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During a recent family trip to Southern California, Mercedes lent us two of their flagship electric vehicles. We picked up an EQS SUV at the airport, drove it around Los Angeles and to Big Bear Mountain and back, stress testing that huge battery against elevation and high speeds. Then, to switch it up, I drove the slightly less family-friendly but more fun EQE to destinations around LA for the second half of the week. Yes, $130K cars are so much more decadent than the Hertz vehicles we’d planned for, but here are my big takeaways.

Picking up the EQS SUV from LAX, it is a relatively unassuming car (especially compared to the Red AMG EQE we’ll discuss later) that most people won’t recognize as a six-figure flagship EV. The gorgeous front plastic grille tips the hand a little bit, but otherwise, this is a very unassuming vehicle on the outside other than the Mercedes logos.

Just like the EQS Sedan I reviewed last year, the inside was gorgeous and luxurious, though it lacked the passenger dash third screen. It also lacked the Galaxy tab in the back but had most of the other accouterments, including those light massaging front seats, which would be key after a day of snowboarding. I’ll stick by my previous statements on the interior, though the SUV naturally even has more headroom:

If the inside of the EQS is anything, it is roomy. The sheer enormity of the interior is hard to put into words. Add to that the ginormous “Hyperscreen” which his really 3 screens under the same glass that spans the width of the front of the vehicle…a control screen between the 2 front seats allows those in the rear to individually control their temperature settings.

What’s ironic is you don’t even have to look at the three big screens while driving because Mercedes includes one of the best heads up displays in the business. In fact, this is the first car that I preferred the built in mapping software to CarPlay/Google Maps and that’s because of the heads up integration – also it does look amazing on that huge center display.

The kids (11, 14) loved the ability to wireless charge in the armrest and adjust the back seat temperature, something they don’t get in the Chevy Bolt and Tesla Model Y they are used to at home. There’s also a ton more room in the back which almost kept them from fighting.

Probably the biggest difference is the boot, which now goes from a big EQS sedan to an even bigger SUV. That was key when it came to carrying our snowboards and equipment up the mountain.

Although we were four people on this trip, there was a third row, which I found roomy and housed our youngest during a particularly contentious part of the trip.

I climbed in the third row, and at 6 feet, 220 pounds, I felt like claustrophobia would take about 30 minutes to kick in. Even with the third row, there is plenty of room in the back for a row of groceries and even a false floor to store charging apparatus or other items.

No frunk, no hood access

The ample rear space is key here because not only does Mercedes not have a frunk, but they also don’t even allow access to the front hood area. I was curious to see where one would add the wiper fluid – it turns out there is a door on the driver’s side that you can use to do that.

It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for them.

The Mercedes EQS SUV drive

Any wonderment about why someone would pay $130K for an SUV is immediately answered once you hit the road. The air suspension makes my sub-$50,000 vehicles at home feel like panel trucks. The cabin is whisper quiet even at 80mph, the turning is relatively tight, and the sub-6 second 0-60 acceleration is strong. Mercedes adds an acceleration soundtrack option which I felt compelled to try and found “not distracting.”

Mercedes, as is often the case, has a ton of varieties of the EQS SUV, and I had a middle-ish trim called 450 4MATIC. In this trim, the EPA mileage is 285 miles from the 108.4kWh battery. It was only tested on our 2.5-hour, 120-mile trip up the mountain to Big Bear. Around town, I’d seen mileage pretty closely pinned to the EPA range, but going 80mph up to 8000 feet? Let’s just say we stopped at a ChargePoint 50kW station (that put out <33kW) at dinner before our trip back.

Chargepoint Mercedes EQS

It turns out that after regenerating most of the way down the mountain, we probably would have made the 240-mile round trip without the need for a charge, but I found myself playing it a lot safer without a garage charger waiting for me at home.

Easy street parking charging

This isn’t Mercedes-specific, but I found that it was really easy to keep these cars topped up with all of the options around town. Our Santa Monica Airbnb had street parking without access to power, but ChargePoint seemed to be everywhere, including about 20 level 2 stations at the beach where my kids surfed and a neighborhood station we topped up at over dinner a few times. Redondo Beach’s library, a few blocks from the beach/pier, also had some level 2 options that were easy and helpful. There was never any range anxiety, and I don’t even know if we lost any time because charging stations were so close to our venues and easy. I realize that Los Angeles is anything but a charging infrastructure desert, but this was the first time I’d gone 10 days without a garage charger, and it was too easy.

Switch to the AMG EQE

About midway through the week, Mercedes swapped out our EQS SUV with the AMG EQE sedan. (Yes, rough life, I know.) My wife and I had opposite reactions to the swap. Hers was, “This is worse in every way. It is smaller, [has] fewer seats, less room, has less range, it’s red, and has sports suspension.” As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to just nod my head and sigh and save my adulation for the written word here.

At nearly the same price as the EQS SUV, the AMG variant of the EQE is gorgeous, and the “Patagonia Red metallic” color? A show stopper. We had zero people asking about the EQS SUV, whereas the AMG EQE had people visiting us at almost every stop to look and ask questions. Standout design additions are the small spoiler in the back, the pinstripe grille, fake air intakes in the front, and dope 21-inch AMG multispoke turbine wheels. I think a chrome-less version would be off the charts.

While smaller, there is still plenty of room for a family of four, and the trunk, it turns out, was surprisingly adequate at holding our three suitcases, bags, skateboards, and other souvenirs.

Inside, it is just as wild with a racing-inspired steering wheel with paddles with different racing options. When you turn the car on, it sounds like you are about to watch a THX movie and the permanent RGB light colors go from door to door.

This is a family vacation, so I didn’t get to test the 3.2 second 0-60 time, but my kids did get used to the “heads back” command before every green light. The fake motor sound here is louder and more noticeable… and fitting. Otherwise, even with the sports wheels and suspension, it is quiet and drives fantastically.

Those big shoes and 617 horsepower/701 lb-ft torque carry a huge range penalty dropping the range on the AMG EQE’s 90.6 kWH battery down from 305 miles of range in the standard edition down close to 225 miles (EPA not yet available) in the AMG variant according to the dashboard. I realize that might be a deal-breaker for some, but to Mercedes’ credit, their range is conservative.

Electrek’s Take

I wasn’t able to put these EVs through the performance paces and get into the intricate details like I would do on a normal review, but having the family along for the week presented its own nuanced tests. I’d argue that these were more telling for most than the normal speeds and feeds. And unsurprisingly, these two Mercedes vehicles passed with flying colors.

The big caveat is the price. Third-row eSUVs can be found at half the price (heck, Mercedes own EQB starts at $55K), and the slightly slower Tesla’s Model 3P and BMW’s i4 M50 are priced much lower and offer significantly more range than the AMG EQE.

That said, if you’ve got six figures to burn and want the best drives and overall vehicles possible, both of these electric vehicles worked incredibly well with my family of four. I now just have to talk my wife out of trading our Model Y for the EQS SUV.

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.

France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.

At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.

And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:

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While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.

FRANCO-GERMAN COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS (FGCEE)

That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.

“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”

The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.

You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.

Electrek’s Take

Hydrogen-sceptical truck maker MAN to produce limited series of 200 vehicles with H2 combustion engines
MAN hydrogen semi; via MAN Trucks.

MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.

He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”

With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

On today’s tariff-tastic episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got tariffs! Big ones, small ones, crazy ones, and fake ones – but whether or not you agree with the Trump tariffs coming into effect tomorrow, one thing is absolutely certain: they are going to change the price you pay for your next car … and that price won’t be going down!

Everyone’s got questions about what these tariffs are going to mean for their next car buying experience, but this is a bigger question, since nearly every industry in the US uses cars and trucks to move their people and products – and when their costs go up, so do yours.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction


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