Yahoo Autos 2023 Mercedes-AMG EQE Road Test: Is it AMG enough?
AMG is on a path of discovery right now. Mercedes’ performance wing is at the absolute top of its game producing a wide range of gasoline-powered performance vehicles, but now it has to find a new way forward as Mercedes brings more EVs into its lineup. The 2023 Mercedes-AMG EQE is its second attempt at transforming a regular Mercedes-Benz model into a fire-breathing AMG. The first was the big AMG EQS, which we found to be a competent Mercedes-Benz, but not a convincing AMG. Turning a Mercedes wearing the letter E into an AMG is an even greater challenge, though, as the hottest E-Classes have arguably been the definitive AMG going back to the Hammer. To say the task is a difficult one for Affalterbach is an understatement.
Go ahead and forget many of the things you’ve known about AMG for years (decades for some of us) because the future is going to be different. AMG doesn’t have the same fallbacks it can rely on to get enthusiasts excited about its products. There’s no rip-snorting V8, melodious inline-six or absurdly boosted four-cylinder to bring the drama. More so than many performance brands, an AMG has been about buying a car with a special engine — after all, building race engines is how AMG got its start.
Electric motors? Well, they’re quiet. But there’s no doubting the performance numbers this new-age AMG puts up. The dual-motor AWD setup in the AMG EQE combines for a total output of 617 horsepower and 701 pound-feet of torque. Use the “Race Start” launch control, and presuming you said yes to the AMG Dynamic Plus package, output is temporarily boosted to 677 horses and 738 pounds of twist (more than any E-Class AMG model has ever had), allowing 60 mph to arrive in just 3.2 seconds. That’s quicker than the AMG E 63 S Sedan, but only by one-tenth of a second. Without the extra performance package, it’s 3.4 seconds, making you slower than the gas-powered AMG. What a shame, right?
The AMG EQE comes with some requirements to get the quickest acceleration, with the most prohibitive being that you must have greater than a 70% charge of the 90.6 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack to get maximum performance. You’ll also need to make sure you’re in Sport+ mode for the full horsepower, be it 617 or 677, as Mercedes limits power output in lesser drive modes. With those met, you can let it rip.
When you do, we hope you’re ready for some wild spaceship noises, because that’s the theme AMG went for with this EV. You can choose between “Performance” or “Authentic” modes, but we found both to be annoying and decidedly inauthentic. The launch control sequence intensifies the sound effects played over the speakers, and while the volume may be high in the cabin, it’s not the type of noise enthusiasts would expect from their high-performance Mercedes. Or any car, actually. It’s cartoon-ish and sounds more like what you’d expect from a hovercraft arcade video game. By contrast, the Porsche Taycan’s artificial noises replicate the sound of an electric motor and is tuned to make it seem like the sound is emanating from that motor, as opposed to just indiscriminately filling the cabin. You’ll need to hear the AMG for yourself to come to a final conclusion, but once the novelty wore off, I quickly tired of it. Thankfully, you can turn off all the noises if you want to.
AMG knows that without its customary loud engines and exhaust, it needs to do something to make its EVs be more than just faster regular Mercedes models. However, I find it hard to believe that someone who adores the snarl and aggression from the hand-built AMG V8 will find the spacey in-cabin noises of this EQE more satisfying in any way. The alternative proposed by Dodge with its Fratzonic Chambered “exhaust system” is worthy of its own debate, but in these early days of EV performance cars, there’s no telling which direction manufacturers will take.
If the silly fake noises aren’t a dealbreaker for you, the AMG EQE definitely offers a whole lot of driving excitement that any enthusiast can get behind. Per usual, AMG went to work on changing pretty much everything underneath the EQE to make it more fun to drive. It’s equipped with AMG-specific wheel carriers, suspension links, anti-roll bars, adaptive dampers and air suspension tuning. It also gets an “AMG Performance 4Matic+” version of all-wheel drive — Sport and Sport+ modes lock you into a more rear-biased program, and AMG makes sure you know it.
