Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV
The EQE electric saloon has a few flaws; can this higher-riding and more practical SUV version do anything to rectify them? On sale Now Price from £90,560
Lawrence Cheung lawrence.cheung@haymarket.com
IF YOU WERE to liken the Mercedes-Benz EQE electric SUV and saloon models to house plants, you’d suspect the former has been treated to lots of sunlight and fresh compost to make it grow tall and substantial, while the latter has been starved of nutrition. While they share much of their technological make-up underneath, the new SUV looks and feels far bulkier than the low, sleek saloon, but the pay-off is the promise of usefully more interior space and the high seating position that many buyers crave.
So far, we’ve tested the entry-level EQE 350, which produces 288bhp and can sprint from 0-62mph in 7.3sec. That’s slower than the equivalent Audi Q8 e-tron and BMW iX, but there’s still plenty of everyday performance to get up to motorway speeds and take advantage of gaps in traffic without much effort.