Video: 2023 Mercedes-EQ EQS SUV: Review

It's a really interesting rival to vehicles like the Lucid Air or the Tesla Model S. But the problem is, people aren't really buying big flagship luxury sedans in great numbers anymore. Interest has shifted to SUVs. And so that's why we now have this. This is the new 2023 Mercedes-EQ EQS SUV. Yeah, that's a mouthful. What it is is basically an SUV version of the EQS sedan. Same powertrains, same batteries, same 56-inch Hyperscreen spanning the interior. But is it anything more than just a taller, slightly larger, seven-passenger version of the EQS sedan? Well, we just drove this one and we've got some thoughts, so come along with us and we'll show you exactly what Mercedes has created with the new EQS SUV. Styling for the EQS SUV is a little bit different than you've seen from the EQE and EQS sedans, but then, it kinda has to be. The sedans use this long arc that starts at the front wheel and goes over the roof, and ends in a shortened trunk. But this is a two-box SUV, it has to have room for seven passengers, so it's going to be styled a little differently. The front end, obviously, is very similar to the EQS and EQE sedans, but it's a little bit taller, of course. You still have that blocked off grill, because you really don't need airflow if you don't have an internal combustion engine. And here is when you start to see that same familial arc that we see in the sedans. But it terminates up here in a higher roof, because this one seats seven people. This is a kind of mishmash of the EQS sedan, EQE sedan styling, and Mercedes' own GLS SUV, which is a gas-powered conventional crossover. And I have to say, I think that mishmash really works best on this SUV. I think it works better than the sedans. One of the big criticisms of the EQS sedan was the fact that the backseat really didn't feel very S-Class-like. It was compromised in terms of the design, given that the batteries under the floor made the backseat higher than it normally would've been in an S-Class, so you were really kind of limited in terms of headroom. The legroom was okay, but not great, and the seat itself didn't feel nearly as comfortable as you would in a lovely S-Class sedan. There's no such issues in the EQS SUV. There is a lot more space in here, mostly headroom, so sitting back here is a lot more comfortable than sitting in the back seat of the EQS sedan. You have around the same amount of legroom. This is where I would've positioned the front seat, and I can actually sit here without any problem whatsoever, but my head is no longer hitting the headliner like it does in the EQS sedan. So between the two, my choice, definitely the SUV, especially if you're hauling passengers. But if you're considering the EQS SUV for its passenger carrying capacity, here's your reason. It is an optionally seven-passenger crossover SUV. Now, that third row in the way back here, well, that's not a whole lot of room. It is really meant for smaller humans or children. The nice thing though is that the second row does slide fore and aft, so your two rear rows of passengers can negotiate legroom between them if things are getting a little tight and testy. But know that this is not a great big full-sized SUV like a Cadillac Escalade or a Lincoln Navigator. But then again, you're also not spending any money on gas, so advantage to the Mercedes. So if I was expecting a driving experience different from the EQS sedan, well, I don't know what I was expecting, (chuckling) because it's really not. It's not anymore athletic than the EQS sedan, which makes sense, it's a big, heavy crossover SUV, but it really feels just very similar to the S sedan. It's heavy, it's a little numb in places, but it's still incredibly quiet, incredibly quick when you want it to be. And I think, really, the biggest praise I could have heaped on the EQS sedan was that it didn't embarrass itself when you took it up into like, mountain and canyon twisties, which, you know, in some markets a lot of people will do, so you need a vehicle that won't embarrass itself, and the EQS SUV really doesn't. It's composed, it's quiet, comfortable. Handling's all right, there's some feedback, but again, it's an electric car, so you're not gonna get the same kind of visceral direct feedback that you might get from a gas-powered vehicle that has a very different set of systems. The criticisms that I have of the EQS sedan unfortunately also carry over into the SUV, and a lot of it has to do with the driving position. Given that we're in an SUV now, I expected the higher seating position to be a little bit different in terms of my position relative to this really tall dash, and it's not. They brought the dash up along with the seating position, so you're still looking out over a very tall dash in a very tall belt line, even though I'm sitting up higher now in an SUV with a different kind of chair and different kind of seating position. So that is a little bit annoying in that I'm still driving with a very arms up driving position, because in order to see the digital gauge cluster, you have to have the steering wheel raised to a higher position than I'm normally comfortable with. And apparently, according to the car, I've still not raised the steering wheel enough to keep it happy, because it has paused the attention monitor since the cameras that are mounted in the actual dash can't see my face clearly enough. So I'd have to raise it even higher if I wanna use things like the semi-autonomous driving features, so that's still a little annoying, and a really curious design and packaging foible on Mercedes-Benz part. The other areas of criticism that I had from the EQS are the ones that are now starting to appear in all Mercedes-Benz products, and that has to do with a lot of the way they control everything. This steering wheel is largely touch-sensitive, meaning the only place you can safely rest your hands is on the rim. If I was to touch the actual spokes, that starts changing things, either in the center console or in the digital gauge cluster in front of me, so you really have to be careful to keep your hands off certain parts of the steering wheel, which is also rather annoying. This is the 56-inch Hyperscreen. It is standard on the EQS SUV 580, and optional on other models. And (chuckling) it is both dramatic and imposing at the same time. There is a bit of information overload from this 56-inch swath of three different screens. Again, I think it's a situation where if you're just getting into the car and you're not an owner of the vehicle and you haven't already set everything up exactly as you want it, it's very intimidating, and the learning curve is going to be rather steep to try and figure out how all of this works. Once you do get it set up and customized to your liking, probably with the help of your Mercedes-Benz friendly dealer, it should be a little bit easier to use and a little bit easier to tolerate. But even just this navigation screen, yeah, it's huge, but it's huge to the point where a good two-inches of it is blocked by the right side of the steering wheel. So I can't even see what's happening on the far left side of the screen, and that's kind of a waste of real estate. I do have to admit though, the the electric operation of this thing is really quite good. It is dead silent in here, especially on pavement like this where it's actually smooth and just flat asphalt. There's no tire noise, there's no wind noise, a little whine from the powertrain, but that's it. It is an interesting redefinition of luxury. You're getting Rolls-Royce levels of quietness in here, without the need for a lot of that kind of sound-deadening, given that not much in here actually makes noise. The interior quality in here is pretty good. You've got a lot of stitched leather. The plastics are (tapping plastic) acceptable. Some of it is a little hard, which is unusual for a S-Class style model. Like, the center console is hard plastic. That's a little strange for a vehicle that costs over $100,000. But given that it has an enormous battery, they had to cut costs somewhere, and just like in the EQS sedan, I think one of the areas they took some of that cost out is in the interior materials. Not an assembly quality, though. It is rock solid and vault-like construction in here. You've got a couple of different drive modes to choose from as well, things like comfort, and eco, and sport. Sport does provide you a little bit more acceleration urgency, but not really that much different. The bigger changes come when you choose different regen modes, normal, strong, things like that. The strong mode is great for downhills like this where I'm coming down outta the mountains and I'm watching my range meter actually climb because they're adding so much power back into the battery. When I did the uphill portion of this test, it dropped down to 85% battery charge, and now I'm about halfway back down the mountain and it's up to 86% and climbing. And the range on here is also pretty good. The base model, the EQS 450+, that gets 305 miles on a charge, whereas the 450 4MATIC and the 580, both of which use dual motor setups, a motor on the front and a motor on the rear axle, they get 285 miles of range, which I think is pretty much believable. We're seeing a pretty good approximation of that in our expected range on the dashboard just driving around Colorado. And of course, your mileage may vary. You've got, terrain plays a big factor, so is how you drive. Here in Colorado, yeah, you've got hills and mountains that you have to use a lot of energy to get up, but you get a lot of that energy back down as you're coming down and coasting and using the regenerative braking function to put a lot of that energy back in the battery. There are three versions of the EQS SUV so far. The base model is the EQS 450+. Now, that is a rear drive single motor vehicle that makes 355 horsepower and 419 pounds feet of torque The mid-level model is the EQS 450 4MATIC. That's all-wheel drive. It's got two motors, one on the back axle, one on the front. It's power stays the same at 355 horsepower, but goes up to 590 pounds feet of torque. This model, the one that we're driving, is the EQS 580 4MATIC SUV. It also has two motors, one on the front and one on the rear axle, all-wheel drive, and it makes 536 horsepower and 633 pounds feet of torque, which Mercedes-Benz says is good for a zero to 60 stint of four and a half seconds, on its way to a limited top speed of 130 miles an hour. And Mercedes would like you to know that with some proper tires, the EQS SUV can very much go off-road. It has an off-road program. It has that ability with its (groaning) four-wheel steering to get around some really tight corners. So yeah, it actually will go off-road. Not that you're ever going to go off-road in one, (chuckling) but you can. Still, I would much rather be doing this in a G-Wagon. So has Mercedes created something other than simply a taller, more comfortable EQS sedan that can now carry seven people? No, they really haven't. That is pretty much exactly what the EQS SUV is. It is a bit more comfortable, it has more headroom, it has more cargo room, but it drives pretty much like the EQS sedan, and it has all of the same quirks and foibles as the EQS sedan does as well, for better and for worse. Now, prices are going to start at just north of $105,000, and go up pretty quickly from there. But they are arriving in showrooms in the next few weeks, so if you want one, better head down to your Mercedes dealer pretty quickly and put your name on the list. If you'd like to learn more about the new 2023 Mercedes-EQ EQS SUV, you can learn everything you need to know on cars.com. (light music)