I will fully admit that I’ve never paid too much favor to Mercedes-Benz. I’ve always been more of a fan of the company’s cross-town rival Porsche, and even BMW has delivered more dynamically impressive and, um, stylistically interesting cars in the recent past. But the new Mercedes-AMG E53 might be the car that turns me around on the three-pointed star.
It’s a handsome sedan, and the current crop of corporate aesthetic fits well in this form factor. The interior is a bit busy for my tastes, but that’s true of almost any new car. This is a 600-horsepower sedan that takes the standard E-Class and pumps it up a whole lot, and still manages your daily commute without burning a single drop of gasoline.
The already impressive E450 makes do with a simple turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-6 engine making 381 horsepower, paired with a puny 23-hp electric motor and mild-hybrid system. In order to AMG-ify the car, Mercedes kicked up the boost to over 21 pounds per square inch, giving the engine 443 horses on its own. Add in a much more powerful electric motor with 161 hp and 354 pound-feet of torque, and you’re really cooking without gas. In normal driving the E53 makes 577 hp and 553 lb-ft, but that’s bumped up to 604 hp when launch control is active — 1 hp more than the old V8 E63.
The PHEV E300 and E400 variants of the E Class use a 25.4-kWh lithium-ion battery stack, achieving around 70 miles of all-electric range. The new E53 has a larger battery stack at 28.6 kWh, and while Mercedes hasn’t released official range estimates, you can expect it to do at least the 70 miles (on the admittedly optimistic WLTP scale) of its little brothers.
In “Race Start” mode, which unlocks the maximum output from both the engine and electric motor, Mercedes says the E53 will run from 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, almost a second quicker than the old 429-hp mild-hybrid E53. When properly optioned the new E53 will top out at 174 miles per hour; if you’re in electric-only mode, the top speed lowers to 87, but that’s still plenty to handle your day-to-day grind.
To support this highway-eater’s speed habits, Mercedes-AMG has fitted it with standard rear steering, an inch-wider track, bigger 14.6-inch brakes, and stiffer (but not too stiff) suspension. There’s also the requisite larger AMG grille, larger bumper intakes, quad exhaust tips and new wheels, plus available performance seats and carbon-fiber trim
The E450 4Matic upon which this AMG’d 53 is based starts at $66,700. For reference, the previous-generation E53 cost $82,450 in 2022, and Mercedes claims this one will only be “modestly more expensive.” Deliveries in the U.S. market will likely begin in Q3 of this year. If you have a quarter tank of gas in your new E Class, don’t worry, you’re still fly.
