Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV is a more down-to-earth luxury electric vehicle

The Mercedes-Benz EQE has been SUV-ified. The German automaker revealed a higher riding, more utility-focused version of its EQE sedan, and while the price is still being kept under wraps, the EQE SUV is expected to hit US dealerships starting in 2023.

We’ve known that we’d be getting an SUV version of the EQE sedan since it was first revealed last year. Mercedes did the same for its flagship EV, the EQS, coming out with the SUV version earlier this month. It’s the fourth EV to be built on the automaker’s new EV platform.

With the EQE SUV, we’re getting three trim levels — one rear-motor and two dual-motor versions — as well as an AMG performance variant. The main difference between the EQE sedan and its SUV counterpart is size and interior space, with Mercedes positioning it as “the most spacious representatives of its class.”

In fact, the five-seater EQE SUV is more compact than the sedan: at 119.3 inches, it has a wheelbase that is 3.5 inches shorter. This gives it more agility and maneuverability when on the road, the company claims.

The rear-wheel drive launch model of the EQE SUV will use the same 90.6kWh battery pack that powers the base model of the EQS, which the company says will be good for up to an impressive 550 kilometers (341 miles) of driving on a full charge — though that figure is based on the more forgiving European WLTP standard, so a more realistic range estimate will likely be lower.

Still, that’s less range than the EQE sedan, which has a similar battery size but a more aerodynamic shape and smaller wheels, leading to 660 kilometers (410 miles) of range. The EQE SUV will put out 288 horsepower, or 536HP for the all-wheel drive version. The AMG variant will churn out up to 677HP on two electric motors and 21-inch wheels.

The EQE SUV will feature a 12.8-inch OLED touchscreen in the center dashboard as well as a 12.3-inch instrument cluster behind the steering wheel. The EV will include many of Mercedes’ other luxurious trappings, such as its MBUX digital assistant for help finding charging stations and the like and an HVAC-plus-audio experience that the automaker describes as “Energizing Comfort.” (Think nature sounds.) The EQE SUV will get over-the-air updates and upgrades, too.

In addition to the EQE sedan and EQE SUV, Mercedes is also releasing an electrified G-Wagen in mid-2024. The company says it will go all-electric by 2030, committing to invest €40 billion (about $47 billion) in the effort.

The EQS already looks like a worthy competitor to Tesla’s Model S Plaid — the company said it sold 30,000 EVs between July and September — so the forthcoming EQE and its 2023-arriving SUV version are all about trying to offer a somewhat more affordable and approachable way into what Mercedes-Benz is doing at the high end with its electric cars.

And as long as it executes, the EQE SUV could be a far more promising entrant into the market than some of Mercedes-Benz’s other early attempts, like the EQC, which was full of compromises due to being built on a combustion engine platform instead of being a ground-up electric vehicle — one of the goals that it established when it first revealed the Vision EQS concept in 2019.