A lot of people have become obsessed with how the weight of EVs affects their ride but, to be frank, the G-Class has always felt like a bit of a truck, and now finally it weighs the same as one.
It feels heavy in terms of ride composure and steering and the time it takes between you giving instructions via the steering wheel and the wheels beneath you doing anything. But it doesn’t feel like three tonnes kind of heavy.
The low-speed ride is where it’s most felt. It judders over prolonged uneven surfaces and crashes about over large speed bumps.
Increasing your speed helps things out a great deal, but it’s no Range Rover at pace. There’s still a pronounced shaking of your backside in the leather seat.
A lot of wind noise too. The electric powertrain is very quiet and refined, but that only exaggerates the disturbance getting through to the cockpit.
A decent set of S-bends gives you a bit of a workout. There’s power steering and the wheel itself isn’t too heavy (although it can be quite heavy in Sport mode), but the sheer amount of lock needed can become quite tiring if you’re pushing it.
Off road
Most Mercedes engineers I’ve spoken to reckon the electric G is better off road than the ‘regular’ car. Objectively, it is.
It gets independent front suspension and a solid rear axle like the combustion G. But wading depth is 850mm, some 150mm more than ICE-powered models. Mercedes says unofficially these numbers are on the conservative side too. Torque is greater as well, and the four different electric motors can help out off road.
Then there’s the show-off bits. The window dressing, the icing on the cake, the electric equivalent of that G63’s V8 noise.