There is certainly a rationale a person of AMG’s most well known vehicles was nicknamed “Hammer.” The efficiency arm of Mercedes has a standing of coming down clenched in a fist, pulverizing competitors with the loudest, major engines and steely precision. So, when it came time to deal with its very first electric efficiency sedan, a tuned version of the twin-motor, all-wheel-push Mercedes-Benz EQS580, AMG was faced with a problem. Is it ample to just switch up the ability, or does an AMG EV want to offer a minor much more growl with its glide? Would you settle for additional whoosh-whirr?
In physical appearance, the AMG EQS is only subtly different from the EQS580. Its rainbow-arch profile and quick-nosed proportions really don’t lend them selves to the usual large-haunched and snarling shape of an AMG machine. Nearer inspection provides hints at aggression with bars of vertical chrome rather of the starry-sky grille up front and a flick of ducktail spoiler at the trailing edge of the sloped rear deck. Other information, these as gloss-black accents, a chrome-trimmed entrance splitter, side air intakes (which redirect air ahead of the front wheels for greater aerodynamic performance), and diffuser-design rear stop will possible be spotted only by hardcore EQS watchers. The AMG badging is the biggest idea-off that they usually are not just experiencing a mere 516 horses, but a stampede of up to 751. All through typical driving the motors put out 649 horses. Activating start handle uncorks the remaining 102, which really should end result in a 60-mph time of 3.4 seconds, according to AMG.
The motors whizzing the EQS previous the pace restrict are beefed-up variations of these in the EQS580. Whilst gas engines brag about coated pistons and titanium valves, electric powered motors get scorching-rodded with upgraded windings that make it possible for them to consider a more robust recent and therefore generate extra energy. You will find a sameness to electrical acceleration, but AMG tends to make an effort and hard work to maintain onto its record of rear-wheel-drive exhilaration in Sport and Activity+ modes. Here, engineers gave the AMG EQS a slight rear bias to the torque supply, and the stability control program allows for a small slide. In ordinary driving, the torque distribution is checked and modified 10,000 periods a minute—so, about as normally as you glance at your shipping and delivery update soon after purchasing a pizza—to stop even a 2nd of inefficient ability supply.
With that good electric power comes fantastic responsibility—for the cooling units. To maintain the motors at a content functioning temp, there are liquid-cooled channels by way of the shaft of the rotor, as very well as AMG-unique ribs that act as a warmth sink on the stator, and ceramic fins on the inverter to do the exact. The immediate-generate transmissions are saved at the acceptable temperature by using an oil cooler.
On our drive, the coolers were twiddling their ceramic-finned thumbs. It was an icy-chilly day earlier mentioned Palm Springs, California, and the mountains have been swaddled in a witchy mist. The problems could have been difficult for the driver, but the EQS moved with self-assurance even around the slippery turns. It won’t feel compact. The AMG-ification of this auto did not include any important body weight reduction—its control fat is a lot more than 5600 pounds—but it tucks its tail in and takes the corners with flat-footed authority. Rear-axle steering does its section to virtually bend the AMG EQS all over turns, but the most important variation from the standard car is in the handle of the huge system in excess of bumps and rises. Although the suspension is even now multilink front and rear sprung by air baggage, the parts themselves are AMG-particular. Bushings, bearings, and mounts had been redesigned or modified from other AMG styles. Rebound and compression damping adjust independently of one particular a further individually, permitting for a larger spread in between comfy cushioning and sporty manage. The final result is that the float and dive of the other EQS trims are absent.
The AMG EQS we drove arrived with carbon-ceramic rotors at the rear of its 22-inch wheels. Six-piston calipers clamp the 17.3-inch entrance discs, but only if you push the pedal tricky ample. You can regulate the regenerative braking through steering-wheel paddles to a utmost of 300 kW. This is plenty of halting electricity to send out you ahead in the seat practically as violently as flooring the accelerator will push you again into it. The EQS will carry alone to a end if it is in max-regen manner and following a auto in advance, but with out a car in entrance, it creeps without having a foot on the brake. This is important only to the most hardcore of a single-pedal drivers. We discovered a lighter regen environment offered the most purely natural truly feel to the brake pedal and offered the most comfy ride for our passenger.
Mercedes has yet to announce the vary on the AMG EQS, but with a a little greater coefficient of drag—0.23 to the ultra-slippery .20 on the EQS580—we hope it to be much less than the EQS580’s EPA estimate of 340 miles. Even so quite a few miles you journey, the 400-volt, 107.8-kWh, lithium-ion battery in the AMG EQS has been rewired for bigger charging capability and shorter charging times—around 20 minutes for virtually 190 miles—at suitable DC rapid-charging stations. At property or perform, exactly where speedy fill-ups are not a concern, sensible charging screens temperature and load to improve battery lifetime.
If you do find on your own sitting at a charging station, there are worse places to devote your time than the cabin of the EQS. The glassy dash display screen stretches to the doorway panels, where the mood changes from glowing tech to soft quilted microfiber. The AMG model adds functionality readouts in the instrument display screen as properly as to the head-up screen. The latter is extraordinary in its structure, but so massive and distracting we turned it off. The pc-video game aspect of numerous new cars—in individual, the electrics—may provide far more to chat about, but when it arrives to driving, the experience is not often enhanced by pulsing, flashing lights in your subject of vision. On the other hand, the audio choices for the EQS do increase a perception of excitement to the alternatively drama-cost-free practical experience of electric acceleration. Turning the car on and off will get a growing and slipping seem like a robot’s wakeup yawn, and the Effectiveness seem accompanies your ahead movement with a deep-place thrum. We received exhausted of it pretty promptly, but it should really impress your good friends, while not as significantly as the start command will.
They are going to be having a lovely time in the EQS. The front seats are roomy and adjustable to the actual angle, temperature, or stage of therapeutic massage you could wish, and the rear seats are just as comfortable and classy, despite the fact that the sloping roofline cuts into headroom. The trunk is deep enough to established up dwelling in, or at minimum curl up for a nap.
The AMG EQS goes on sale later this winter season, and we assume it to commence all over $150,000, which puts it at the greater conclusion in the area of luxury electric sedans. Of people, it beats out all rivals besides perhaps Lucid when it comes to inside and trip consolation but cannot compete from lighter-fat or more effective offerings this kind of as the Porsche Taycan Turbo S or Tesla Model S Plaid when it will come to acceleration and dealing with. The EQS provides on its badge guarantee of power, but whilst it hits tough, it is really no hammer.
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