Review: 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQE ride-along

Quietly competent, solidly built, and discreetly premium, the E-Class sedan has long been a heartland car for Mercedes-Benz, a car whose core values are a touchstone for the three-pointed star. But the E-Class’s days are numbered. With Mercedes committed to switching its entire mainstream vehicle line-up from internal combustion engines to electric power by 2030, the new electric-powered Mercedes-Benz EQE sedan is being positioned as the spiritual successor to the E-Class. No pressure, then.

So, has the EQE got what it takes? We took a ride in a pre-production car to try and find out.

It’s a bright but cold wintry morning in Stuttgart, last night’s snow still on the ground, when Holger Enzmann – the man responsible for Mercedes Benz’s EVA2 electric vehicle architecture – wafts into the hotel forecourt in a white EQE 350+.

It’s the EQ analog to the E 350 sedan, powered by a single e-motor that develops 215kW and 530Nm, mounted at the rear axle and driving the rear wheels.

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More powerful versions are coming, including a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive model, and an EQE AMG that will pump out about 500kW. Nevertheless, the EQE 350+ feels brisk enough when Enzmann punches it to merge onto the autobahn, despite the 2400kg mass.

At first glance the EQE looks a lot like the EQS, but it’s more than just a shrink-wrapped version of the electric Mercedes flagship. At 4946mm, the EQE is 270mm shorter overall than the EQS, but, significantly, rolls on a 3120mm wheelbase that’s just 90mm shorter. The EQE has the same swoopy one-box profile as the EQS – at 1513mm its overall height is the same – but with the wheels pulled further to the corners of the car, it has a chunkier stance.

Apart from the different proportions, the front end is subtly different, with different headlight graphics, and while the EQS is a hatchback, the EQE has a conventional boot. The reason, says Enzmann, is to improve rear-seat headroom by eliminating the need to package the hatch’s hinges in the roof.

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The more compact dimensions mean the EQE will only be available with the smaller 10-cell, 90.6kWh battery pack (the EQS is available with a 12-cell, 107.8kWh battery).

Even so, Enzmann says that in its most efficient specification – single motor, rear-drive on steel springs and standard 19-inch wheels – the EQE has a WLTP-certified 660km range. The car can handle fast charge rates up to 170kW, which means up to 35.55kWh (enough for 250km on the WTLP standard) can be added to the battery in just 15 minutes.

Enzmann has brought along a well-optioned car for my ride, fitted with the spectacular Hyperscreen dash that debuted on the EQS, a glass roof, rear-wheel steering, air suspension, and an AMG Line appearance package that includes a slightly more aggressive-looking front fascia and 20-inch alloy wheels.

The rear-steer system pivots the wheels through 10 degrees, cutting the turning circle from 12.5m to 10.7m. Order the optional 21-inch wheels, however, and the system will only turn the wheels 4.5 degrees, resulting in an 11.6m turning circle. Either way, the system delivers improved low-speed ability and high-speed stability.

Much of that technology is shared with the EQS. What you won’t be able to get on the EQE – for now, at least – is the Level 3 autonomous Drive Pilot system that debuted on the new S-Class and is now available on the EQS.

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From the front passenger seat, at least, the EQE appears to retain many traditional E-Class values. In fact, in some areas, it’s noticeably better. You expect an electric car to be smooth and quiet, but the air-suspended EQE rides beautifully and is eerily silent, with nary a hint of a whine from the six-phase permanently excited synchronous e-motor, nor any harmonics from the 255/40 Pirelli SottoZero winter tyres.

Among the noise suppression features in the car is isolation of both the e-motor at the axle, and of the inverter and control electronics, which are packaged in a special sandwich sheet steel with a plastic central layer.

“An internal combustion engine masks all sorts of noise,” says Enzmann, “but in an EV there’s nowhere to hide.”

If you don’t want to waft along in near silence, the EQE offers three different sound experiences, artificial noisescapes piped through the audio speakers that rise and fall in concert with speed and acceleration, their intensity linked to whether you’re driving in Eco, Comfort, or Sport modes.

‘Silver Wave’ is some sort of gentle ambient sound; ‘Vivid Flux’ is a robotic electronic noise; ‘Roaring Pulse’ sounds like someone trying to suffocate an AMG GT Black Series under a giant pillow. And if that’s not enough interior entertainment, you can also select an ambient lighting mode that also changes with speed and acceleration.

Interlude...

Back to the EQE!

With the battery under the floor, the front seating position is 65mm higher than in an E-class, and there’s 27mm more shoulder room. It feels airy and spacious. In the rear seat, not so much.

Though the front and rear seat H-points are 80mm further apart than in the E-Class, which means there’s ample legroom, that swooping roofline means you must duck under the header rail to get in and out, and the view through the dramatically sloping rear window is like looking out of a letter box.

Once seated, however, headroom is fine for 190cm-tall adults, especially under the optional glass roof.

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“It’s our expression of an electric E-Class,” says Holger Enzmann. And on first impressions, that’s a fair call. No, the interior package is not the same – though roomier up front, and with more rear seat legroom – that sloping roofline does make the rear feel slightly more cramped. But the EQE 350+ has the same overall demeanour of the three-pointed star’s touchstone car. And that’s a good thing.

But the E-Class, of course, is more than just a sedan – one-in-three E-Class cars sold in Europe last year was a wagon and in Germany, wagons accounted for 50 per cent of E-Class volume. And then there is the E-Class Coupe and its Cabriolet cousin, both still solid sellers. Will they simply go away when production of the internal combustion E-Class finally ends?

Though he won’t confirm details, Holger Enzmann hints EQ versions of those models are likely to appear towards the end of this decade, when the EQE’s EVA2 architecture is superseded by the new MB.EA architecture that's currently under development in Stuttgart.

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