Mercedes E-Class Hybrid Review

Practicality and Boot Space

The E-Class Saloon is a firm favourite among posh minicab firms because of the car's interior space. The driver and passenger can get comfortable upfront, there’s tons of rear passenger space to stretch out and the boot is large too. Meanwhile, the Estate has one of the largest and most practical boots in the class. Well, that’s true for the normal E-Class models; the plug-in hybrid models aren’t as practical as other conventionally-powered E-Class models. Unlike Volvo, Mercedes hasn’t been able to neatly package the battery pack and electric motor within the car’s platform, and consequently has had to shove the electric gubbins in the boot. That means there’s a large protrusion eating into the boot area with the hybrid models losing about 100 litres of luggage space. Meanwhile, the cables are stored in a soft zip-up bag and can’t be neatly stored.  

Tech 

There was a time when an entry-level Mercedes was very basic, but that’s not true these days. The Hybrid models only come in SE, AMG Line and AMG LIne Premium trims with the base SE coming with pretty much everything you’d need. It gets two 12.3-inch screens – one for the dials and the other for the infotainment system – ambient lighting with 64 different colours, LED headlights and rear lights, park assist and a rear camera. The AMG Line doesn’t add any tech and merely consists of sportier interior and exterior styling, but the Premium model gets Matrix-style adaptive LED headlights, memory seats, a 360-degree parking camera, active park assist, a wi-fi hotspot and connected services. At £2,395 it’s good value but we could go without those features and stick with the SE. 

Safety

The E-Class gets a five-star rating from independent crash testers, EuroNCAP, with 95% and 90% scores for adult and child protection respectively. Overall, it’s a very safe car just as you’d expect from Mercedes who has long been at the forefront of safety technology. Unfortunately, Mercedes also likes to charge extra for optional equipment and the same goes for safety. Yes, you do get all the airbags you’d expect, active braking assistance, and an active bonnet (which pops up to cushion a pedestrian falling onto it), blind spot monitoring and so on, but a lot of the tech needed for a faultless safety rating isn’t standard. Features like lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control are on the options list, and consequently the E-Class gets a very average 62% rating for standard safety assistance systems.