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Expectations are high for the 2022 Mercedes-AMG EQS, and rightly so. Rivals may not like to admit it, not publicly at least, but where the S-Class goes its counterparts tend to follow: the iconic sedan may not have debuted every must-have feature among the luxury set, but is still responsible for more than its fair share. Now, with the EQS representing the Sonderklasse’s electric evolution, it’s AMG’s opportunity to bring the performance to back up the promises on its aggressive 2030 roadmap.
Aerodynamics clearly rule the roost in Mercedes’ EQ division. We’re used to EVs being slippery, but the EQS goes further than most with its river-smoothed-pebble silhouette. When I look at it, I can’t help but see those abstract car models that dealerships have to show different paint samples, only blown up to full size and then with surface detailing painted on.
Find the right angle and it’s handsome and imposing. AMG’s beefy aero wheels – available in 21- and 22-inch sizes – help, offsetting some of the visual heft from the side. I prefer the AMG-specific grille, too, with its crisp vertical struts above a reworked lower intake. At the rear there’s a larger spoiler and a new diffuser with crisper fins.
It’s a head-turner, certainly, not least because it looks a little like a CGI creation that just rolled out onto the street. Inside, the high-tech sense continues, with Mercedes’ vast Hyperscreen fitted as standard. Does the modern dashboard need 55-inches of display, including a dedicated touchscreen for the front passenger? No, probably not, but it makes the controls of every other vehicle on the road feel retro by comparison.
In use, it’s less distracting than you might expect. The EQS makes good use of the inches on offer, with AMG-specific graphics and animations, even if some of the standard versions actually fit more info into the driver’s screen and head-up display. The central touchscreen manages to feel comprehensive rather than crowded, and while I know many prefer physical buttons and knobs for things like HVAC settings, Mercedes does at least make them persistent across the bottom of the display.
All in, the AMG EQS cabin lives up to its “the S-Class of EVs” billing. It’s lavish and cohesive in a way that no other electric car on the market can match right now, a blend of highly visible high-tech with old-school attention to detail and materials. It’s also hugely spacious, not just in the front where the custom AMG sports seats are supremely comfortable, but in the rear where legroom is particularly capacious.
The US will get two drivetrain options. As standard, the 2022 AMG EQS has dual electric motors with 658 horsepower and 750 lb-ft of torque. 0-60 mph arrives in 3.4 seconds, and the top speed is electronically limited to 155 mph. Check off the AMG Dynamic Plus package, and you get 751 horsepower and 752 lb-ft of torque; great for bragging rights, even if it probably won’t make much of a difference out in the real world.
AMG Performance 4MATIC+ all-wheel drive is standard, as is AMG Ride Control+ and air suspension, rear-axle steering, electronically-controlled damping, and AMG-specific bushings and mounts. The tuning division also throws in extra cooling for the motors, while ceramic brakes are optional.
A setting I quickly reached for, meanwhile, was the option to turn off the AMG Sound Experience. Like all EVs, the EQS is required by US law to make some sort of noise outside, to alert pedestrians to its presence. Inside, though, the automaker cooked up two custom soundtracks, one of which is only unlocked if you have the AMG Dynamic Plus package.
The goal, AMG says, was to make both the “Authentic” and “Performance” sounds feel engaging and – though electronically-generated – somehow real. Rather than monotonous drones that simply vary in volume, the tonality adjusts according to the drive mode you’re in, how hard you’re pushing, and other factors. The automaker even worked with audio studios more familiar with movies than mobility, to deliver suitably rich and evocative sounds.
Problem is, the end result feels more suited to an ominous sci-fi thriller than a luxury EV. After a while, my drive partner and I both realized that the warbling, reverberating noises were leaving us feeling oddly anxious, as though at any moment a blood-thirsty Xenomorph was going to leap out of the glovebox. It’s definitely an emotional sound, I’m just not sure “existential dread” was the emotion that AMG had in mind.
With it mercifully deactivated – something you can do by default in the customizable Individual drive mode, but must toggle each time you switch through AMG’s presets – the cabin hush is at glorious odds with the pace this most potent of EQS is capable of.
On the highway, it’s hard to argue that electrification isn’t the clear and true future of luxury vehicles. A V12 may be syrupy in its lavish, low-rev power, while AMG’s favored V8 twin-turbo undoubtedly has its punchy charms, yet the seamless thrum of two electric motors leave each feeling like coughing reminders of a dying age. Even in Comfort mode, the AMG EQS surges forward with a smooth wave of uninterrupted potency, easily modulated with Mercedes’ three-stage regenerative braking system, but always ready for overtaking or seizing the moment for a cross-lane maneuver.
The rear axle steering – a full 9-degrees of twist – helps there, of course, and AMG intentionally dialed in a broader spread of comfort through to performance in its drive mode settings. Then again, the regular EQS is hardly a slowpoke; my main curiosity was how the not-insubstantial heft of a luxury performance EV could hold up in more engaging terrain.
Rising up through the winding roads above Palm Springs, a pea-soup fog Olde London Town would’ve been proud of reminded me of a risks of a one-trick pony. After all, if you’ve pinned your hopes on that one, perfect car for that one, perfect road, the discovery that you can’t see six feet beyond the grille could result in dismay at best. At worst, missing the edge of the mountain altogether.
Thankfully California’s dalliance with winter was reserved for the very highest altitudes; winding back down provided plenty of opportunities to see how the AMG EQS could nail the twin-personality challenge. A small but useful graph gives an idea of what proportion of the total power you have to play with in each drive mode, not that nine-tenths of up to 761 horses is much of a sacrifice. The briefest squeeze of the accelerator is enough to send the EQS lunging forward ridiculously; the copious regen – capable of up to 300 kW – more than sufficient to slow you down again.
