Mercedes S580e: Next gen luxury, electrified
These days, the S-Class comes in various flavors, from the classic combustion engine as in the S 500 to the S-Class of the future in the EQS 580. However, what if you would combine the best of both worlds into one? The S 580 e might be the answer for you.
Combining Mercedes-EQ and Mercedes-Benz has worked quite a few times. Especially with a bigger battery pack. We saw this in the GLE 350 de, with a 31-kWh battery pack this hybrid could travel 80 km without turning on the combustion engine. The only thing lacking in the GLE was sufficient power from the small diesel.
Sophisticated powertrain
This is where the new S-Class comes in and it does packs the punch. Up front is a smooth and torquey 3.0 six-cylinder engine producing 367 hp and 500 Nm’s, which are being sent to the rear wheels. To help this along, a 150 hp, 480 Nm electric motor is fitted to the gearbox.
This results in a system output of 510 hp and 750 Nm.
The battery is a 28,6-kWh pack, a lot larger than the 13,5-kWh from the outgoing S-Class hybrid. In theory Mercedes states 100 km (WLTP) but 90 km is more realistic without killing all luxuries inside.
Plus the great thing about this hybrid is that Mercedes has implemented fast charging into the S 580 e with up to 60 kW of DC charging. However, the standard fast-charging option is 20 kW. Sixty kW charging is only available if you manually select it. Battery degradation is higher when selecting this, but it does allow the battery to be fully charged to 100% in just 30 minutes.
What does this mean in day-to-day driving? It all depends on your driving schedule. The 30-minute fast charging does work wonders when you’ve planned a small stop in between. Driving electric is a joy but so is driving with that straight six. With that, this S-Class really knows how to move when the electric motor gives an extra push on the gearbox.
Over the 2.200 km traveled we managed to drive 1.300 of those kilometers purely on electricity. This resulted in an average consumption of 4,8 l/100 km. A very respectable number which will only drop on shorter trips. The average distance traveled each day is 35 kilometers so the S-Class with its 90-kilometer electric range provides plenty for day-to-day travel.
Unparalleled luxury
As we saw in the S 500, the new S-Class is booming with technology. Most notably is the Mercedes Me assistant who’s gotten quite the upgrade. It’s a lot more comprehensive in the different ways it can understand multiple ways of expressing the same commands. We’ve seen this interior before in the S 500, so it feels repetitive in saying it but the S takes a new step into redefining the luxury inside. One of my favourite features is the 360° multi-colour interior lighting, setting it to dynamic really sets the mood inside the car.
This is a long wheelbase car and it really shows inside, the executive package is a must have. Even if you’re not sitting in the back all day, the moments you do get to spend in the back after a long day you’ll be thankful for it. The soft cushion for your head, the nice lounge seating position, the vast amounts of legroom. This package is the perfect way to calm down. Turn on the massage, put on your noise cancelling headphones and just relax.
Speaking about other ways that make you calm down during driving. The assists. Mainly the improved head-up-display is such a powerful tool. It’s probably the largest HUD installed in any car yet. The upside is that it allows to have heaps of information into your eye line. Remember the AR Mercedes introduced in their GPS which shows the road on the infotainment screen with arrows pointing to where you need to go. Now this has been moved from the screen onto the HUD and thus projecting AR into the real world. A game changer.
New levels of autonomy
So the S-Class is the first car now to be allowed to use level 3 autonomous driving in the world. The first country where it is available is Germany, so naturally we were eager to try this and took a little trip to the land of curry wurst. We did this at night to also see how well the Digital Light would work.
Quickly a few things became apparent: firstly Mercedes states that the Level 3 autonomy is only available on certain parts of the Autobahn and we couldn't figure out where these parts were. And secondly, this system only works up to 60 km/h so it’ll be of main use in traffic jams. Quite hard to find a combination of the right highway and a traffic jam at night.
However we could open up the S-Class and try out the adaptive cruise control again to see what improvements were made since we took the CLS450 out on the autobahn.
We expected a step up but this was a scary step up. Scary in a good way though as it felt like it was lifting off from its maximum cruising speed into sharper corners before accelerating again just like you would. Sitting in the passenger seat it’s hard to notice the difference between the cruise control braking from high to low speeds for traffic or the driver doing it by himself.
Finally, the Digital Light. The successor to Multibeam packs quite the punch, with 2 million reflectors combined, it ensures higher precision and reduces accidentally blinding oncoming traffic. On top of that, thanks to all these small reflectors, Digital Light can work so precise that it can start projecting images on the road. Want to see how it works? Mercedes put up a very informative video here. It works as well as you can see in the video and not only does it improve visibility at night massively, it's also hugely impressive to watch.
Although I did have it blinking at a cop which was regulating traffic which left us with an awkward staring showdown until I drove past.
So do you go full electric?
Having tested both the EQS and the S 580e side by side now, the answer is obvious. Mercedes clearly positioned the EQS just below the S Class. The levels of refinement, luxury and features in the S-Class is still unbeatable and it now comes with 90 km of electric range to get you everywhere in your day to day travels. There’s no compromises in the S 580e as it brings you unparalleled technology and luxury in a package you’ve never seen before. And starting at 135.000 € in long wheelbase format there’s a lot of value the S 580 e L brings to the table.
