Electric touring car with a lot of luxury

The challenge comes at the very end: How do you manage the legendary mountain race track on “America’s Mountain”, Pikes Peak, with an SUV that is more than five meters long and already weighs around three tons empty, occupied by four adult men and their luggage? And above all: How does the heavy piece maneuver itself down the mountain again?

From almost 2,300 meters on the Pikes Peak Highway Tollgate, the road meanders almost 30 kilometers up the mountain to 4,301 meters – an altitude somewhere between the Jungfrau and the Matterhorn. Left or right the abyss, impressive views, up at the summit the temperature has dropped from almost 20° Celsius to just above zero. This is not a problem for the electric drive in the Mercedes EQS SUV with its 400 kW output in the more powerful 580 4Matic version.

Just as the day before, other mountain passes near Denver/Colorado were more of a casual exercise for the Swiss “entry-level model”, the 450 4Matic with 265 kW of power and almost the same maximum torque. Entry-level model in quotation marks because the price list says at least 145,200 francs for it. The more powerful version burdens the budget with 181,200 francs, and some extras from the list of options have not yet been ordered.

It is best to ignore the current consumption display when driving uphill like this – just as you do with a combustion engine under these working conditions. The fun for consumption foxes begins when driving downhill in an electric car. With the two paddles on the steering wheel, the recuperation of the drive train can be fine-tuned on the EQS SUV – from coasting, in order to take as much energy as possible into the next small climb, to strong recuperation where there is a steep downhill and large signs ask for it, combustion engines in one shift into low gears to avoid overheating the brakes.

There is no danger with the EQS SUV. The electric motors do the hard work, recuperate with up to 290 kW of power and thus generate electricity, which at the end of the downhill stretch has replenished the battery by a good ten percent. With a usable capacity of 108 kilowatt hours, that is around 11 kWh of electricity that is recovered. Or about 50 kilometers range. Because with the EQS SUV, the WLTP consumption of around 24 kWh/100 km can be undercut on American highways with a relaxed driving style and speeds between 65 and 85 miles per hour – which is at a peak of over 130 km/h.

The SUV derivative shares the basis, called Electric Vehicle Architecture, with the electric luxury sedan EQS. Mercedes is once again at the top of the vehicle hierarchy. The result was a visually powerful vehicle: 5.13 meters long and 1.72 meters high, it towered over the sedan by a smooth 20 centimeters.

The massive impression is reinforced when the optionally available running boards are mounted. Firstly, they are a matter of taste, secondly, they are rather impractical because you tend to get your trouser legs dirty when you get out, especially from the rear seats – but thirdly, they bring aerodynamic advantages because the airstream flows around the vehicle better. The Mercedes designers speak of half a tenth, for which the running boards are good – that’s a lot, if otherwise hundredths are haggled and filed. In the best configuration, the EQS SUV has a drag coefficient of c_w 0.26.

The EQS SUV is powered by an electrical system consisting of permanent synchronous motors on the front and rear axles on the all-wheel drive models offered in Switzerland. In Germany, there is also a rear-wheel drive vehicle with an output of 265 kW. A battery with a usable capacity of 108 kWh supplies the drive unit with electricity. A range of more than 600 kilometers should be feasible. The DC charging capacity reaches a peak of 200 kilowatts. This means that the energy storage can be filled from 10 to 80 percent in half an hour for the next 450 kilometers.

The chassis of the EQS SUV consists of air suspension with continuously adjustable damping (ADS+) as standard. This not only allows the body to be raised for bad roads or even off-road use, but also various driving programs. In Comfort mode, the EQS rocks gently over waves in the road. The sport mode offers a bit harder feedback – that can be selected “al gusto”.

In the off-road program, the EQS SUV masters passages in woods and fields that you wouldn’t expect from a smooth-ironed SUV. The active rear-axle steering, which steers the rear wheels by 4.5 degrees as standard, is a massive help here, and even 10 degrees are possible as an option. The turning circle for the car with a wheelbase of at least 3.13 meters is 11.90 meters, with the 10-degree steering even just 11 meters – the Mercedes A-Class is only five millimeters better at that.

Mercedes uses the all-round equipment of the SUV with cameras for a helpful tool off-road: artificial intelligence interpolates the roadway directly in front of the vehicle using the camera data, so that obstacles can be seen virtually. For the downhill assistant, the vehicle uses the recuperation power of the electric motors to get down safely even on slippery downhill roads.

The interior of the SUV corresponds to that of the sedan, right down to the optional hyperscreen that extends across the entire cockpit. There is plenty of legroom and headroom in the rear seats, and there is also plenty of air above the crown when you get in. The SUV is also optionally available as a seven-seater. In this case, the luggage volume shrinks from 645 to 565 liters. With the rear seats folded, the EQS SUV can hold up to 2100 liters of luggage.

When it comes to the assistance systems, the new Mercedes offers everything that the portfolio has to offer either as standard or at an additional cost. The battery charging planning of the navigation system determines all charging stops necessary for the long-distance journey, individual systems such as the trailer maneuvering assistant (trailer load braked: 1800 kg) can also be activated later over the air.

The first Mercedes EQS SUVs are scheduled to be delivered this year.