Mercedes E300e review: The best PHEV we’ve yet come across

With something of a crisis going on in the EV market, what with cheap Chinese product swamping the field and big players like VW and Tesla embarking on a tricky price-cutting exercise which has enraged their customers and alarmed the trade, some people are looking elsewhere for their green motoring.

Ironically, given that many fobbed off the whole ‘hybrid’ movement as a “stopgap” or a mere weigh-point on the road to fully electric motoring, the attractiveness of this genre of car has suddenly gained new momentum and manufacturers are keen to exploit renewed customer interest.

Understandably people are anxious to protect their investment – most EVs are certainly not cheap – and as the evidence to date shows them not to be anything of a sure-fire non-depreciating asset, hybrids are now becoming the soup du jour for many buyers.

Given that in the initial phase of the dash to EVs, hybrids were given a tax incentive shot in the arm by the government, many initially chose that route even if they never intended plugging the thing in and just running it as one would a normal internal combustion-engined car.

The authorities soon got tired of that particular wheeze and dropped the tax-friendliness of PHEVs; throw in the fact that most such cars struggled to give owners anything more than about 45 km of all-electric motoring and you’ve a situation where their appeal was limited.

However, with growing technical competence and a cooling of the public’s desire to go all-electric and suddenly you’ve a situation where hybrids are back in fashion.

This week we try one of the latest generation of such cars and we have to report that it is particularly good indeed and a significant improvement on what preceded it.

The Mercedes E300e – which we tested in AMG Line Plus specification – is not only a top line executive saloon, but it is quick, well appointed and will now give you nearly 120 km of all electric motoring, more than double what you could have previously expected.

This is a car with a two-litre four-cylinder engine with a hybrid technology system which boosts total output to 313 bhp and a pretty impressive 550 Nm of torque. It will hit 100 km/h from a standstill in just 6.4 seconds and top speed is 236 km/h.

The hybrid end of things sees the utilisation of a 25.4 kWh battery and A/C charging up to 11 kW; range is WLTP registered at 116 km, while emissions come in at 13 g/km and that results in a 7% VRT rating and road tax of €140 annually.

It is worth noting that manufacturers are moving away from claiming ridiculous economy claims for these cars – often hitting figures in the region of 1.5 l/km (186 mpg) – which might have been true in laboratory conditions, but in the real world were the realm of fantasy.

The reality is that you can, with some determined careful driving, hit a figure of maybe 4.2 l/100 km (66 mpg), but if you stray away from your inner misery guts persona, you’ll keep things in and around the 5.6 l/100 km (50 l/100 km) with relative ease.

You have to remember, of course, that PHEVs weigh considerably more than regular ICE-engined cars – sometimes several hundred kilos more and 400 kg in this case – so you’re dragging around heavy batteries and all the ancillaries that go with them, as well as the weight of the engine and the nine-speed auto gearbox.

Some PHEVs offer pretty savage performance, but in this case while the car is impressive in this regard, it is not a tearaway. You get the sense, in fact, that the designers and technical people have concentrated on efficiency rather than pace.

It will accelerate briskly away from a standing start using electricity only and it is only when you mash the accelerator that you get the engine to kick in. If you do wake the engine up, there is a moderate push rather than the savage hammer blow offered by some.

The accelerator could be accused of being a little too sensitive – for my tastes, anyway - and small inputs can make for big reactions from both engine and gearbox, so it does pay to be light-footed here.

Despite the added weight, the E300e is still a comfortable companion on the road and while a little floaty on occasion, it is largely a well sorted handler despite the absence of an air suspension option. The ride is excellent and it was a pleasure to drive in a beast with such distain for our heavily pockmarked road network.

As far as the interior goes, we know the E-Class to be a superior product, but it was something of a shock to find stuff in here that’s not even in the S-Class. 

Things like the driver cam (no, seriously) allow you to schedule your Zoom calls while driving and in some versions, and fitted as an option, the front passenger can install games and stream content to keep themselves amused on a diagonal 12.3” screen.

But the latest MBUX infotainment system is a gem, easy to use and the central 14.4” screen is as prominent, yet non-distracting as you’d want and the graphics are sensational. It has LCD technology including haptic feedback.

Electric and climatised front seats add to the luxury and it is worth noting that the 20” AMG multi-spoke alloys, while a €1,500 option, make a stunning addition to the overall look of the car and really fill out the wheelarches.

If you thought the current E-Class brought a new level of luxury and technology to the mid-sized executive class, then you’d be perfectly right. But this model actually adds to the whole with new and sometimes unexpected pleasures.

And the fact that the newly expanded electric-only range surpasses by some considerable distance what we here at Examiner Motoring to be useful, makes this a pretty decent prospect for any well-heeled commuter who likes occasional uneventful highway trips.

This is a lovely car to drive and to live with and the standard spec on offer here surprised with its generosity as Mercedes are not generally known for their big-heartedness in this regard.

You could complain at the fact the boot is rather compromised by comparison with the ICE versions (it loses about 180 litres) because of the hybrid technology and also that (common complaint these days) that there’s no spare tyre of any description, but these are not game-changing problems.

This is possibly the best – and most useful – PHEV we’ve ever experienced and when you tie that in with the technology advances on offer here, the E300e is actually quite a compelling prospect and especially so given the problems facing buyers of pure EVs.

This is a very decent option and can even quell some of your environmental concerns.