Mercedes G-Wagen EV – Terrible Specs But That’s Not the Point
[Music] So, in the world of electric cars, there are groundup EVs, and then there’s recycling the old design, but making it electric. And I usually prefer the groundup EV. It’s more efficient. You get more space. It just feels like a more well-considered product. But sometimes, sometimes you got to keep the old design. And this is one of those examples. This is definitely the old design, but electric mostly. So, this is the electric G Wagon, or more specifically, one of the G Wagons, the one that happens to be electric. This is the G580 with EQ technology, and it’s positioned basically as the middle tier option. It’s right above the inline six-powered G550 and the V8 powered AMG G63. So, it’s not replacing the gas models. It’s just one of the G Wagons has an electric powertrain. And to me, it makes a lot of sense. So, you want to preserve this iconic G Wagon thing, but kind of prepare it for the future a little bit. Now, the specs of this one, h, they’re not great. Okay, they’re not great. It is a quad motor vehicle with all-wheel drive, and it makes about 579 horsepower and 859 lb-ft of torque, but it also weighs almost 7,000 lb. So, it deserves 60 and 4.1 seconds. And it has a 116 kWh battery pack. But because it’s still shaped like a G Wagon, which people like, it does not have great aerodynamics. That’s about as aerodynamic as a tombstone. So, you’re going to get like 240 mi of range if you’re chilling. Uh, and of course, it’s worse in the winter. So, it’s not the most efficient. It’s not the best numbers, but if you want the G Wagon experience, but electric, that’s what this is delivering. So, aesthetically on the outside, you know, this looks very familiar. It does do a couple special things like this grill at the front doesn’t have to be as massive of a radiator. You can still see a radiator in there, but this uh lights up as an LED at night, which is cool. But then you get around the side and there’s no mistaking this for anything else. It’s clearly a G Wagon. Super boxy. You’ve got that flat front, the lights at the corners, this line right through the middle of the entire vehicle, 20-in wheels that it’s sitting on, and the charge port, the electric one’s back right corner, which I thought was interesting. It’s not the most common place to put your charge port, but it is CCS. It will do, I think, 200 kW, so it’s it’s not super slow, but yeah, back right for your charge port. And then you get to the back of the vehicle and there’s that obviously iconic spare spot and the lights and the slots and all this room in the back behind the rear seats, which is it’s really nice. There’s no sub trunk or anything, but that’s plenty of space by my standards. And of course, a little luxury touches everywhere with the the crosshatched leather. And uh I want to make sure the mic picks this up. So this is what it sounds like to close the door. That’s nice. This is what it sounds like to lock the door. That’s so nice. I really hope the mic picks that up because that is a pretty pretty classic G Wagon experience. Just the sound of opening and closing the doors. And this all continues once you get inside this thing. Once you pass the MercedesBenz branded corner lights and the EQ badge to know it’s the electric one and even the the letter G on the handles. That’s when you pop in and get into the G Wagon’s driver’s seat and you understand why people spend so much for these things because it’s a it’s a Mercedes and the luxuries is everywhere. It does have a push button start. I don’t love that in every AV, but I guess they keep that just to keep people familiar. And yeah, there’s a lot going on here. I’m actually glad they didn’t go all screens or do something crazy like I just saw with the new Porsche Cayenne going electric. They they very much kept this in line with the rest of the G Wagon lineup. Meaning you still have Mercedes software with all of their Windows 7 looking, you know, holographic lightsaber tachometer and all that, but it’s surrounded by more physical luxury. Nice materials, a nice grab handle, the vents with little LED lights in them like all the Mercedes stuff you’re used to seeing. And then of course some real vents down here or real buttons down here. nice hazard sound. Uh, and also for changing temperature and fan speed, but a single wireless charger as well. You get two USB type-C ports. There is wireless Android Auto and CarPlay. There’s the two cup holders, the swipe pad, which is always here, and then the dynamic button to switch between your drive modes. And then a little bit of storage in the middle. But I think maybe the part of the interior that symbolizes the GWAC luxury the most is the seats. these huge hefty seats which are obviously leather and stitched really nicely but are heated are ventilated. They’ll massage you and they actually have these adjustable like the headrest here will like cradle your head in place if you want it to. And these bolsters by default uh move quite a bit. They’re active. So, if I turn, they kind of hug me to keep me in the middle of the seat. And they move quite a bit. And I think they respond to geforce, if I’m understanding them correctly, because they can get accidentally triggered by going through a pothole. But they do hug you. If I turn right and I move to the left in the seat, it’ll hug me to keep me in the middle. So, these seats, these seats are crazy and they are very comfortable and very large. But yeah, my only other notes from daily driving it, uh, some of these might be nitpicks, but I’m going to say them anyway. One, visibility is great. Uh, all the windows are flat, including the windshield, and I can just look right in my blind spot here. So, that’s awesome. Um, but also because this uh this stuff is up here, like on the window sill, and this actual moving piece here for the lock is in the window, when I want to rest my arm on the window, uh, it’s constantly jamming up against that. So, I don’t really rest my arm here as much in this car as I normally would. Uh, but cabin isolation thanks to these windows is awesome. So, it gets really quiet in here, which brings me to the speakers, which are not as good as I thought they would be. There are a lot of speakers in this cabin. If you look around, you’ll see quite a few of them from in the doors to in the roof. Uh, by the way, this shade closes, which is nice. But there are there are speakers everywhere and they get very loud, but they don’t sound as good as I anticipated. Maybe that’s just this review unit or this sound system, but it is says Burmeister, so I was expecting a little more. Now, just so you can hear what it sounds like to turn it on with the push button start, whole bunch of beeps. Not the same not the same theater as the V8, but obviously it does have maybe it’s not so obvious, but it does have a little bit of fake sound. And when you hit throttle and you drive a little bit, there’s also a bit of a fake sound, bit of a rumble. But let’s go to the back seat because if you’re bringing people around, you’ll also want them to have a decent amount of room. And that’s exactly how I would describe it. It’s a decent amount of room. So this is my 63 driving position here. And this might be a crazy cross reference, but it reminds me of my Rivian R1T. It’s got cutouts in the back of the seats, so there’s like just enough room to have, you know, no complaints for your your rear seat passengers. They’ll have plenty of controls over HVAC, USB type-C down there, many more speakers, and these are heated seats. Uh, and of course, tons of leather. Oh, sounds so good to close the door. Um, but yeah, I I really do feel like it’s about the front seat. It’s about the experience living with it, breathing the air inside, smelling like leather all the time, feeling the luxury of owning a G Wagon. But of course, you got to drive the thing. So, Miles is going to tell us what it’s like to drive, but I will just say before we pass it off to Miles, I was pretty impressed. Obviously, this thing is high off the ground, but the battery pack is down in the bottom, so most of the weight now is pretty low. It rides really well. It’s smooth, and it feels right in line with the luxury of what a Jeep like this that costs almost 200 grand should feel like. But is it better than the gas versions? Take it away, Miles. So, I thought I’d take advantage of the new dual capture feature on the iPhone 17 Pro to show you the most important feature on this vehicle. You’re welcome. Okay, I might be getting my enthusiast card taken away today, but I have to confess. I have to confess. This is my favorite version of the G Wagon to drive. Does it sound better than the AMG G63? No, because it doesn’t have a big burblin burbo V8. And is it necessarily more efficient than the V8 version that it doesn’t technically replace? No, not really. Because this is literally a brick on wheels. So, it’s never going to be efficient no matter what powertrain you stuff in here. But the fact of the matter is the weight distribution and the center of gravity is much more improved here because like Marquez said, the batteries are on the floor of the chassis. So, all that weight is closer to the ground, which makes it sharper and notably more dynamic to drive than the gas powered versions of the G Wagon. I’m feeling very much less like afraid of rolling this thing despite it weighing nearly what, 7,000 lb. Yeah, it’s it’s nuts. But yeah, I never thought I’d say this, but I think this is the more dynamic version of the G Wagon because of electrification. Now, the G580 has a whopping two less horsepower than the G63, but where the car really feels like a lot more powerful and a lot more usable is with the torque figure with a total of 859 lb feet of torque. And you may think that because this car weighs 1,000 lb more than the G63 that it kind of evens out and all that extra torque doesn’t make a difference. But you would be wrong. You see all that torque is distributed between not one, not two, not three, but four electric motors controlling each wheel of the car. And having high horsepower, that’s really only effective for top- end, very high-speed driving. Torque is a lot more important for driving a car like this, especially if you’re going to off-road, which is kind of what this car is for, but no one really does. when going from 40 to 60 mph on the freeway. This is what the turbochargers in the G63 look like. And this is what it looks like when going from 40 to 60 on the freeway with the G580. You see the difference? It’s just so much more smooth and seamless. And the throttle response is obviously instantaneous because it’s electric. And so despite this car not having more horsepower than the G63, the power you do have in terms of the mass amounts of low-end torque through the electric motors, it feels a lot more powerful in your everyday life. If that if that makes any sense. This feels a lot more powerful in ways that actually matter to a regular person. And because of the quad motor setup, you’ve got a really cool torque vectoring system that’s going to come in handy for all that off-roading that all G Wagon owners are doing all the time. Me personally, I’m on my like fifth tank turn of the day. Hey, I just do so much off-roading I have to do it all the time. You know, if you only want an internal combustion engine vehicle, then this version is not going to do much for you. But the fact of the matter is this is the most capable version of the G Wagon that they’ve made so far because of the quad motor setup. You’ve got really cool torque vectoring, which is awesome for off-roading situations, and it’s going to be the best longish distance cruiser to do driving in. Because it’s electric, the ride is a lot more refined and smooth, and the cabin is very quiet and peaceful and insulated. And you know what else? This is going to end up being the most affordable version of the G Wagon to buy as well, thanks to depreciation, because no one’s really buying the G580, which is uh that’s unfortunate for Mercedes-Benz, but great for secondhand owners. So, okay, at the end of the day, a lot of good things to say about this vehicle. And my real question is, well, if you were handed 200 grand, would you pick this over all the other things you could get for it? Obviously, the unique G Wagon experience. You can hear that rumble, right? Totally fake. Uh, it’s it’s a fun experience that I think a lot of people who end up spending this kind of money are after. But would you pick this over the gas version? Let me know. Thanks for watching. Catch you in the next one.
The Mercedes G580 with EQ Technology does a 360 with the G-Wagen formula.
Shot on iPhone 17 Pro Max
Rode Wireless Micro: https://geni.us/FBnQh
