2025 Mercedes-Benz EQS Electric Sedan First Look: More Range, Less Weird Brake Pedal
The electric luxury sedan delivers more range and more features for the same price.
Designed as the electric-powered equivalent to the storied full-size S-Class, the Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan was launched barely three years ago. But such is the pace of development in EV powertrains, battery chemistries, and software, the EQS has been given a host of detailed upgrades for the 2025 model year that help the luxurious electric sedan more range and more features. But here’s the good news: Prices remain unchanged.
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More Range—But How?
The battery capacity of the EQS has been increased from 108.4 kWh to 118 kWh. There’s been no increase in the physical size of the battery. Instead, says the man responsible for the EQS and its related EVA2 platform electric cars at Mercedes-Benz, Holger Enzmann, revisions to the battery chemistry have allowed engineers to better package the cells inside the battery and boost energy storage by 10 percent. (This sort of capability, of adding capacity without changing the physical parameters of the pack itself, was designed into the EQS from the outset.) “The stress on the battery was lower than we expected, lower than we had tested,” says Enzmann of the decision to make the increase. The EQS battery is covered by a 10-year, 155,000-mile warranty.
Other upgrades include a standard heat pump that takes waste heat from the inverter, the e-motors and the battery and uses it to warm the interior, boosting the powertrain’s overall efficiency by five percent. The front e-motor on the all-wheel-drive EQS450 4Matic and EQS580 4Matic models can now be decoupled from the front axle under light loads to reduce mechanical drag and improve efficiency. The system reconnects the e-motor to the axle under hard acceleration or low traction conditions, and for regenerative braking. The process takes just 100 milliseconds.
The 4Matic EQS models will now recuperate up to 290 kW under braking, or with the lift-off regen in its highest setting. And speaking of braking, in response to critical feedback, Mercedes engineers have eliminated the quirky self-actuating pedal that was designed to promote smoother and more efficient braking by pre-filling the master cylinder (and moving the brake pedal to the position it would occupy to match the same deceleration as the electric motors' regen). Instead, says Holger Enzmann, the 2025 EQS brake pedal has a sportier feel with no extraneous, sentient motion.
All that adds up to an 11 percent or more improvement in range for the EQS450 4Matic on Europe’s WLTP test cycle. The different, more stringent protocol used by the EPA is likely to skew that number downwards slightly, but even so, American EQS450 4Matic owners can expect the EPA-rated range to go from 340 miles to 370 miles.
The brake system now automatically brushes the brake pads against the rotors from time to time to clean the discs. With the regenerative braking system good enough to handle most braking chores, engineers found EQS’s discs would soon become grimy and rusty, reducing their effectiveness when you really needed them. And changes to the body structure at the rear of the car have increased its towing capacity to 3,800 pounds (those thrifty Europeans don’t pamper their luxury electric limousines; Holzman says more than 10 percent of EQS owners tow with their cars, a higher percentage than S-Class owners).
It's the Little Things
The other upgrades are mostly either cosmetic, or for comfort. Though up to 80 percent of European EQS buyers order their cars with the AMG Line package that places a giant three-pointed star at the center of the black panel "grille" between the headlights, those who order the cars with what Mercedes calls the Electric Art Line package get a black panel with a series of chrome bars instead, and the three-point star standing proud at the front of the hood, old-school Mercedes-style. Sadly, the EQS’s swooping aero profile is such that you can’t see the star from behind the wheel, and it isn't clear the hood ornament will make it stateside, where Mercedes has slowly been dropping it as an option on all models but the S-Class and certain Maybachs.
Inside, the giant 56-in MBUX Hyperscreen that stretches from pillar to pillar across the dash is now standard on all EQS models.
In a nod to the fact that in China many EQS models are chauffeur-driven, cars equipped with the optional Rear Comfort Package Plus executive seats now have an angled footrest that allows rear-seat passengers in the right-hand chair to sit more comfortably when the front passenger seat is motored forwards. The front passenger seat backrest can also be folded flat to allow a better view through the windshield, and the rear seat backrest can be tilted 38 degrees.
The package also pampers rear seat passengers with neck and shoulder heating and allows the seat cushion depth to be adjusted pneumatically. An illuminated trim piece is integrated into the back of the front seats.
The upgraded 2025 Mercedes-Benz EQS goes on sale in the U.S. within the next few weeks.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by cars. My father was a mechanic, and some of my earliest memories are of handing him wrenches as he worked to turn a succession of down-at-heel secondhand cars into reliable family transportation. Later, when I was about 12, I’d be allowed to back the Valiant station wagon out onto the street and drive it around to the front of the house to wash it. We had the cleanest Valiant in the world.
I got my driver’s license exactly three months after my 16th birthday in a Series II Land Rover, ex-Australian Army with no synchro on first or second and about a million miles on the clock. “Pass your test in that,” said Dad, “and you’ll be able to drive anything.” He was right. Nearly four decades later I’ve driven everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a Volvo 18-wheeler, on roads and tracks all over the world. Very few people get the opportunity to parlay their passion into a career. I’m one of those fortunate few.
I started editing my local car club magazine, partly because no-one else would do it, and partly because I’d sold my rally car to get the deposit for my first house, and wanted to stay involved in the sport. Then one day someone handed me a free local sports paper and said they might want car stuff in it. I rang the editor and to my surprise she said yes. There was no pay, but I did get press passes, which meant I got into the races for free. And meet real automotive journalists in the pressroom. And watch and learn.
It’s been a helluva ride ever since. I’ve written about everything from Formula 1 to Sprint Car racing; from new cars and trucks to wild street machines and multi-million dollar classics; from global industry trends to secondhand car dealers. I’ve done automotive TV shows and radio shows, and helped create automotive websites, iMags and mobile apps. I’ve been the editor-in-chief of leading automotive media brands in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The longer I’m in this business the more astonished I am these fiendishly complicated devices we call automobiles get made at all, and how accomplished they have become at doing what they’re designed to do. I believe all new cars should be great, and I’m disappointed when they’re not. Over the years I’ve come to realize cars are the result of a complex interaction of people, politics and process, which is why they’re all different. And why they continue to fascinate me.Read More
