Mercedes EQE 350+ Sport Edition joins our fleet | Long-term test

If range, quality and comfort are top of your drivers’ company car criteria then the Mercedes-Benz EQE should be on your choice list.

We'll dive into the detail in future reviews but suffice to say the Merc’s mighty 96kw (useable) battery laughs in the face of the official WLTP figure of 429 miles by comfortably exceeding 440 on many longer journeys. Note, this is during the optimum warmer weather we’ve experienced since the onset of spring.

The EQE is supremely comfortable to drive in comfort mode, but does offer four options: eco, comfort, sport and individual programmes, as well as five levels of recuperation.

Energy can be further conserved by selecting Eco or Eco+ for the climate control, which restricts certain functions such as seat and air heating.

The interior quality is exceptional with soft touch materials, smoothly sculptured surfaces and backlit Mercedes-Benz star trim. The top of the dashboard, which bleeds into the doors, uses a sustainable recycled microfibre material called Dinamica, which has a suede-like look and feel.

However, the fussy mix of haptic and push button controls jam-packed onto the steering wheel can slightly sully the experience.

Thankfully, some functions such as volume, drive mode, parking assist and shortcut access to car settings are supported by push keys beneath the 12.8-inch multimedia touchscreen.

In addition, climate control and temperature settings are permanently displayed beneath the sat-nav map on the touchscreen for easy access.

Intriguingly, a fingerprint recognition system (also among the push keys) gives access to pre-set car settings, including user profiles, in-car payment features and recalling personal preferences such as heating, navigation and driving position.

Our car is the entry-level rear-wheel drive 350+ Sport Edition – the line up walk is AMG Line Edition and AMG Line Edition Premium topped by the AMG Line Edition Premium Plus (all three have the additional choice of the 4Matic all-wheel drive) – priced £69,695 P11D.

Standard equipment highlights on our model include MBUX touch/voice activated infotainment functions, which also understands indirect commands such as “I feel hot” to adjust the temperature, parking assist with reversing camera, wireless smartphone charging, 64-colour ambient lighting with 10 ‘mood’ colours, high beam assist (though not the matrix system), heat pump and pre-entry climate control.

It also includes Guard 360 vehicle protection, which bundles existing and future products to protect the car against theft. Features include tow away protection, parking collision detection stolen vehicle help and emergency key deactivation.

The only optional extra is the Patagonia red metallic paint at £695.

Charging times for 10-80% can be as fast as 31 minutes on a 170kW DC unit, dropping to just over 10 hours using the onboard 11kW AC charger.

For completists – or simply those who still obsess over the performance details - the top speed is 130mph while the 0-62mph sprint flashes by in just 6.5 seconds.