The electric Mercedes with a range to die for

As a pubescent teenager back in the late 1970s, I was delighted to once find a discarded copy of The Sun newspaper on a tube train, handily folded back to reveal page three.

Having admired Miranda from Epping my eyes shifted to the report of a court case in which a retired brigadier had been stopped on the M1 motorway for driving his sporty Rover 3500S at a reckless 102 mph.

His defence? That he had been listening to Rossini’s rousing William Tell Overture on the car’s eight-track sound system and become so carried away that he simply kept accelerating – a scenario that was supported by the arresting police officer who confirmed that the defendant, in addition to travelling at almost 50 per cent above the speed limit, also appeared to have been conducting an imaginary orchestra from behind the wheel.

The story sprang to mind the other day when I was driving the recently-launched Mercedes-Benz EQS a car that, while perhaps not a true 'limousine', is one of the first properly premium electric vehicles to hit the market.

True, the Tesla Model S and Porsche Taycan certainly hold considerable ‘executive’ appeal – but the EQS really is a cut above in the luxury stakes, as evinced by its selection last week as ‘World Luxury Car’ of 2022 at the New York Auto Show.

Although I only spent four days with the EQS, it was soon obvious that it offers a blisteringly fast way of transporting passengers both in cosseting style and (thanks to that battery power) in almost complete silence, too – a scenario that, with the incredibly crisp Burmester Surround Sound hi-fi cranked-up, might tempt any driver to ‘make like the brigadier’ and get carried away.

And I was only in the basic model – not the Mercedes-AMG EQS 53 version that is the first all-electric Benz to be ‘breathed on’ by the marque’s AMG tuning department.

It can be had in 'Touring' and 'Night Edition' versions, both of which feature twin electric motors that produce a total of 658 horsepower and provide a lorry-like 950 Newton meters of torque for truly effortless acceleration. In numbers, that means a zero to 62mph/100kph time of a sports car-shaming 3.8 seconds.

Although that’s more than enough to lose you your licence several times over, AMG will also add an enhanced 'performance package' that takes the top speed of the car from 137mph to an electronically limited 155 and knocks almost half a second of the standing start time.

In both cases you get a host of AMG interior and exterior enhancements, while the Night Edition comes with special body styling, sportier driver controls and 21-inch wheels.

For another £8,995, you can even add F1-derived ceramic brakes, a 'race start' feature for more power and torque off the line and – for those who still revel in the growl of a regular AMG – a 'sound experience' system that mimics the exhaust note of the petrol versions.

But what’s perhaps most impressive about the electric AMG is its claimed range of up to 358 miles – a distance that has been achieved through the use of a hefty battery pack that generates a 107.8 kwh of power. (To put that into perspective, the latest VW Golf-e's batteries produce just 35.8 kwh).

But as with all electric cars large or small, the distance you'll be able to wring from the AMG EQS 53 depends entirely on how it's driven.

Potter gently from shop to shop in a city centre on a warm and sunny day and 350-plus miles will undoubtedly be achievable; substitute that for a motorway dash in the dark on a cold winter's night with Rossini blaring from the Burmester and 200 miles on a full charge is probably more realistic.

Regardless of which figure is closer to the truth, the AMG EQS is a game changer in the large electric car category – and with rivals such as Rolls-Royce and Bentley already on the way with their own battery-powered ‘premium luxury’ models, it’s clear that the days of EVs being largely confined to the cities and suburbs are coming to an end.

So watch out for high-speed conductors on a motorway near you.

The Mercedes-AMG EQS 53 4MATIC is available from  £102,160; AMG Performance Package add £8,995. Rear Luxury Lounge package (Touring model only) add £2,995. mercedes-amg.com