Given that the Mercedes- AMG GLE 63 S is among the growing ranks of high-powered super-SUVs, it’s surreal tha the overriding initial impression is how pliant and serene it is in spite of its considerable size. It’s disarmingly quiet, smooth and, thanks to a raft of driver assistance systems and sensors, easy to thread down even small streets.
If you’re happy to waft along in quiet contentment, you could easily forget this machine is produced in Affalterbach. Until, that is, you apply a bit of vigour to the throttle pedal and awaken AMG’s monster biturbo V8 engine. It’s the unit used in most of the performance brand’s 63-badged range-toppers, although to cope with the GLE’s near two-anda-half-tonne kerb weight, it’s now armed with a 22bhp mild-hybrid electric motor. That puts the output of this 63 S (the only version of the model offered in the UK) at 604bhp, enough to shift the GLE to 62mph from rest in just 3.0sec.