Why we’re running it: To see if a plug-in hybrid S-Class can be as convincing an ultimate long-distance luxury saloon as its diesel ancestors
Month 2 - Month 1 - Specs
Life with a Mercedes S-Class PHEV: Month 2
There’s still much to explore, even from 1500 miles away - 20 July
I’ve been playing with an app. In my techno-Luddite world, that’s akin to Tarzan riding a monorail around the jungle. But sitting here in the Corfiot sunshine, I can look at my telephone and see that my car remains where I last parked it, some 1500 miles away from where I am now.
If it weren’t, I could deactivate the key from here. I can tell that it’s locked, and were it not, I could lock it from here. If I had left it with valet parking, I could set a geofenced perimeter that would alert me were the car to breach it in my absence. I can tell that no one has driven into it hard enough to trigger its collision detection sensors.
I know how much petrol is in the tank and how full of electrons is the battery. I could programme it to ensure that upon my arrival at its door, the interior temperature would be precisely what I would choose, regardless of the weather outside.
I can open or close the windows and/or the sunroof. I can review the tiniest details of my last journey and bone up on how to drive the next one more frugally. And so on and on and on.
The app is called Mercedes Me, and it puts a staggering amount of information and functionality at my fingertips. Which just leaves one question unanswered: does it say more about me or the app that I rarely use any of it?
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Alright, so the latest S Class has a lot more tech than the previous model (which itself wasn't exactly short on tech), but how much quieter or comfier than the previous model it is really? I'll bet unless you drive them back to back, and then for long periods and in different conditions, you can hardly tell the difference!
So yes, far more/newer tech, but in terms of traditional luxury saloon pampering and driving refinement progress? Not all that much, I suspect!
Indeed, most C, E & S-Classes are taxis and livery vehicles, most private-owner Mercs are the suspicously Renault-related A-Classes and a few of the ageing GLC and ML/GLE SUVs
The only clever new Merc is the plug-in GLB, but given its humble origins it is wildly over-priced.
Needless to say, the EQ sedans will ultimately also go the way of the C, E & S-Class cars...
Seems like a nice car and high tech, however I would've liked to have know what effect 60KW of power being diverted into a battery with say 15% charge has on performance and fuel consumption.