Air Touring vs Mercedes EQS450 4matic

[Gizmoidal]

While my Touring was in the hands of Lucid service for the past couple of weeks, Lucid provided me with a new-ish (got it with like 500 miles on the odometer) Mercedes EQS450 4matic sedan as a loaner. For what it's worth, I thought I would record my observations. I drove the car about 800 miles, including a mix of highway, around-town, and hilly two-laners (on a day trip out to the Oregon coast). I think I got a feel for the car.

Pros
The fob was good -- coming from a Lucid, this meant something to me.
Apple Airplay was solid.
Range was good. The guess-o-meter routinely showed 380+ miles when the battery was fully charged.
Good trunk space, back seat looked spacious enough (though I didn't ride back there).
Mercedes added some cute animations for Easter on the infotainment part of the UI. They just popped up yesterday (Good Friday).

Cons
It handled like a tuna boat. For an EV, it was sluggish and "floaty", if that makes sense. Where the Air grips the road and really leans into curves, I generally felt a little skittish in the 450.

The cabin was astonishingly noisy. I took a decibel meter out in the 450 because the cabin seemed subjectively noisy, but I wanted numbers. I have a particular piece of highway that I use for these sound tests: Turn off all climate controls and the sound system, set the speed to 60 mph, and get some data. My wife's Subaru Legacy clocks in at about 73 dB. The Air is about 64 dB. The Mercedes was a jaw-dropping 83 dB. The noise in the Air and the Mercedes is all road noise, of course, but holy cow!

Seat comfort is a very personal thing. My wife found the 450 seats extremely comfortable. I did not. Try as I might, I couldn't get a seat configuration that worked for my body shape. Lumbar support was meh, thigh support cut off my circulation on longer trips. The drive back from the coast (about an hour and a half) was pretty painful. Your mileage will certainly vary for comfort, but it was bad for me.

Small gripes: The UI is cluttered and not particularly intuitive. The regenerative braking always resets itself to "normal" when the car if off, meaning I had to set it to "high" every time I got in the car. The regen itself, even on high, isn't as stiff as the Air's, so I wound up using the brake pedal a lot more than I like.

There's plenty I'm forgetting, I'm sure, but that captures the essence.

Overall, the 450 4matic was a distinct step down from the Air. I was so happy to see my Air returned yesterday!

 

[Neurio]

Looks like a bathtub and handles like a tuna boat. Your Mercedes EQS, ladies and gentlemen!

 

[MJAir23TheGoat]

Neighbor has the EQS AMG and can’t wait to get out of it and get a GT or DE on the used market.

 

[Wolfman]

Thanks for your impressions.
I wonder if there is an issue with the particular EQS you had. These cars, while not good looking IMO have shown to be very quiet. Car & Driver measured the EQS450 at 70 mph at only 64 decibels.

 

[MoniputerLM]

While my Touring was in the hands of Lucid service for the past couple of weeks, Lucid provided me with a new-ish (got it with like 500 miles on the odometer) Mercedes EQS450 4matic sedan as a loaner. For what it's worth, I thought I would record my observations. I drove the car about 800 miles, including a mix of highway, around-town, and hilly two-laners (on a day trip out to the Oregon coast). I think I got a feel for the car.

Pros
The fob was good -- coming from a Lucid, this meant something to me.
Apple Airplay was solid.
Range was good. The guess-o-meter routinely showed 380+ miles when the battery was fully charged.
Good trunk space, back seat looked spacious enough (though I didn't ride back there).
Mercedes added some cute animations for Easter on the infotainment part of the UI. They just popped up yesterday (Good Friday).

Cons
It handled like a tuna boat. For an EV, it was sluggish and "floaty", if that makes sense. Where the Air grips the road and really leans into curves, I generally felt a little skittish in the 450.

The cabin was astonishingly noisy. I took a decibel meter out in the 450 because the cabin seemed subjectively noisy, but I wanted numbers. I have a particular piece of highway that I use for these sound tests: Turn off all climate controls and the sound system, set the speed to 60 mph, and get some data. My wife's Subaru Legacy clocks in at about 73 dB. The Air is about 64 dB. The Mercedes was a jaw-dropping 83 dB. The noise in the Air and the Mercedes is all road noise, of course, but holy cow!

Seat comfort is a very personal thing. My wife found the 450 seats extremely comfortable. I did not. Try as I might, I couldn't get a seat configuration that worked for my body shape. Lumbar support was meh, thigh support cut off my circulation on longer trips. The drive back from the coast (about an hour and a half) was pretty painful. Your mileage will certainly vary for comfort, but it was bad for me.

Small gripes: The UI is cluttered and not particularly intuitive. The regenerative braking always resets itself to "normal" when the car if off, meaning I had to set it to "high" every time I got in the car. The regen itself, even on high, isn't as stiff as the Air's, so I wound up using the brake pedal a lot more than I like.

There's plenty I'm forgetting, I'm sure, but that captures the essence.

Overall, the 450 4matic was a distinct step down from the Air. I was so happy to see my Air returned yesterday!

We drove the EQS 450+, 580 and AMG. The only one that we thought handled and braked well enough was the AMG.

 

[Gizmoidal]

Thanks for your impressions.
I wonder if there is an issue with the particular EQS you had. These cars, while not good looking IMO have shown to be very quiet. Car & Driver measured the EQS450 at 70 mph at only 64 decibels.

It’s certainly possible. The road noise would also be a function of the type of road surface being driven on while making the measurement, so maybe that comes into play …?

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I drove the Air GT at 75mph on concrete using a pretty good SPL meter dB C weighting, and also had an average of 64dB. That’s surprising the Mercedes was that noisy. Savage Geese recently did that video comparing Air Pure RWD and BMW i5 and they criticized the air for being noisier, but it was only 2dB noisier which the human ear usually cannot detect that difference.