The Mercedes EQE has gone on sale in Ireland with prices starting from €85,890 for the EQE 350+ model - the version that the company says it expects to be the biggest seller here.
654km range
The battery-electric equivalent of the E-Class saloon (and around the size of the CLS), the EQE features a 90kWh battery and similar underpinnings to Mercedes' larger EQS with which it shares a platform. Thanks to both advanced battery management techniques and slippery cab-forward aerodynamics, the EQE can squeeze 22.5-19.7kWh/100km out of its battery, equating to, in the 292hp front-wheel-drive 350+ guise, a distance between charges of up to 654km - according to the WLTP regime.
Another model that will be available at launch is the 476hp Mercedes-AMG EQE 43 with sportier styling cues, an electrical system spiced-up by the Mercedes performance division, AMG, and pricing starting from €120,180.
What's coming?
Arriving further down the line will be the more modest EQE 300, the 408hp EQE 500 and Mercedes-AMG EQE 53 with up to 687hp. The latter two are equipped with all-wheel drive thanks to dual motors driving the front and rear wheels, though Irish pricing has yet to be announced for those.
Smaller and cheaper than the EQS though the EQE might be, it still features the options of a few of the larger car's most luxurious and up-to-date technical features such as the dashboard-spanning Hyperscreen running the latest version of the MBUX operating system, automatic doors and rear-wheel steering.
The EQE brings to six the number of electric vehicles that Mercedes currently sells in Ireland alongside the EQS, the van-based EQV people carrier and its three electric SUVs, the EQA, EQB and EQC. Other models due in the coming years include the EQS SUV (2023), an ultra-luxury Maybach equivalent, an electrified G-Class off-roader (likely to be called the EQG for a 2024 launch) and an AMG-Mercedes sports car, the concept for which is due to be unveiled later this week and which could go on sale from 2025.
High demand
Commenting on the launch of the EQE in Ireland, Ciaran Allen, sales manager for Mercedes passenger cars, said:
"Amongst dealers and customers, initial reaction to the coming of EQE has been extremely positive. We are confident EQE will be another electric powered winner as motorists convert to more eco-friendly motoring in ever increasing numbers."
Buyers may have to wait quite a while for delivery though: a combination of high demand and the ongoing global chip shortage means that demand for Mercedes' electric vehicles is vastly outstripping supply, according to the firm's CEO, Ola Källenius, speaking at an event last week.
Customer appetite, he said, was "so tremendous that we're doing everything we can to get the cars to the customers as fast as we can."
From an Irish perspective, Allen suggested that supply would improve toward the end of 2022, with the potential for "75 per cent" of demand satisfied in the '231' registration period in early 2023.