Mercedes EQS review – The EV that’s a long-range missile

IT’S always a good sign when little kids totter over to check out your car, wide-eyed and pointing excitedly (unless it happens to be on fire or something). So it is with the Mercedes-EQ EQS, which made both children and adults stare, gawp and goggle everywhere it went. And why not? They’d never seen anything like this electric Mercedes, and neither have you.

To hear Mercedes describe it, the EQS is the S-Class of the electric car world, as opposed to being an electric S-Class. It’s the first Mercedes designed from the outset as an electric vehicle (EV), which is material, because it means it was optimised for the typical EV layout that has all the batteries under the floor.

This one, the EQS 450+, kicks off the range with a single rear motor, while the twin-motor Mercedes-AMG 53 version, with all of 761 horsepower to its name, is the one to buy if you’re both eco-minded and a performance junkie.