SPLITTING THE G

Germany's toughest 4x4 and Ireland's favourite pint have come over all responsible and healthy. Fancy one for the road?

- WORDS ROWAN HORNCASTLE

Who, a decade ago, could have imagined that the G-Wagen would be reborn as a silent, battery powered statement of the future? Who, back then, would also have wagered a pint on the idea of zero alcohol Guinness? And yet here we are, in this strange new world where both are not just possible, but potentially profitable.

As the times are a-changin', I thought I'd embrace both, via the means of a roadtrip.

The plan, in the very loosest sense, was to start at St James's Gate, Dublin ~ home of the black stuff ~ load an inappropriate amount of Guinness 0.0 into an appropriately coloured Mercedes-Benz G580 with EQ Technology (the electric G-Wagen to you and me) then head to the most remote pubs the northwest of the Emerald Isle has to offer. But first, I had to get there from London ~ an adventure in itself.

Rolling out of the TopGear park, it took less than a mile before a kid, clacking away on a hacked Lime bike, screwed up his face and asked, “Yoooo, is that electric?” I nodded. “Like... fully electric?” As the slightly embarrassing hum of the synthesised ‘G Roar’ whirred away at the lights, I nodded again. “That’s mad!” I wasn’t sure if he was excited or disappointed. But he’s not wrong - it kind of is mad.

See, we've been led down a path of electric cars to ease the burden on Earth’s resources, and the prevailing mantra is about efficiency. So sandwiching a double stacked 124kWh battery in a ladder frame chassis, slathering it with a 26mm torsion resistant case that weighs 58kg (so battery liquid doesn’t burst out everywhere if you clock a boulder), and putting on it an exterior that has the aero profile of communist housing adds up to a monstrous 3,180kg kerbweight. That’s nearly half a tonne more than the other G-Classes. Mad.