Mercedes-Benz G-Class electric review

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High-end off-roader gets an electric variant with a powerful motor for each wheel and a giant battery

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The Mercedes-Benz G580 with EQ Technology – the electric G-Wagen to you and me – has landed in the UK. And if that had been a literal landing, it would have been accompanied by quite the thump, given the car's kerb weight is 3209kg – nearly half a tonne more than other G-Class variants, the G500 and hot AMG G63.

Mercedes would like you to see this as a G-Class first and a powertrain variant second. To that end, it has objectively improved the formula in many areas. The G580 is certainly a lot torquier than the G63, quieter than the regular G-Class and better off road than either. Still, we’re really not looking at the most objective, straightforward or sensible car in the world.

There aren’t many people looking for an EV that's also an off-roader designed to look like it’s from the 1970s. There are no obvious direct electric rivals. Enthusiasts after off-roading ability with a boxy body can find the Toyota Land Cruiser, Ineos Grenadier or very sophisticated Land Rover Defender. There are road-focused electric SUVs at similar money, too, too, like the BMW iX, although that's wildly different in outlook, as is the Mercedes EQS SUV – an interesting interpretation of luxury.

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DESIGN & STYLING

Mercedes G580 review 2025 002 rear tracking

In its appearance, this car is certainly a G-Class: there are only minor differences between combustion and electric ones, including some blue body trim.

To improve aerodynamic efficiency, it gets a slightly raised bonnet, a leading-edge roof spoiler and plastic strips on the A-pillars, plus vents in the rear wheel-arch flares.

Other changes include a larger cabin vent to more quickly equalise air pressure, meaning you don’t have to slam the doors so hard for them to latch. They still want more of a slam than most, though, and make a clack that will be familiar to G-Class drivers.

Underneath, the G580 retains the G-Class’s ladder-frame chassis. The battery (the same cells as in the EQS SUV but fitted into a differently shaped pack) is stored in between the chassis rails. It’s not very wide, so the modules are stacked on top of each other, with cooling on either side.

In order to fit this in, Mercedes had to remove three crossbraces, so the battery is now an integral part of the frame. The batteries are low and underbody protection is paramount for off-road action, so a carbon-composite bash plate is bolted beneath it.

All UK-market G-Classes get 20in wheels as standard. If you want to fit all-terrain tyres on smaller rims, they will be a dealer-fit option.

On the back door, instead of the spare wheel, there’s a small box that makes the G580 resemble a continental student carrying a rucksack. It contains the charging cables, has a little additional storage and can be specified with the spare wheel instead as a no-cost option.

INTERIOR

Mercedes G580 review 2025 009 dash

Once again, the G580 is still very much a G-Class. It’s a climb up into the car, and you’re greeted by an upright seating position and an upright, letterbox windscreen.

There’s less leg room than you might expect, until you remember that the G-Class is only 4.6m long, about the same as a family hatchback.

The door mirrors are sculpted for the wind, so smaller than you would find on a Grenadier or a Defender, while the interior mirror view suffers from quite a lot of cable-box obstruction.

The G580 has Mercedes’ MBUX infotainment system, comprising twin 12.3in screens: a display behind the steering wheel and an infotainment touchscreen.

The steering wheel has haptic buttons that are rather too easily pressed and too difficult to scroll through.

But there are physical buttons for heating controls beneath the big touchscreen, and they work in a conventional and easy way.

The wing mirrors are adjusted via a button on the top of the door edges, where you will also find window switches and toggles for adjusting the seat.

The boot, at 555 litres, is down a little on ICE G-Class models, and it’s still tall and short.

There’s no frunk, because the space is filled with electric stuff, including the sound box for something called the G-Roar, which we will come to later.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Mercedes G580 review 2025 015 off road

Power is rated at 579bhp and torque at 859lb ft. This makes the G580 only marginally less potent than the V8-engined G63.

The G580 gets its four-wheel drive from four electric motors. Two are centrally housed in the front, the other two at the rear. Each 145bhp unit powers one wheel, but they aren't actually located inside them.

They drive through their own reduction gear, and for off-roading (see the next section), each has a lower-range gear too, selectable from inside the cabin when the car is in neutral.

The 0-62mph time is quoted as 4.7sec, which is very fast, and the top speed at 112mph, which is not. And that gives you an idea of what the G580 is about. It has Tarmac-destroying low-speed accelerative potential.

The throttle tuning is excellent and varies depending on the drive mode (again, we will go into it deeper in the next section).

Braking is smooth too and the pedal feel is consistent. The strength of the regenerative braking is handled by steering-wheel paddles.

Now, the G-Roar. This is the name for Mercedes’ artificial engine noise. It isn't like BMW’s futuristic soundscape and broadly sounds a bit like a toned-down V8 AMG. If you had someone in the car who didn’t know it was electric and they weren’t a petrolhead, they might just think that it was petrol. Which I guess is a compliment to Mercedes’ engineers. You can turn it off too, and after a brief play with it, that’s what we did. 

RIDE & HANDLING

Mercedes G580 review 2025 016 front off road

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.

The real beauty is that a differential can effectively be locked and unlocked on a whim; power can be not just shared across the wheels but diverted to the only wheel that wants it. Or in the case of the G580’s party tricks, movement can be denied to individual wheels or they can spin backwards while another turns forwards.

You may have seen clips of a G580 spinning in its own length, like a tank turn. Very amusing too, and this G-Turn feature could occasionally be useful. But the car only wants to do it on a flat surface, in case it slides off a slope, while it makes a heck of a racket and digs a big channel into the ground while it’s doing it.

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Meanwhile, the G-Steer function can brake an inside rear wheel and overspeed the outside rear simultaneously to reduce the otherwise large (13.6m) turning circle. It’s like a handbrake turn and powerslide meets the fiddle brakes of a trials car all at once. Working at its best when you’ve got a lot of steering lock applied at a little over walking pace, it’s very clever, and could be very useful in forests or driving between gates.

There’s a three-speed off-road cruise control function too (slow, variable or fast, although all are quite slow), which lets you forget the pedals while the electronics find the best traction.

With the G-Steer too, the G580 through one muddy section, including some silly tight turns, more remarkably and easily than I would have thought possible.

All combined, the G580’s hardware and tuning makes for an impressive off-roader. Imagine what it could be like if it were lighter still.

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MPG & RUNNING COSTS

Mercedes G580 review 2025 001 front tracking

The G580 weighs 3209kg in road-ready, optioned form. If you're thinking about that in the context of a zero-local-emissions vehicle, you're thinking too hard. This is still an ostentatious show of wealth, and if you're truly worried about running costs, best look elsewhere.

The WLTP range from its enormous 116kWh battery is 294 miles, and it will officially do 2.0-2.2 miles per kWh.

We've yet to perform much in the way of range testing, but we reckon a bit under than 2mpkWh sounds about right. Even compared with big electric SUVs, such as the Kia EV9, that's relatively poor. But we suspect most G580 owners won’t care.

According to Mercedes, what’s more important is its abilities off road. It can tackle the famous Schökl pass 14 times before running out of battery, whereas the G63 will only be able to do it six times before needing a fill of super-unleaded. One tells oneself whatever one needs to justify it, I suppose.

VERDICT

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Mercedes G580 review 2025 020 front off road

The G580 isn't a rational choice. It’s expensive, it's a bit clattery on the road, there’s a lot of wind noise and, as far as EVs go, it’s among the least efficient. Given its size, it’s not wildly practical either.

You may be able to imagine where this conclusion is going. All of these flaws very much make it a proper G-Class and a very natural progression in the lineage.

'G' has grown from utilitarian to luxury to somewhere now where it sits between retro, ostentatious and very silly, depending on how you spec it. This electric model fits right in.

 

Murray Scullion

Murray Scullion
Title: Digital editor

Murray has been a journalist for more than a decade. During that time he’s written for magazines, newspapers and websites, but he now finds himself as Autocar’s digital editor.

He leads the output of the website and contributes to all other digital aspects, including the social media channels, podcasts and videos. During his time he has reviewed cars ranging from £50 - £500,000, including Austin Allegros and Ferrari 812 Superfasts. He has also interviewed F1 megastars, knows his PCPs from his HPs and has written, researched and experimented with behavioural surplus and driverless technology.

Murray graduated from the University of Derby with a BA in Journalism in 2014 and has previously written for Classic Car Weekly, Modern Classics Magazine, buyacar.co.uk, parkers.co.uk and CAR Magazine, as well as carmagazine.co.uk.

Matt Prior

Matt Prior
Title: Editor-at-large

Matt is Autocar’s lead features writer and presenter, is the main face of Autocar’s YouTube channel, presents the My Week In Cars podcast and has written his weekly column, Tester’s Notes, since 2013.

Matt is an automotive engineer who has been writing and talking about cars since 1997. He joined Autocar in 2005 as deputy road test editor, prior to which he was road test editor and world rally editor for Channel 4’s automotive website, 4Car. 

Into all things engineering and automotive from any era, Matt is as comfortable regularly contributing to sibling titles Move Electric and Classic & Sports Car as he is writing for Autocar. He has a racing licence, and some malfunctioning classic cars and motorbikes. 

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