Sunday Drive by Hormazd Sorabjee: The German revolution

The Mercedes EQS, to be launched in India next month, has set a new benchmark for electric luxury vehicles

The EQS is the future of Mercedes-Benz and a good hard look at what lies ahead for the world’s oldest car maker, which has given notice to the combustion engine. It’s the first Mercedes to be built on a bespoke EV architecture rather than on a combustion engine platform modified for electrification.

Mercedes has broken the mould and done everything right with this new car

This is immediately obvious in the EQS’s shape, which is so far removed from the stately ‘three-box’ S-Class. The way the curved roof arches from the front to the rear is totally un-Merclike and you’d never imagine this was a Mercedes if not for the big three-pointed star on the grille. Except that it’s not a grille but a blanked out black panel with miniature three-pointed stars etched on it.

Another tradition the EQS breaks is that you don’t get a typical trunk but a fastback that pivots upwards to reveal a vast 610 litre boot, which again is in sharp contrast to the small trunks we’ve always complained about in Merc sedans.

What the EQS misses out on is a front trunk or ‘frunk’—in fact, you can’t open the front bonnet at all! The clamshell bonnet is sealed off from customers and can only be opened by workshop technicians. Try telling that to hotel security staff when they ask you to pop open the bonnet!

The EQS’s 107.8kWh battery pack is the largest yet, and sits in a crash-proof compartment housed within the enormous wheelbase. Armed with the highest capacity battery ever, you can expect the EQS to have a phenomenal range which should be in excess of 550-650km in real world driving conditions, more than enough to kill range anxiety once and for all.

Cabin pressure

If the exterior is revolutionary, the cabin is straight out of Star Trek. The hero is the much vaunted 56-inch ‘Hyperscreen’ which stretches pillar-to-pillar, across the dashboard. When you get down to using it, you realise it’s actually three screens joined together under one continuous glass panel. The infotainment system is jam-packed with features which you have to dig through multiple menus to access. To make life easy on the move, the EQS’s ‘Hey Mercedes’ voice assistant is possibly the best in any car. It understands your commands easily, teaching you that talking is much less distracting than swiping a screen.

You have to crouch a bit to get inside the cabin, but once you’ve plonked yourself onto the soft-leather front seats, you’ll find they are the epitome of comfort.

The brand has revamped its design language with the EQS, which features many firsts, like the pillar-to-pillar screen and a fastback trunk

The EQS’s backseat isn’t as spacious as the long wheelbase S-Class, and the sloping roof does cut into headroom a bit, but legroom is simply fantastic, and the backrest can be electrically reclined. The middle seat is quite narrow, so it’s best to use this limo as a four-seater by flipping down the armrest, which houses a detachable tablet to control rear-seat entertainment while you lean back into the soft headrests.

The adjustable ambient lighting (with 64 colours to choose from) brings the interiors alive at night. It’s like having a Diwali party inside without noisy fireworks! But there are fireworks of a different kind when you press down on the right pedal.

Riding the wave

The jolt of power you get when you floor the accelerator and the way the heavy EQS leaps off the line takes you by surprise. Acceleration peters out at higher speeds, but there’s still enough grunt for rapid overtakes and high speed cruising.

The EQS isn’t meant to be a performance sedan (for that there’s the EQS AMG 53). Instead, it prioritises refinement and comfort over everything else. It is shockingly quiet and the tomb-like silence inside the cabin sets a new standard for refinement. In fact, it’s so quiet inside, you can actually hear yourself breathe!

Despite its weight, the EQS feels quite agile and nimble and flows happily down a twisty road. The key to its easy handling is the low centre of gravity, courtesy the hefty battery and four-wheel steering, which is standard on the 580 variant.

The EQS will be launched in India next month and will come in two variants, the two-wheel-drive 450+ and the top-end 580. Despite breaking the mould and many Mercedes traditions, the EQS has not lost sight of what the brand stands for. It’s still got luxury, refinement and quality at its core, wrapped in a high-tech package. The EQS is a new EV benchmark and the best electric luxury car by far.

The views expressed by the columnist are personal

From HT Brunch, July 23, 2022

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