Mercedes-Benz EQS Review: Lessons From The Future

Driving an EQS is an experience full of a-ha moments and utter confusion. I don’t think we’re going back, either.

The future is a tough business. Nobody knows that like Mercedes-Benz. The German company has built a reputation for being the tip of the automotive tech spear, defining the technologies that feature into mainstream cars 10 or 20 years from now. Antilock brakes, electronic stability control, even superchargers—it’s a long list.

But that approach comes with a substantial risk. Bet right and you’ll forever be the innovator that changed the game. Bet wrong, and you’ll be stuck with confusing, unproven tech and a whole lot of sunk cost.

No car exemplifies this like the Mercedes-Benz EQS Sedan. Heralded as the flagship of the electric era, it arrived to middling reviews and lackluster sales. Mercedes already knows this, which is why it’s pivoting away from the egg-shaped designs, ditching the EQ names and proceeding with hybrid options. The next electric S-Class will be exactly that—an electric S-Class, in name and looks, not a standalone model like this.

But the EQS is here now, and available for a song on the used market to boot. It also got a light facelift for 2025, with a slightly more traditional front-end faux grille and a bigger battery for more range. Let’s look at what it gets right and what it gets wrong about the future.

(Full Disclosure: Mercedes loaned me a 2024 EQS for a week for this review. It arrived fully charged.) 

Mercedes EQS: Driving Experience

Get into any EV and you can see why it’s the luxury automakers that bet so big, so early on this technology. Electric powertrains are simply better for effort-free, silent cruising. So while the S-Class’ inline-six and V8 engine options are both delightfully smooth, they can’t hold a candle to the EQS’ utterly perfected drivetrain.

The EQS comes in four flavors: 450+ rear-wheel-drive, 450 4Matic all-wheel-drive, 580 AWD and AMG AWD. The EQS 450+ I drove made 355 horsepower and 419 lb-ft of torque from its single-motor powertrain. The all-wheel-drive version makes the same hp and 590 lb-ft of torque. Neither figure is particularly impressive in this period of stratospheric power, but remember that in an EV you never hear the powertrain strain.

A 335-hp gas engine would be groaning to move the 5,500-lb EQS around. But the electric motors register no such complaints. Since you hardly ever use a luxury limo for drag racing, its 5.9-second 0-60 time is quick enough that your comfort, not the motor, will be the limiting factor on speed.

Those who demand extra power might want an EQS 580 instead. That makes 516 hp and 611 lb-ft of torque. The gluttons among you can opt for the absurd AMG EQS Sedan and gorge yourselves on 649 hp and 700 lb-ft of torque. But given that I never wanted for power and the already hefty $117,375 sticker price on the EQS 450+ I drove, I wouldn’t spend up for the big power versions. Even the base powertrain is delightful.

Betting on electric motivation, then, was a smart play. Yet in offering a car with more weight, different weight distribution and a trick rear-steer system, somewhere along the way Mercedes lost sight of making it ride like an S-Class. The marque’s signature buttercream ride is the main reason I’d recommend one. The new gas-powered S-Class is the best-riding car this side of a Rolls-Royce.

The EQS isn’t. It’s not uncomfortable. It’s still a phenomenal highway car. But around town, over bumps and divots, all the air suspension trickery in the world can’t hide the thing’s weight. It lumbers over crests and flops into depressions. Those words may be harsh—it still rides better than the average car—but those chasing on-road perfection won’t find it here. Thus, our first warning from the Ghost of Mercedes Future: In your quest to chase what’s next, don’t forget how you got here.

I also think the Germans’ reluctance to offer a true one-pedal driving mode is bizarre, if only because they keep offering “configurable” options that get close, but not all the way there. In the EQS, you can crank up regen so it almost feels like one-pedal driving. But the car will never come to a complete stop on its own. That’s self-defeating. Bet on one-pedal or don’t. Skip the half-steps.

Don’t think that all the new chassis tech is for nothing. Mercedes implemented a rear-wheel-steering system in the EQS that simply blows other such systems out of the water. While a Cybertruck uses its relatively aggressive rear steer to give a giant, 35-inch-tire-wearing truck with bad wheel clearance a merely acceptable turning range, Mercedes’ system makes the EQS handle parking lots like a compact car. Completing u-turns on normal-sized city streets is not an issue. The only problem is that my brain wasn’t used to it, so I found myself cutting parking maneuvers too tight, and having to adjust. That’s a good sign: Tech so good it makes you recalibrate your senses.

Mercedes EQS: Range, Battery Size, and Observed Efficiency

All 2025 Mercedes-Benz EQS sedans get a 118-kWh battery, offering up to 390 miles (628 km) of range in the EQS 450+. That may not match the Lucid Air or Tesla Model S, but it trounces most of the legacy competition. My tester had bigger wheels and was a 2024 model with the smaller, older battery pack, so it had a 352-mile (566 km) range. That’s the sweet spot, in my opinion.

Here are the range breakdowns for the other trims in 2025:

All of those figures are respectable and show that Mercedes is serious about offering the sort of long-range EVs American luxury buyers demand. I observed efficiency of 2.9 miles per kWh in mixed highway and around-town driving, giving me a projected real-world range of around 342 miles. That’s pretty solid given that my driving included a golf trip with five passengers and three bags of clubs.

Mercedes EQS: Charging Experience

Unfortunately, due to some charger-side issues, I wasn’t able to record a clean 10-80% time for the EQS. I can say I saw charging speeds close to Mercedes’ claimed peak rate of 200 kW. The car also automatically preconditioned the battery for fast-charging when I selected a charger in the navigation menu. I was also impressed by how long the EQS held a high charging speed—it was still pulling 137 kW at around 65%, which is on the high end of normal for a 400-volt system.

Mercedes claims the EQS Sedan can go from 10-80% in 31 minutes. Based on what I saw, I believe it. There are certainly faster-charging cars in its class—a Porsche Taycan can go from 10-80 in around 16 minutes, and a Lucid Air can do it in 20—but I consider this a fine enough performance.

Mercedes EQS: Interior

This is where taste enters the picture in a major way. The Mercedes EQS Sedan’s interior quality is unimpeachable. The company uses nice materials and dresses things up reasonably well. Unfortunately, the old leather and wood motif has given way to plenty of black plastic on the EQS. This is a consequence of its focus on its giant “Hyperscreen,” the standard pillar-to-pillar display interface with three separate screens.

It is impressive, but it’s also basically all there is to look at. The biggest slab of wood in the cabin is the lid that covers the cupholders and wireless charging pad. Given that you’ll probably be using that area to hold your keys and phone, I don’t think you’ll ever see the wood. The rest, then, is a lot of piano black trim and real estate taken up by the screen.

Those who want a car that wows them with technology will certainly find it here. But if you expect the sort of old-world-luxury interior of an older Mercedes, you’re going to be disappointed here. Mercedes is all-in on screens, voice commands and tech. That’s the bet the company has made, and it isn’t backing down. At least the seats are still wonderful, even if the driving position is a bit awkward due to the car’s high beltline and awkward proportions.

Technology, Infotainment & UX

Mercedes believes that technology is the future. That’s why when it built the EQS, it basically bet on all of them at once. It has the expected massaging seats and high-end Burmester stereo. But it also has Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos Support (this rocks). It can vibrate your seats along to the music. It has a conversational voice assistant that can turn all of these features on, and provide you with restaurant recommendations along the route.

It has a browser that you can use to stream videos. It has “augmented reality” navigation, an extremely distracting setup whereby it overlays arrows onto camera feeds from the front of the car. It has built-in music streaming but still offers CarPlay and Android Auto. It is a Cheesecake Factory menu of options piled onto a 17.7-inch screen, with two 12.3-inch displays for sides.

It is, in summation, a lot. Too clever by half, in my view. There are so many menus and settings that—despite the system being incredibly fast and stable—I still found myself consistently befuddled by this. I also found the voice assistant not quite good enough. Its insistence on saying “How may I help you?” when cued up means it interrupts your query and gives you a weirdly quick window to make your ask, and it still had a surprising number of total whiffs.

Tech-savvy owners will eventually master it. But at 27, I’m about 30 years younger than the average $100,000 sedan buyer, and I still felt overwhelmed.

This is a matter of taste. I’ve long been of the opinion that luxury is not just about addition but also targeted subtraction. Offering every feature under the sun isn’t as useful as offering one coherent software product that feels intentional in every menu. That’s what Tesla and Rivian do, and I think they’re still ahead of Mercedes there. Mercedes, for its part, does do over-the-air updates like those brands, and even added ChatGPT support with Google Gemini-powered “conversational navigation” coming too. But after two decades of constantly betting on new additions, I actually hope the next generation of MB.OS does less.

Safety & ADAS

Here, Mercedes fares far better. The EQS comes with a fantastic highway driving assistant and a full suite of advanced driver aids. The highway assist system will fully handle the steering, brakes and accelerator, even automatically changing lanes to get around slower traffic.

I loved its German approach to lane discipline—quickly getting back into the right lane after passing—but it was almost constantly changing lanes on California’s busy, fast-flowing five-lane freeways. It sounds an alert to inform you of these changes, quieting the music, and I got a little tired of four-minute songs being interrupted five or six times. But calling your attention before it makes a lane change feels necessary, so it’s probably a worthwhile tradeoff. I’d still turn auto changes off just for a more peaceful experience.

The EQS also offers Mercedes Drive Pilot, the only driver assistance system in the U.S. where you are legally allowed to take your eyes off the road under specific circumstances. These systems—dubbed “Level 3” in SAE parlance—are a cut above Level 2 systems like Tesla Autopilot and General Motors Super Cruise, which always require full supervision. But the scope is narrow: Drivers can only take their hands and eyes off the wheel on certain mapped freeways in California and Nevada while stuck in traffic below 40 mph.

My press car didn’t have Drive Pilot, and despite consistent attempts, I’ve never been able to actually sample the technology in the real world.

Mercedes EQS: Pricing

Pricing for the Mercedes EQS 450+ starts at $105,550 including the destination charge. Like all German cars, you’re going to end up spending a lot on options, even if the base EQS is reasonably well-equipped. My $117,375 tester didn’t have a heated steering wheel, as the Mercedes voice assistant politely told me when I asked her to turn it on. That’s silly considering it came standard on my Chevy Blazer EV, but cars in this segment have never been generous with standard kit.

Other notable options on my tester include the $2,150 Exclusive trim that includes massaging front seats, the MBUX “Interior Assistant” and four-zone climate control. The car’s perfuming system was a $450 option, too.

Pricing for the AWD EQS 450 4Matic begins at $108,550. The EQS 580 kicks off at $128,500, and the range-topping AMG EQS Sedan goes for $148,700.

Mercedes EQS: Verdict

With the EQS Sedan, Mercedes bet that it could use the EV transition as a reset point, no longer just a leader in technology but fully defined by it. Look at used EQS values and you’ll see how that worked out. Two-year-old versions of this $100,00-$150,000 car can easily be snapped up for $45,000.

The market has spoken, and it didn’t have much nice to say about these cars. But that’s perhaps a bit unfair. The EQS is a reasonably solid car, but one searching for an identity. It’s a solid EV, but not the best in its set. It’s a good luxury car, but not even the best one in the Mercedes showroom, given the S-Class’ far more refined ride. It’s an interesting tech showcase, but from a company that still can’t match the cohesive experience of true software-defined vehicles.

More than anything, it is a test bed. Some of it works: the awesome spatial audio system, the snappy screen, the smooth powertrain and respectable range. Some of it doesn’t: the awkward styling, the ho-hum ride, the in-your-face nature of its dizzying array of features.

It was an experiment. Mercedes went into this market head-first and seems to have learned a lot quite quickly. I can’t say the company produced a cohesive, compelling product. But in a world where so many automakers are tiptoeing as slowly as possible into the EV era, I have to give Mercedes credit for being bold enough to go all in.

It may not have paid out this time around, but on a long enough timeline, the market rewards companies that are brave enough to take real risks.

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