I test drove the EQS 580+ at a Mercedes event yesterday in Las Vegas. I currently have both a Tesla Model 3 Performance and a Mercedes AMG GT S, and also put down a deposit for a Lucid Air Grand Touring, so I would guess I am close to their ideal customer.
Like most car reviews of cars with which you're familiar, these online reviews of the EQS have little echoes of what I picked up on my short drive. My takes:
- Exterior does not get better when seeing it in real life. Goofy looking.
- Interior finishes are nice. Not crazy about all the quilty stitching but the materials were very nice in the 580+ I drove. I sat in a 450 also and those materials looked like crap. Seats were cheap General Motors style leather or maybe even "MBTex" vinyl.
- The "hyperscreen" was a little silly, as the screen in front of the passenger seemed to have many common controls. I'm not sure if those controls are mappable to any screen in reach of the driver. The center screen looked good but map scrolling was STILL not up to where an Apple iPad was in 2010 (with admittedly fewer pixels to move). Tesla's screens are significantly better in this regard. I'm assuming Lucid will be better but don't know.
- the screens often had silly animations when activating a feature. Annoying-- just get to the feature.
- You can turn creep off.
- Pet peeve coming up: If you have a blue (or green or orange) Apple iMac, you get complementary blue (or green or orange) screen backgrounds and screensavers corresponding to YOUR computer automatically. If you have a white (or blue or red) Tesla, all images of your car on the screen are of a white (or blue or red) car, corresponding to YOUR color. The software knows what color the outside is. If you get in a blue EQS, you get a grey EQS on screen. If you get in a white EQS, you get a grey EQS on screen. You get the idea. The software has no idea and doesn't care what color your car is. This isn't hard, but it shows a decided lack of attention to detail. When I pointed this out to the poor MB employee showing me the car, his defense was "But those are technology companies."
- Getting in, there was no apparent door pull to close the door. I just awkwardly grabbed the armrest but this is perhaps some vestige of the motorized door feature-- which the car I was in did not have.
- Seats were fine and visibility not great, especially out the tiny rear window.
- hit my head when I tried the back seat, like in a CLS. I'm 5'10". And my knees were jacked up. Lots of forward knee room though.
- No frunk, because the MB engineers apparently don't know how to design a properly sized inverter/charger system smaller than a freaking internal combustion engine.
- Drive mode selection was typical MB, same as Tesla Model 3 (right stalk down for D, up for R). However, unlike my Model 3, the left stalk had real activate and hold turn signals.
- Steering wheel festooned with touch panel activations instead of physical buttons. Not sure why people think this is the future, or if they're cheaper than a darn button. At least I didn't accidently activate anything. I did try to change the stereo volume briefly and couldn't make it work, but I didn't really try very hard.
- The drive was very quiet on the rough under-construction roads surrounding the shopping mall where the test drive took place. I did not try any of the artificial sounds.
- The paddles on the wheel control regenerative braking. The default was none. I hit the left paddle to increase one step and it was pretty aggressive. I noticed the weird brake pedal travel. It was a short drive, but it was hard to modulate the regenerative braking as well as the mechanical brakes to be smooth. It really did seem like a bad flaw but perhaps it's something you can get used to.
- I had a small opportunity to punch the accelerator. My drive was in the 580+, but acceleration was very slow compared to what I'm used to from an electric car. It was more like a moderately fast ICE car. If the EQS AMG is only 650hp, these guys are toast vs Lucid and Plaid Tesla. Even Rivian has 800hp. It sure seems like either MB can't engineer a high horsepower car or they're intentionally crippling the car so as not to threaten their ICE cars.
- Minimal discussion of charging. The MB guy on my drive wasn't sure but thought that it was probably possible to just drive up and plug into an Electrify America charger with zero login. He kept stressing that charging at EA is free for some years, but why do I care if I'm buying a $130k car? I can't afford an $8 charge the few times a year I charge away from home?
I've been very disappointed with the "luxury" of Teslas over the years, and I'm a little concerned about the long term quality and viability of Lucid, so I really wanted to like the EQS. I came away very disappointed. I don't think MB gets it. Tesla has been killing them for years in certain markets and if Lucid can execute, the EQS will just turn into a strange footnote of history.