I have a G and a GLS. Both fit (yes G too) car seats comfortably. I am assuming the E will have more space than the G. Is that true? I need a commuter car and want to save the G for special things (rather than add all the miles on it). What's the rec on the car? I really like that it is hybrid and will cover my daily driving on battery range (less than 30 miles/day).

 

I can't comment on space in the current G, but having ridden in prior G's I would think that you are going to have more space in the E. I could look up the specs online, but I'm too lazy. Space is largely subjective and an inch or two which doesn't seem like much on paper does add to the feeling of space in the car.

An E53, especially the wagon, with more storage space in the back, is an excellent daily driver. Since you have a G and a GLS, you have hauling options and could also go with the E53 sedan as your daily driver. A garage combination of G, GLS and E53 would be great. The battery range will easily do 30 miles per day.

I recommend going for the E53.

 

I can't comment on space, either. Don't have kids, so child seats is not a thing for me. Neither are 4-doors really, as I rarely have passengers in the rear. However, I was just wondering why a complicated hybrid when you seem to wanna drive electric mostly? You still have all the combustion engine maintenance needs and schlep it along on your commute for no good reason. Why not an EV for commuting? That's what they are perfect for. You have the G and GLS for potentially longer trips if you don't wanna deal with having to charge an EV on a road trip.

 

@superswiss makes good points as always. My counterpoint on this one is that the E53 only comes in hybrid format and it's pretty awesome as a daily commuter.

 

I don't disagree in principal and I know the design of the EQE is controversial, but even an EQE 320 will have more torque and be faster than the E53 in EV mode that is leaving over 400 horses on the table. Of course you can always call up more power from the engine, but then you are asking a cold engine to suddenly potentially contribute a lot of power. That's not even remotely ideal. So the majority of the time you are lugging around dead weight and are driving a 160 hp car to work, but are paying for a 600 hp ICE and all the maintenance that comes with that. Not to mention that the EQE is roomier inside.

 

electric just for commute. Car will drive a lot more miles than electric range. Too many miles on my gls and g already and want to save the g now. Not buying the e. It'll be a short lease. Have had 11 evs so far. Kind of sick of them. Luxury factor isn't there (they are adding it now to bmw and Mercedes) in teslas (what I mostly had) and I'm just bored of them. Want luxury and character and comfort for kids drop offs.

 

I hear you. I was mainly curious. I've driven the AMG EQE at a few AMG events over the last few years and I was bored of it after the second event to be honest, but I had a few EQE loaners in recent years and for just A to B driving, I could see owning one if I had a commute.

 

how old are your kids? I was coming from a GLE450e to the E53 estate and the rear seat is perfect - almost as comfy as the GLE. My son is 5 years old, 45” tall - 48 lbs, and he fits great in the car seat (Nuna AACE). Highly recommend the Nuna AACE if your kid is in a similar age range. Design looks nice and it is slimmer form factor.

 

Great minds think alike. Just signed 2 year lease on an E53 wagon tonight to be daily driver. G's for shorter commutes and weekend duty.

Only have one still in a booster car seat. Have to imagine the E has more room between seats than the G.

 

You will commute less than 30 miles per day on electric. Countering the argument that on a PHEV, you will be carrying around an engine that is doing nothing, on a full EV, you will be hauling heavy batteries, most of which will also be doing nothing because your battery is not going to drain that much..

Here's some quick numbers that I pulled off a google search. The numbers could be completely wrong and I'm not going to bother checking. The E53 engine is estimated to be around 381 pounds. An EQS battery pack weighs around 1,600 pounds. The E53 battery at 28.6 kWh is 24% of the weight of the EQS 118 kWh battery. Therefore, the EQS battery is 1,212 pounds heavier than the E53 battery.

The E53 signals an empty gas tank at 2.6 gallons of reserve with over 60 miles of range in my experience. Let's say you want an additional 100 miles of gas range at 26 MPG. You would keep your tank around 3.8 additional gallons of gas for 6.4 gallons of gas in the tank. If each gallon of gas weighs 6 pounds, Then the weight of gas will be 38.4 pounds. We would need to add in the weight of the gas tank, which I'm not going to do. I'm sure there are a bunch of other weight differences between a PHEV and an EV, which I'm going to ignore here.

The E53 PHEV engine + gas is going to weigh 381 + 38 = 419 pounds more than if it didn't have the engine. Since the EV is going to be carrying around 1,212 pounds of battery which you will never use, if you go with the PHEV carrying 419 pounds that you will never use, you will be carrying 793 pounds less of dead weight in the PHEV than in the EV.

 

Nice combination!

 

Normally driving around, 30 HP is sufficient to keep the car going in electric mode. The 160 HP electric motor handles this well. In E53 electric mode, as you press the accelerator pedal to the point where the car needs more than 160 HP, you feel a resistance point in the pedal. The EV power meter on the driver display goes up to 100% at the 12:00 mark. If any more power is requested from the accelerator pedal, the car goes into comfort mode, the gas engine kicks in, and the tachometer which starts at the same 12:00 point on the driver display comes alive.

If I'm scooting out into traffic, sometimes I hold the pedal at the resistance point knowing that I don't need the extra power. Other times, I want to get out quicker and I purposefully call up the ICE engine to add more power. Once the ICE engine is added, the car accelerates quite fast, which does make for safer entrances from a stop onto a main road. Mercedes did a great job on the human interface letting us know when the car is going to go from only electric power to electric power plus ICE power. The transition from EV to EV + ICE is seamless for the driver except for just the right about of feedback at the point the transition occurs. (On a separate note, having the paddle shifters change regen in EV mode and the change gears in ICE modes doesn't seem as well thought out as the EV to ICE transition human interface. I'd like to try a car with upper and lower paddle shifters with one set controlling regen and the other controlling gear selection.)

An E53 is way faster that an EQE 320 when in EV mode and extra power is requested from the ICE using the accelerator pedal. The EQE may be faster than the E53 if you leave out the E53's 443 HP engine, but the engine is always there ready to go, so why leave it out?

As you are cruising down the road using 30 HP, you are lugging around dead weight in any car.

 

I don’t think I had really appreciated that the E53 will engage the ICE engine even in electric mode, but I guess it makes sense that you wouldn’t want to be limited to 160 HP in such a heavy vehicle.

So how does the experience differ when you have a hybrid drive mode selected? Is the idea that the ICE engine kicks on more seamlessly — i.e., without the driver needing to overcome a resistance point in the pedal?

 

hybrid mode will continually and seamlessly move between electric and gas as it sees fit throughout the entire range of pedal movement. In electric mode, it will stay entirely in electric mode unless than until you depress the pedal all the way or exceed the speed that the electric motor is capable of (or you run out of electronics)

 

The electric motor has immediate torque like electric cars do, so it can move from a stop pretty well. However, there are times when you start from a stop and 354 lb-ft of torque and 160 HP from the electric motor isn't enough. and you want to activate the combustion engine. Although I haven't run into it yet, I'd imagine there are times when you are driving along in electric mode and you want more power to pass so you want additional assistance from the combustion engine. On the other hand, maybe I have experienced needing additional power while driving and the car seamlessly added the additional power needed and I didn't take note of it.

Before I got the E53, the drive mode options were confusing. After driving 500 miles or so, it became intuitive. Within the first 50 miles of driving, the drive modes are still confusing. It's best to think of the E53 powertrain as an electric motor and a combustion engine that work together rather than thinking of it as a car that switches between an electric vehicle and a combustion vehicle. Before getting the car, I thought of it as a combustion car with an electric power booster. Now I think of it as an electric car with a combustion booster. Like I mentioned above, I should think of it as a car that has both combustion and electric power which alternates or combines power sources to best fit the situation.

The E53 doesn't have hybrid "H" mode. The AMG performance hybrid system also reserves some battery for electric boost. It gives up some electric range to always have extra power on tap. I am guessing that the way that this is implemented is that once the battery reaches the performance reserve threshold and thus the "everyday useable" battery state of charge is at 0%, the car switches to battery hold mode but shows that it is in comfort "C" mode to the driver.

The car starts in electric "E" mode if the everyday usable portion of the battery is not depleted. If the everyday battery has been depleted, it starts in comfort "C" mode. In electric mode "E", you are telling the car that you want to drive using the electric motor. If you call for more than 160 HP, with the accelerator, it switches automatically into comfort, "C" mode and starts the engine almost immediately. At the point where more power requires the combustion engine to start, you will feel the haptic resistance in the gas pedal. Once the combustion engine starts, the haptic feedback on the accelerator pedal goes away. The haptic feedback is well done and is a good feature of the car.

If I am pulling out onto an extremely busy road, while I'm waiting for an opening, I'll use the AMG dial to put the car in sport "S" mode which fires up the combustion engine while I'm waiting. As I accelerate out, onto the main street, the car has the immediate torque of the electric motor plus the power of the gas engine. It accelerates quickly in this mode.

If I am pulling out onto a moderately busy road, I just leave it in electric mode. When starting a turn onto a busy road from a stop, I'll put the accelerator all the way to the resistance point so I get onto the road quickly and have space in front of the cars that are approaching me from behind. If I need some extra power, I just go past the resistance point. 160 HP with immediate electric torque is sufficient to pull out in most cases, but it nice to know that more power is available if needed. When going past the accelerator resistance point, the car switches into comfort "C" mode and fires up the combustion engine for additional power. This is seamless except that the paddle shifters switch from changing regeneration rates in electric mode to changing gears in comfort mode. When I was first driving the car, I had a few times when the car switched to comfort mode automatically and then I hit the paddle for extra regeneration and revved the engine by mistake. Which is why I'd like to see how the same car would feel to drive with two sets of paddle shifters -- top paddles for regeneration and bottom paddles for gear changes.

Yesterday, I did pull out in electric mode but then wanted to create more space between me and the cars approaching from behind, so I engaged the combustion engine by pressing further on the accelerator. It isn't an everyday occurrence where I have to engage the combustion engine while in electric mode, but there are a few places in town which have high traffic main roads.

Comfort "C" mode will engage the combustion engine as needed and the electric motor when possible. You will still have haptic feedback on the accelerator pedal in comfort mode if driving on the electric motor and requesting more than 160 HP. Starting from a stop is almost always done with the electric motor when the car is in comfort mode. When stopped in comfort mode, the car turns the combustion engine off. Even if the everyday useable state of charge is 0%, the car will use the electric motor in stop and go traffic in comfort mode. This results in the E53 getting much better gas mileage than one would expect out of a 577 HP car. With 0% everyday battery charge, the car will still regenerate charge to the battery when going down hills. If I'm doing a long highway trip, the car will periodically turn off the combustion engine and use the electric motor even with a 0% everyday battery state of charge.

Once the everyday battery state of charge goes to 0%, the car switches automatically to comfort mode. As mentioned above, I suspect this is implemented by going into battery hold mode but showing that it is in comfort mode to the driver.

In battery hold mode "B", the car attempts to maintain the current state of charge for the battery. Maintaining speed while driving will normally be done with the combustion engine while in battery hold mode. As the battery charges from driving downhill and regenerative braking, the car will be able to use the electric motor and turn off the combustion engine. The car may use the electric motor to start from a stop in battery hold mode.

In sport "S" mode, the combustion engine stays on, even while stopped. The engine auto stop-start feature is disabled. Maximum output from the combined electric motor and gas engine is always available. You can think of this as driving on the combustion engine with electric boost available if needed to accelerate faster.

Sport Plus "S+" mode has the full power of sport mode. This mode allows more of the car's natural understeer and oversteer characteristics while driving. In other words, you have full power and the computers are much less likely to save your butt if the car pushes or gets loose.

Slippery mode "snowflake symbol" is used for starting from a stop and driving in snowy conditions.

Individual "I" mode is a custom configuration that the driver can set.

Comfort and electric modes are the recommended modes for normal driving. The typical way to drive the car is to leave it in electric mode and have it switch to comfort mode automatically when needing more power or when the everyday useable amount of battery charge has been consumed. I start the car in electric mode rather than starting in comfort mode. The experience of driving in comfort mode with a full electric charge might be different than the experience I described for comfort mode above. I may try driving the car in comfort mode with a full charge to see if it uses the combustion engine differently than starting in electric mode. Although I haven't driven in comfort mode much with a full electric charge, I'm guessing that the car uses the electric motor and combustion engine similarly in both modes but switches the paddle shifters from regeneration level to gear changes with comfort mode. If you use the paddle shifters in comfort mode while the car is being driven on the electric motor, the combustion engine will start.

I hope this clarifies how the E53 dynamic select modes work a bit. In practice it is easier to understand than the multiple scenarios above suggest. It becomes intuitive once you drive the car and observe when it uses the electric motor and when it uses the combustion engine.

 

If a person has an unnatural aversion to hybrids they can drive the car in sport mode and never charge it.

The E53 would be a combustion engine car but would accelerate 0-60 faster than an RS6 Avant or 2023 E63 due to the torque from the electric motor providing power while the combustion engine turbos spool up.

 

As somebody who just took delivery today these are amazing posts. Thanks for bringing us up to speed so quickly.

 

Congrats, an E 53 plus G 63 is a good choice/combination.

 

Yes — many thanks for the detailed responses.

 

I took the E53 out for a drive today. It has now passed the run-in miles, so I drove local backroads and the highway in sport mode. Sport mode was surprisingly livable. The suspension was comfortable. The E53 didn't raise the RPMS above comfort mode level. I was expecting it to raise the revs a bit to add more engine noise and to be further in the power band. Power is always available in sport mode with the combustion engine running and the electric motor available for instant thrust, so the E53 doesn't need to raise revs in sport mode. The E53 likes to drive around between 1,500 and 2,000 RPMS. Sport mode adds exhaust notes on rev matched down shifts with a subtle engine blip. I didn't hear any exhaust burbles on overrun. (Maybe the combustion engine is never on overrun as the car is charging the battery with electric motor regeneration instead.) I could daily drive in sports mode. I could drive my family around in sport mode and they wouldn't object. The driving experience in the E53 in sport mode as an executive luxury sports wagon is excellent.

The E53 in sports mode at normal speeds on local roads and on the highways seemed tame in respect to former AMG tuning. I was expecting Sport mode to up the aggression. Sports mode used to be what the driver would select for a bit of fun before getting stuck behind another car and switching back to comfort mode. This is not the E63 which scares young children on startup. Nor are there loud burbles on overrun or loud blips on downshift causing the neighbors to shake their fists at you as you drive by. This E53 is a fast, civilized car, for luxury executive transport. It's what an E53 should be. That said, a race car in street wagon disguise should exist as a testament to human engineering. I get why people want AMG to release an E63. I personally would buy the E53 rather than an E63. I want the E63 to exist, but if we can only have one of them, I want the E53 to exist more.

As I exited the highway in sport mode, enjoying the automatic rev matching, I approached stopped traffic in the city. I switched over to electric mode and drove the remainder of the way in electric mode. Over the 15-mile trip, the car claimed 43.1 mpg and 3.6 mpkWh. This isn't a true MPG because it counts the miles driving in electric mode as the miles in the MPG calculation. The same goes for the mpkWh calculation. What it does show is that you can drive the 577 HP car in sport mode when traffic is flowing and then switch to electric mode in heavy traffic and you aren't going to be emptying the gas tank.

On the return trip, I drove back in comfort mode. Most of my daily driving to date has been in electric mode within battery range. I took the car on some longer trips to see how it would perform in comfort mode with 0% useable battery. Today I did the return trip in comfort mode with plenty of battery remaining. I was expecting it to drive very similarly to electric mode. I was not completely correct. Comfort mode, compared with electric mode, adds more combustion engine driving but didn't leave the combustion engine on for long stretches of time. On the highway it liked to turn on the combustion engine. When starting quickly from a stop, in comfort mode, it turned on the engine immediately. If starting from a stop in slow traffic, it stayed on electric mode. During 35 to 45 MPH local driving, it seemed to give preference to driving on the electric motor. @E53DadWagon said above, the E53 "will continually and seamlessly move between electric and gas as it sees fit throughout the entire range of pedal movement." This is a good explanation of how the car acts in comfort mode. It goes back and forth with the electric motor and combustion engine being the primary and the other the booster.

On a longer trip I noticed that the car likes to drive the rear wheels on the highway. It would switch to using both front and rear wheels at times. I'm not sure why it chooses to vary the drive wheels on a dry highway in spring. The drive wheel power transfer is completely unnoticeable to the driver. I observed the power split on the central display. In the snow it can quickly move the power to the axles as needed.

The car is able to use regeneration when going down hills or slowing in any mode. When going downhill, it seems to be aware of the speed limit. If I take my foot off the accelerator, in automatic regeneration mode, it will keep the speed going downhill just above the speed limit. If I turn on the turn signal, and it is in auto regen, it will slow the car before the turn. When I first drove the car, I preferred to set the regeneration rate manually so that it was more predictable. In comfort mode, auto regeneration is the only level available. As I have more experience with the car, I am finding that the intelligence built-in to automatic regeneration is sometimes helpful. Auto regeneration is also annoying at times. Driving back in comfort mode, going into a 35 MPH zone from a 45 MPH zone, the car switched to extra regeneration after I took my foot off the accelerator and gave the feeling of braking when I intended to free-wheel or sail. To avoid the car choosing extra regeneration or sailing when you want regeneration, it is necessary to keep some pressure on the accelerator, even if it is a tiny bit of pressure. This is different from driving a pure ICE car. I'm not yet a fan of being forced to be in auto regeneration in comfort mode. Mercedes does this because in comfort mode, the paddles switch from changing regeneration level to changing gears. Mercedes could have an MBUX setting that allows us to pick a constant regeneration level -- low, medium, high, auto -- when in comfort mode, but they don't. When reviewers mention the weird braking in comfort mode, I think they are referring to the unpredictability of regenerative braking. The friction brakes are good except when going below 1 MPH where modulating between a stop and a slow creep is difficult.

 

In comfort mode, the E53 drives on the electric motor more than I would have expected when the everyday useable battery is at 0% state of charge. In comfort mode it drives on the combustion engine more than I would have expected when the everyday useable battery is full.

In electric mode it is driving with the electric motor only unless you call up more than 160 HP or go more than 87 MPH, in which case it switches to comfort mode where it can engage the combustion engine.

In sport or sport plus mode, it is always driving on the combustion engine and can add electric motor boost if needed.

 

Perhaps since it is the first time or first prolonged time you are driving it in sport node, the car still has to learn your change in behaviour say for example (post break-in behaviour), this includes shift points tailored to your own driving habits and as well as the exhaust note. When you drive it in sport mode and especially agressive (i mean in a spirited way) it will likely to be rev happy and the exhaust will be more pronounced.

 

I think you are right. I just got past the break-in period and haven't revved it yet.

 

In my experience, S stays in the gears longer, but doesn't rev that much higher even in my C63S. It's a fairly balanced daily drivable mode for when you want the transmission to not upshift quite as eagerly. I mostly drive in manual mode outside of C, though, so I don't use S all that much. I mostly use I*, which I have configured similar to S+, except for the suspension in S and the transmission in M. It's my highway and open road mode. With the E53's electric assist, the low end torque can be handled by the e-motor, so the ICE doesn't really need to rev out all that much and the e-motor can do torque fill, so the ICE is really more there for the top end.