The final pieces of the puzzle are falling into place for the 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS ahead of its U.S. launch this fall, and one of those is its official EPA range rating.
After our first drive of the EQS in Switzerland over the summer, we guessed that the most efficient models might top 400 miles of range given the car’s WLTP cycle rating of 485 miles. But on the EPA’s more conservative cycle, the EQS falls short of that mark, with the single-motor, rear-wheel drive EQS 450+ receiving a 350-mile range rating. The good news is that opting for the more powerful, dual-motor all-wheel drive EQS 580 only drops range slightly, to 340 miles.
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS first drive (EQS 580)
That’s a very small price to pay for the EQS 580’s extra electric motor and large gains in power. The EQS 450+ offers more than enough power for ultra-comfortable day-to-day driving, but the EQS 580’s performance is on a different level. It drives with the easy power that more luxury customers are looking for, vaulting its 5,888 pounds forward with appreciable ease.
Speaking of luxury, that rating puts the EQS in the middle of the luxury pack on range (for now). While its ratings do beat the Porsche Taycan/Audi e-Tron GT duo by a good margin, those models top out at 227 miles in range for the Porsche and 238 miles for the Audi, the EQS falls short of two other key competitors: the Tesla Model S and the Lucid Air we got to test last week out in Arizona. The Model S long range offers an estimated 405 miles, and the Lucid Air is rated at a whopping 520 miles, with the lower-rated trim still offering 516 miles of range.
2022 Lucid Air
The Lucid is the big winner here. The Lucid Air has a very large price tag (Dream Edition Performance models start at $169,000), but now the sedan has a significant bragging point over the Mercedes. The EQS starts at $126,630 for its line-topping pinnacle EQS 580 trim, and to some that might make the Lucid Air’s price feel more legitimate given the nearly 50-percent gain you get in range.
On a drive around the San Francisco Bay Area to get acquainted with the EQS on California roads, I suspect the car’s reported efficiency came close to those figures. I started the day in an EQS 580 with the battery charged at 83% and the trip computer showing 303 miles of range, which translates to about 365 miles of range on a full battery. After a morning of mixed city/highway driving (and 30-mile stretch on curvy mountain roads) that covered 139.1 miles, the range figure was knocked down by 146 miles to 157 miles remaining, with a 44% state of charge—figuring out to about 357 miles of range.
2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS first drive (EQS 580)
Despite the range figure, and some strangely tuned brake-pedal feel, the rest of the package stands out enough to charm after a few quiet minutes behind the wheel. The 2022 EQS’ luxury bona fides are not in doubt. It has an incredibly luxurious interior with a giant technological showpiece in the Hyperscreen, and a comfortable ride befitting what it's intended to be—the “S-Class of electric vehicles.”
