Electric Slide

The battery-powered Mercedes-Benz G 580 has impressive all-terrain chops, but its road manners are wanting.

- Brett Berk

ON PAPER, THERE’S a lot to love about the Mercedes-Benz G 580, the first battery-powered addition to the bruising G-Class family of SUVs. Not least: solving the model’s notoriously unquenchable petroleum habit. And yet, during testing, adoration for the new all-electric G remained fleeting. For one thing, despite some aerodynamic tweaks, the range for the 579hp, nearly 3,175kg truck is believed to be about 386km (the official Environmental Protection Agency estimate will come later this year), which is hardly frugal; the 116kWh battery pack uses the same battery cells that propel the lower, lighter and sleeker EQS sedan 160-plus kilometres farther on a charge. This makes the G 580 about as green as a vinyl redwood. Meanwhile, the G-Roar soundtrack piped into the cabin, which mimics the throaty growl of a V8, further undermines another core electric vehicle benefit—tranquillity.