This is the new Mercedes-Benz EQS. It is a very expensive oversized pebble masquerading as a tech-laden luxury sedan, and wearing its 450+ outfit, it claims a mahoosive 925km of range.
That’s...more. More than the outgoing Mercedes-Benz EQS could manage (a paltry 774km, pah), more than the BMW iX3’s significant 805km, and a tickle more than the BMW i3’s 905km range.
Which makes it the rangiest electric car of them all. Merc says it has overhauled and updated more than a quarter of the EQS’s parts to beat the BMW, even if they’re in vastly different segments. What with one being a very smooth stone, and the other a shark.
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There’s now 800V tech that enables a 350kW charger to add just under 322km of range in 10 minutes, better brake regen, (optional) steer-by-wire and a yoke-like steering wheel, brighter headlights able to scorch the retinas of puny human cars six football pitches away, and—distressingly—‘cloud-based damper regulation.’ We’ll come back to that.
There’s a slightly bigger battery—up from 118kWh to 122kWh—with new chemistry holding it all together (read: witchcraft), new motors that are more compact, and a two-speed gearbox on the back axle.
About that steering. Digitizing the simple joys of turning a car means Mercedes can fit a yoke-style steering wheel, though whether such a design belongs in a Benz is a matter for debate. For its part, the German carmaker says the new wheel opens up a better view of the dash. And the new system removes unwanted chatter and can adjust to each situation accordingly.
Speaking of which, there’s a staggering amount of assistance packed on board, including distance control, parking assistance, lane and steering assist, ‘Evasive Steering Function Plus’ (which sounds like it belongs in a movie), and other such assists.
About those dampers. It’s an upgrade to the brand’s ‘Airmatic’ suspension, which uses data sent from other Mercedes-Benz drivers about road conditions to The Cloud, which in turn then relays it back to your EQS to fine-tune the suspension if, say, you’re approaching a speed bump (it’s vehicle-to-everything or V2X, basically).
Speaking of Merc’s new futurama, there’s Microsoft AI on board that takes the form of a virtual assistant able to call upon the Internet’s vast reserves of...let’s call it ‘content,’ and relay it back to you.
And while you’re consuming Internet...let’s call it ‘content,’ the outside world can marvel at the pebble’s lightly updated but still hugely aerodynamic looks. There’s a new hood, a new front light/strip treatment, new bumpers, and a new rear light strip. Merc claims a drag coefficient of 0.20.
Inside, it’s what you’d expect from a top-dollar Benz: a standard-fit Hyperscreen up front, a pair of 13.1-inch displays in the rear, heated seatbelts, lots of space and plush materials, and many, many options.
“Since Carl Benz filed the patent for the first automobile exactly 140 years ago, Mercedes-Benz has dedicated itself to constantly innovate and to create the world’s most desirable cars for customers,” reads the bumf.
How much? No word on local pricing or even arrival, but it’s already available on the market in Germany starting at €94,403 (around P6.68 million before taxes).
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
