This EV taught me how to drive electric cars properly

The Mercedes EQS is far from a beginner-friendly car, but if you’re struggling to drive your EV efficiently, senior reviews writer Mario Christou reckons it’s just the car you need to experience

Electric cars have only become commonplace in the last few years, and with uptake increasing every year they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. Whether you’re an early adopter or you’re only just starting to consider making the switch to electric, there’s going to be an adjustment period where you get used to it.

Because for all of their similarities to a car with an internal combustion engine, and despite them being so easy to drive, getting the most range out of your electric car isn’t as simple as sticking it into ‘ECO’ mode and getting on with your day.

After all, there are so many different settings for power modes, the strength of the braking regeneration and one-pedal driving options that it can be a bit mind boggling. The principle is that it uses the car’s own momentum to charge the battery; instead of the brake disks wasting energy via friction, the car’s motor spins in reverse, slowing you down and recouping energy in the process.

Logic dictates that you set the regen to max and away you go, right? Wrong.

And it was only when driving the Mercedes EQS 450+ on a cross-country drive to a classic car show, the second longest-range EV on sale at the moment, that I realised how much more there is to maximising battery range when using its Intelligent Recuperation mode.

While strong brake regen is great around town at low speed, having the motors recoup energy the second you let off the throttle is the opposite of what you want when maintaining a constant speed, on the motorway for example. That’s why the EQS’s sensors scan the road ahead, and if there isn’t a car slowing down in front of you it’ll let you coast with almost zero resistance.

It’s most noticeable on the motorway or on a clear road, especially when using cruise control, where the EQS will use the bare minimum amount of drive to keep you going at speed – and let itself coast as soon as it can, as often as it can, for as long as it can.

Add to that the super-sensitive range indicator, which shows you a realistic range for how you’re driving and the maximum possible range if you’re driving as smoothly and efficiently as possible, and the EQS encourages you to hit that upper number. For someone as competitive as I am, it actually makes for a fun challenge.

And when I say super-sensitive, I mean it, because even turning the air conditioning up or driving with the windows down for a prolonged period of time will visibly reduce your mileage. I spent as much time as possible with the air conditioning off, using the big Mercedes’ ventilated seats and just tilting the sunroof up for some fresh air instead.

The downside to the EQS is its tremendous price tag, and the car I drove would cost you north of £130,000. No matter how efficiently you drive, you’re not offsetting that cost in fuel savings over your lifetime unless you’re looking at an equally pricer petrol alternative, such as an S-Class.

But you don’t need to spend north of six figures on an EV to take advantage of these learnings – the simple fact that I managed to exceed Mercedes’ claimed efficiency of 3.3mi/kWh on a mostly-motorway journey proves that you can stretch out an EV’s claimed range, so long as you adapt your driving style.

Even if your EV doesn’t have a trick self-evaluating drive mode, just by keeping an eye on your energy use, smoothness behind the wheel and braking regeneration you’ll be able to go further than you think.

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