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Positioned sideways: Mercedes EQE on the test track – an ice lake in Arjeplog, Sweden, near the Arctic Circle
Photo: Dieter Rebmann / Mercedes-Benz
What is the business limousine doing on an icy lake?
Arjeplog in Swedish Lapland is the winter capital of the car industry.
Almost all vehicle manufacturers put the finishing touches on their new models in endurance tests near the Arctic Circle.
Mercedes series manager Christoph Starzynski is therefore in the north with the new EQE and lets the tester take the wheel for a short time.
The Mercedes-Benz EQE is the next electric model in the luxury class. The traditional Swabian group officially started sales this week.
Let's go for just under 71,000 euros.
Compared to the luxury liner EQS, which is already on the market, the new one drives very differently.
Where the EQS gives the sovereignty that hovers proudly over the motorway, the EQE is noticeably more agile, conveys more contact with the road and tempts to a more brisk pace.
And it feels even more handy.
Above all, however, the model signals that the Stuttgart-based company is spreading its electric revolution.
The EQE drives in the tradition of the E-Class, which Mercedes has made great for 75 years and ten generations: The Swabians have the E-Class to thank for the fact that Mercedes-Benz dominates in the luxury class, while the S-Class and the Elektro -Variant EQS for the luxury at the top.
"This car will be a touchstone for Mercedes and must prove that even the most loyal but also the most conservative customers are ready for the switch," says market observer Hans-Georg Marmit from the expert organization KÜS in Losheim am See.
Mass and cash make the SUV
At the same time, the oldest car manufacturer in the world in Tuscaloosa (US state of Alabama) is showing that it is now fully energized.
CEO Ola Källenius flew to the USA with two of his colleagues – whether it was a pandemic or the Ukraine crisis – to officially flip the switch for the fourth battery factory in the global production network.
For the middle of the decade he announces his own cell production on US soil.
The electrical center in the southern states is of particular importance for Mercedes, and also for the climate: Since the first M-Class was built here 25 years ago, the plant has been the home of the large SUVs with the star and currently has an annual production of 260,000 Heavy ships from the GLE to the Maybach version of the GLS have a particularly large CO2 backpack.
The Swabians now want to empty it and are therefore also preparing the plant for the production of two electric off-road vehicles, which are scheduled to start this year.
As important as limousines are for the image, mass and thus also cash are currently being made primarily with SUVs, as they are built here in Alabama.
In the polar ice of Arjeplog, an offshoot of the family is already warming up next to the EQE, which fits so much better into the rough landscape.
For the fall, Mercedes is planning an SUV based on the EQS on the so-called EVA2 platform, which will compete with Tesla's Model X and the BMW iX with seven seats and even more space.
And just as this Stromer flanks the GLS, Mercedes wants to provide the EQE with a counterpart to the GLE at the beginning of 2023.
The Swabians are also preparing the first electric Maybach based on the EQS SUV.
Both are also to be built in Tuscaloosa and the EQE in Beijing.
So it's no wonder that they are in such a hurry with the battery factory in Alabama, are already setting up a second production line and are counting on six-digit quantities per year.
EQS as flagship for »Electric Only«
Initially, Mercedes was rather hesitant to go in the direction of electromobility.
As so-called conversions, i.e. conversions of conventional combustion engines, models such as the EQC, EQA or EQB looked more like compulsory practice than serious conviction.
But now Källenius promises to offer "Electric Only" by the end of the decade;
at least for the markets that are ripe for it.
The EQS, with which the Swabians landed a big hit, paved the way for this.
It is not for nothing that the luxury liner, which Mercedes celebrates as an electric alternative to the flagship S-Class, is currently the best answer to Tesla's Model S and a range record holder: the renowned consumer magazine Edmunds has attested to the sedan having a larger radius of action than all other electric cars and drove 120 kilometers further than with any Tesla.
The catch: The market for an electric car, which costs 98,000 euros in the basic version and easily doubles that with extras, is comparatively small and with it the impact on the CO2 balance sheet for the Benz.
More comfort than in the E-Class
The EQE, the little brother of the EQS, will go on sale at the end of April at prices starting at 70,626 euros, in the core segment of the upper business class.
Series manager Starzynski wants to lure them with a more classic cut.
The EQE is therefore not only 30 centimeters shorter than the EQS and the axles are nine centimeters closer together.
But the shape is - depending on how you look at it - a bit more pleasing or more common and the flatter tailgate is attached under the window instead of in the roof.
Naturally, there is also a little less space in the 4.95 meter long EQE than in the EQS, with the short overhangs and the long wheelbase not failing to have an effect: backbenchers always sit better than in the conventional E-Class and almost think they are in the Chinese Long version - only that the raised seating position due to the batteries in the floor is less natural.
Hyperscreen even shows moving images
The equipment is also a little slimmed down compared to the EQS, for example in the EQE there is a smaller head-up display and no Drive Pilot, which enables autonomous driving according to Level 3.
But the atmosphere is the same: cool or at least cool luxury reigns here and there instead of the old plush made of lacquer and leather.
In the EQE, too, the huge "hyperscreen" stretches across the dashboard - and can even do a bit more than in the flagship.
As the first manufacturer in the world, Mercedes is allowed to show moving images on the screen in front of the passenger in the EQE instead of just the navigation map or the radio station list.
Of course, the media experience must not distract from the road.
To do this, they have optimized the driver's face recognition and programmed the inward-facing camera above the speedometer so that it recognizes any distraction from the driver's gaze, sounds the alarm after a few seconds and then fades out the video or TV program again.
The EQE uses the same platform as the EQS and therefore the same drive.
Due to the shorter wheelbase, however, it is only sufficient for the smaller of the two EQS batteries with a net capacity of 90 kWh.
It brings a range of up to 654 kilometers instead of 784 kilometers at best. The entry-level model has to make do with 215 kW and rear-wheel drive, the provisional top model is in the list with 350 kW and all-wheel drive, while the EQS is available with up to 560 kW.
Small turning circle
But the EQE is much more agile.
Because it also has rear-axle steering, which allows the wheels to turn by up to 10.5 degrees and noticeably reduces the turning circle.
Even a C-Class suddenly seems bulky in comparison when you steer the EQE over a handling course during the last test in the Arctic Circle or imagine a narrow parking garage.
The car engages the driver more and turns him on more.
And you don't even have to switch to the sports program, push the stability control into the background and drive the car around the corners in such a way that you can see the car in front through the side window.
Something is still buzzing
The next stage of the electric offensive: After Tuscaloosa, Mercedes-Benz is also making its now largest plant in Beijing fit for Generation E and is planning to launch the EQE and EQE SUV there.
But the Swabians don't seem to want to rely entirely on electromobility just yet.
While the EQE is rehearsing the snow waltz during the test drives in the Arctic Circle, the prototype of a suspiciously conventional sedan drives through the field of vision and even lets out a familiar hum.
No wonder: there will be a new E-Class in a year.
It may be the last of its kind and, of course, also drive more than 100 kilometers electrically as a plug-in hybrid, but the old world of combustion engines is still alive for the really conservative customers.
Thomas Geiger is a freelance author and was supported in his research by Mercedes-Benz. Reporting is independent of this.
