(Bloomberg) —
“We’re not anxious about the car—we’re anxious about you turning the gadgets on.”
In one phrase, my mother-in-law captured the mood inside the 2025 Mercedes-Benz EQS 450+. She was visiting from Yorkshire, England. We were driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The trip might have been a stretch as she neither gambles nor drinks much—and she’s in her 80s. But at least the drive there through California’s Mojave National Preserve would be diverting. I hoped.
God bless those northern Brits and their bluntness. Mama was anxious about the car’s range. To be honest, so was I. This jellybean runs on electricity, and Vegas is 275 miles from Los Angeles. No one wanted to spend untold hours waiting for it to juice up at a Denny’s parking lot charger in Barstow.
When we pulled out of town, a dashboard icon said the car had 517 miles or “93%” of battery life available. That’s a whopping amount, especially considering the going rate among EVs is around 300 miles.
But I never trust those estimates. I’ve seen too much. In EVs, the stated figure tends to drop far faster than actual real-life miles driven when you’re doing apparently crazy things like: accelerating, driving uphill, running the air conditioning and/or using “gadgets” such as seat heaters. I quickly turned off the back massager that had been kneading my kidneys like pizza dough.
“When you’re in an electric car you’ve got to think in a different way,” Mum declared, an instant expert on the subject.
She wasn’t wrong. I was approaching this venture to Vegas—my first in an EV—differently than I ever had, keeping the car in the numbed-down Comfort mode for the duration of the drive. (The preferable Sport would drain the battery faster.) I insisted we drive straight to the Wynn, where I knew (hoped) the valets would have a fast charger, rather than take a side excursion to the nearby Hoover Dam or Valley of Fire. I triple-Googled what charging options we had at an establishment called Buffalo Bill’s Resort and Casino in Primm, Nevada, in the event of a battery-life emergency. With a towering roadside sign just across the state line depicting a buffalo head in Native American headdress, the maxim “you can’t miss it” actually did apply.
I needn’t have worried. We made it to Las Vegas with 106 miles and “25%” of the battery life intact. (See, the math on these estimates never does adds up, but I was too relieved to quibble.) Despite its mundane design and muted driving style, the electric equivalent to the Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan proved an apt pod for our family pilgrimage. Quelle surprise. I guess we could have visited the red sandstones in the Valley of Fire after all.
The Essentials
The EQS is the larger of Mercedes’ electric sedans (the smaller is the EQE); the 450+ is the least expensive of four EQS variants. It starts at $104,400. The version I drove cost $136,910 because of multiple packages that added things like rear-cabin upholstered pillows, two-tone leather upholstery and illuminated seat belt buckles.
It achieves 355 horsepower, 419 pound feet of torque and gets to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds. (You don’t need me to tell you that’s not quick.) Charging time on a fast charger takes 31 minutes to achieve 80%; a slow charger will max the battery in about 13 hours.
The EQS is not a dynamic car to drive, but it is comfortable, smooth and quiet. Mercedes initially struggled to sell it, since customers shied away from its higher repair and insurance costs and plunging residuals. At one point, delivery rates of the S Class were six times higher.
But the automaker has made some improvements to this new model, including extending the driving range to the 500+ level indicated in my car with an all-new battery; allowing for more space in the rear by enabling the front seat to fold forward and by extending the angle the backrest can recline; and reintroducing the upright star badge on the hood, which had been removed on previous models to enhance aerodynamic efficiency. As it turns out, buyers prefer the status symbol to an extra few miles of range.
The Good
I already told you about the generous range—after an overnight charge at the hotel, we absconded on a lovely 100-mile route to Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and a nearby Western town called Boulder City, returning with tchotchkes including a green vinyl “Las Vegas” visor that’s possibly the best $6 I’ve ever spent. The 63 cubic feet of total storage space are another highlight; the trunk easily held all the luggage for four of us for four days in Vegas.
Mercedes’ proprietary “MBUX Hyperscreen” is now standard on the EQS; it spans more than 4½ feet and controls virtually every function inside the cabin. But rather than distracting or overpowering, the expansive touchscreen offers intuitive controls and seamless connection from phone to entertainment screens throughout. Automakers like McLaren and Volvo should take notes.
In the EQS, there’s nary a button or knob in sight. But the video game undertones give the car an ultramodern vibe. One night driving down the Strip, softly illuminated light bands encircling the cabin seemed to swirl with the neon lights of Vegas as they danced through the sunroof above us. No addictive substances were ingested on this joyride; it just looked cool.
The Bad
Despite the ample rear storage area, the actual seating space allotted to passengers should be bigger for something that is touted as an executive-caliber sedan. The week after I had the EQS, I crawled into a $50,000 Mercedes-Benz GLC SUV, which immediately felt more spacious.
On that note: The low slope of the rear pillar lends poor visibility. On the way home, I got an indignant honk from a wary driver as I merged onto Highway 15. He thought I hadn’t seen him, and he was right.
If you don’t have a high-speed charger at your home or office, “refueling” the EQS is time-consuming. After I returned from Vegas, I used it for a few days as a commuter. On the AC ChargePoint station at the Bloomberg office, it sipped electrons like it was trying to drink peanut butter through a straw. I gained just 36 “miles” in two hours of charging—enough to get me home but nothing much else.
If You Remember One Thing
The new EQS may not look much different from previous models, but Mercedes has improved its big luxury electric sedan. If you can get past the bland exterior design, it’s worth another look.
To contact the author of this story:
Hannah Elliott in Los Angeles at helliott8@bloomberg.net
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