This properly potent Mercedes really is two cars for the price of one

Mercedes has delivered a very clever car, with so much power and poshness packed into it, it’s virtually two cars for the price of one.

Stephen Corby

The Mercedes-AMG E 53 Hybrid 4Matic+.

4 min read

2:03PMJuly 24, 2025.

Updated 11 hours ago

The Weekend Australian Magazine

Obviously I am a hugely busy man, tottering under the burden of driving 30 or 40 amazing cars every week and then whittling them down to the one I find worthy of your attention, dear reader, so when I recently discovered a way to test two cars at the same time I was equal parts thrilled and relieved.

I imagine the relief would be similar for busy Benz-buying business types trying to decide between an executive express with enough power (454kW and 750Nm) to make you tear your tie off and swing it around your head, or a luxurious, quiet electric sedan offering a more sensible 120kW and 480Nm.

Now I’m about to resort to a cliché as well worn as “bang for your buck”, “go-kart-like handling” or “sexy motoring journalist”, but you’ll have to forgive me because the Mercedes-AMG E 53 Hybrid 4Matic+ really is “two cars for the price of one” (even its name feels big enough to cover two vehicles). Lots of modern hybrids purport to offer such a thing – but this properly potent and lightly luxurious Mercedes genuinely delivers.

Inside the Mercedes AMG E 53 Hybrid 4Matic+.

For the first half-hour of my intensely testing drive of the E 53, I engaged EV mode and relied on the 26.8kWh battery and the “permanently excited” electric motor (I love the visual this term provides, and I like to picture the motor behaving like a small child at Disneyland). While 120kW isn’t an enormous amount of power, the 480Nm of torque is ample enough to power this hybrid E Class at speeds of up to 140km/h for distances of up to 100km. And if you suddenly feel the need to move rapidly, you can shove your right foot through a detectable detente point in the throttle travel and the turbocharged 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine will chime in to give you the maximum mumbo of 450kW and 750Nm.

I manfully restrained myself from doing this, however, and attempted to soak up the silent-running pleasures of putting the E in E 53, which included playing with the car’s “Super Screen”, which is basically three screens shoved together so that they stretch from door to door, providing your passenger with the ability to stream content, pop on Bluetooth headphones and ignore you while you try to explain just how clever this car is.

This Mercedes really is a lot of car. Or cars.

That would be their loss as I was also exploring the Burmester 4D surround sound system, with its 17 speakers and 600 woofling watts. The “exciters” mounted in your seat back really do allow you to feel the sound, and apparently you can adjust the car’s ambient lighting so that it, too, reacts to your musical choices, thus creating a kind of mobile disco.

A proper AMG car should, arguably, have a very shouty V8 engine, hand made by a German man with a moustache and delicate sausage fingers, and yet the 3.0-litre six that turns this occasionally silent hybrid into a metallic frenzy of fury does quite a good job of delivering aural satisfaction. And no V8 is going to deliver this car’s incredible claimed fuel economy of 1.7 litres per 100km. Yet Mercedes feels compelled to point out that this E 53 is “an authentic AMG”, albeit supported by an electric drivetrain. (Not to be unkind, but this is a bit like an authentic a cappella group being supported by a brass band.)

When you’re in the E 53’s sportiest modes it is using both the petrol engine and the electric motor to provide maximum shove – so much so that the battery is never actually allowed to run completely flat when you’re in EV mode; it always keeps around 5kWh in reserve, in case it’s called on to help push this Mercedes to 100km/h in 3.8 seconds.

While I enjoyed all of the E 53’s 450kW immensely, and its thick, hefty steering feel, I was also impressed by its AMG Active Ride Control, which constantly adjusts the dampers at each corner for maximum grip. It might be an executive sedan, in terms of look and feel, but it really can be driven like a sports car.

It might be an executive sedan, in terms of look and feel, but it really can be driven like a sports car.

After an enjoyable afternoon of fanging and revving hell out of the E 53 I found myself back in a rather boring urban setting, and noticed that I still had 40km to my destination and 35km of EV-only range left, so I put that to the test by putting the engine back to sleep, and turning up the 4D speakers again.

Not only did the electric system deliver all of those 35km, it actually kept working for another few kays beyond that, until the engine reintroduced itself with a polite burp of revs.

This really is a very clever car, and with so much power and poshness packed into it that I was expecting a very high price indeed, so I was a quite surprised to learn that the Mercedes-AMG E 53 can be yours from just $199,900. That might still sound like a lot, but again, I’d point you to that number, 450kW, and remind you that, not so long ago, a far more expensive Ferrari 458 offered “just” 419kW.

This Mercedes really is a lot of car. Or cars.