to have so much fun driving and still be put off by the styling.
And that’s exactly what Mercedes’ EQ series is. I know there are people who really like the styling and many who don’t. In general, I like it when automakers release polarizing designs instead of trying to please everyone. I just ended up on the wrong side of that divide, and no matter how enjoyable the car was to drive, I just couldn’t get enough past the looks want the EQE SUV, even if I can’t afford it. But trust me. I wanted to want the EQE.
If you are one of those people who are interested in the design of the EQE and have enough money to lease one – chances are the depreciation will hit them so badly that you should definitely lease and not buy – Once you have figured out your seating position, a quick test drive is enough to convince you of it. Unless you rightly believe you need more range. Even if you currently think You need more range, 701 lb-ft of torque does a great job of convincing you that you don’t actually need it, even if it drains your battery like Sherman marching through Atlanta.
If you’re on the other side of the border and you don’t like the look of it, the bad news for you is that there’s a solid performance EV underneath that you’ll never experience. In a perfect world, everything would be designed with your likes and dislikes in mind, but the reality is that sometimes something just isn’t for you, and that’s okay. I hope the people who like the look enjoy their AMG EQE SUV and its 701 lb-ft of torque. I’ll be quietly jealous here.