The E-Class has been Germany’s success formula since the late sixties. The upcoming change of focus in the market to SUVs and entry level cars brings renewal to the product range of most brands.

Mercedes-Benz being no exception here. However, that doesn’t mean the consistently good selling cars get neglected. On the contrary, Mercedes sharpened up the freshly updated E-Class for a few more years. The E-Class even gets the honour to introduce the new of style steering wheels.

Earlier this year, the facelifted E-Class was presented. Ward already had a quick taste of the E 450 Estate All-Terrain, now, Mercedes-Benz Belgium lent us two diesel iterations for a full week.

To perform this test in the most historically correct way, Ward drives the E 200 d, while I sacrifice myself to drive the E 300 de. Both of us know these cars from earlier tests (respectively here and here). Since we’re quite familiar with the cars, the big thing for both of us is the new steering wheel. We happen to get our cars specced with the two flavours of new steering wheel. The well-equipped E 200 d has the new AMG-wheel, whereas the E 300 de has the waterfall wheel.

First of all, we both felt like coming home again. There’s no real comfortable alternative without paying telephone number sums. The open-pored ash wood interior trim or beautifully finished carbon fibre, soft leather, and most of all, this phenomenal chassis. Somehow, E-Classes always arise the discussion at Team CJ whether reviews should be objective or not.

Feel the pressure

The main new thing for us that this facelift brought, is the new steering wheel. As Ward explained earlier, there are now pressure sensors in the steering wheel. This results in the steering wheel sensing your hand on the steering wheel. Rather than the minor steering input the driver had to give with the old steering wheel, just holding it does the trick now. These sensors really turn up the ease of driving on the motorway semi-autonomously. The integration of the touch sensitive buttons to control the MBUX-system is done properly, with physical nooks and ridges, to position your thumbs correctly on the buttons. Whether the new steering wheels fit the aesthetics of the E-Classes’ interior is something you have to decide for yourself.

Head to head

The E 300 de is, as the name would suggest, a diesel hybrid in the form of a plug-in hybrid. With these two cars spanning the entire range of the four-cylinder diesels now available in the E-Class, we were desperate to find out the added value of a top-of-the-range motorisation. Since the rest of these cars is so similar, this gave us the perfect opportunity to put the benefits from a hybrid drivetrain to the test. Is it just a lump of tax reducing weight that must be carried around, or are there some actual beneficial effects?

Intelligence

First of all, let’s point out why the intervention of a parallel hybrid system doesn’t seem logical at first. The E 200 d tips the scale at 1635 kilograms. The E 300 de (equipped with the heavier 4 Matic-system) sits at a significant 400 kilograms over the E 200 d’s weight. The system has to be rather good to make up for that difference. To pull this off, the E 300 de has some very clever tricks up its sleeve. The first one to point out is the smart integration of the navigation system. It chooses the most efficient combination of diesel and electric power, based on the route ahead. Moreover, it also uses the navigation system for upcoming roundabouts or crossings. It starts regenerating early when the driver uses the cruise control. A weird habit at first, the feeling of it slowing down for roundabouts is something you don’t get used to quickly. Therefore, it’s very useful to use the navigation system, especially when you use the cruise control a lot.

What’s more is the wide variety of driving modes. Not just eco, comfort and sport, but also electric and battery level modes are present. If you choose to save charge for later or you don’t want the diesel to kick in, just denounce your preferences.

Is it worth it?

When the batteries are empty, this EQ-Power effectively behaves like an EQ-Boost, which is quite convenient with a torquey diesel engine, instead of the more convenient petrol engine. Carrying the empty battery around is still not a disaster. In fact, we put it to the test by driving it deliberately with an empty battery, and the car still managed to do an impressive high-4 l/100 km.

This all resulted in a sub-4 l/100 km average for the E 300 de in normal driving. The previous E 300 de we tested came very close to the factory 2 l/100 km over a 100 km trip. As intuitive as MBUX is, the driver always knows the status of the car and battery. Regeneration or charging via the diesel engine is clearly displayed on the digital gauge cluster. The E 200 d averaged at 4.6 l/100 km, similarly economical to the ‘empty battery’ E 300 de.

Compared to the GLE 350 de, the E 300 de is a bit behind. It doesn’t feature fast charging and can only drive fully electric a little more than half of what the GLE can. What’s more, the trunk floor still is not flat, however, this was unlikely to be fixed in the facelift.

King of comfort

Still, the E-Class doesn’t have the sporty characteristics that its competition has. But, that makes it kind of unique, in a good way. The ride comfort uncompromised, and yet, no fancy tricks like air suspension were present. I’ve never had the opportunity to drive the new 5-series, but in terms of comfort, the bar is set high for this direct competitor. The unsportiness proved itself again in this duo test, those diesels are just very unsuited for dynamic driving. An optional sport chassis and 22-inch rims do give the E 200 d better sporting credentials but make it less comfortable in the real world.

The E 300 de however is quite quick in a straight line with its combined 700 Nm and 306 bhp. The vast 2030 kilograms can’t just be disguised. Performance-wise, this drivetrain puts the E 300 de significantly ahead of the E 200 d. Although its 160 bhp is still sufficient, is a little over half of what the E 300 de has. In fact, it felt very unrewarding to push the E 200 d the slightest bit.

Comparison

We felt like we reached the point in earlier E-Class reviews at which we take the comfort and the versatility of MBUX for granted. Same goes for the interior quality and Multibeam. The hybrid integration in the E 300 de ups the game a bit in terms of comfort. Driving electric just adds that last bit of the much desired silence in the cabin.

This test brought to light that the tradeoff between battery capacity of the E 300 de and added weight balances on the egde of profitability. The electric range might be short, but in any circumstances it's no less economical than a regular diesel E-Class. Let that sink in.

The addition of EQ-Power comes at a cost, a hefty one. The base price of the E 300 de with its 4Matic trim in Belgium is a little over 68 thousand euros, which makes it 18 thousand more than the standard E 200 d. With both these cars costing around the 80k-mark with options, similarities led us to the question: would you choose an E 300 de, or this well-specced E 200 d? The first mentioned gets you a gem of a drivetrain, the latter the possibility to spec an E class to levels that go beyond common sense. In all honesty: we can't figure which we would go for.

One could say that our dilemma is the embodiment of the crossroads PHEVs are at: they're a brilliant addition but weigh heavily on the wallet. That leaves us hoping that the more PHEVs get onto the market, the more price of this technology drops. However, Mercedes and Geely seem to be ahead of us as they recently announced that they would partner up to make hybrid drivetrains better and cheaper.

But until then, government stimuli make the scale tip one way or the other.

E-Classes | Is EQ-Power worth it?