First Drive: It's called the S580e and it's the most advanced Mercedes S-Class you can currently buy. But is it also the pick of the range? NeilBWinn has the verdict
It’s no surprise that when Olaf Scholz took over from Angela Merkel as the new chancellor of Germany late last year, he asked for aas his company car. After all, every German chancellor from 1949 to 1998 has opted for a Mercedes – those three-pointed stars serving as the ultimate emblem of status, wealth and power. Sonderklasse, remember, literally stands for ‘special class’.
Which is why we reckon it won’t be too long before we see Scholz hotfoot his way out of the S680 and into the car you see before you – the all-new S580e. Under the bonnet, you won’t find a V12 or even a V8, instead, it sports a 362bhp turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six paired to a 148bhp electric motor. Working together, they deliver an impressive 510bhp and help this five-metre long leviathan crush the 0-62mph sprint in an estimated 5.2 seconds.
Better yet, Mercedes’ battery is capable of fast charging. So where the Audi and BMW are pegged to 7kW charging speeds the S580 can take on a charge at up to 60kW, meaning a 10-80% charge can be completed in 20 minutes. That’s not particularly quick compared to the best electric cars, but it has the potential to make a massive difference to running costs.
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