Mercedes EQE saloon - Electric motor, drive & performance

Mercedes tends to prioritise comfort over driver engagement and sportiness, and that’s true of the EQE. It’s the next-generation executive express, designed to be quiet and refined at motorway speeds. Tuning the motor for maximum performance is unnecessary in a car such as this, so it offers a quick acceleration time but not at the expense of range.

Top-spec cars get air suspension with adaptive dampers, which can remember locations where you’ve previously raised the ride height for future use. You can also dial up the stiffness of the suspension, which isn’t something we’d do considering how controlled the EQE feels even in its softest setting.

Ride quality is a mixed bag. For the majority of the time, the EQE rides very smoothly and is comfortable over potholes, but bumpier surfaces can be more of a challenge, the car tending to respond to bumps and ruts rather than absorbing them. It’s not as unflappable in a straight line as you’d expect from a Mercedes either – the steering is a little vague around the straight ahead, often requiring small corrections to keep the car pointing in the direction you want.

Mercedes EQE electric motor

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The EQE sits on the same platform as the larger Mercedes EQS, and entry-level models use a single electric motor to power the rear wheels. Badged EQE 300, the standard car produces 242bhp and can do 0-62mph in 7.3 seconds. One step up the ladder is the 350, which has 288bhp and does the standing sprint in 6.4 seconds. Given it’s quite down on power compared to the equivalent Tesla or Porsche, it doesn’t offer the same kind of supercar-beating pace, but it has a lot of torque. Consequently, acceleration still feels very brisk at any speed.

The only other powertrain available to UK buyers is that fitted to the high-performance AMG EQE 53 model. This variant of Mercedes' electrified executive car uses two electric motors, with one on each axle to provide all-wheel-drive. In total, the AMG EQE 53 produces a muscular 616bhp and can catapult itself from 0-62mph in just 3.5 seconds.

Weighing over 2.3 tonnes, the car feels big and heavy; ultimately it feels unsuited to a back road. In town, things are slightly better, but the near-invisible sloping bonnet can make manoeuvring difficult. Luckily, there’s a whole suite of sensors and cameras to make things less stressful. Predictably, it feels most at home on the motorway. Even the lower-powered EQE gets up to speed quickly and has plenty more power accessible even at motorway speeds, when some other EVs begin to tail off.

Four settings of regenerative braking range from none to a lot. The ‘high’ setting allows for one-pedal driving – lifting your foot off the accelerator will bring the car to a stop fairly sharply – while the ‘intelligent’ setting is for trusting the car to provide the right amount of braking for the situation. It works surprisingly well, even if there’s a small ‘step’ in the brake feel as the regenerative system works alongside the physical discs and pads.