Test drive Mercedes-Benz EQE in Germany
Author’s preface：In the autumn of 2024, in the northern part of Stuttgart, Germany, the author started from Schwaikheim to Affalterbach (where Mercedes-Benz’s AMG department is located), the fast lane (up to 100 km/h) and ordinary city streets, and tested the latest Mercedes-Benz new energy vehicle EQE (which can be said to be the pure electric version of the E-class car). The author experienced the handling, comfort and automatic driving mode of the whole vehicle. The videos and pictures in the article were taken by the author or Mercedes-Benz colleagues in person.
Figure 1 The exterior of Mercedes-Benz EQE350 tested by the author 1
Basic parameters of Mercedes-Benz EQE
Length x width x height 4946X2103X1510, wheelbase 3120mm, cruising range 693km (WLTP road condition), battery capacity 90.5kWh, curb weight 3035kg and rated motor power 215kW.
Fig. 2 The exterior of Mercedes-Benz EQE350 tested by the author 2
Figure 3 Mercedes-Benz EQE350 interior tested by the author.
Static impression
Observing, EQE has abandoned the former style of being quite regular and business-oriented, and is close to the exterior of the coupe style as a whole, and the interior is still finely crafted, not forgetting the true colors of Mercedes-Benz; The ambient light that runs through the waistline of the whole vehicle has moved closer to China car companies; Mercedes-Benz has always been the leader of the industry (up to now, almost 90% of the armrest boxes of vehicles are modeled after Mercedes-Benz); What makes the author not particularly satisfied is the wood grain decorative board of the dashboard, which looks too "old school". In the digital and intelligent era, do you need to keep pace with the times here? !
The 90.5 kWh battery pack has a cruising range of 693 kilometers (WLTP), which is quite good for a motor vehicle with a curb weight of 3035 kg. DC fast charging power can reach 170kW, and it can be charged from 10% to 80% in 32 minutes, bid farewell to cruising range anxiety.
A variety of optional packages are dazzling: Advanced-Paket, Advanced-Plus-Paket, Premium-Paket, Premium-Plus-Paket, Night-Paket, from mobile phone integration, voice recognition, head-up display (HUD) to all kinds of assisted driving, including assisted autonomous driving.
Dynamic experience
Fig. 4 Photo of the author during the test drive of EQE350 (assisted autopilot mode)
The video author is on the way to test drive Mercedes-Benz EQE350.
The author often tells friends that if the driving mileage is also 500 kilometers, if you drive a Volkswagen Golf, you will feel that you have driven 500 kilometers after driving 500 kilometers. However, if you drive a Mercedes-Benz E-class car, you will feel that you have only driven 250 kilometers after driving 500 kilometers. This is the difference between the two cars. Handling, comfort and noise (NVH), Mercedes-Benz’s E-Class car has great advantages, which is not lost in EQE. Its handling and comfort are almost perfect. Of course, some models of China car companies, such as P7 of Xpeng Motors and M7 of Wenjie, have already caught up, and even BYD’s Yuan Plus EV is close in handling and comfort.
During the test drive, the author likes the constant-speed assisted autopilot mode: in the fast lane of the German town of Schwaikheim to Affalterbach, the author started the constant-speed cruise. Hands off the steering wheel, enter the "automatic driving" mode, drive in straight lines and corners, completely "automatic", and it will automatically slow down when there is a vehicle in front. It is very distinctive that if there is circular traffic ahead, it will automatically slow down when it recognizes circular traffic. However, it is up to the author to operate from which intersection to drive circular traffic. The steering wheel is equipped with a sensor to assist "automatic driving" for several minutes (? ), it (the vehicle) will prompt in the instrument cluster that the driver needs to hold the steering wheel again. After several times of prompting, the driver still does not hold the steering wheel, and it (the vehicle) will enter an emergency mode and automatically slow down to a stop to prevent the driver from "losing consciousness and losing control of the vehicle".
Headup-Display is a good configuration function and has the potential to replace mobile navigation.
price
The price of the EQE 350 test drive by the author is about 90,000 euros, equivalent to about 690,000 yuan. The entry price of EQE is 67,187 euros, about 520,000 yuan. Compared with M7 (starting from 250,000 yuan) or P7+(starting from 186,000 yuan) in Tucki, many car owners will ask, why?
1. The R&D cost of a single vehicle, if European car companies need 50 to 1 billion euros, equivalent to 3.85 to 7.7 billion yuan, while the R&D cost of bicycles of China car companies is only 350 to 700 million yuan, the gap is huge; If the R&D cost of bicycles is allocated to every vehicle sold (assuming that the sales volume of a single vehicle is 500,000 vehicles in its life cycle, and the gap of R&D cost allocation of bicycles is 7,000 to 14,000 yuan, the price gap of bicycles due to R&D cost allocation will be about 10,000 to 20,000 yuan.
2. Energy cost, taking electric energy as an example, is about 0.75 Euro/kWh in Europe, equivalent to 5.77 RMB/kWh, and the average industrial electricity consumption in China is 0.73 RMB/kWh, which is 8 times different! The energy cost difference of bicycles is about 3,500 yuan, and the price difference of bicycles is 5,000 yuan.
3. Labor cost, the average skilled worker in Europe is about 1 euro/minute, which is equivalent to RMB 7.7 yuan/minute, and the average skilled worker in China is 10 times (don’t misunderstand that the salary is 10 times, and various tax rates and social insurance (medical care, retirement, unemployment, etc.) in Europe are the main gaps), the labor cost of bicycles is about 10,000 yuan, and the price gap of bicycles is 150,000.
4. Material cost, the bicycle gap is expected to reach 70,000 to 160,000 RMB, especially in battery packs, motors, other electronic systems and wiring harnesses.
5. The premium gap of brands, the author does not make a detailed analysis here (interested readers can refer to an article published by the author in Geshi Automobile earlier, Brand Strategy of Automobile Enterprises).
Fig. 5 The author is on the way to test drive Mercedes-Benz EQE350.
To sum up, the total price gap at 1, 2, 3 and 4 o’clock is about 100,000 to 200,000 yuan, and the price gap between Mercedes-Benz EQE and the customer M7 or Tucki P7+ is not completely closed. With the passage of time, the gap in labor costs will continue to narrow. After reading this article, colleagues from China automobile companies and colleagues from European automobile companies can feel where there is a competitive advantage and where is the direction to catch up.
author Dr. Liu xiaoyi(Founder and CEO of Guanyu Electromechanical Technology (www.costkey-solutions.com)), new production technology, vehicle planning (including new energy vehicles) and cost engineering of German Daimler Group (Mercedes-Benz) for more than 20 years; German physicist award winner; Expert in the automotive industry think tank of the "Changfeng Plan" of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; High-level technical management of Great Wall Motor and Haichen Energy Storage; Author of Cost Engineering System of Manufacturing Enterprises, the key book of China Gongxin Publishing Group’s "National Heavy Equipment Publishing Project"; Graduate enterprise tutor of School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University; Visiting Professor, School of Automobile, Tongji University; Talent Exchange Center of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology/China Automobile Industry Training Base/Special Lecturer of Cost Engineering of Gao Dun Institute of Finance and Taxation; Author of Gai Shi Automobile’s Liu Xiaoyi Column; CostKey is the first SaaS software system of cloud enterprise-level cost engineering independently developed by Guanyu Electromechanical Technology in China, and won the Innovation Fund Award of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission.