2023 Mercedes-Benz EQS 450 SUV review

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class has defined what luxury motoring means since its inception. Not opulence as Rolls Royce or Bentley do, the S-Class uniquely combines prestige, innovation and everyday usability.

Some groundbreaking tech introduced by prior Sonder models include crumple zones, radar cruise control and electronic stability programs. Beyond making the one per cent's days easier, these breakthroughs can be credited with saving lives.

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Yet this vehicle proudly wearing Benz’s hallowed ‘S’ badge has arrived late to the party, behind its all-electric EQC, EQA, EQB, and EQE siblings touting only seven seats as its major advancement.

Air suspension and 100+kWh batteries don’t seem so special in 2023, nor do 141 centimetres of touchscreen (optional on this car). Luckily, the EQS SUV does deliver the luxury and comfort you expect of an S-badged Benz.

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JUMP AHEAD

• How much is it, and what do you get?
• How do rivals compare on value?
• Interior comfort, space and storage
• What is it like to drive?
• Charging and driving range?
• How safe is it?
• Warranty and running costs
• VERDICT
• Specifications

How much is it, and what do you get?

Merc has played a safe game with the ‘single bow’ styling of its EQ range. A game so safe, in fact, that the slippery shapes (this one’s got a Cd of 0.26) are quite difficult to tell apart.

The EQS is big, of course, so you know it isn’t a GLA. It’s 5.1 metres long and rolls on a 3210mm wheelbase, gaining 25mm in width and 33mm in height compared to the smaller EQE, helping make space for a third row of seats.

Our 450 specification is the only trim available for now and wears AMG Line goodies such as a star grille (no bonnet star, sorry old-money Merc lovers), 21-inch alloy wheels wrapped in run-flat tyres, power-domed bonnet, illuminated aluminium-look running boards, AMG Line front and rear bumpers, and AMG Line interior, though with more ample comfort seats rather than sporty AMG Line buckets.

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It’s aided by excellent NVH suppression that makes the EQS SUV a listening chamber on wheels

Technology-wise, the EQS 450 SUV features digital headlights with 1.3 million LED pixels for anti-dazzle high beam functionality, LED taillights with EQ 3D helix design, gloss black exterior trim, keyless entry and start, metallic paint, a 12.8-inch portrait touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, digital driver’s display, panoramic sunroof, and leather-appointed active ‘Multicontour’ seats with heating, ventilation and memory functions.

Also standard is a warm and powerful 751-watt, 15-speaker Burmester audio system with Dolby Atmos surround sound. It’s aided by excellent NVH suppression that makes the EQS SUV a listening chamber on wheels.

As you’d expect from a luxury product, some options cost a pretty penny and, in the EQS 450 SUV’s case, these could make all the difference.

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The standard leather, for example, is coarsely grained and doesn’t feel overly special. The sumptuous $4300 Manufaktur Exclusive Nappa leather brings three more interesting upholstery colours and is something we’d recommend.

Likewise, if you have people you like riding in the car with you regularly the $11,700 Comfort Plus pack is worthwhile, bundling twin touchscreens for the second row with wireless headsets, a fragrance system, HEPA filter, heated steering wheel, heated second and third-row seats and ‘energising’ programs that adjust the seats’ heating, massage and ventilation functions to the desired mood.

Then there’s the somewhat contentious Hyperscreen which isn’t standard, its absence leaving the front passenger sat behind an oppressive slab of wood trim. It might be the biggest option blank of all time, though you might not know you were missing a Hyperscreen if you hadn’t seen pictures of it.

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It’s a $6700 standalone option combining a 12.3-inch driver’s display and passenger touchscreen with a whopping great 17.7-inch central screen for 141cm of retinal stimulation. Additional options are listed below.

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How do rivals compare on value?

Mercedes-Benz argues the EQS is peerless and, as the sole big electric seven-seater right now (with only the half-price Kia EV9 to compete in the short term), the brand is right.

The BMW iX and Audi Q8 E-Tron both compete in the smaller large two-row SUV category rather than the EQS’s upper large stable. In the combustion world, you’d be looking at the full-size Range Rover (soon to be offered as an EV), or seven-seat Bentley Bentayga.

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Interior comfort, space and storage

Again, Mercedes isn’t wrong on its numbers; the EQS has a vast cabin. You can easily fit six 180cm-plus adults in here, and probably seven, although the middle seat is best used as an armrest.

Second-row passengers would greatly appreciate the rear seat entertainment in the Comfort Plus pack, though four-zone climate control and a power-sliding bench are standard. Access to the third row is very easy thanks to huge door apertures and a high roofline.

Cargo space is positively capacious no matter which way you skin the EQS SUV. See the table for a full luggage space breakdown.

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The only gripe is that the third row takes some force to fold down – it could really have been electric like the 40:20:40 split-folding second row. The carpeting is lovely back here, though, and the inclusion of shopping bag hooks and a sturdy cargo cover with an underfloor compartment to store it are welcome.

In the front things are back to peachy. Aside from coarse standard leather trim, the seats themselves are ensconcing and supportive with luxurious touches such as heating and ventilation, and down-filled headrest pillows. The digital driver’s display has a lot of info to give and you need to learn to harness it with the steering wheel's capacitive touch controls.

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As with most modern Benzes, the cabin presentation is on the ostentatious side of acceptable. If that’s more your bag than Audi’s understated look or BMW’s crisp lines then the EQS will suit you perfectly. There are all manner of ambient lighting programs to jazz the experience up further, too.

Diving deeper into the well-thought-out user interface (it's not quite Apple intuitive) is fairly straightforward given the number of functions the touchscreen has to deal with. Voice control works well, and Apple CarPlay retained a stable connection for the duration of our three-hour drive.

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What you might miss on initial inspection (due to the attention-grabbing lights and screens) is that the EQS SUV's cabin is underscored by thoughtful, practical touches.

The rubber-lined door bins hold a water bottle snuggly, the deep central cubby has felt lining to stop keys jingling, and there’s a spot beneath the flying bridge console for quite a large bag and a rubberised wireless charging tray that minimises phone slippage.

Emphasising the cabin's Sonder qualities are soft materials that encircle the whole front compartment. From the top of the doors to the lower rain seals is all pleasingly wrapped in squishy material and construction quality is a step up from other products in the Benz stable.

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What is it like to drive?

Ditching combustion engines is hard. They’re ingrained in our psyche with relatable performance figures and effectively no range anxiety – manufacturers have to make electric cars seem as though they offer more.

Breakthrough EV makers such as Tesla and Rivian like to spruik their new vehicles with astounding power and acceleration figures. Even BMW and Audi extoll the virtues of near-instant torque and almost limitless performance.

Not so Mercedes with its EQ range. To be fair, 221kW and 800Nm from two permanently excited synchronous motors is a lot of snot, but with 2918kg to push around, 0-100km/h happens in a dignified 6.0 seconds. The smooth delivery feels more grown up than sporty rivals, too.

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Whisper quiet on the freeway, the salubrious EQS wafts through bends and urban streets with ease.

Smoothness is amplified by the noise-insulating Acoustic Comfort laminated glazing and huge amounts of sound-deading in and around the body. Travelling in the EQS 450 SUV at 100km/h is like driving a regular hatchback wearing the best noise-cancelling headphones money can buy.

Air springs are standard fare for the EQS with myriad drive modes accessible on the touchscreen. Sport mode firms things up and gives the EQS a reasonably dynamic edge – it flows through corners well enough and that’s all it needs to do –  while Eco slackens off the throttle response to conserve precious charge.

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With the regen mode minimised using the turned aluminium paddles the brake pedal is mushy and unresponsive

Leaving it in Comfort is best, though. Perhaps it’s the weight of the EQS or maybe where it sits (could even be the 21-inch alloys) that causes its ride to be a touch lumpen because, although there’s plenty of cushion from the springs, the dampers cinch in secondary vertical movement a little too late for our liking.

The brake pedal is a little peculiar and with the regen minimised using the turned aluminium paddles, it’s mushy and unresponsive. Increasing the regenerative braking power has the left pedal dip down into the footwell as the car slows, which we found to be unnerving coming up to traffic lights.

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Overall, the regen in this Mercedes is not as slick as Tesla or Polestar’s excellent one-pedal driving modes.

Hyper-milers among us will be excited that the EQS has a range-saving mode that disables the air-con, turns down the speakers, sets the drive mode to Eco and even turns the screen off – it was claiming a 25km improvement in driving range from 80 per cent charge.

Manoeuvring is aided by a typically SUV high-set seating position, 360º surround-view camera, quick steering rack and four-wheel steer that permits angles up to 4.5º from the rear axle to keep the turning circle tight at 10.9 metres.

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Charging and driving range?

The EQS has a properly big lithium-ion NMC battery pack, 120kWh gross with 108.4kWh of usable capacity.

That’s enough for a combined WLTP driving range rating of 483km, though we bettered that significantly on test. At the top of the three-hour test loop after climbing into the Blue Mountains, the EQS was showing 30kWh/100km.

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A testament to the regenerative braking system's ability to add range, by the time we returned to Penrith the display was showing 20kWh/100km which is seriously impressive for such a big, heavy vehicle. It equates to a 542km real-world driving range.

Mercedes’ 400-volt architecture allows 200kW DC charging for a 10-80 per cent top-up in  31 minutes on an ultra-rapid charger. Regular AC charging is capped at 11kW standard for a 10-hour 0-100 per cent juice that’s cut in half by the optional 22kW AC charging hardware.

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How safe is it?

The Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV was awarded a five-star ANCAP rating against the 2020-2022 protocol.

It was praised for its excellent crash protection, and there are driver aids layered on top to reduce the likelihood of an incident. Adaptive cruise and lane-trace worked well on test, and there’s blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, forward and reverse AEB as well as active seatbelt pretensioners.

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Warranty and running costs

Mercedes-Benz covers all its cars with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty including the EQS SUV.

Servicing is due annually or every 25,000km and it isn’t cheap. A five-year service plan costs $4280, and a three-year plan $2350.

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VERDICT

The EQS SUV is a spectacularly refined battery-electric SUV with space for seven.

It’s a good SUV that serves its purpose rather well, though to be perfect we'd like a smoother ride. It's also a shame we didn’t get to experience the Hyperscreen and some of the ritzier cabin specs.

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If you only need five seats, optioning up an EQE may save you a few dollars without sacrificing much.

Not many passersby will be able to tell the difference and, frankly, nor will many sat inside the cabin – at least of the standard EQS 450 SUV.

Refinement, smooth power delivery and usable real-world range; if you’re after luxury, seven seats and near-silent travel it’s hard to walk past this three-pointed star.

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