What's the news?
Ahead of its world debut at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show, the new Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 4Matic+ has been revealed in full. It's the first AMG-fettled example of the new GLE SUV and it uses every trick in AMG's book to extract serious performance from such a big car.
Exterior
The large AMG radiator grille is distinguished from the regular Mercedes-Benz GLE item by its 15 vertical chromed strips, giving the car more visual aggression from the off. That's complemented by chunkier bumpers front and rear and body-colour arch extensions. They cover AMG alloys ranging in size from 20- to 22-inch in diameter in a choice of seven different styles. At the back, the sportier bumper houses the signature quad exhaust system. It's a relatively subtle upgrade in all.
Interior
Inside the GLE 53, there's the expected black-and-red colour theme, starting with the AMG sports seats, trimmed in Artico and microfibre Dinamica. An AMG Performance steering wheel is standard, featuring black Nappa leather, red stitching and a red 12 o'clock marker. It can be optionally fitted with AMG's wonderful rotary controller with its integrated display screen. Artico trims the top of the dashboard, while a variety of trim panel materials are offered, including grained aluminium and carbon. That dashboard is dominated by the MBUX system, featuring AMG-specific content and four styles - Classic, Sport, Supersport and Discreet. It also changes appearance if one of the off-road driving modes is selected. Oh, and like in the Benz GLEs, buyers of the 53 can specify a third row of seating.
Mechanicals
The GLE 53's powertrain is worth talking about. It mates a twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder petrol engine with an auxiliary electric compressor and an 'EQ Boost' starter generator between the engine and the nine-speed automatic gearbox (called the AMG SpeedShift TCT - for Torque-Clutch Transmission). Peak power for the engine is quoted as 435hp, while it also produces up to 520Nm of torque from just 1,800rpm. The EQ Boost, part of a 48-volt electrical system, provides a variety of functions, including boosting performance and recovering energy. Mercedes quotes a 0-100km/h time of just 5.3 seconds, plus the obligatory limited top speed of 250km/h.
That off-the-line acceleration is helped no doubt by the AMG Performance 4Matic+ all-wheel-drive system. Meanwhile, the chassis uses AMG Active Ride Control with air suspension, active roll stabilisation and continuously variable damping (though with three pre-selected modes for on-road and another two for off-road driving). There's also a variable ratio, speed-sensitive power steering system and massive brakes as standard. The driver chooses from one of seven drive programmes - Slippery, Comfort, Sport, Sport+, Individual, Trail and Sand.
Mercedes-AMG quotes a CO2 figure of 212g/km for the GLE 53, plus combined fuel consumption of 9.3 litres/100km.
Anything else?
For those that love to analyse data from their car and even, possibly maybe bring their AMG GLE 53 on track, there's the AMG Track Pace option. This is integrated into the MBUX system and is described as a virtual engineer, allowing access and analysis of 80 data streams from the car, along with lap times. This can all be viewed in real time or pored over later on. It can also interface with a dedicated smartphone app to add video and photographs and even share them on social media.
Pricing for the Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 4Matic+ has not yet been confirmed.