2024 Mercedes-AMG EQE SUV Review: The Price Of Speed Is More Than Just Dollars
- Genuinely impressive speed
- Ride can be supremely comfortable or reassuringly firm
- Lavish cabin is very well-equipped
- Spacious in both front and rear
- Expensive, especially with options
- Range is only okay
- Brake pedal lacks feel
- Trunk is smaller than rivals
The 2024 Mercedes-AMG EQE SUV isn't the first all-electric performance SUV to try to peel speed fans away from internal combustion, but it's certainly one of the most distinctive. Your six-figure spend gets you not only acceleration, but a high-tech interior arguably unparalleled in the industry right now when it comes to gadgety glitz. Just as AMG's gas models demand compromise when it comes to thirst, however, there are caveats beyond just price for this new breed of EVs.
AMG avoids making changes which might impact the EQE SUV's aerodynamic slipperiness, but this Alpine Grey example — an extra $1,750 for the MANUFAKTUR paint job — manages to look fairly menacing. The addition of 22" AMG Multispoke Turbine black wheels ($1,650) helps, as does the AMG Night Package and Night Package Plus ($1,300 altogether) which switches most of the usual exterior brightwork for gloss black or black chrome.
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Altogether, the EQE SUV escapes some of the "amorphous egg" visual issues that other all-electric models in Mercedes' line-up arguably struggle with. I'm not sure it's handsome, per se, but then again none of the competitive set have opted for traditionally mainstream good looks. BMW's iX M60 is aggressively angular; Tesla's Model X Plaid is dated, despite the recent refresh and the once-fancy falcon wing doors. As for the Lotus Eletre, well, it's hard to say just what the design direction was, there.
Power, with a little more power on top
With 617 horsepower and 701 lb-ft of torque, the EQE SUV is among the most powerful models in AMG's line-up. Not bad at all, considering the absence of internal combustion or tailpipes. While the automaker is also experimenting with potent plug-in hybrids, such as the 2025 GLC 63 S we drove for the first time recently, there's something to be said for the crispness and clarity of an all-electric drivetrain.
There are two permanently excited synchronous (PSM) motors at play, here, one for the front wheels and one for the rear. A single-speed transmission keeps things simple, as does a single 90.6 kWh battery option. 0-60 mph arrives in a faintly ridiculous 3.4 seconds.
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With the AMG Dynamic Plus package, a $4,000 option, the tuners drag out even more power: a temporary bump to 677 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. That's only the case in Race Start mode, mind.
Expensive to buy, frequent to charge
Altogether, with extras and options, and including $1,150 destination, the 2024 AMG EQE SUV you see here is just shy of $134,000. Stepping into six figures isn't the only consideration when you go the AMG route, either, with range taking a hit. Mercedes quotes 235 miles on a full charge, a fair degree less than the 279 miles of the single-motor EQE 350+ SUV we drove.
When it comes to topping up the battery, there's 170 kW DC fast charging support. Not slow — figure on just over 30 minutes to go from 10% to 80% — but not as fast as some EV rivals. Mercedes throws in unlimited 30 minute charging sessions at Electrify America for two years; it'll also be building out its own North American charging network over the next few years, open to all EVs but with preferential treatment for drivers with the three-pointed star on the hood.
Back home, there's a 9.6 kW onboard charging system. It'll take about 9.5 hours to go from 10% to fully charged with a Level 2 charger.
One EV, two personalities
Mercedes' EQ range may bear the distinctive silhouette of something resolutely aero-led at the design stage, but the reality is that an SUV still isn't the best shape from which to coax a performance vehicle. For the AMG EQE SUV, the automaker adds AMG Ride Control+ air suspension and Active Ride Control stabilization, along with the AMG Performance 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive system. Rear axle steering — capable of twisting the back wheels by up to 9 degrees — also comes standard.
The result is poise to go with the dual motors' power. The EQE SUV stays flat and serene in the corners, and all that power means straight line acceleration can be genuinely startling. Should it be the first choice for electric car performance fans? The laws of physics say sedans like the Lucid Air and AMG's own 2023 EQE will do better, given their lower center of gravity, but it's astonishing how close the AMG EQE SUV gets.
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Flip into Comfort mode, meanwhile, and the EQE SUV wafts with aplomb. In fact, it might even be a little too bouncy, some passengers complained; manually switching to a slightly firmer suspension level helped, there. Multiple levels of regenerative braking can be controlled with the steering wheel paddles, though there's a fairly big jump between AMG's most aggressive slowing and the next setting down.
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An intermediary stage wouldn't go amiss, and at times there's some pedal squirminess in the transition between regen slowing and the physical brakes. In this particular case, it's the potent (and pricey) AMG High-Performance Ceramic Composite Brakes — a $5,450 option — acting as anchors. They're impressively effective, but the pedal isn't as communicative as you might hope.
In AMG, nobody can hear you scream
One of the most charming things about electric vehicles is the noise, or more accurately, its relative absence. Yes, there are plenty of people who adore the mechanical howl of a V8 or take great pleasure in the banshee whine of a supercharger, but there's definitely something appealing about speed with a relatively hushed soundtrack.
EV-makers, though, seem perpetually unable to leave our ears alone. Artificial sounds are fairly standard in electric cars, and to some extent that's understandable: they can help mask ugly road noise, or the clicks and clunks of power inverters and similar as they whir behind the scenes. In its standard, Balanced setting, AMG's artificial noise for the EQE SUV sounds just fine: faintly sci-fi, like the background hum in a spaceship.
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Switch to Sport or Sport+ however, and you get the Sport or Powerful sounds respectively. Audio is clearly subjective — someone at AMG obviously decided this was what drivers would desire — but they're intrusive and needlessly loud, bordering on vaguely unsettling. It's as if the "spaceship" from your Balanced setting has been dropped into a Ridley Scott movie, and something scuttling and ravenous is about to leap out at you from the glove compartment.
Happily, you can manually control the AMG Sound Experience — including assigning that switching to the left control pod on the steering wheel — though not disable the noises altogether.
Gadgets galore
Although optional on non-AMG cars, the MBUX Hyperscreen comes standard here. It remains a huge and attention-grabbing slab of touchscreen, while the front passenger also gets their own, smaller panel (designed to prevent the driver from glancing across and seeing what's playing there). Mercedes avoids making those screens feel too overwhelming, with a core map view over which smaller widgets lead into sections like climate control and cabin comfort, charging, and vehicle settings.
Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, as is a Burmester 3D Surround Sound audio system, wireless phone charging pad, biometric security scanner, and 64-color ambient lighting. Honestly, it's the latter that can be the most distracting, though a little time spent in the EQE SUV's settings can tame that. Pinnacle trim ($3,300) adds a head-up display, four-zone climate control, and augmented video for navigation, among other niceties.
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Those up front get heated seats as standard, with real Nappa leather rather than the faux stuff many EVs are switching to. $450 adds ventilation; another $250 adds heating to the standard AMG Performance steering wheel with its own leather wrapping. Sadly there's no way to skip the finicky touch-sensitive controls on that wheel, which make things like smooth volume adjustment more painful than it needs to be.
People first, cargo second
It's easier to reach for the volume slider below the Hyperscreen, or even ask Mercedes' voice assistant. Triggered with the "Hey Mercedes" key phrase, it's surprisingly capable: as well as handling navigation and multimedia requests, you can control vehicle features and even ask general knowledge queries.
Those in the rear may find themselves feeling left out of the tech party, though they'll at least have decent space. Despite being smaller, the EQE SUV still has a sizable 39.4 inches of headroom and 40.6 inches of legroom in the second row, numbers give or take an inch off what an EQS SUV provides.
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It's the trunk where the size difference begins to pinch, the EQE SUV's 14 cu-ft with all seats up seeming somewhat small. It'll expand to 55 cu-ft with the back seats folded, but it means the Mercedes falls well short of the 35.5/77.9 cu-ft of the similarly-sized BMW iX. The flip side, though, is that the iX's rear compartment isn't as spacious as that of the AMG: in short, you put your money where your priorities are.
2024 AMG EQE SUV Verdict
There's another obvious point of comparison between the AMG EQE SUV and the BMW iX M60, of course: a sense that, for all that big power numbers are undoubtedly fun, that excess feels a bit, well, excessive. An EQE 500 4MATIC SUV's 402 horsepower may "only" be good for 4.6 seconds in the 0-60 mph dash, but its 633 lb-ft of torque hardly classes as underwhelming.
Meanwhile, the range hit you take with the AMG EV seems more frustrating — given charging speed versus pumping gas — than the fuel economy differences between Mercedes' internal combustion models and their AMG counterparts. The EQE 500 SUV's 269 miles of EPA-rated range is fairly easily achieved or even surpassed; the AMG EQE SUV's 235 miles starts to get perilously close to 200 if you drive the performance SUV like it wants to be driven.
You could show restraint, of course, but then why are you paying north of $110k for a car like this? Certainly, the AMG EQE SUV doesn't exactly encourage holding back. Even if you're not demonstrating its whip-fast 0-60 time, the urge to always stab a little harder on the throttle than is ostensibly necessary is tough to resist. Doing so comes with caveats, but there's no denying that AMG's twist on the performance electric SUV is compelling both in pace and luxury. Just make sure you know where you're next plugging in.