Mercedes GLE 400 e Coupe review: Why this Benz could be worth half a million after all

[SINGAPORE] The Mercedes GLE 400 e Coupe is such a mish-mash of genres, it could not be more Frankensteinian if Mary Shelley herself were its product chief.

The car’s full name looks a bit like a cat traipsed across my keyboard – Mercedes-Benz GLE 400 e 4Matic Coupe AMG Line – but when decoded, those 38 characters hint at the many genres this car aims to cover. 

It’s an off-roader with four-wheel drive, a luxury car and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). And, yes, it’s also a coupe with sporty pretensions, mostly in the form of large front and rear aprons, enormous 22-inch wheels and a tasteful spoiler lip on the tailgate.

As a PHEV, it’s a part-time electric car, with up to 100 kilometres of battery-only range before a two-litre turbo engine takes over for longer hauls. I managed a little over 80 km before running the battery down, but I’d say the GLE 400 e Coupe is for you if you want, say, futuristic electric drive for two days at a time in the city, but feel like the odd blast to Malacca for a golf game.

The GLE 400 e Coupe’s many-cars-in-one existence is the least you can expect from something whose price starts at S$512,888 with a Certificate Of Entitlement (COE), but it’s worth knowing that Mercedes has already rolled out a facelifted version, putting this one in the awkward position of being yesterday’s pretzel.

Still, if you and everyone else who has a stake in your car-buying decision cannot all agree on what to get, this might settle things. It has the ride height and driving position of a sport utility vehicle (SUV), for starters, as well as some of the ruggedness, as evidenced by the metallic running boards that help shorter folk clamber aboard.

It’ll even hike itself higher on its air springs so it can clear rocky terrain, although honestly, taking this on anything more challenging than a carpark ramp would mean you feel no pain from scratched bodywork and a scuffed undercarriage.

The Mercedes is also a credible family car. Despite the way the roofline tapers gently to the rear, there’s somehow room in the back for three tall persons, with four air-conditioning vents back there for good measure.

At 510 litres, the boot is reasonably big, but there’s no under-floor storage (the plug-in system’s battery lives back there), and the fastback shape leaves little loading height for bulky items, such as a mountain bike. You can fold the rear seats to give yourself as much as 1,645 litres of space, but if you really want SUV practicality, you’ll have to buy a real SUV.

The stylishly low roofline also means you have to dip your head when you enter, and it’s sometimes hard to see out of the car, so it’s just as well that the 360-degree monitor’s display is good and sharp.

Where the Mercedes really confounded my expectations was how sporty it was to drive. For something so lofty, it can get around corners at a fair clip without much body roll. The tyres grip the tarmac like a miser grips a hundred-dollar bill.

And while there isn’t a huge amount of steering feedback, you do get more than the modern electric vehicle norm. All of which is to say, you can storm around bends with far more joy than anything built on SUV underpinnings has a right to deliver.

There is a cost to that, however. The low-speed ride is almost punishingly busy. Sometimes you’re just not sure if the air springs and active dampers are trying to jostle you awake or deal with the car’s 2.7-tonne kerb weight.

That’s a pity, because the GLE 400 e Coupe is otherwise as refined as a rolling gentlemen’s club. In pure electric mode, it wafts around all but silently, and even when you wake up the engine for maximum thrust, the cultured roar it makes is nice and distant. 

All that aside, the interior has the solidity that came with Benzes of old, along with tasteful ambient lighting, easy-to-use controls and dual 12.3-inch displays that still look good by today’s standards.

Ultimately, the GLE 400 e Coupe doesn’t master any one task, but it will let you scratch any automotive itch you might have, from luxury car to SUV to sporty coupe, plus the itch to drive an electric car that you perhaps didn’t even know you had.

Frankenstein’s monster turned out to be more than the sum of its parts, and so does this.

Mercedes-Benz GLE 400 e 4Matic Coupe AMG Line Engine 1,999 cc, turbocharged in-line four Engine power 252 hp at 5,800 rpm Engine torque 400 Nm at 2,000 to 3,200 rpm Electric motor 156 hp/440 Nm System power 381 hp System torque 650 Nm Gearbox Nine-speed automatic  0-100 kmh 6.1 seconds Top Speed 210 kmh Fuel Efficiency 3.9 L/100 km Electric range 100 km Agent Cycle & Carriage Singapore Price S$512,888 with COE Available Now