My husband used to be a sales associate at a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Montreal, and he’s spent the entire duration of our marriage telling me that no automaker is as luxuriously high-tech as Mercedes. I have never discounted this observation. I’ve just also never felt the need to drive an extremely tech-heavy car. I still have a hard time dealing with a tiny infotainment screen.
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So I think it’s probably a little bit of an understatement to say that the EQS’s offerings are a bit overwhelming. After I laughed out loud at the exterior, I also laughed out loud at the absolutely massive Hyperscreen. I wanted to ask it if it was compensating for something. I wanted to ask why such a cute fella needs such a big screen.
Functionally, the Hyperscreen is great. A single piece of curved glass, it’s a gorgeous feat of technological innovation that works with rapid speed due to an eight-core processor and 24 gigabytes of RAM. You tap on anything, and there’s not going to be lag. You’re immediately transported to the place you chose to go in the infotainment system.
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The graphics are also gorgeous, but again, it’s a little bit Much. There’s a screen for the driver, one of the passenger, and a tall screen in the center, and in those latter two, you can access everything from radio controls to vehicle settings to satellite maps to photo galleries to video games. I did poke around the Tetris game and found it took a while to load but was otherwise fun. I still can’t imagine myself using an infotainment screen instead of my phone for gaming, though.
Even worse, you still get a lot of glare, despite the fact that Mercedes tried its best to avoid that. There’s not really anything you’re going to be able to do about the reflection of the sun when it’s especially bright.
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You can also navigate with conversational commands after saying, “Hey Mercedes.” As in, you can say something like, “Hey Mercedes, I want coffee,” and your car will find you the nearest coffee spots. I used to hate voice commands because it was next to impossible to actually get what you were asking for, but this modern iteration that you see on luxury cars has really changed the game. I don’t have to think up the robotic command I’d need to change the radio station. I can just say it.
The digital dashboard was also one hell of a feature. You can cycle through tons of different displays, most of which are just mind boggling. You can literally have your navigation map displayed on your dashboard — and I don’t mean you get a little box that has navigation. The whole screen turns into a map. I’m sure some folks will enjoy it, but it was massively overwhelming for me.
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As was the augmented reality navigation, which feels a little bit more video game-y than anything else. Maybe I’m just too old to appreciate these things.
Photo: Elizabeth Blackstock
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The Verdict
It’s difficult to offer a verdict for a car that I can’t compare to the other vehicles in its class, I can say that the 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS450+ is a delightful vehicle that transforms much of what makes Mercedes special into a flagship luxury sedan — but it does feel like the German automaker couldn’t decide what it wanted to do. It tried to combine modern austerity with Benz’s traditional elegance, and it works… but it’s probably not going to work for everyone. It didn’t work for me, but it could very well work for you. And you know what? I respect a delightfully polarizing car.
The Scighera Concept Was The Flagship Alfa Romeo Deserved
In the game it’s called an Italdesign Scighera, sort of how the Lamborghini Cala was attributed to Italdesign in Need For Speed II. It’s not the only vehicle from Giorgetto Giugiaro’s studio featured in NFS III, because the Nazca C2 also made an appearance.
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NFS’ car rosters around this time were limited, yet extremely inspired. Perhaps it’s just reflective of how exciting concepts and automotive design in general were leading up to the millennium, but Electronic Arts had a discerning eye when sourcing its selections. That was enhanced by the Showcase mode, a staple of these early NFS titles that offered an innovative and educational way to explore every vehicle, that really put the multimedia capabilities of CD-ROMs to good use. Hearing cars like the Scighera and Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR spoken about by NFS’ immortal announcer, they end up sounding less like sports cars and more like heroes of legend.
Welcome to another installment of Cars Of Future Past, a series at Jalopnik where we flip through the pages of history to explore long-forgotten concepts and how they had a hand in shaping the cars we know today.
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Off the heels of last week’s exploration into the 2004 Ford Shelby Cobra with Chris Theodore, today we’re discussing a different attempt at resurrecting an American icon. Much like Ford in the early 2000s, Chrysler’s concept game was strong throughout the ’90s. It also had a knack for bringing many of its experiments to market, though some of the cooler ideas — the Copperhead, Jeepster and Pronto Spyder, to name a few — sadly never left the show floor despite a fair degree of public interest.
Count today’s subject, the 1999 Dodge Charger R/T concept, among them. Long before Hellcats and the return of the Hemi came this vision of what a Dodge muscle car of the new millennium could be. And much like Dodge’s awkwardly-made promise to bring American muscle to the encroaching age of electric motoring, this Charger was intended to be friendlier to the environment than its predecessors.
What It Was
Image: Stellantis
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The 1999 North American International Auto Show proved to be a very prescient one in hindsight. Mind you, that prescience didn’t produce uniformly desirable production cars.This was the Detroit event that introduced the world to the Pontiac Aztek, after all. It also gave us the Cadillac Evoq (that previewed the XLR), the Dodge Power Wagon (sort of a more extreme take on what would eventually morph into the 2002 Ram 1500), and the Charger R/T concept.
Born out of a time when the R/T badge represented the pinnacle of Chrysler’s performance offerings, this Charger had all the makings of the Viper’s cheaper, more practical sibling. It was shaped like a wedge but more down-to-earth than the Prowler, which Chrysler somehow managed to commercialize. It disguised its four doors with a coupe roofline, long before German brands popularized the practice. And it sounded like a trip to drive.
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The Charger R/T was powered by a naturally-aspirated 4.7-liter V8 developing 325 horsepower, sending all that grunt to the rear wheels. The whole package was said to weigh about 3,000 pounds in total, albeit obviously without the kind of safety compliance necessary for a production car.
Still, there was a lot to like — even if the five-speed manual’s shifter design necessitated a questionable gripping technique (and maybe a mosaic filter, too).
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Image: Stellantis
We still haven’t even broached this Charger’s quirkiest trait — its fuel system. That V8 was fed with compressed natural gas. And Chrysler was all too proud to point it out in a pamphlet I swear my brother brought back home for me from the New York Auto Show when I was six years old. Here’s what it said, courtesy of Allpar:
New materials used to make this compressed natural gas (CNG) storage tank might enable passenger cars to get double the range (300 miles) and all the trunk space (nearly 13 cubic feet). Other CNG vehicles using current storage tanks have to stuff tanks in the trunk of the car and only achieve about 150 miles range. Natural gas produces 25 percent less carbon dioxide than gasoline and lessens the dependence on foreign oil. Emissions would be so low from this Charger that they meet the strictest of standards currently enforced by the sate of California.
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Image: Stellantis
The Charger’s CNG fiberglass pressure cells were fortified with gas-impermeable high-density polyurethane thermoplastic, wrapped in carbon and glass filaments wound together with an epoxy resin. They sat inside a foam crate to ensure durability, but were laid flat under the trunk floor so as to consume as little space as possible. They kept the gas pressurized at a nice and tight 3,600 psi.
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It sounds nice in theory, but the time never seemed to be right for CNG passenger cars to become a thing. The storage tanks were expensive to build, distribution was a problem nobody seemed interested in solving, and then there was the whole dilemma of fracking. All that for a 25 percent reduction on CO2 emissions, and it’s little surprise why hybrids and electric cars emerged as more attractive.
Why It Matters
Image: Stellantis
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You can’t really talk about this Charger without mentioning that Charger, the eventual production car built on the LX platform that succeeded this LH-based ’99 concept.
The show car was clearly more reflective of Dodge’s design philosophy immediately before the millennium: cab-forward everything, with grimacing crossbar fascias and stylistic cues pulled from the Viper wherever applicable. A group of designers contributed to it, including Tom Gale and Joe Dehner. Dehner later called the ’99 Charger the car he’s proudest to have worked on in his career. I know I’m biased, but in this instance, I think his back-patting is entirely justified.
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I’ll never understand how Chrysler could abandon this design in favor of greenlighting the banal, three-box LX Charger half a decade later. This concept was a tremendous feat of visual packaging — a sport sedan you’d easily mistake for a coupe in a passing glance — with functional side and hood vents cutting in just enough to accentuate the car’s classic Coke-bottle proportions, without making the whole affair look cartoonishly mean.
Image: Stellantis
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This might sound strange to say, but this car had a great face, brimming with personality. It looked like a superhero’s mask, exuding strength and confidence but not in a macho way. At the rear, a flat, smoked-out lightbar lent a very futuristic graphic for the time. The production Charger may have looked brawnier than this rendition, but it was sure as hell clumsier, too.
What makes the ’99 Charger’s fate all the more crushing is that, studying the interior, there doesn’t appear to be much inside this car that would have been too ambitious for production. Even the door cards had safety reflectors — the kind of mundane detail hinting that, at some point, this Charger was pegged as more than a design exercise. Instead, it wound up just another casualty of the merger of equals era.
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What Games You Can Drive It In
The ’99 Charger concept almost seems like a car made for a video game, and yet it didn’t wind up in many. In fact, you can only find it in one: Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition. Yes, that Dub. It was 2005, after all.
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MC3 remains the high point of that series for many fans, with an extremely varied car roster, three open-world cities (or four, if you count Tokyo in the later released Remix edition) and a star-studded licensed soundtrack that included Pitbull and Lil Wayne at a time before they became too expensive to buy for a racing game. It was overflowing with content, and it even included the Charger SRT-8 for those who wanted to compare the production car against the concept.
Still, it shouldn’t have marked the Charger’s only game appearance. A preview of Gran Turismo 4 from 2004, courtesy of The Next Level, showed Polyphony Digital staff photographing the car in a Chrysler facility. There’s a cameo appearance from the 1993 Chrysler Thunderbolt concept in the same shot. In another image, the team is seen capturing a 1970 Challenger. That Challenger was drivable in Gran Turismo 5, but the Charger was never immortalized in the same way. This car deserved better.
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Audi’s electric range is finally taking shape, now that the E-Tron GT and Q4 E-Tron have joined the existing E-Tron crossover. And in case you thought the E-Tron branding couldn’t possibly get more puzzling, Audi just revealed a concept of the A6 E-Tron it expects to hit showrooms sometime in the next two years.
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It’s bothering my obsessive-compulsive tendencies that E-Tron now exists as a standalone nameplate and a version of existing Audi models, but I’ll try my best to keep that down to focus on the concept itself, which looks pretty good. The A6 E-Tron debuted at the Shanghai Auto Show today, and marks the first Audi we’ve seen based on the company’s Premium Platform Electric architecture.
Audi calls the A6 E-Tron a sportback, which followers of the brand may argue actually make it more of an A7 by nature. According to Audi, the A6 name was chosen to link this car to one of the brand’s most historically significant models, and dimensionally it’s equivalent to the existing A6. Here I am again talking about the car’s name — you just can’t get away from it with these new electric Audis.
Image: Audi
The design you see here is reportedly 95 percent representative of the final model, which isn’t bad news considering that the A6 E-Tron cleans up for the most part. Sure, it’s derivative in places — the high beltline of the profile evokes the departed Ford Fusion in my mind’s eye, and the way the headlights meet the grille — I’m sorry, the inverted face, as Audi calls it — strikes me as remarkably similar to the Mustang Mach-E’s furrowed brow. Neither of these familiarities are necessarily bad though. Don’t hold your breath for images of the interior yet — Audi is saving those for later.
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Image: Audi
Audi designers say the tautness of the roofline and width of the track on this concept will be scaled back slightly ahead of production, though the black trim near the floor that looks like a cutaway panel will be retained. It’s a neat visual trick that slims the car down somewhat, and I like the way it trails toward the rear bumper. There are projectors at the corners that beam light at the ground to greet passengers and signal turns that may or may not make it to the final iteration. There’s a precedent for similar tech in road cars already, though, so it wouldn’t be inconceivable if it did come to pass.
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In terms of performance figures, Audi is mostly keeping those close to the chest for now. This concept packs a pair of electric motors combining for 469 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. That’s projected to get the A6 E-Tron to 62 mph from a standstill in under four seconds.
Image: Audi
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Turning to range, Audi claims the A6 E-Tron will return more than 700 km on a full charge (434 miles), though under the generous WLTP cycle. The E-Tron GT is rated for 298 miles by that same measure, so the A6 E-Tron is sure to bring a huge range improvement to the brand even if the actual, real-world distance falls short of the WLTP-based projection. For reference, the latest Tesla Model S starts at an EPA-estimated 412 miles of range.
The A6 E-Tron’s efficiency is helped by an ultralow drag coefficient of 0.22 — one of the lowest out there, matching Mercedes-Benz’s A-Class — though there’s no confirmation on whether those slight exterior changes to the production car will dent that somewhat. Like other new electric Audis, it supports 800-volt peak charging that aims to replenish 300 km of range in just 10 minutes.
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As far as timing of the sedan’s arrival, for now Audi is saying only that its first PPE-based cars will emerge in the second half of next year. That will likely begin with the Q6 E-Tron, before this A6. In the meantime, I’m going to try and work out a flowchart to make sense of all these E-Trons.
Fact one: Mercedes says that the EQS is the “world’s most aerodynamic production car,” with a drag coefficient of 0.20. How does that help in terms of range?
Compared to an aerodynamically good electric car (cd value 0.23), this delivers a range advantage of four (WLTP cycle) to five percent (Mercedes long-distance measurement).
Fact two: There is a port on the left side of the car for windshield wiper fluid. This is that port:
Photo: Mercedes
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Fact three: I can only assume a team of people were well-paid for this:
Light design: the headlights have a striking daytime running light signet with three light dots and are connected to each other via a light band. This is just as defining for the EQ family as the lights at the rear: the rear lights are also connected by a light band, with inner workings in the form of a curved 3D helix.
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Photo: Mercedes
Fact four: Mercedes says that “over 100 million rods and cones are located in the retina of the human eye,” which is why the EQS must be visually appealing.
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Fact five: You can play music from streaming services in the EQS, of course, but Mercedes isn’t sure why you would want to because it put a lot of thought into the interior sound design.
The EQS comes from the factory with two soundscapes: Silver Waves and Vivid Flux. They can be selected or switched off as sound experiences on the central display. The driver and passengers are greeted with a welcome sound when approaching the vehicle and when getting in. A corresponding aura sound also accompanies exiting and locking the EQS. The driving sound is produced by the speakers of the sound system in the interior. The new ENERGIZING NATURE programs of ENERGIZING COMFORT also offer an impressively realistic listening experience. The soothing sounds called Forest Glade, Sounds of the Sea and Summer Rain were created in cooperation with nature acoustician Gordon Hempton. As with the other ENERGIZING COMFORT programs, other senses are addressed with ambient lighting and images. Streaming services are another alternative to the new type of silence…
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Fact six: There is a fragrance for the top-of-the-line EQS. It is called No. 6 MOOD Linen — “carried by the green note of a fig and linen.”.
Fact seven: The heated massage seats aren’t just any heated massage seats.
Finally, there are up to ten different massage programs in the EQS that can be felt with the whole body. The seat features inflatable air chambers that can be enhanced with heating for a “Hot Stone” massage. The vibration motors in the seats also enhance the effect of a relaxing massage.
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Fact eight: The wheels have been optimized for better aerodynamics, and so has the rear spoiler and the underbody and a lot of other things to get that 0.20 drag coefficient. And the ICE A-Class and current S-Class actually aren’t far behind.
For more than three decades, the aerodynamicists at Mercedes-Benz have been achieving top results. Currently, the A-Class Sedan (V 177) and the S-Class (V 223) are the worldwide record holders with a cd value of 0.22. The special simulation tools and the Mercedes-Benz aero-acoustics wind tunnel commissioned in 2013 make a decisive contribution to this.
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Fact nine: The EQS has optional chauffeur-like auto door opening.
If desired, the EQS can even open and close the driver’s door like a chauffeur. If the driver approaches the EQS from the side, the door handle first extends at a distance of approximately 20 feet. If the distance is only about 5 feet, the car unlocks and automatically opens the driver’s door. This special welcome function can be activated or deactivated via MBUX.
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And if you’re afraid of the door opening at an inopportune time — say a car is approaching from behind — the EQS has many, many sensors for protection.
Fact ten: The variable distribution of power on the all-wheel drive EQS 4MATIC is somewhat sophisticated.
The required drive torque at the wheels is checked 10,000 times per minute and set if necessary: The reaction is thus much faster than would ever be possible with a mechanical all-wheel drive.
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Fact eleven: There is an app that goes with the EQS, of course, called the Mercedes me connect app. Among other things, it has the following function:
These include a filter option that allows the charging points to be sorted according to criteria such as availability or charging capacity. The likelihood over the course of the day of a particular charging point being busy is also determined and displayed on the basis of a probability calculation.
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Fact twelve: The navigation system features the following probably useful function, intended to alleviate range anxiety:
If there is a risk of not reaching the destination or the charging station with the set settings, Active Range Monitoring issues the prompt to activate ECO driving functions. In addition, the driving speed for reaching the next charging station or the destination is calculated and displayed in the speedometer. Under the menu item “Range”, the EQS driver can switch off various energy consumers to increase the range and activate the ECO driving functions to support a more efficient driving style.
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Fact thirteen: Not sure where they got this idea:
There will also be small entertaining games such as a number puzzle or a Mercedes-Benz quiz. You can even play games with each other on the front passenger display and the tablet in the rear in multi-player mode.
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Fact fourteen: There is a “beginner driver” mode, for all the teens who are going to learn to drive in a six-figure EV.
In beginner driver mode, the driving characteristics are deliberately gentler. Nevertheless, sufficient power reserves are available for overtaking. Driving mode C is automatically activated, while driving mode Sport is disabled. The top speed is limited to approx. 75 mph, ESP-OFF cannot be activated.
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Fact fifteen: Here is how the base EQS without the fancy Hyperscreen will be set up. You get an armrest.
The base model without MBUX Hyperscreen has a slightly different center console. There is a soft armrest in the rear section. It is first visually interrupted before being transitioned into the floating central display.
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Fact sixteen: The MBUX infotainment system is willing to get kind of creepy.
If someone always calls one particular friend on the way home on Tuesday evenings, in future they will always receive a suggestion regarding this particular call on this day of the week and at this time. A business card appears with their contact information and – if this is stored – their photo.
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Fact seventeen: The Hyperscreen is molded at a temperature of 1,202 degrees.
This hot forming of glass at process temperatures of approx. 1202°F places the highest demands on mold making and process control and is used in the production of optical glass for camera lenses and smartphone cover glasses. With the MBUX Hyperscreen, this process enables a distortion-free view of the displays across the entire width of the vehicle, regardless of the radius of the cover glass.
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Fact eighteen: And, yes, Mercedes is worried about all that glass hitting your body during a crash, too.
The MBUX Hyperscreen is bolted directly to the cockpit cross-member for stability: The connection to a stabilizing magnesium support as the structural component of the MBUX Hyperscreen is made via aluminum brackets. Their honeycomb structure allows them to deform in a controlled manner in a crash. For side impact protection, the cover glass also does not extend all the way to the doors. In the event of a severe side impact, there are also predetermined breaking points behind the side air vents.
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Fact nineteen: The cabin air filtration system is extremely impressive. I do not at all feel jealous.
Thanks to its purpose design, the EQS accommodates a large filter system under the front hood. The HEPA Filter’s dimensions are 23”/16”/1.6” and its volume is almost three gallons. Filtration takes place in three stages. A coarse pre-filter retains leaves, snow and sand and traps larger particles. At the same time, it protects the HEPA filter from a high concentration of coarse particles. The separation in this HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filter uses a mechanical process by means of a synthetic membrane: The microfiber layer traps fine dust of the class PM 2.5 to PM 0.3 – these particles are therefore smaller than 2.5 μm. Over 99.65 percent of particles of all sizes are removed according to the filter’s efficiency certified pursuant to DIN EN 1822. The reduction of pollutants achieved at the filter is comparable to that in clean rooms and operating rooms.
In the third and final step, further fine particles as well as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and unpleasant odors are filtered out. The filtration of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides is carried out by special activated charcoals in the HEPA filter and the interior air filter. Due to their pore structure, they have a very large inner surface area. Around 600 grams of activated charcoal are used in the HEPA filter of the EQS. The adsorption area is equivalent to about 150 football fields. Activated charcoal is produced from coconut shells, which are a by-product of the cosmetics industry.
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Fact twenty: Is there a power nap mode for the driver? You bet your ass there is.
During a break in a road trip, i.e. at a service area or charging station, the Power Nap program can be selected. The program has three phases – falling asleep, sleeping, and waking up – which can increase the driver’s performance and give them new energy. A new feature of the short sleep program during a break is the expanded conditioning of the interior: the EQS ensures a sleep-promoting atmosphere by moving the driver’s seat into a rest position, closing the side windows and panorama roof sunshade, activating air ionization, and adjusting the ambient lighting accordingly. Soothing sounds and the depiction of a starry sky on the central display support falling asleep – if Power Nap has been started for the front passenger seat, this also appears on the front passenger display.
Waking up is accompanied by a pleasantly activating soundscape, appropriate fragrance as well as a briefly active subtle massage and seat ventilation. Finally, the seat is raised again and the sunshade in the roof liner is opened. This ends the program and returns the driver to the task of driving.
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Fact twenty-one: The Burmester(R) sound system has 15 speakers.
The Burmester® surround sound system in the EQS comprises 15 speakers with a total output of 710 watts and produces an unusually expressive, natural sound – the Burmester “feel-good sound”.
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Fact twenty-two: The EQS has a literal red alert.
As an additional contribution to accident prevention, Active Ambient Lighting integrates driver assistance systems and supports them with an animation. Active Brake Assist, for example, warns drivers of the risk of a collision by illuminating the instrument panel in red. With Active Blind Spot Assist, a red light in the door also signals a hazardous situation.
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Fact twenty-three: The ride height changes for ride comfort, depending on mode and speed.
This level control is part of AIRMATIC. It keeps the ground clearance constant irrespective of the vehicle load, but also makes changes. By way of example, in COMFORT mode, the vehicle body is lowered by 0.4 inches at high speeds above 75 mph and another 0.4 inches at over 100 mph to reduce aerodynamic drag and increase handling stability. If the vehicle drops below 50 mph, the body level returns to the initial position. Up to 25 mph the body can be raised by 1 inch at the touch of a button, above 31 mph it is automatically lowered back to normal level.
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Fact twenty-four: The rear wheels can turn in by ten degrees, making the turning circle as small as 37.5 feet.
The operating principle of rear-axle steering in detail: An electric motor drives a spindle at the rear axle via a drive belt. This makes axial adjustments to the spindle. Depending on the speed and the steering angle, the rear wheels turn in the same or the opposite direction as the front wheels (same direction or counter- direction). In simplified terms, this produces more agility and a smaller turning circle by counter-steering and more stability with same-direction steering. The environmental data of the vehicle sensors (radar, camera, ultrasonic) are used to adapt the maximum angle to the relevant situation. The system switches from counter- direction to same-direction steering at speeds over 37 mph.
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Fact twenty-five: Up to 12 moves.
Active Parking Assist also uses the rear-axle steering and thus enters the parking space with ease. The calculation of the lanes (trajectories) is adjusted to this. And when things get really tight, it can make up to 12 moves. Acceleration, steering, braking, gear changes and turn indicators are controlled automatically.
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Fact twenty-six: The powertrain can irreversibly shut itself down as a protective measure.
Only in the case of very severe accidents, where the vehicle is usually incapable of being driven anyway, is the high-voltage system shut down irreversibly and unable to be activated without repair. When shutting down, there is a provision to ensure that within a few seconds there is no residual voltage in the high-voltage system outside the battery that could cause injury.
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Fact twenty-seven: The EQS makes a sound at low speeds to warn pedestrians of its presence.
The electric-car-specific innovations also include an Acoustic Vehicle Alert System (standard). This makes it easier for pedestrians to notice the EQS at low speeds. One sound generator sits weatherproof in the front right wheel arch and in the rear underbody respectively. An EQ-specific sound is generated up to a vehicle speed of approx. 19 mph. It becomes louder and higher with increasing speed. This change allows conclusions to be drawn about the driving status (braking/acceleration).
Above 12 mph, the sound is gradually faded out, since above this threshold the vehicle can be perceived via the then dominant rolling and wind noises. If the speed drops back to 18 mph, the sound is faded in again.
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Fact twenty-eight: The seat belt buckles light up.
In conjunction with the MANUFAKTUR Nappa leather Package, the EQS has illuminated seat belt buckles at the front and rear. They support buckling up, and make it easy to find the latch at night, because the lights of the belt buckle pulsate at that time. When stationary and at low speed, the lights are solid.
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There are more than 28 interesting facts about the 2022 Mercedes EQS, but these are the ones that caught my eye. The one thing you can never say about Mercedes is that it doesn’t pay attention to the details.
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