The Mercedes-AMG EQE 53 is Stuttgart's second proper stab at an electric AMG production car, after the Mercedes-AMG EQS 53.
E-Class-based cars have always been the archetypal AMGs, so does that apply in the electric era, with the equivalently sized Mercedes EQE?
AMG certainly got into electric performance cars very early. The pioneering Mercedes-AMG SLS Electric Drive was launched in 2014, when its 738bhp peak output was deeply impressive and its claimed 120-mile range was pretty respectable for an off-the-shelf EV. It also cost £355,000, so unsurprisingly AMG produced only a handful of them.
Eight years later, AMG has launched another EV, the EQE 53, which makes 617bhp in standard form and up to 677bhp (briefly) when equipped with the AMG Dynamic Plus Package, has a range of up to 321 miles and comes with the extra practicality of four seats and luggage space. UK pricing hasn’t been confirmed, but we’re told to expect it to be around £115,000 – less than a third of the cost of that SLS.
But the EQE 53's arrival raises another question. How, beyond raw performance – of which this car and its bigger sibling, the Mercedes-AMG EQS 53, have a super-abundance – will the tuning division distinguish its EVs from the regular Mercedes versions on which they're based?