Mercedes-Benz’s latest electric car in India is the EQS SUV 580 — a flagship BEV SUV that sits above the EQE SUV that we have been running as a long termer. The big news is that it is assembled in India (the second EV after the EQS sedan), and taking advantage of its CKD status, it has been priced really aggressively. It looks very similar to the EQE but there’s a lot that is different when you take a closer look — it is a larger SUV, gets three rows of seats, more equipment, a bigger battery and more power. We’ve spent some time in Hyderabad with it, getting behind the wheel, and more importantly, climbing into the backseat.
They may look like identical twins, but the EQS 580 is a lot bigger. In terms of overall length, it is a whole 273mm longer and of that, 25mm comes from the longer wheelbase. It is also marginally wider from the outside (some 20mm) and slightly taller (33mm). That length does make it a fair bit bigger than rivals like the BMW iX and Audi Q8 e-tron, putting it close to the GLS in terms of sheer size. Not small, then! The face is familiar, with digital lights and a black grille. What sets it apart from the EQE is the aggressive AMG styling pack, with the flared front bumpers and 21-inch AMG alloys.
The dash on the EQS SUV 580 isn’t too different from the EQE SUV — the 56-inch Hyperscreen stretches from one side to the other. The rest of the layout is very familiar with the centre armrest featuring generous storage, open-pore wood trim and white upholstery. It isn’t short of equipment: ventilated, heated massage seats, a head-up display, a 15-speaker Burmester audio system, panoramic sunroof — the works.
Where things get interesting is in the back: the EQS SUV 580 has three rows. Space in the second row is plenty more than the EQE courtesy of the longer wheelbase, but more importantly, they’ve designed it so that the floor isn’t too high. That typical EV bugbear of sitting in the second row with your knees pointed upwards? They’ve solved it. This is a second row that is genuinely comfortable! The seats are plush, they hold you well and are heated (but not cooled). You’ve got soft neck pillows, entertainment screens, headphones and a tablet in the centre armrest that you can eject and control various functions of the car. You can’t spec the first-class seats and make this a four-seater though. For that you need to dig deep into your wallet and shell out another crore and some, to upgrade to the Maybach EQS.
The second row sits on rails and can be pulled forward electrically to allow you to climb into the third row. Third-row space isn’t great. An adult can squeeze in there if you pull the second row forward, but it does then compromise second-row space. The third row isn’t particularly comfortable, with the seats very close to the floor making for that uncomfortable knees-up position. The third row isn’t electrically controlled either, you’ve got to manually pull it up or push it down.
Another area where the EQS differs from the EQE is on the drivetrain front — it gets a 122kWh battery, which is about 30 per cent more than the EQE’s. Power is up too, with peak power hitting a solid 536bhp (134bhp more than the EQE) and retaining the same 858Nm torque. To drive, I won’t lie, it feels very similar to the EQE. Refinement is obviously top-notch, with the silence playing into the luxury that the car offers. It also isolates noise from the outside rather well. Performance is generous: 0-100kmph comes up in a sports car-rivalling 4.7 seconds. Not bad for a lardy 3-ton SUV. Punch it, and it pulls hard particularly if you’ve moved it into its sportier drive mode. But more than raw acceleration, it is the effortlessness with which such a large, heavy SUV can move along that you tend to appreciate. It also tops out at 210kmph but that’s irrelevant — there’s no getting there legally on Indian roads, and you’d run through brake pads faster than you can say E-Q-S if you took it to the racetrack. Range? The claim is 809km, but that’s on the slightly irrelevant Indian testing cycle. Realistically, you can look at 600-650km on a single charge, which is plenty.
The EQS SUV gets another big trick up its sleeve compared to the EQE — rear-wheel steer. 10 degrees, much like the launch edition of the S-Class and even the EQS sedan. It is really aggressive rear-wheel steer and makes a huge difference to how this car drives, particularly in the city. The turning radius shrinks to rival a hatchback or small sedan, and making u-turns, turning into tight parking spots and through narrow sections just becomes so much easier. At higher speeds, it makes the SUV feel a lot more nimble, and a lot more stable through the bends. This simple feature drastically changes how the car feels under you and for the better! Air suspension is standard, as are the adaptive dampers. It rides reasonably well. It feels a little more plush than the EQE, the suspension setup and long wheelbase doing it good despite the bigger 21-inch wheels. That said, you do feel slightly sharper bumps and it doesn’t entirely disguise its weight. You still feel it heave through bad patches, and it doesn’t deal with them with the lithe-ness that the ICE SUVs from Merc would.
The clincher for the EQS SUV, though, is the price. Rs 1.41 crore. It costs a little more than the EQE — just Rs 1.75 lakh more — and that’s nothing for someone paying close to a crore and a half already. Sure, there are deals on the EQE right now to make it a more attractive offering. However, there’s plenty going for the EQS SUV in terms of the top-shelf drivetrain package, comfort, space and luxury on the inside. And of course, the one thing that its rivals don’t have — three rows of seats! Value for money? Hard to say that with a straight face when talking about a car this expensive, but there’s no denying it when you consider the package that it offers!