Though Tesla has cornered the market for electric vehicles for years, more carmakers are offering better and more diverse options these days that have been giving Tesla a run for their money. Enter the Mercedes EQS in 2022. As another full-size fully-electric sedan it was always going to be compared to the well established Tesla S. U.S. News and World Report took the time to compare the 2022 models of each of these cars, and though they declared their winner, that result may be up for debate, depending on what you are looking for in your luxury EV.
If You Only Look at the Numbers, Tesla Looks Promising
When it comes to just the numbers, the picture it paints may make you think that the Tesla is a better deal. Those numbers aren’t the whole story, but lets see what they have to say.
1. Tesla is cheaper: The first important number to take a look at is the price. As full-size luxury sedans, it is clear that you were going to have to splash some cash to take one of them home and put it in your garage. You will have to splash a little less cash for a Tesla S. The base model of the S comes in at $99,990, and the fully tricked out version tops out at $135,990. So how much more expensive is the EQS? The base model EQS $104,400, and the car tops out at $147,500.
Though the top-of-the-line Tesla is $11,000+ cheaper than the equivalent Mercedes EQS, it seems unlikely that amount of money will be the deciding factor in which $100,000+ car a person will buy. What’s a few thousand dollars more when you can get a Mercedes instead?
2. Tesla has better fuel economy and range: Once again, looking only at the numbers Tesla seems to come out on top here as well. The Tesla S’s MPGe is rated at 124 in the city and 115 on the highway. This means you should be able to get a range of about 400 miles in a single charge. The Mercedes EQS efficiency is a bit lower, with the car achieving 97 MPGe in both city and highway situations. The EQS’s range is also slightly lower, hovering at 350 miles for a single charge.
It also takes slightly less time for the Tesla to charge, with 15 minutes at a fast-charging station will give the Tesla 200 miles of range, and the EQS a still respectable 186.
3. The Tesla accelerates faster: The Tesla S can reach 60 miles per hour in a devastatingly fast 3.1 seconds, while the EQS takes a more stately, though still sprightly 5.9 seconds to get there.
But Look at Everything Else, and the EQS Really Shines
But here’s the thing, the numbers aren’t what the average driver is going to be most focused on in their day-to-day life with their car. What matters most in real life is how enjoyable it is to drive, how comfortable it is to ride in, how user-friendly the interface is, and how it looks. And in every one of these categories the Mercedes EQS absolutely comes out on top.
1. The Mercedes handles like a Mercedes: Though both the Merc and the Tesla have air suspension and low mounted battery packs that give a low center of gravity and aid handling, the Mercedes is just better. Mercedes has been building proper grand touring cars for decades, and they know what it takes to make a car both fun to drive and still have a comfortable ride.
2. The Mercedes looks better—inside and out: It’s no secret to gearheads that Mercedes (and German car companies in general) makes cars to incredibly high standards. You are paying for a luxury car, and it needs to look and feel luxurious, and the EQS really hits both of these points with high quality materials, a keen eye for design, and buttery soft leather. The Merc’s backseat is also bigger and more comfortable than the Tesla’s, with ample room for full-sized adults to relax in comfort on long car rides.
Tesla in general tends to go to the austere side of the spectrum when it comes to interiors, with a spartan less-is-more mentality that meshes well with their general underwhelming build quality. One video even claimed that a brand new Plaid looked “like toddlers put this together at recess.” Thinking that Tesla is going to win an interior luxury competition with Mercedes is about as smart as bringing a knife to a gun fight. Which is very dumb indeed.
3. The Mercedes tech is better in general: Infotainment screens are a main source of how we interact with our cars these days. Which means it is more important that ever to make them user friendly—especially when operating at high speeds. Tesla, however, has chosen not to allow the most user friendly route of the seamless compatibility that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto allow. Mercedes does. Tesla has pretty much stripped all buttons out of their austere interiors, so nearly everything has to be handled through the screen. And though Mercedes plenty of things to mess around with on their screen, there are still plenty of highly user-friendly buttons, and the climate control is always visible on your screen instead of hidden in a menu somewhere for quick temperature changes.
If You Want A Luxurious Electric Vehicle, Choose the EQS
Really, that’s the bottom line. The numbers may show that the Tesla S is infinitesimally better in a handful of ways, but in the most important ways it is noticeably worse. The Mercedes EQS is more comfortable, more user friendly, nicer to drive, and way more luxurious. The S is an austere monk’s cell with a big touchscreen while the EQS is the king’s castle adorned with luxury and massaging leather seats. And yet they somehow cost nearly the same. The choice seems obvious.
