The 2025 Mercedes-AMG E53 Hybrid Is A Speedy Luxury Sedan That Finally Deserves Its AMG Badge
A little over 5 years ago, Mercedes AMG introduced a new high-performance version of the very popular E-Class called the E53. Now, at the time, the E53 was a replacement for the old E43, and it was designed to slot in between the six-cylinder powered E450 and the fireb breathing E63S AMG. Now, for 2025, the E53 returns. However, it’s based on the allnew sixth generation E-Class that made its debut last year. This time, however, AMG is calling it the E53 hybrid because it supplements that turbocharged inline 6 with a powerful electric motor, giving you up to 42 miles of electric only range. And get this guys, with race start, up to 64 horsepower, making this car more powerful than the previous generation E63S. So, as you can see, this week, the company has loaned us this absolutely gorgeously speced out graphite gray E53 hybrid sedan. And the big question I want answered, for those of you who are looking for the ultimate AMG to essentially replace your E63S, but you want better fuel efficiency, how does the brand new E53 hybrid stack up? Stay tuned to find out. [Music] Now, before we start talking about the unique styling language for the E53 version of the allnew sixth generation E-Class, let me go ahead and pop the hood and remind you guys what’s powering this thing. Because with any AMG product, the big story, of course, is what’s going on underneath the hood. And this time, AMG truly delivers a powertrain that could replace your old E63S. Now, underneath the hood, you’re going to find essentially the same basic engine as the E450 that we tested about a year ago. It’s the company’s 3 L turbocharged double overhead cam inline six-cylinder engine. However, this time, the company has thrown out the very lowowered 48vt mild hybrid system. And instead, they’ve supplemented the engine with a 161 horsepower electric motor that’s sandwiched between the six-cylinder and the NPE twin clutch automatic transmission. It’s technically a dual clutch. The engine on its own delivers around 443 horsepower and around 413 pound- feet of torque. That’s an increase on its own of around 14 horsepower and 30-ish pound- feet of torque compared to the previous generation E53. When you add the electric motor, however, which also delivers around 384 foot-lbs of torque, you get a total of 577 horsepower and 531 pound- feet of torque. Now, of course, if you guys add the dynamic plus package, which my test car has with the race start launch control function, it does temporarily increase that power to 604 horsepower. That’s one more horsepower versus the old E63S. The old AMG E63, however, had around 627 foot-lbs of torque uh versus, of course, this model uh making around 531. So, it does have less torque. However, it is significantly more fuel efficient. It draws its power from a 21.2 2 kWh lithium ion battery pack. That’s the usable amount. Around 28.7 is the gross capacity. However, AMG leaves around 25% of the battery juice available to always supplement the engine even if the indicator is showing the the range is completely depleted. Uh this vehicle will go up to 42 mi on pure electric driving, which is actually pretty impressive. And then fuel economy is rated at 21 in the city, 26 on the highway, about 23 combined. It’s around 2 MPG less efficient versus the E450 that we tested about a year ago. We’ll talk about the real world fuel economy when we get this vehicle out on the road later on. Now, like I said earlier, this is uh going through a N-Speed transmission. Formatic plus all-wheel drive is going to be included. This allows the ability to have more of a rear drive feel. AMG says this model with race start is good for 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds. We’ll test it out when we get out on the road. And this has a top speed of 174 mph. So those specs are not far off versus the old E63S which delivered 3.3 seconds 0 to 60 runs according to AMG. The downside of course this being a plug-in hybrid is it is significantly heavier coming in at a curb weight of around 5,300 lb. This is around 800 lb heavier versus the last E450 that I tested and around 600 lb heavier than the last AMG E63S. So, you do have to pay a penalty obviously for the increase in the battery capacity, but 42 mi of electric only range certainly may make this very usable in everyday commuting. Now, when it comes time to charge the E53 hybrid, the charge port door is located on the rear driver’s side of the vehicle. And as you can see, this car is interesting because it’s a plug-in hybrid, but it comes with both ports. So, you have the standard J1772 plug, of course, to level two charge this vehicle. But unlike most hybrids, this car does come with a CCS combo, which means you can actually visit a level three fast charger. Now, this vehicle will only accept up to 60 kW of max DC fast charging, which means you can basically go from 10 to 80% in about 20 minutes, which is actually relatively quick for a plug-in hybrid, but very, very slow for a full electric vehicle. The onboard charger is just under 10 kW. It’ll take roughly 2 and 1/2, just under 3 hours to charge this vehicle on a level two on your home. Most of you will charge that way. You could also trickle charge it on a 110. It’ll take about 12 uh or I’m sorry, probably 15 hours to do so on a level one charger. But it’s kind of nice how AMG gives you again the option to do both. Like I said earlier, up to 42 mi of pure electric only range. And that’s because this vehicle has a very usable 21.2 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. Now, closing the hood, let’s talk about the exterior styling because this new E-Class, as you guys know, was first introduced last year. It’s part of the W214, uh, I guess model designation internally. Uh, it is the sixth generation E-Class, and it certainly has a very pleasant design. It’s very conservatively handsome. I also really like the graphite gray exterior color of my test car. It has some beautiful metallic fleck. Because this is an AMG, it has the Alalterbach AMG logo on the hood as opposed to the three-pointed star. are the three-point star is down here in the panameana style grill with the chrome vertical slats and the AMG badging. You can see the headlights. These are their multi-function LEDs which have the ability to project symbols onto the road. They are dynamic so they swivel uh and they also have an LED daytime running light, LED turn signal, LED low and high beams. The light signature certainly looks interesting with the two kind of half ovals at the bottom part of the headlight with the eyebrow at the top. That’s what AMG calls it. And you can see down here the front splitter is much more aggressive with functional air intake openings, a gloss black painted area in the lower area, lower uh fascia which is included with the um night package for an extra charge. And then as you can see moving around the rest of the profile, this car is just conservatively handsome, but it also is very stately, very understated. It reminds me a lot of the last BMW M5 that I tested, which as you guys know, AMG and M5, they’re pretty much direct rivals. They have been for years. Although technically this model isn’t a direct rival to the M5. That’s what we’re waiting for an E63SE Performance to eventually come in to take that place. Now looking at the side profile, you can see the new E-Class is built on their latest rear drive architecture, a modular platform that it shares with the C-Class and the S-Class with a 116.6 in wheelbase, just under 195 in uh long overall length. The wheelbase is around an inch longer than the previous generation. Uh overall length is around a/ an inch longer. This vehicle is around 74 in wide. So, it’s around an inch wider and around a/ an inch taller than the old E53 sedan. Now, looking at the the wheels, my test car has an optional for 3,000 bucks 21in forged multiple spoke uh satin black finish wheel. It’s an AMG specific wheel. You can see uh tires are pretty fat, 26535 ZR21 in the front. It’s a Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tire, summer tire. The rears are fatter at 295. Even though this is an all-wheel drive vehicle, you have a staggered setup. The brakes, they’re nearly 16 inches in diameter, cross drilled with a looks like a six piston red painted AMG branded caliper. So, upgraded brakes to give you the increase in stopping performance. These are also uh regenerative brakes as well. You have the AMG tuned dynamic performance suspension with adaptive dampers. Um, however, no air suspension. I didn’t notice this vehicle had an air suspension. You do have rear wheel steering that’s standard up to 2 and 12°. Uh the rear wheels will turn to help this car, you know, be more agile, especially when you’re making turns. Uh the badging here, you can see turbo hybrid. Uh the hybrid portion is significant here because it’s a plug-in hybrid. These vents are also, I believe, functional. I can see holes there. I can feel heat coming out, which is nice. The side still, you can see, is gloss black. It’s a very tasteful look. You also have gloss back painted side mirrors, which are power folding. 360 camera and their latest driver assistance tech. You can see there’s also two cameras at the windshield there for the base. It also has technically three. There’s a dash cam that’s built in, which I love. I also love how the night package glo blacks out the chrome window trim. These door handles are the pop out style that we first saw in the S-Class. And then you can see here the sunroof, panoramic sunroof is actually standard on this car, which is kind of nice. You don’t have to pay extra for it. And then uh looking at the rest of the profile, I see hints of the S-Class in this vehicle. Even though this is again an E-Class, I really like the overall look compared to, you know, the AMG or the EQ electric sedans from Mercedes. This is a handsome car. It’s stately, it’s aggressive, but it also looks very understated. I think it’ll age extremely well. Now, looking at the rear, you can see the rear design uh introduces the kind of star logo imprinted in the actual light signature of the tail lights. You have an LED, full LED, turn signal, brake light, reverse light uh for this vehicle. You can see badging back here. uh AMG badge has now been moved to the left side, while the E53 badge has a red undertone and it’s been moved to the right side of the car, which is flip-flopped for the E450 that I tested. I also love the very subtle duck bill spoiler back here, uh, which is nice. It almost has like a sportback look to it. And then, of course, it wouldn’t be an AMG product without quad exhaust at the back. Those exhaust pipes, as you can see, are technically faux. Well, they’re not really faux. They’re not they’re not the actual mufflers because you can see the mufflers are actually behind the exhaust, but it is an AMG with a six-cylinder turbo. So, let’s go ahead and fire it up. You guys can hear how that engine sounds real quick. [Music] And even though this doesn’t have the same kind of gargling chainsaw noises that we had from the old V8, that six-cylinder turbo is not a bad sounding engine, and it’s much better versus the four-cylinder turbo that you get in a C63SE performance. Now, looking at the cargo capacity, you have obviously a power opening and closing trunk. And the E450 that I tested about a year ago had one of the largest trunks in the segment. Mercedes AMG said it or Mercedes-Benz said it had around 19 cubic feet of storage space, but I think they were getting to that number because there was a very deep underfloor storage area. Sadly, because this is a plug-in hybrid, the battery pack actually lives underneath this floor. So, you lose that very deep underfloor storage area, which I think provided like an extra 4 cubic feet. So, I think AMG or Mercedes perfectly purposely designed that because they wanted to accommodate the battery pack. Now, without the um I guess the under floor storage, you get around 13.1 cubic feet of space, which is still very usable. Although, you do see that the floor is lifted up a little bit. I wish you could still open that, but you can’t. You do still have a 40 204 40 split arrangement, which is nice. You can actually fold the seats down from back here. Uh and you also have a button over here. The hinges don’t crush your cargo, but they do eat into the space there because they go into the cargo area. Uh but overall, the trunk capacity is certainly usable. Um, I’m not entirely sure if AMG will offer the wagon version in E53. I really hope they do, but there is sadly still no coupe or convertible version. You’re going to be buying a CLE instead if you guys want a twodoor. So, clearly the AMG team knocked out the styling on the outside for the E53 sedan. But what about the interior? Before we get inside, let me show you guys the key fob. You can see this is the current AMG intelligent access fob. It’s a very high quality feeling key that has basically real metal. It feels heavy. I love the AMG badging on the back. There’s a panic button on the back along with your usual buttons here for the lock, unlock, and the remote open for the power trunk. Uh, I believe you can also access the Mercedes MI app where you can basically ping the car through the app. You can remote start it from there. Uh, but as you can see, when you approach the door handles, they do have that retractable look. Uh, which is kind of nice. However, they do retract into themselves when the vehicle is still unlocked. So, if you want to do if you don’t want to hit the unlock button, you basically have to like smack the door handle there. That will make it retract back out. Uh when the vehicle is locked, as you can see, the mirrors will power fold in. Uh the door handles will retract back in. And when you unlock the door, the door handles pop out, the mirrors fold back out. The vehicle also has a walkway approach system. As I approach the car, the door handles will pop back out. When I have the key fob, you can see there’s also a key slot there in case the power is out. And you can basically still enter the vehicle with a traditional fob. Now, my particular test car has the graphite gray exterior, of course, with the optional Tonka brown and black AMG performance seat. So, these seats, this seat material color is an extra three grand. The AMG performance seat upgrades is also an extra 3,200 bucks. So, six grand for the interior already is kind of super expensive, but hey, that’s typically what AMG does. These seats, I think they adjust in like 14 different ways. They are very aggressively bolstered. Love the look of the seats. They look like they built they were pulled out of an AMG GT twodoor supercar basically. But I will say that you need to try the seats out for themselves. See if you like them. They are heated and ventilated, which is nice. Uh you also get a threeperson memory on the driver and on the passenger side. However, these seats do not have any massage function. I personally would trade these seats for more comfort oriented seats with a massage function. Um which I don’t believe you can get at least for now on this car. I couldn’t see it in the option list. But if you want the most aggressive seats, these certainly are going to hold you in place, especially if you plan to take this car to the track. You can see in terms of the door panel materials, you have beautiful real leather with contrast gray stitching. The ambient lighting in this car is also interactive. It’s dynamic. It looks really impressive as well. You have this beautiful Tonka brown leather here where it’s nice and padded. Beautiful high quality metal switch gear, of course. Carpet material in the actual door pocket down here. It’s soft touch injection molded plastic. The upgraded 4D Burmeister sound system also sounds incredible. if you guys get tired of listening to the synthesized noises of the inline 6, although technically it’s pumped out through the speakers, but overall the interior certainly makes a great first impression. Now, getting inside, as you can see, the step- in is typical sedan low, and you definitely have to kind of work your way around this big bolster. The dash also kind of come it jets out really far where it kind of makes this area feel a little bit cramped. So, taller drivers, you may notice that as you get in and out of the vehicle. It’s not a big deal for me at 5’7. As I shut the door, the door has a really solid sounding thunk. However, my test car is missing for an extra 550 bucks the soft close feature, which technically the last BMW M5 didn’t even have that feature. At least AMG offers it. Now, starting the vehicle up, you can see start stop button is right here where you’d expect it to be. Push that. The vehicle will default to electric only mode right away. So, there’s no engine starter noise as you can see. It just kind of dings worse to life. My test car also has the optional super screen which basically adds the passenger display that’s 12.3 in. You have a 14.4 in center display here running their latest MBUX software. And then you also have a 12.3 in display here for the instrument panel. If you want to start the engine, you basically rotate this dial here into sport or sport plus. And that will wake the engine up. [Music] It definitely has a synthesized noise from the inside because it doesn’t sound as loud from the outside from the exhaust on this car. So, that’s something to keep in mind. Now, my test car is the pinnacle trim for an extra 4 grand. You have the augmented reality heads-up display. You can see you have that huge or that really, you know, long LED light strip that goes across the dash, which is kind of similar to what Audi is doing nowadays. Uh the upper dash material has a real uh leather material. It’s soft touch, of course, nice and padded with the contrast stitch. There’s a front camera here or an interior camera that allows you to basically take selfies. That’s included when you guys go for the $1,500 extra for the super screen package. And then the steering wheel, you can see it’s AMG specific. It has a power tilt and telescoping function. Your drive mode selector is here. There’s basically a sport plus at the top, a sport, a comfort, electric mode, uh battery hold mode if you want to save the charge, an individual, and then there’s also a slippery mode. So, lots of different drive modes. We’ll try it out when we get the vehicle out on the road later on. This also allows you to turn on and off the stability control into your sport handling mode. This tells the computer that you’re on a track. Um, of course, you’re not supposed to use it when you’re driving on public roads. You have paddles here to control the N-Speed auto. They’re actual metal paddles, which is nice. The horn, it sounds pretty much as I expect, uh, appropriately toned for the size of this vehicle, which is nice. Uh, and then you can see my test car for an extra thousand bucks has this carbon fiber center console area, which I think is stupid expensive. It’s definitely not worth that extra cost. If I put the vehicle into reverse, you can see there’s the full 360 camera, which I believe is included with the driver assistance package, which is extra. Uh, it has trajectory distance markers. You can do a perimeter scan around the vehicle as well. The graphics and quality and the resolution looks phenomenal. It’s what you would expect, of course, from a Mercedes product. It has cross traffic braking as well. in case you’re going to hit something, it’ll keep you from hitting something. If I push that, it goes back to your drive mode selector. Push that, it brings up the cameras, which allows you to get the full 360. That push the car icon there, it gives you quick access to certain functions. The MBUX system has their zero layer technology where if you push the home button, you can see this is their newest software. It does have um Google built in where you can also download apps such as Apple Music even. That’s really impressive. It has wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which the CarPlay takes up basically this portion of the screen, which I love. I love how Mercedes basically lets you activate and use Car or CarPlay in addition to having Apple Music into the native software. That’s something that a lot of competitors aren’t able to do. Mercedes is one of the few that does that. Uh there’s the built-in GPS as well, which is nice. And then you can basically go into your settings here. You can adjust so many different things, including the ambient lighting. The ambient lighting in this car is interactive. And it also basically allows you to choose from se several different functions, effects as well. There’s a sound visualization function, which again, that’s kind of where I hate touchcreens sometimes. I accidentally clicked off that. It took me away from that. But you can you can actually tell the ambient lighting to pulsate to the music of this car when you have it playing, which is actually kind of distracting, which is why I actually had it turned off. But it’s really cool. Mercedes has one of the best ambient lightings. In fact, it’s a little bit too much for some people, but I like it. You can see down here, you have a wireless phone charging pad, which, you know, fits my iPhone 16 Pro Max nicely. You have two USBC charging ports, big cup holders. Addition to this nice big console that closes that also feels pretty sturdy with the AMG badging. Of course, you have real leather here along the side, which is nice. You can push this little uh button here that open up opens up the center console with two more USBCs. You have basically a nice padded armrest area uh which is great. And then like I mentioned earlier, the seats are uh definitely very aggressive, but I will say that they’re not the most soft seats. So that’s probably where I would go with the regular seats myself for comfort. Uh the center screen or the passenger display here basically allows you to pull up uh all the usual apps that you’d like. You can also send GPS over to the the center screen if you’d like. You can also pull up GPS here where you can have two maps map displays. I’m not entirely sure why I can still basically look at this when I’m over here on the passenger side or on the driver’s side. Most manufacturers black out the screen. If I put the vehicle into drive, it does basically go back to the screen saver, which that looks absolutely stunning. You can change that from several different um wallpapers that’s already built into the car. And I think you can also upload your own. Uh if I tap that, you can also uh activate the driver camera. You can turn that on or off if you’d like. Go into the selfie mode, of course, if you’d like. There’s an auto- dimming rearview mirror with like a nice frameless design. There’s an Alcantara material on the headliner. That’s an extra 1,500 bucks. Kind of expensive for Alcantara. I love the panoramic sunroof, which again lets in a lot of light, and you can also vent it for air, which is great. The glove box, you can see it goes into the dash. It’s damped uh and it is also lined with felt on the inside portion, uh which is again showing its high quality feel. Um overall though, the interior is pretty similar to the last E450. Very impressive in terms of tech. Some of you again will find something that’s nicer about this versus the last M5 that I was in. Not always the best in terms of build quality. There is a squeak and rattle coming from this door panel when I was driving the vehicle. But everything else, for the most part, fits together pretty nice. There’s good quality materials and it also looks very impressive. But I personally would skip the super screen, save myself 1,500 bucks, but you will lose the selfie camera and the interior camera, which some of you may prefer that anyways. But let’s go ahead and hop into the back seat area and I can show you guys what that space is like. because even though this is, you know, not their biggest today and you do have a pretty usable amount of space back here. Now, my test car has the privacy package which includes the retractable sun shades back here in addition to a power retractable sun shade on the rear window. You can see the door panel materials also are carried over where you have real leather and cross stitching that tonka brown metal accents here for the speakers. Nice carpeted area for the door panels. The seats themselves, as you can see, uh have the same Tonka brown two-tone with the contrast stitch. They look pretty nice as well. And you have around 36.2 inches of legroom back here. 36.2 is certainly a good amount, but it’s also not the most spacious in the class. As you can see, getting back here, this is basically my driving position. These seats are nice because they’re sculpted to where you have a little bit of headroom or knee room space, which is nice. I have good foot space. I can get back here and cross my legs pretty comfortably. Uh, which is great. Large hump here for the center center passenger. So, that reminds you this is a rear drive biased vehicle. And you also have rear seat air vents. You have um four zone climate control which is definitely nice. It’s unexpected. I didn’t expect that. But I am noticing this car is missing heated rear seats. It’s an extra allocart option for 500 bucks. It should be standard especially if you guys just get the pinnacle trim. No storage pockets of course with these AMG sport seats. But you can see if I fold this down, you do have a nice little cup holder area with some phone a phone holder it seems. Uh and then you can see the sunroof. It does have a glass panel over here, but there’s an intersecting bar that ruins your space. I also love how the grab handles on the ceiling are actually leather stitched. Same thing with the front area, which is great. You can see the headroom space. The headrest is in the perfect position, I must say. Very comfortable. I have a solid maybe inch and a half, 2 inches of additional headroom clearance at 5’7. So, it’s not bad. So, overall, the back seat area is certainly nice. It’s about on par with the last M5 that I was in, but some competitors do offer a little bit more backseat space, but this is still not a bad place to spend time. So, here we are back behind the wheel of the fully redesigned 2025 MercedesBenz E-Class. I mean, we were about a year ago driving the E450. However, this time we’re in the AMG version, an E53 hybrid. The last time we had an E53 that we tested, it was about 5 years ago. It was the first time they did an E-53. Remember, the 53s have always been kind of like the AMG light and AMG sport package. But this time, this car has more of the E63S, AMG Aura, because we have the model with which has the dynamic plus package, which increases the power to 604 horsepower when this vehicle is in its race start mode, which 604 is actually one more horsepower than the E53, or I’m sorry, the E63S, the top dog, the previous top dog. We’re hoping Mercedes AMG will come out with a full fat E63S at some point, but let’s go ahead and see what we can do 0 to 60 wise. Mercedes AMG says this car will do it in around 3.9 seconds. We got 4.6 in the last E450 that we tested. So, I’m expecting this car to be significantly faster. So, to get race start, you basically have everything in sport plus. You brake torque it. Oh my god. Wow. Wow, my seat belt is literally strangling me. 0 to 60 in 3.28 seconds. 3.28 seconds is basically a second and a half faster than the E450 that I tested about a year ago. It’s also around a half a second faster than what AMG claims. Although technically they said with race start it’ll do it in 3.7. That time is only.2 seconds off the last brand new BMW M5 that I tested, which had 717 horsepower. So, formatic plus all-wheel drive, quick shifting, N-speed transmission, which is kind of like a dual clutch, 604 horsepower. This is crazy. It’s only.3 seconds behind the last E63S AMG that I tested. So, that is absolutely crazy how fast this car is. This basically feels more like a full fat 63S. Try it again here. 3.37 there. That’s with it more going slightly uphill. [Music] Wow. I was not expecting this car to be as fast as it is. That is very, very impressive. Oh my gosh. I mean, yes, I would love to see an E63S return, like an E performance, but the last model that I tested, a newer Mercedes that had that E63S E uh E performance, it was a GT 63S that did it in 2.7 seconds. So, if Mercedes AMG puts that same 830 horsepower version in this car, game game over for BMW and for Audi, man, this is absolutely crazy. So, this is a perfectly in between tweener car between an M5 and a 550e plug-in hybrid. I expect the BMW plug-in hybrid 5 series is probably around the 3.9 second mark. So, that’s impressive. Now, granted, this car um still delivers around 160 horsepower on its own in pure electric mode. You can actually access the electric mode by switching the drive the drive mode selector there to that little toggle where it says E, which by the way, the handling dynamics of this car significantly improved, beefed up versus the regular E450. The steering is very quick and precise. Actually transmits some feedback. The suspension, it’s their adaptive uh AMG tuned suspension of course, and it feels like this thing handles on rails. It just it feels as good as the last M5 that I tested, which BMW has always been known as the ultimate driving machine, but AMG also can do a pretty darn good job of, you know, giving you the kind of performance that you expect from a vehicle that has that AMG badge. Of course, in pure EV mode, it’s kind of strange because it makes no noise, and you can also feel it shifting through the N-speed transmission, but it’s still very, very pleasant. It has plenty of power, plenty of torque as well to get this vehicle going in just pure EV mode. I think that’s important, especially if you guys are, you know, planning to drive this thing around town or even on the highway. It’ll go up to like 87 mph in pure electric mode and up to 42 mi according to AMG. Now, let’s try just a 0 to 60 run in pure EV mode cuz I want to see what it can do here. Oh, it actually does wake up the engine if you push it too hard. So, that’s kind of the downside. there is if you push the accelerator pedal too hard, it will wake up the gas engine. Uh so it makes it difficult to do a 0 to 60 run pure EV mode even in I have it when I have it in electric mode. But you know what? This car has so many personalities when I put it dial it back to sport plus. I’m noticing right away the engine gets noticeably louder. It actually will let the back step out because this is remember formatic plus all-wheel drive. So, it tends to have a rear drive bias and there is a lot of enhancement of the sound. This is a 3 L turbocharged inline 6 as you guys know and it’s definitely not the same kind of gargling chainsaws as the old 4 L burbo V8 but it’s also not bad. There’s a little bit of pops and crackles from the exhaust, and it just has a really quick shifting N-Speed that does a really good job of just downshifting and matching revs and like just shifting as fast as you would expect it to considering this is, you know, a bespoke transmission that AMG develops. And you know what? I love the fact that it’s an inline 6 because while I had a chance to drive a C63SE performance out in California, I wasn’t too impressed with the sound of the engine, it had really crazy performance. In fact, the AMG C63S is around 3 seconds to 60. This car again at 3.28 is still bat crazy. It’s still unbelievable how fast this is. I was not expecting it to be as quick and as good as it is. So, bravo to AMG. The hybrid version of this car definitely feels like a full fat AMG finally as opposed to, you know, an AMG light or an AMG Sport. This has the the real deal. This is definitely the real deal. It has all the sounds. It has the handling dynamics. The seats also with the AMG, you know, performance seat option. They hold you in place nicely. Actually, they’re almost too aggressive. You can adjust these bolsters. I have them in the level four setting right now and they hug you. If you guys are a wider frame, you’re not going to fit in these seats. But you know what? The ride quality is still very good. I can drive around this vehicle in sport plus. It still is very comfortable. Uh the engine quiets down into a nice little idle uh when you’re, you know, driving it in just comfort or normal mode. And then it wakes up in sport plus with that augmented sound. Visibility out of the front, the side, and the rear is also quite nice. But I just love the dual personality of this car. That’s kind of what you expect with a vehicle like this. And let’s let’s talk about the fuel economy and the range. Now, it’s rated at 42 miles. On a full charge, this car showed 55 miles, and I got around 48 miles in real world driving on pure electric only. That’s impressive. That’s double the range that I got basically in the M5, which is also a plug-in hybrid. And in terms of fuel efficiency, this car will easily do 28 m to the gallon on the highway. 28 m to the gallon in a car that has 577 horsepower all the time, 604 in race start. That’s absolutely bonkers. In the city, it was doing around 22 MPG. So, not as good in the city, but still very impressive. The inline 6 turbo engine from Mercedes is just one of the best. It sounds good. It’s smooth. It’s refined. It has torque and power, delicious power everywhere. So, love, you know, the entire package that AMG gives you with this car. It’s got that docile personality of a luxury car when you want it. And then when you switch it over to sport plus, it just turns into that performance four-door that you expect with an AMG badge with its sharp steering, its direct responses, its linear handling dynamics, sportiness, it just feels a lot lighter than its 5,300lb weight would suggest as well. So, I’m genuinely impressed. I’m genuinely shocked. I do want to try another 0 to 60 here. This time, I won’t race start it. We’re just going to floor it from a stop and see what kind of numbers we get here. Oh, still fast. Oh, 3.8 seconds there. So, you’ll basically shave about a half a second off when you use the race start function. So, all day long you’ll do 3.8 seconds, race start 3.2, 3.3. Really guys, if you’re looking to trade in your E63S, I mean, yes, this car is not quite as fast, but I love the dual personality that it gives you where you can drive it in pure electric only power. It gets way better gas mileage. And to be honest, I’m willing to give up some of that acceleration,.3 seconds to be exact, to get the better driving dynamics and just an easier car to live with on a day-to-day basis. So, after spending a full week with the hottest version of the all-new sixth generation E-Class, I have to say this car truly surprised me because while I actually really didn’t mind the old E53 with its turbocharged mild hybrid inline 6, honestly, the fact that the company hasn’t announced an E63 had me a little bit worried. But after spending some time with the E53 hybrid, I have to say this truly does have some of that E63S aura, especially when you look at the exterior design. This car turns turned a lot of heads everywhere because everybody who basically likes AMG products. When you see a car like this, it looks stately. It looks understated. It also looks muscular. It looks like it’s going to basically age extremely well. The performance speaks for itself. As you guys saw with the launch control function, this model will hit 60 mph in around 3.2 seconds, which is crazy fast. It’s a little over a second faster than the last E450 that I tested. And it’s also not that much slower than the new generation BMW M5 which did it in around 3 seconds. This does it in around 3.28 seconds. So again, very similar performance, but the electric only range is probably the star of this car because getting nearly 50 m on pure electricity alone without having to recharge the battery will essentially satisfy the commutes of most Americans out there, which is a huge plus, especially if you guys are replacing the old E63, which literally got in the teens for MPG. This car will easily do 22 to 28 MPG in my realworld testing. And that’s if you decide to run out of juice with the battery pack, which is again crazy to think that this car offers that kind of range, with that kind of efficiency, with that kind of performance. It shows you that AMG when they really try much harder versus, you know, using a four-cylinder or the last performance model that I tested was a GT63, which only offered around 1 MPG or one mile of electric only range. This is basically what I expected. It gives you that plug-in hybrid capability to basically have the split personalities. The ride quality is also AMG smooth, although typically AMGs don’t have a good ride quality. So, it’s Mercedes smooth. That’s what I meant to say. At the same time, it handles like it’s on rails. It feels like a true super sedan, which is what you expect a vehicle that looks like this to basically perform like. The back seat is a little bit on the small side. The M5 offers a little bit more space in the back. The interior has pretty good uh or not pretty good, has impressive technology features, especially with that super screen, but I personally would probably skip it. Save myself the 1,500 bucks. The center display with their latest MBUX system is also very impressive. The seats, I would also skip the AMG performance seats and just go with the standard comfort oriented seats because I thought they were a little bit too hardcore for everyday driving. There were a couple of squeaks and rattles in the driver’s door for my particular test car, but everything else felt uh relatively wellm made, although still not quite as good as some of the older Mercedes products. There’s a little bit of cost cutting going around with the interiors, but I love the interior ambient lighting for this car. The trunk is also still very usable, even though that battery pack uh basically takes away the underfloor storage area. But overall, if you guys are interested in putting an E53 in your driveway, this car’s pricing is certainly kind of right in between what you’d expect the other A E-Class models to be with some of its competitors because you can get into a base E-Class now with a starting price of around $62,000 for a new rear drive 4-cylinder turbo version. Add all-wheel drive, it’ll cost you an extra 2500 bucks for around 65 grand. uh an E450 with its six-cylinder starts at around 70,000 bucks, just under $71,000. This model here, however, will cost you at least $88,000. So, it’s a whopping 17 18 grand more versus the six-cylinder powered E450 with its mild hybrid system. So, that’s a pretty healthy jump. It’s also considerably more expensive than a BMW 550e plug-in hybrid that starts at around $75,000. So, there’s around 15 grand extra for the Mercedes. Although, I’d argue this has almost twice the range as the BMW. It also has significantly more power. It’s much more of a sportier car, feeling more like an AMG versus BMW’s 550e. Feels more like a luxury oriented BMW 5 series. Now, of course, from there on, you can add plenty of options. My particular test car here has about 30 grand worth of options, or I’m sorry, maybe 20 grand worth of options. I can’t do math today. bringing the total price to around 113,860 bucks. So, just under 114 grand for this car makes it pretty expensive. And to be honest, typical AMG fashion, they’re charging you a lot for options from the dynamic plus package, of course, to the pinnacle pack uh trim level upgrade package to the upgraded wheels, the upgraded leather on the inside. This pricing brings it within $10,000 of a BMW M5, the last one that I tested. So, it kind of shows you how much value the BMW has for the M5. And we again don’t know if an E63SE Performance will come back. I expect the E63S when it does come back will likely be about 30 to 40 grand more expensive than this car. The BMW 550e plug-in hybrid will be around 92 grand with comparable options. But again, it is less powerful, less range. So, there is something to be said about this car. And if you guys are comparing it to the old E63SE or S from last generation, the pricing for this car is going to be still less expensive, even though it doesn’t have technically those V8 bragging rights. With all that said, hope you guys have enjoyed my full overview on the brand new 2025 E53 hybrid. If you’re also looking to see the latest cars I’m testing, be sure to follow me on Instagram at redline_views. Like us on Facebook, and as always, guys, please keep subscribing to the Redline Reviews YouTube channel for all the latest reviews. Thank you so so much for watching. I’ll catch you all in the next video. [Music]
The #MercedesAMGE53 returns for 2025, but this time the mad scientists at #MercedesAMG have given the newest #E53Hybrid a bit power boost thanks to a powerful electric motor and large battery pack. The #MercedesAMGE53Hybrid offers the best of both worlds with over 40 miles of all electric range and up to 604 HP, which is actually more power than the old #MercedesAMGE63S from the previous generation.
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