To drive the Mercedes-AMG G63 is to make quite the statement.
It costs £180k, puts out 603bhp and makes enough noise to get you kicked out of the cul-de-sac WhatsApp group. It’s an exercise in excess, a wilful dismssal of the concepts of etiquette and good grace.
There are those who will decry the G-Class going electric and sacrificing some of that shoutiness, but the truth of the matter is that the new G580 with EQ Technology is the unstoppable 4×4’s most extreme and capable iteration yet.
With 579bhp and torque at 859lb ft, it is only marginally less potent than the V8-powered G63. It weighs three tonnes. It will only do around 2.0mpKwh. It is absolutely ludicrous in a number of ways, but it drives supremely, it’s even better off-road than a G63 and it has one thing that the AMG doesn’t: a sense of humour.
It can turn on the spot like a tank, for one, and it can brake just the inside wheels in a turn to help you whip round tight hairpins in the most challenging of environments – or the Westfield car park. It works a bit like a really techie handbrake turn.
The electric G-Class is also roughly the same price as its shoutier sibling, and it justifies that parity by being less practical but more whimsical.
