Here in the SHARP Garage, summer is for road trips. That much, at least, we can all agree on. Choosing the perfect road trip car is a matter of hot debate in these halls, which is why the all-new Mercedes-AMG E 53 Hybrid 4MATIC piqued our interest. Could it be the one?
A good road trip car can’t be boring, but it must be practical. It should be fast, but also frugal. Comfort is a priority, but one that’s often at odds with handling. Whether you need four doors and rear seats depends on whether you’ve got friends or family in tow — but either way, ample cargo space is a must. Should it be ostentatious or under the radar? Do you go with the predictable SUV, or an unexpectedly-chic sedan? Station wagons are a dark horse. What about an EV? Does it have the range you need, or are public charging stations readily available? Perhaps the perfect road trip car doesn’t exist, or so we thought.
Late last year, Mercedes-Benz announced the arrival of the E 53 sedan. On paper, the spacious all-wheel drive sedan powered by AMG’s latest plug-in-hybrid powertrain has all the makings of a jack of all trades, a real chameleon of a car. It’s not inexpensive, starting at $105,000, but it could be all the car a family ever needs. So, we recently put it to the ultimate test — a road trip — around Vancouver and the Gulf Islands. Here’s what we learned.
PHEV: Great for Trips in Unfamiliar Territory
The E 53 is powered by a lovely 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-six, which produces 443 horsepower. It works seamlessly (truly) in conjunction with an electric motor, sandwiched between the engine and gearbox, which brings total peak output up to 577 hp (604 hp with the optional Race Start system).
On our road trip, not knowing whether there’d be public chargers where we were staying, having the gas engine to fall back on meant zero range-anxiety. In this case, having both gas and battery power really felt like the best of both worlds.
The Faster You Drive, The More Sense it Makes
Real AMG heads know, the E 63 is the top dog and always has been. But, since the all-new E-Class was launched, AMG hasn’t gotten around to launching a new E 63. (Could they be reworking it to shoehorn in a V8? We don’t know!) For now, then, the E 53 is the top-dog AMG in the mid-size sedan lineup.
For the record, 577 horsepower is more than enough to feel mighty fast on the road, even in a car that weighs nearly 2.4 tonnes. With the optional Race Start system, 0-100 km/h comes up in 3.8 seconds.
At low speeds, the car feels overly serious. It’s taut, with stiffer suspension that you’d expect from a mid-range AMG. But drive faster and it all begins to make sense. That stiffer suspension (springs, not air) is meant to keep all the weight in check when the going gets fast. In the sportier modes (of which there are many, perhaps too many) the slack comes out of the steering and the whole car tightens up; it dives into corners with an eagerness and precision that’s surprising for such a hefty PHEV. The rear-wheel steering system really helps this big machine feel agile and entertaining when the going gets twisty.
The Superscreen Feels Unnecessary
On the E 53, Mercedes offers the MBUX Superscreen Package as an $1,800 optional extra. For that you get a wall-to-wall glass panel where the dashboard used to be. In it are three screens: an instrument panel for the driver, a central infotainment display, and a third screen for the front passenger. Also included is a cabin-facing “selfie camera.”
It all feels… unnecessary. A selfie camera? Having a passenger hold their phone up does the job just as well. The huge black Superscreen glass panel is a magnet for finger-print smudges and dust. The screens look randomly placed around the dashboard in this huge black panel. And, perhaps most importantly, it just doesn’t quite seem befitting of the luxury cabins we’re used to in the venerable Mercedes E-Class.
To us, the cabin looks and feels better — and certainly more befitting of a Mercedes — without the Superscreen. In its place, Mercedes offers a range of beautiful trim, including back-illuminated open-pore Ash wood, light-grey fabric or Maple wood with inlaid aluminum pinstripes.
Electric-Only Range is Actually Great
A relatively large 28.6 kWh battery under the trunk provides 69 kilometres of EPA-rated electric-only driving range. Older PHEVs had rather pathetic EV range, but the big Merc is genuinely useful on battery power. Many commuters in Canada could cover their entire trip to work and back on battery power alone. On our trip, the electric range was more than enough for dawdling around in Vancouver traffic, and we didn’t need to waste precious time trying to find a local EV charging station on Salt Spring Island. Not only that, but with 60 kW DC fast-charging capability, it never took long to top up the battery: 15 or 20 minutes and we were good to go.
Cargo Space is Compromised (But There’s a Solution)
Pop the trunk and you’ll see where AMG’s engineers had to compromise to shoehorn in all the hybrid gear. The big PHEV battery positioned under the cargo area and really eats into trunk space, hampering the E 53’s road-trip ability. This would be a problem, except Mercedes-Benz Canada already has a wonderful solution: the new 2026 Mercedes-AMG E 53 Hybrid Wagon. Yes, the E 53 will soon be available as a station wagon. These are the sorts of cars typically only reserved for Europe, so we love that Mercedes is bringing it into Canada. Not only does it look better than the sedan, it’s more practical too. Could this be the perfect road trip car? We’re looking forward to finding out next summer.
