Tested: The Mercedes-Benz EQE500 4Matic SUV Is Heavy-Handed Luxury
Mercedes threw everything and the kitchen sink at this version of its all-electric midsize SUV. But has it lost focus as a result?
Pros
- Ample power
- Comfortable seating
- Decent driving dynamics in Sport mode
Cons
- Screen overload
- Creaky interior
- Comfort mode so soft it’s unsettled
Mercedes-Benz could stand to listen to the sage advice of legendary fashion designer Coco Chanel: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and remove one accessory.” The German luxury automaker has embraced the digital era with open arms, enthusiastically loading up its all-electric EQ series of vehicles with screens and high-tech driver assistance features. Its available Hyperscreen, which comes standard on the 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQE500 4Matic SUV, loads up the dash with an expansive 56 inches of digital real estate. Given all the pixel-driven glitz, this midsize EV should be as luxurious as they come. The reality is a bit more complicated.
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Performance and Handling
Back in the days of pure gasoline power, a Mercedes-Benz carrying a 500 in its name would have been powered by a V-8 engine. These days, it’s an electric SUV making use of dual motors developing 402 hp and 633 lb-ft of torque combined. Those figures make it the most powerful non-AMG version of the EQE SUV. Although the EQE500 is more luxurious in its general approach, it’s downright quick off the line. During our testing, the 5,780-pound SUV hurtled from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.3 seconds. That’s much quicker than the EQE350+ we also tested, which did the same in 5.7 seconds. Those in search of ultimate EQE acceleration should seek out the AMG variant; that model clocked a time of just 3.1 seconds to 60 mph.
Although the EQE500 delivers that characteristic initial shove of electric torque when you launch it, the luxury ute is otherwise drama free as it rapidly builds speed. Enabling one of the Sound Experiences (audio tracks that generate synthetic sounds to accompany acceleration when you step on the throttle and as it rolls along) helps enliven the senses; disable the feature, and the midsize Benz goes quiet and can feel a tad boring, even during hard launches.
As a holistic experience, the EQE500 is better thought of as a comfy cruiser, and Mercedes gave it all the right equipment to accomplish that mission. The standard rear-wheel steering makes the midsize SUV highly maneuverable in parking lots, helping to offset its substantial footprint. Our test EQE came with the available air suspension, which makes use of adaptive shocks with four damping profiles. The EQE feels almost squishy in Comfort drive mode, erring on the side of being a little too relaxed. It practically oozes over rough surfaces, but bigger impacts can unsettle the body.
Dialing it into Sport mode tightens up the chassis without making the ride uncomfortable; body control improves, as does higher-speed stability. As is typical of most modes of this type, Sport also sharpens the EQE’s accelerator response, makes the steering feel heavier, and enables a less restrictive ESP setting. When hustled around our figure-eight course, the test team reported that the SUV’s 50/50 weight distribution enabled a neutral attitude and crisp turn-in.
If you want a setup that’s halfway between Comfort and Sport, there’s an Individual mode that allows the driver to choose between each of the four available settings à la carte. This allows you to choose the Sport damper mode for improved ride and handling while maintaining all the other settings in their comfort-oriented and range-conserving profiles.
Range and Charging
Speaking of range, the 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQE500 is powered by a 96-kWh battery and boasts an EPA rating of 282 miles. Using paddles mounted on the steering wheel, you can increase the strength of the EQE’s regenerative braking over three levels. Mercedes hasn’t programmed its SUV to enable one-pedal driving, although the most forceful mode comes close. In the event you need to use physical brake force to slow the EQE or come to a stop, the pedal feel is consistent and stopping distances are good for a vehicle in this weight class. In our testing, the EQE500 hauled down from 60 to 0 mph in just 116 feet.
When the battery is depleted, you have two choices for charging. AC charging tops out at 9.6 kW, and DC fast charging maxes out at 170 kW. That Level 3 capability is decently quick, allowing the EQE500 to recover from 10 to 80 percent charge in 32 minutes. Using Level 2 is considerably slower, but a 10 to 100 percent charge takes less than half a day at 11.5 hours.
How Luxurious Is the EQE500 4Matic SUV?
The EQE SUV underwhelms from the moment you approach it in a parking lot; the chrome-trimmed jellybean shape doesn’t exactly exude class and opulence. Adding to the external issues, the often fussy, pop-out door handles occasionally slowed our access to the vehicle.
Once you’re finally inside, the first thing you notice is the massive trio of displays that make up the Mercedes-Benz Hyperscreen. A 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, 17.7-inch touchscreen, and 12.3-inch passenger-side display all reside under a single panel. The Hyperscreen is prone to a bit of flex when you operate the touch controls, cheapening what would otherwise be a very impressive piece of tech.
The rest of the interior makes far more use of hard plastic materials than you'd expect from a Mercedes-Benz, and you’re treated to plasticky creaks when you push on the various materials around the cockpit. It’s a shame, because the cabin itself looks cool, with its round air vents and dramatic, 64-color ambient lighting accents.
Standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto make for convenient phone integration. Wireless charging is also a default feature, but the pad is buried deep inside the center console, making it tough to access. Voice controls, activated by the “Hey, Mercedes” keyword allow you to input an address to the navigation system, change the climate control settings, or tune the radio without taking your hand off the wheel.
Most of the best gear must be ordered as optional equipment. The 8.0-inch head-up display is one of those options; it shows speed limit, cruise control status, speedometer, and navigation. Similarly, the Acoustic Comfort package is an extra-cost feature designed to help quiet the cabin through a windshield and front door windows laminated with an acoustic membrane, infrared absorption, and noise reduction measures for the panoramic roof. We can attest that it helps mitigate excessive wind and road chatter.
The 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQE500 SUV’s active driver assistance tech is robust, but only after you’ve checked the boxes for the Driver Assistance package. Standard features include the basics like forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, and lane keeping assist. Available surround-view cameras and parking sensors make parking lot navigation a breeze. This package also combines all the helpful tech needed for assisted highway driving, which performs admirably both while traffic flows and when there’s a stop-and-go pattern.
Our primary complaint isn’t with the way the tech functions in the real world, but with the shade of green used to show whether adaptive cruise control and supporting features are functioning. For those with certain types of colorblindness, that green can look gray against the digital instrument cluster, making it difficult to tell if the systems are enabled or disabled. If Mercedes would switch back to a brighter shade of green (one more traditional with dashboard lights), these indicators would be a lot more helpful to a broader swath of drivers.
Is the 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQE500 SUV a Good Buy?
Stickering for $101,420, our 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQE500 test car treads deep into luxury car territory. Our SUV came loaded with options, tacking on around $10,000 more than its starting price of $90,650. A 2025 BMW iX xDrive50 starts at $88,425, and the 2024 Audi Q8 E-Tron starts at $75,595. The EQE has a total of 55 cubic feet of cargo volume, making it less spacious than the iX with its maximum of 78 cubic feet and even the Q8 E-Tron’s 56 cubic feet. With the rear seats up, that figure shrinks to just 14 cubic feet. We’ve experienced its limited practicality firsthand when loading up the EQE for a trip to the beach. Hauling a large cooler and four chairs quickly sapped our space, forcing us to flip down the back bench and remove the luggage cover. For an SUV, the EQE is a bit short on utility.
We don’t find the EQE to be particularly stylish, at least not in this test car’s near-black shade of Emerald Green Metallic paint over Sable Brown and black Nappa leather interior, and its driving dynamics are acceptable but unexciting. We’d be delighted if an EQE picked us up as an Uber Black, but it wouldn’t be our first choice in its competitive set as a car we’d want to own. If Mercedes pulled back on its ostentatious, tech-heavy interior schemes and instead renewed its focus on appealing exterior design and build quality, we’d find this EQE500 to be a far more tantalizing choice in the midsize luxury EV SUV segment. Unfortunately, Mercedes-Benz’s recent tendency to go all in on dazzling features has left us unable to see a case for the EQE as a segment leader.
Billy Rehbock's passion for cars started with his dad's Volkswagen Jetta GLX, his mom's Cabriolet, and his own Hot Wheels collection. A USC graduate with a Master of Science in journalism, he's an associate editor for the MotorTrend Buyer's Guide and covers everything from sports cars to SUVs.
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