[libranof1987]

Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Review

The made-in-India Mercedez-Benz EQS 580 4Matic has been launched in India at a price of Rs. 1.55 crore (ex-showroom).

Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Pros

• Futuristic-looking design & styling. An absolute head-turner
• Stunning, enjoyable performance! Blistering 0-100 km/h time of 4.3 seconds
• 850+ km claimed range (MIDC cycle), 677 km (WLTP) takes away range anxiety. An EV that can actually be used for your long highway road-trips
• Impressive manoeuvrability, handling and body control for its size and weight. 4-wheel steering works!
• Zero tailpipe emissions & green image will appeal to the environmentally-conscious
• Loaded to the gills with features, safety kit & technology. The interiors will “wow” you
• Competitive pricing. Road tax exemptions in many states make it a compelling proposition in the segment, against more conventional choices

Mercedes-Benz EQS 580 4Matic Cons

• Interior quality is not quite up to S-Class levels. It’s more “E-Class” luxury than “S-Class” opulence
• Dismal ground clearance. Get ready to hear the sound of the floor scraping every medium-sized hump, even with the suspension height raised
• Strange brake pedal behaviour takes getting used to in intelligent / strong regen modes. Mushy brake pedal inspires no confidence during hard braking
• Rear seat experience is far from that of an S-Class, with lesser under-thigh support than even the E-Class. Rear headroom tight for tall passengers too
• Missing features such as a spare tyre (!!!), rear seat massage, augmented reality head-up display...
• Long “full tank” charging times in comparison with an ICE car. Overnight charging is best
• Tech and electronics take a whole lot of time to figure out, especially for the less tech-savvy. Not a car you just get into and start driving

This review has been jointly compiled with Vid6639. Thanks to him for the expert observations.

Introduction

The EQS is the first Mercedes-Benz car that has been developed exclusively as an Electric Vehicle. Earlier this year, moderators vb-san and ajmat drove the EQS 580 4Matic and the Mercedes-AMG EQS 53 4Matic+ in Germany and India, respectively.

In August, Mercedes launched the AMG EQS 53 4Matic+ in India, and now, the company has introduced the EQS 580 4Matic. While the former is imported as a CBU, the latter is brought via the CKD route.

The EQS 580 4 Matic comes with two electric motors - one on each axle, and together, they produce 516 BHP and 855 Nm torque. These figures, along with the fact this is an EV (= instant and always-available torque), mean that you will giggle like a little baby when you floor the A pedal. The motors are powered by a 107.8 kWh battery pack, which will take you 600+ km on a single charge. That's Mumbai - Goa on a single charge. This also means you can do Mumbai - Pune - Mumbai twice or Delhi - Jaipur - Delhi or once. The likelihood of you doing that is slightly remote though. The motors get you from 0-100 km/h in 4.3 seconds, while the car's top speed is limited to 210 km/h.

The battery pack comes with an 8-year / unlimited km warranty and the service interval is 2 years / 30,000 km.

[libranof1987]

Exterior

Massive three-pointed star logo on the grille houses the front camera. The bonnet can only be opened / removed through a hidden, undisclosed lever under the dashboard. It is not supposed to be opened by the user and only by service personnel:


The rear gets 3D helix design elements in the LED tail-lamps:


The EQS is built on a dedicated EV platform and to accommodate a larger battery pack, the wheels are pushed to the edges, which means a massive 3,210mm wheelbase:


With a drag coefficient of 0.20, the EQS is claimed to be the most aerodynamic production car in the world. The swooping lines really turn heads on the road as well:


At the rear, you get a light bar connecting the tail-light clusters. Badging is distributed between the left and right:


Each multi-beam headlight cluster uses Mercedes's Digital Light Technology, which consists of a light module with three extremely powerful LEDs, whose light is refracted and directed by 1.3 million micro-mirrors. The resolution is therefore more than 2.6 million pixels per vehicle. The new headlamp can be recognized by its concave lens and the blue illuminated Mercedes-Benz lettering:


Piano black panel with three-pointed star detailing in place of a radiator grille. The entire grille is illuminated with every small three-pointed star glowing in blue:


ORVMs house cameras for the 360-degree camera system and also puddle lamps that project the Mercedes-Benz branding:


Prominent EQS badging on the A-pillar:


Given that the bonnet is sealed, here's where you put in the windscreen washer fluid. Press to open, while the car is unlocked:


Door handles remain flush with the door panels when locked. They will pop out when they sense proximity to the key, or when you press the request sensor on the handle. The downside to this is that if you're standing close to the car with the key on you, the door handles will keep popping out:


Door handles get illumination:


Frameless front and rear doors look great and add to the cool quotient of the overall design:


20-inch wheels shod with 225/45 section Pirelli P Zero tyres. Luckily Mercedes didn't opt for the 21 inchers that vb-san drove in Germany. The higher profile is a boon on our roads:


Charging port is placed on the rear flank:


Ground clearance is not even enough to clear a typical 6.5" phone:


The party trick of the EQS - 4-wheel steering! The car is 5,216 mm long with a wheelbase of 3,210 mm, but the 4-wheel steering makes those in-between-divider turns in the city effortless. Its turning circle of 10.9 m is lesser than the C-Class!


With the tail-lamps in action. Press the Mercedes-Benz logo to open the boot. It houses a Passat-style reversing camera:

[libranof1987]

Interior

The EQS 580 comes in two interior colour options - white and black. As you step into the cabin, you are greeted with a sea of screens that run the length of the dashboard. The screens on the passenger side and centre fascia are touch-enabled, while the one for the driver is controlled via the switches on the steering wheel - the ones on the right spoke to be specific. The switches on the left spoke control the infotainment head-unit, which can also be accessed through the controls near the armrest:


Leather-wrapped 3-spoke steering wheel allows you to control everything in the car through the switches on the left and right spokes. These controls are touch-enabled, mind you and there's a good chance you do something you didn't intend to, as your hand moves the wheel. Paddle shifters allow you to toggle between the various regeneration modes - the left between Off & Normal, and the right between Intelligent & Strong:


Fully digital instrument cluster displays a host of information from driving parameters, navigation, driving modes and driving assist features. Remember, there's no augmented reality in the Indian EQS:


Controls for the lights and parking brake are placed on the right of the steering wheel:


Driver's doorpad houses controls for the electrically adjustable seat, memory, heating & cooling and massage functions, door lock/unlock, ORVM adjustment and the hatch:


Seating is low and one feels cocooned in. The front seats have limited adjustment:


Centre fascia is the command centre of the car. A/C controls are touch-enabled:


You can control driver personalisation options, car settings, entertainment, driving and safety features and so on:


Here's a party trick. When you select the multi-colour option in ambient lighting, the lights on the door pads have their own little show going on! Very, very cool:


They tell you the direction of energy transfer - whether from the battery to the wheel, or the other way around:


If you are about to turn and there is someone in your blind spot (also displayed on the ORVM), the lights will flash in red to warn you:


Centre console houses another set of controls - driver profile fingerprint scanner, engine start/stop button, driving modes, volume, 360-degree camera display and a shortcut to the car settings:


Under the armrest is a storage bin with two USB-C charging points and a wireless charging pad:


Rear doorpad houses switches for controlling seat heating & cooling functions and adjustment:


A generous amount of ambient lighting even at the rear:


The rear seats can recline and are ventilated, but do not get a massage function. The middle passenger also gets a full-size headrest:


Legroom in the rear is abundant:


Armrest has a storage bin along with two USB-C ports and a wireless charging pad. It also houses a Samsung tab that has all the controls as the infotainment head-unit. Mercedes has not bothered to remove the Samsung branding:


Headroom is sufficient. At 6' 2", Vid6639 was comfortable. However, sitting upright, there wasn't much clearance left, which is typical of most luxury cars that have a coupe design:


Individual A/C controls for the rear passengers and a smaller storage area along with two USB-C ports. Climate control system has a HEPA filter that maintains interior AQI to about 1 PM2.5:


Front seatbacks have small pockets to stow the sahib's magazines:


The EQS is a notchback so the opening is huge. Luggage space is enormous!


No spare tyre. Instead, there is a shallow underfloor tray to store the charging cables:


Buttons to close / adjust the boot opening height:

[libranof1987]

Driving the EQS 580 4Matic

The 107.8 kWh battery churns out an exciting 516 BHP and a gut-wrenching 855 Nm through 2 electric motors. Press the power button after you have set your profile with biometrics (or Face ID) and you get a "READY" light on the instrument cluster indicating that the EQS is all set. Press the throttle normally as you would in any car and the EQS moves off the line silently and smoothly. It's very usable and smooth inside the city with normal throttle inputs. As with any EV, the torque is instant and overtaking is a breeze. You can close gaps in traffic with a slight nudge to the throttle and with no delay. It makes the experience of driving this 5.2 m long 2.5 ton behemoth effortless.

The accelerator pedal is easy to operate initially, but it has a lot more weight / resistance as you push it further and when you do floor it, you will know why. Press hard down, and I do not exaggerate when I say this, your stomach will curl as the electric motors work their magic. The acceleration is intense and brutal on your senses. Vid6639 punched the throttle when I wasn't expecting and it was like someone punching you into the seat. A 0-100 km/h time of 4.3 secs in something so big and heavy is like defying the laws of physics. Of course, Tesla owners are used to it, but in India, this is still rare with not many fast EVs around. Once you taste this acceleration, it becomes addictive and you keep doing it just to experience the insane "whoosh". It makes overtaking on single-carriageways ridiculously easy. The fun is mainly between 0-120 km/h. The EQS will comfortably touch 210 km/h, which is the limited top speed (we, obviously, didn't test this).

The EQS comes with four driving modes: Eco, Comfort, Sport and Individual. As with most luxury cars, the steering, throttle response and suspension settings change depending on the drive mode engaged. Sport mode gives the steering a lot more weight and makes the throttle ridiculously sensitive. This mode is not even an option to try inside town. Most of the time, we drove in Comfort mode and it was more than enough. In the Individual mode, you can configure each of the parameters to your preference and save it for whenever you want to engage it again.

In Sport mode, you can also enable ambient sounds. It's a very gimmicky feature but adds a cool factor to it. There are 2 sounds - "Silver Waves" and "Vivid Flux" - to choose from. When you press the throttle, the sound coming from the speakers is like a spaceship taking off and very sci-fi.

Range and Charging

While the range of 850 km sounds impressive, this is based on the MIDC or ARAI-based calculation. The real-world range will be closer to the WLTP figure of 677 km. After driving the EQS 580 for the better part of the day, we are very confident that anyone can do 600+ km on a full charge unless you drive like a complete hooligan, flooring the A pedal at every opportunity (like Vid6639).

This sort of range takes away any range anxiety. This one-charge driving distance lets you complete road trips on most popular routes easily. We got the car when it had a range of ~ 650 km and after our drive, which included Chakan-Lonavala-Khopoli and then through the city, there was still ~ 350 km left. Mind you, this was across a jammed Pune-Mumbai Expressway, peak-hour bumper-to-bumper traffic in the city, and a generous amount of really flooring the A pedal many, many times (in the interest of testing of course).

The battery comes with both AC and DC charging ports. A 15 minute quick charge gets you 300 km of range provided you use the fast DC charger. A full charge, using a 15A socket, will take more than a day. So, you will need at least a 3 phase fast charger at home. Alternately, with this sort of range, you may only be charging the car 2-3 times a month, which can be managed at a dealership or any fast charger en route. The fact that daily charging is not needed with this range, is really a game changer for EVs.

Suspension

Ride and Handling

The EQS gets Mercedes AIRMATIC air suspension with adaptive dampers known as ADS+. The system is similar to what you get in the S-Class. Using sensors at the front, the car detects the road surface and sets the damping at each wheel dynamically. As a result, the EQS rides very plush at slow speeds and when pushed, doesn't roll a lot in spite of its weight. There is a firm edge to the suspension, which is noticeable when you hit a sharp bump hard. But other than that, nothing much filters into the cabin especially in Comfort mode. Everything tightens up in Sport mode with more of the surface being transmitted inside the cabin. But the ride becomes a lot flatter as speeds go up.

The AIRMATIC system also keeps the ride height constant. Based on the load, the ground clearance is maintained at the same level. At speeds below 40 km/h, you can raise the height by 25 mm for speed breakers, but even in the raised position, the ground clearance is nothing to write home about. We scraped plenty of speed breakers including some that most cars could glide over. The huge 3,210 mm wheelbase makes it even more tricky as it is not even possible to take some speed breakers diagonally. This is not a car for most Indian cities. The USP is that every time you raise the height, it saves the GPS coordinates of the position where it was raised and the next time, the car will raise the height on its own at that location - very handy and useful. Once you cross 50 km/h, it goes back to its normal ride height. However, above 120 km/h, it drops by 10 mm and above 160 km/h it drops by a further 10 mm. God bless the underbody if you hit a rough patch doing 120 km/h!

Thanks to the weight of the battery on the floor, the handling and body control of the EQS are surprisingly good. It's no S-Class in terms of dynamics and this is in a good way. GTO was driving the EQS and we followed him down the Lonavala ghat in his BMW 530D and were amazed to see the cornering speeds it could do and how flat the car was with hardly any lean through the turns even at higher speeds. You can chuck it into bends and not even realise that this is a 2.5 ton barge.

The best part is the steering. Thanks to the 4-wheel steering system, the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction to the front wheel at slow speeds and in the same direction at speeds above 60 km/h. This means that in sharp corners, you can flick the EQS like a C-Class and as speeds build up, you have more steering control. This also helps in city manoeuvrability as the rear wheels can turn by 10 degrees in the opposite direction as the front. However, Mercedes-Benz is being cheeky here and taking a leaf out of BMW's books. The 10-degree steering is a paid subscription option and you only get 4 degrees as standard. However, as an introductory offer, Mercedes will offer this for free on the first 500 cars sold in India. It's something you realise is needed when taking a U-turn or parking in tight spaces as the turning diameter is just 10.9 m with the 10-degree option, which is lesser than the C-Class and more in the league of compact cars.

There's no denying the fact that this is a large and heavy car, but with the weight low down and the suspension and steering tech, the EQS is a lot more fun than the luxury S-Class and the E-Class LWB.

Braking

As I drove out of the Chakan plant, I pointed to Vid6639 how the braking wasn't very intuitive and reassuring. At the top of his hat, he attributed that to the regeneration braking feature and the electric servo vs the hydraulic servo in ICE cars. While this was probably the case, the pedal just felt too spongy and vague. With the kind of acceleration the EQS has, the brakes are a letdown. They just don't inspire confidence. However, the braking, when ADAS is on, is very, very strong and much more reassuring than you pressing down on the pedal. As with EVs, the initial braking is taken care of by the regen after which, the disc brakes take over.

The EQS gets three regeneration braking modes apart from switching off regen completely:

1) Normal: This is the normal setting with a mild level of regen
2) Strong: This is a very aggressive form of regeneration where taking the foot off the accelerator implies mild/strong braking. In this mode not only do the brake lights turn on when you lift off the throttle, but the brake pedal gets depressed as well!
3) Intelligent: This is a mix of Normal / Strong depending on the car's computer deciding when to use what.

All the regen modes are toggled using the paddle shifters.

The Intelligent mode is as good as useless as the car keeps toggling between Normal and Strong, which won't give you a good sense of how much you need to brake. With the pedal sometimes moving away from your foot and the system going into Strong regen, you are kept guessing how much braking the car will apply vs how much pedal input is needed. You will land up slowing down too much before a traffic light or speed breaker and sometimes realise that you have to brake manually as the system is in Normal regen.

The Strong regen mode can be enabled by a flick of the left paddle and is very useful when slowing down in emergency situations or when you are driving aggressively and braking harder intentionally. It's very useful in the ghats before a hairpin bend.

Irrespective of all these regen modes, GTO, Vid6639 and myself all were unimpressed with the overall braking. There also should be a regen mode between normal and strong, which would be more useful than the intelligent mode.

The EQS 580 gets the full suite of safety features that are available in the S-Class. This includes Active Steering Assist, 9 Airbags, 360-degree camera, Driving Assistance and more. GTO likes to switch off all these aids and sensors given how ill-suited they are to Indian driving conditions and rightly so. For instance, Automatic Braking / Collision Avoidance can be a huge nuisance and safety hazard (yep, the irony) as you drive in our cities. When you have all sorts of animals and vehicles randomly appearing in front / alongside you, this feature runs you the risk of being rear-ended, given how we don't like to give each other much space.

Disclaimer: Mercedes-Benz invited Team-BHP for the EQS 580 4Matic test-drive. They covered all the travel expenses for this driving event.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line.

[vb-saan]

Excellent review Libran and Vid

For what it offers and its segment, the pricing is quite competitive. The sense of occasion is extremely high in this car, but it would have been great if the augmented reality display and traffic information/directions on the heads-up display were made available in the India spec car. I found those extremely useful when I drove the car a few months ago.

[dragracer567]

What really impressed me is the range. A range of 650 km (I'm guessing a usable range of 550-580 kms) means it is actually possible to take the EQS for long-distance highway trips, even in a country like India where the charging points are few and far between. Really hope this will trickle down to cheaper cars - already the EQE350+ has an impressive range of 650 km+ and will almost surely be a hit since it will also be cheaper than the equivalent E class.

Also, I wonder why only Mercedes and Silicon Valley companies like Tesla and Lucid have been able to breach the 600 km mark! The best most other companies can come up with is 480-500 km range only!

[MotoBlip]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

Also, I wonder why only Mercedes and Silicon Valley companies like Tesla and Lucid have been able to breach the 600 km mark! The best most other companies can come up with is 480-500 km range only!

Probably because most people wouldn't pay 1.5cr(or even half of that) for a Hyundai, MG badge. Nevertheless, these cars are getting real close, the Ioniq 6 apparently has breached that mark and then you have the MG MG4, which does 580km(WLTP*). Chinese manufacturers like BYD, Xpeng too are right on the threshold of the 600km mark, if not already there yet.

[Amey Kulkarni]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

The 107.8 kWh battery churns out an exciting 516 BHP and a gut-wrenching 855 Nm through 2 electric motors.

Brilliantly penned down review of the mighty electric. The electric vehicles anyways make me as a petrol head run away and thanks to Mercedes Benz (MB) with that price tag not sure how they're planning to position it and IMHO, these vehicles somehow do feel compromised overall.

But the good part is MB has managed to play it smart with their S Class Hybrids. The S580e for example is a perfect balance of what one would want at that price. The luxury, the tech fest is sublime. It has the biggest battery amongst competition viz - Audi A8 and BMW 7 Series and thus making it run more mileage for short distances / city runs.

Though the EQS is fully electric, any idea how much the battery replacement would cost?

Cheers,
Amey

[V.Narayan]

@libranof1987, congratulations on a comprehensive review. Your first full review of a new car I believe if we consider the Hyundai Venue facelift as a warm up round :-)

A beautiful car no doubt heralding Mercedes' new exterior design ethos. I am concerned about the ground clearance as well as the suspension. The air suspension has had its challenges and with so much of sensor+electronics behind it, this seems an area of potential big maintenance bills. Great to see MB assembly these super modern cars in India. Gone are the days when MB first started assembling in India in the 1990s I think they started with an outdated model thinking that would be better suited for a third world market.

Oh the price! Looks to me that several piggy banks will need to be cracked to fund this steed.

[Actuator]

An informative review guys; kudos on highlighting the lacklustre brake feedback. I remember having felt similarly while test-driving the EQC. Expected the brakes to be sharper than that of an ICE vehicle but they were very docile.

Has been priced competitively by MB India but won't act as a substitute to the W223 because the rear seats cannot hold a candle to the OG S-Class comfort levels.

Lack of lumbar support in the front seats is a notable omission considering even the E-Class gets it. For some reason, MB India has not provided for even an optional HUD or AR Navigation feature in any of its CKD models assembled here. Also, we miss out on the inbuilt dascham functionality that is just a software update away!

The abysmally-low ground clearance even after raising the suspension could be a deal-breaker for many. Nevertheless, An abundant battery-pack which delivers a range in excess of 650+ kilometres mated to powerful motors that cause an adrenaline rush on flooring the accelerator could convince early uber rich adopters to give this a dekko.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Actuator

Lack of lumbar support in the front seats is a notable omission considering even the E-Class gets it.

Edited this point in the review. It does have lumbar but it is not a physical button on the seat side like all mercs. It's in the menu system under seat kinetics.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Edited this point in the review. It does have lumbar but it is not a physical button on the seat side like all mercs. It's in the menu system under seat kinetics.

Seat recline, fore, aft movements are electric motor driven adjustments. Lumbar and other seat contour adjustments are made using tiny air pillows inside the seat. That’s why the lumbar control interfaces are not co-located with the usual seat adjustment buttons.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

1) Normal: This is the normal setting with a mild level of regen
2) Strong: This is a very aggressive form of regeneration where taking the foot off the accelerator implies mild/strong braking. In this mode not only do the brake lights turn on when you lift off the throttle, but the brake pedal gets depressed as well!
3) Intelligent: This is a mix of Normal / Strong depending on the car's computer deciding when to use what.
.

The intelligent regen is not a mix of the preset regen modes. The intelligent mode is a passive ADAS feature where the level of regen is controlled by the ADAS controller to give you the best experience of both avoiding excessive use of the brakes and also increasing efficiency. For example, if you get too close to a vehicle ahead, the driver is also expected to brake harder to ensure that they won't crash into the vehicle ahead. In this scenario the regen level is maximized such that the vehicle naturally retards away from such a situation which will both regenerate energy as well as reduce braking effort. Similarly if you are on an open road with no chance of having to slow down, regen is reduced to minimum to allow free coasting on the road any speed.

Like this, there are a lot of factors which are considered and based on this regen levels are varied.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The air suspension has had its challenges and with so much of sensor+electronics behind it, this seems an area of potential big maintenance bills.

Most of the customers will take as use and sell. There is currently 40% depreciation on the EV's, which makes it easier for corporates to use them for 3 Years under warranty and then sell at 50-60% without losing a paisa(on the balance sheet)

Maintenance will be complex, and I won't be surprised if these things lie somewhere in the 5th-6th year of ownership. Too delicate for us; just the display type and size give me goosebumps. I won't worry much about mechanical things as these are pretty reliable ( 6-7 Years at least)

Originally Posted by androdev

seat contour adjustments are made using tiny air pillows inside the seat. That’s why the lumbar control interfaces are not co-located with the usual seat adjustment buttons.

Right, on some of the optional variants - Active multicontour package, you can control a lot. And these come with massage functions too. Like here,

https://www.la.mercedes-benz.com/en/...lticontourseat

Originally Posted by audioholic

The intelligent regen is not a mix of the preset regen modes. The intelligent mode is a passive ADAS feature where the level of regen is controlled by the ADAS controller to give you the best experience of both avoiding excessive use of the brakes and also increasing efficiency.

That's indeed intelligent. Thanks for pointing this out. I don't know what exactly that system is, but I have occasionally felt on my 740, in some of the tricky high speed - braking situations, brakes work more intensely, as if someone is helping me. I don't know if it's a simple calibration of brake pedal force or if computers are also sensing something and helping.