With a separate chassis and mechanical rather than air springs, the G-Class has always felt a bit like a truck, and now it’s so heavy that it threatens to become one. Its maximum payload is only 415kg, and there’s no option of a towbar. The maximum permitted gross weight is 3500kg, and I think would be perilously easy to get there: carrying a family and skiing luggage could be 400kg easily. But with current battery technology, this is where we are.
So with coil springs and adaptive dampers, the G580 feels heavy in terms of ride composure and steering. It’s no Range Rover in terms of refinement or the time it takes between you giving instructions via the steering wheel and the wheels beneath you doing anything. Impressively, though, it doesn’t feel three tonnes kind of heavy.
The low-speed ride is where that weight is most felt. The G580 judders over prolonged uneven surfaces, with a shimmy that you feel through your seat and hands, although I think it’s probably more refined than, say, the Ford Ranger Raptor.
There’s a fair degree of wind noise, too, probably exacerbated by minimal drivetrain noise.
Off road
Mercedes’ engineers think the electric G-Class is better off road than the ICE ones.
It gets independent front suspension and a solid rear axle like that car, albeit the rear axle is redesigned.
Its wading depth is 850mm, more than ICE G-Classes’, and Mercedes says that’s on the conservative side. Above that and initially the car is likely to lose traction because it’s buoyant – until it isn’t.
Having four motors give significant advantages over an ICE powertrain. There’s more torque, for a start, and it’s available as soon as the motors start turning. Mercedes says the drivetrain responses are up to 150 times faster than in an ICE car.
