Gadgetory

now this is mercedes-benz first plug-in hybrid but it's not their first hybrid it's not even their first s-class hybrid these two have this unloved beast called the s400 that was a mild hybrid without the plug-in part and it did mild things for the mpg like for better in the city not bad and zero better on the highway so nobody cared it died in 2013 this is a much more serious animal with a much bigger battery and the ability to be plugged in as well as generate on the fly now back here of course is where the big battery lives the additional traction battery for the powertrain this is clearly taking up some space back here although it's by no means killing the trunk this is an eight point seven kilowatt hour capacity battery to put that in context compare it to a Nissan Leaf which is electric only that has a 24 kilowatt hour battery a Tesla Model S has either a 70 or 85 kilowatt hour battery so this is a more modest helper since this car isn't only an Eevee you charge it right there in what I believe is the only charging port I've run into yet that is integrated back here on the bumper some folks have expressed concern that that's a very frequently hit part of a car and how often will that be disabled by bumps and dings in parking lots don't know it's a two-hour charge from flat on a 240 volt circuit which you'd certainly want to have at your home now inside the s550 hybrid is a lot of familiar territory very plush very comfortable and this wonderland of duel giant LCD wide screens I'm not going to recover all this cabin technology for that head over to see net and just search s550 and you'll find our detailed review of the debut of this in gas engine form we take all this apart here's what I want you to notice though two new controls on the console this one here has a little battery icon above the car as you cycle through that you get four different modes right there on the instrument panel hybrids gonna be your most common mode it's your well understood blend of gas and electric power --mode is electric power only silent running and the accelerator pedal will actually push back if you're goosing it too hard to optimize battery drain East save defends the battery state by using the electric motor the least and recharging it the most and charge goes the furthest it prioritizes charging the battery above all and doesn't use electric motor at all honestly there's a lot of inside baseball here I bet you'll just leave it in hybrid mode and this button right here has an e plus mode it's a separate layer separate from those four it gets a little complex here that one among other things is going to set up camera and radar to look ahead and if you're closing on a vehicle in traffic we're going to trounce the brakes and waste inertia it's gonna prompt you to do so more gently and earlier conserving momentum now unlike what you expect from an s-class there's not some big brawny engine in here it's fairly small it's a 3 liter gas engine v6 they love thee you've got your bright orange electrical current cables down here and that means you're attached to of course the electric motor which is embedded in the transmission on this vehicle inside the works of the 7-speed automatic so it's highly integral for both adding as well as doing regeneration of powers going back to the battery some of the numbers compared to your base v8s 550 329 horse on this guy plus another 114 from the e motor give you an odd 436 total the gas engine car is 449 so that's 13 Center torque here is 479 pounds feet 516 on the gas v8 so we're losing 37 both have the same 7-speed automatic architecture although the gas engine car can be had all-wheel drive this hybrid goes to 60 and 5.2 seconds the gas engine car is a little quicker at 4.8 and of course that big battery charging apparatus and electric motor add weight the mpg is notably improved we're twenty four thirty in the hybrid just seventeen twenty six without it and of course where there is no comparison is electric range this car can go 20 miles on electric power only in the right conditions and up to 80 miles per hour on pure electric this is a key part of the strategy that helps this car work on the credits that Mercedes needs in zero emissions market places like California and other very stringent states final under way you know that an S Class is a big buttery thing this one's bigger and buttery R it has this incredibly modulated ride of course owing to that 450 pounds of battery in the back unfortunately the throttle response is real lumpy sometimes you've got a bunch of power sometimes you have a good amount but it's not the same kind deceleration is coming in and out because you've got all these different drive modes of electric gas gas and electric and different kinds of regen it's just not linear and if you trounce the pedal and really get onto a freeway on-ramp or something absolutely no problem it's that around town stuff where it's a little bit you know in and out of different modes it's jarring which doesn't make sense in a car like this so I'm left wondering who's really gonna get excited about this car who out there is saying Oh finally that's the s-class I wanted it saves some gas it's it's measurable but it's no Prius so what are we left with I think an s-class that the world wasn't asking for but California and other state regulators work okay pricing on this s550 hybrid is about 95 3 delivered what is interesting is that that base price is the exact same as the gas engine v8 twin-turbo there is no hybrid penalty on this car that's pretty notable other things to bear in mind is these kind of luxury cars in particular the s-class have dramatic 5 year depreciation I think that will be compounded by the fact that you've got a hybrid here which is probably going to be much better in five years and this will be the antiquated technology that's not gonna do you any favors either also know that this is only available rear-wheel drive if you want all-wheel drive you got to get a gas engine only