Despite arriving slowly to the electromobility revolution, German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz’ luxury all-electric sedan, the EQS, has been rated by German auto magazine Auto Motor und Sport, as the “best electric car in the world”.
The highly anticipated Mercedes-Benz EQS was finally revealed to the world in the middle of April, with shipping to customers in Europe in August, and even expected to arrive on Australian shores by the end of the year, or early 2022.
The EQS is Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler’s flagship electric model, sitting atop the company’s EQ series, and Mercedes apparently provided Auto Motor und Sport with an EQS to review in late-June, and the Google-translated title of the resulting review says a lot: “The really best electric car in the world!”
“The engineers have given everything to be as comfortable, economical, efficient and contemporary as possible,” the magazine writes. “Does that mean that electric pioneer Tesla is beaten? Simple answer: yes. That is exactly the direction in which electro-mobility must go.”
The sleek EQS does look as if it has taken some of its design cues from the Tesla Model S, with its swept-back design that looks like the claims of reduced wind drag are spot on.
The interior of the EQS is a radical departure for Mercedes-Benz, adopting the “hyper screen” along with the expected luxury interior – both of which we got glimpses of earlier in the year.
Auto Motor und Sport’s Alexander Bloch wasn’t the only one to be raving about the Mercedes-Benz EQS, though. Analysts at Swiss bank UBS led by Patrick Hummel published a note around the same time that Auto Motor und Sport was publishing its review, in which they concluded that the EQS beats the Tesla Model S in terms of range and efficiency.
According to UBS, the EQS boasts an average consumption of 15.8kWh per 100-kilometres at German autobahn speeds – around 130km/h – which UBS says highlights the car’s “strong aerodynamics and powertrain efficiency”.
And, while “EQS falls short of Tesla’s acceleration and top speed, the high range and the overall luxury experience make the car a very strong competitor to Model S,” the analysts conclude.
Bloch’s own review, including a drive from Munich to Berlin of more than 600kms, backs up the figures from UBS. Bloch, too, saw an average consumption of 15.8kWh with an average speed of 104km/h, and his 638-kilometre journey left 48-kilometres in the battery.
In terms of charging power, Bloch stopped at an Ionity high-speed charging station and was able to add a range of 300-kilometres in around 15 minutes, at an average charging power of 163kW.
A specific launch date in Australia for the EQS is not yet available – though we could see it as early as later this year – nor is there a price, but we can expect the price to be above that of the Mercedes-Benz EQC, which in Australia is priced from $137,900 before in-road costs.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.