Mercedes Benz
G580 EQ
“It can do it all.”
1. Design & Presence: Still Very Much a G-Class
There are cars you recognise from a distance. And then there is the G-Class. The G 580 with EQ Technology may have swapped its combustion engine for four electric motors, but visually Mercedes has been very careful not to turn it into something that merely looks a bit like a G-Class.
The upright windscreen, exposed hinges, spare wheel on the rear door and almost absurdly square proportions are still there. And our test car made the whole thing even harder to miss: Aquamint paint, an Obsidian Black MANUFAKTUR roof, AMG Line, Night Package, Night Package II and the Schöckl Design Package. Inside, it paired MANUFAKTUR titan grey pearl / black upholstery with the EXCLUSIVE Line interior.
Subtle it was not. But somehow, that is exactly what works on a G-Class.
And then there are the doors. They remain one of our favourite details of the entire car. They feel wonderfully mechanical, heavy and completely unlike almost anything else on sale today. Closing one gives you that unmistakable G-Class experience that no touchscreen animation could ever replace.
There is just one small problem: a sleeping toddler. The very thing that makes those doors so satisfying also makes them the natural enemy of a successful car nap. They need a proper close, and a proper G-Class door close is not exactly a gentle whisper.
Iconic? Absolutely. Nap-friendly? Not particularly. Welcome to family car testing.
2. Electric Driving: Different Powertrain, Same Attitude
The big question with an electric G-Class was never really whether Mercedes could make a fast electric SUV. It was whether electrification would take away some of what makes a G-Class feel like a G-Class.
For us, it doesn’t.
Our G 580 produces 432 kW / 587 PS, and the configuration sheet lists a usable battery capacity of 117 kWh. Despite weighing a considerable 3,085 kg, it reaches 100 km/h in 4.7 seconds. Those are slightly ridiculous numbers when you remember what you are sitting in.
But outright acceleration actually wasn’t the most interesting part. The G 580 feels remarkably natural to drive. Electric power suits this kind of car surprisingly well. There is immediate response when you need it, effortless power at normal speeds and none of the drivetrain drama you might expect from something this heavy.
And when you are simply driving through town with a child in the back, it can become remarkably calm. That contrast is part of the appeal. One moment it is a quiet, comfortable electric family car. The next moment you remember that you are driving a three-tonne G-Class with 587 horsepower.
Not an entirely necessary combination. A very enjoyable one, though.
3. Maneuverability: Somehow, It Shrinks Around You
This was one of Sarah’s biggest surprises.
Looking at a G-Class from the outside, you expect it to feel intimidating. It is tall, wide, extremely square, and you are very aware that there is a lot of very expensive Mercedes around you.
Yet once you start driving, it is remarkably easy to place. The boxy shape actually helps because you understand very quickly where the vehicle begins and ends. Visibility is good, and our test car added the Parking Package with 360° camera, including Mercedes’ Transparent Bonnet function. It also came with active parking assistance, PARKTRONIC, blind-spot assistance, DISTRONIC and active steering assistance.
Sarah found it particularly easy to judge in almost every situation, and that matters more than it sounds. A huge family SUV that feels huge every second you drive it quickly becomes tiring. The G 580 never completely hides its dimensions, but it does a very good job of making them manageable.
Parking garages still require some attention — this is not suddenly a small hatchback — but we never felt like driving it was hard work. That makes a surprisingly big difference in normal family life.
4. Everyday Practicality: The Rear Seat Is Where Things Get Complicated
And this is where the G-Class starts showing that it was not originally designed around modern rear-facing child seats. There is enough space in the second row, but only just.
Our test car was equipped with i-Size child-seat mounting points and Mercedes’ MBUX High-End Rear Entertainment system, including the rear screens, two wireless headphones and rear USB connections. On paper, rear entertainment sounds almost perfect for family travel.
With a large rear-facing child seat, however, those screens became the biggest practical compromise of our test. The child seat already requires a significant amount of space behind the front passenger seat. Add the entertainment screen mounted behind that front seat and suddenly there simply isn’t enough room to make everything coexist comfortably.
In our setup, there were basically two options: remove the screen or sacrifice usable front-passenger space. And on a car at this size and price, that surprised us.
Without the rear entertainment screen, the situation improves significantly. But it is definitely something we would think about before ticking that particular option box if you currently have a child in a large rear-facing seat. Once your child is forward-facing, the equation naturally changes. For our current stage of family life, though, this was easily the G 580’s biggest weakness. And it is exactly the kind of thing no horsepower figure tells you.
5. Family Life: Not Huge Everywhere Just Because It Looks Huge
The exterior makes you expect a ballroom inside. That is not quite what you get. The G-Class gives you a comfortable five-seat cabin, but a lot of its exterior size comes from its construction, shape and off-road capability rather than being converted into enormous interior space.
For a small family, there is still enough room. A child seat, everyday bags, toys and normal family gear all work. The rear seating position also gives children a nice elevated view out, and the large windows help prevent the rear from feeling closed in.
The luggage area is useful and its square shape makes packing relatively easy, although the side-hinged rear door creates another little G-Class quirk. It looks fantastic. It is very G-Class. But if somebody parks closely behind you, you may suddenly wish for a conventional upward-opening tailgate.
Again: character sometimes comes with conditions. And we are actually okay with that.
6. Off-Road: The Electric Part Does Not Take Anything Away
This might be the most impressive part of the G 580, because this is not an electric SUV wearing G-Class clothing. The serious off-road hardware is still here.
Our car came with LOW RANGE, G-TURN, G-STEERING, Offroad Crawling, the OFFROAD COCKPIT and Torque Vectoring, while the adaptive damping system was also part of its specification.
And once you leave the road, the whole car starts making even more sense. The electric drivetrain does not make it feel less capable. Quite the opposite.
The ability to control power so precisely at very low speeds suits technical off-road driving beautifully. There is no need to build revs or wait for a gearbox to decide what it wants to do. You ask for a little movement and you get a little movement.
And yes, some of the special functions are enormous fun. G-TURN will inevitably be the feature everyone wants to try first. But underneath the party trick is a vehicle with genuinely exceptional off-road ability.
That distinction matters to us. The G 580 is entertaining in the dirt, but it is not pretending to be capable for Instagram. There is a proper off-roader underneath all the leather, ambient lighting and electric technology.
We would probably reach our own courage limit long before the car reaches its capability limit.
7. Range & Charging: Better Than This Shape Has Any Right to Be
Look at the G 580 from the side. Nobody is going to mistake it for an aerodynamic efficiency experiment.
It is basically a very luxurious electric brick. Which makes the range even more impressive.
Our specific configuration lists 466 km of electric range together with a 117 kWh usable battery. For a vehicle with this size, weight and aerodynamic profile, we found the energy consumption entirely reasonable.
More importantly, we never felt that the battery was too small for what the car is supposed to do. The G 580 supports fast DC charging, and our particular car also had the optional AC charging system with up to 22 kW, something we would absolutely want on a vehicle with a battery this large.
That combination makes a lot of sense for family travel. You have enough range that every trip does not revolve around charging, and when you do stop on a longer journey, the break usually fits quite naturally into toddler life anyway. Charge the car, feed the child, find coffee, prevent someone from licking something at the service station, continue.
Pretty standard road-trip procedure.
8. Interior & Comfort: Proper Luxury, Not Just Off-Road Theatre
Our particular G 580 was very heavily specified.
Alongside the EXCLUSIVE Line interior, it had the Comfort Package, Active Multicontour Seat Package Plus, ENERGIZING Package Plus, Burmester 3D Surround Sound System, heated steering wheel, heated windscreen and even heated armrests for the front occupants.
And the overall impression is exactly what you would expect: it feels expensive. Not simply because there are screens or because something lights up when you enter the car. There is a solidity to the G-Class that separates it from a lot of luxury SUVs.
On longer drives, the seats were extremely comfortable and the G settled into motorway journeys far better than its upright shape might suggest. That is particularly important with a child. A car can have enormous performance and brilliant off-road ability, but if everyone wants to get out after 90 minutes, it has failed at one of our most important tests.
The G 580 didn’t.
9. Final Thoughts
The Mercedes-Benz G 580 with EQ Technology is an unusual family car. Actually, calling it a sensible family car would probably be missing the point entirely.
Our test configuration came to €186,634 including taxes, so there is no pretending this is the rational answer to the question “What car do we need for one child?” It isn’t.
But that is also why we enjoyed it.
The electric drivetrain has not taken away the things that make the G-Class special. The doors still make you smile. The design still feels unique. Its off-road ability remains genuinely serious, and in some situations the electric powertrain arguably makes that capability even more accessible.
At the same time, it is comfortable, surprisingly easy to manoeuvre and offers range and charging performance that we consider more than sufficient for the kind of travelling we would actually do with it.
There is one clear family compromise: rear-seat packaging. A large rear-facing child seat combined with the optional rear entertainment screens simply asks too much of the available space. If we were configuring one for our family today, that is one option we would think very carefully about.
And yes, we would probably develop a completely new technique for closing those iconic doors during nap time.
But the G 580 gets something else right that matters to us at BHWR: having a family doesn’t mean the car has to become the boring part of the adventure.
The G 580 can do daycare, a long road trip and terrain most family SUVs should never even attempt — and somehow it manages to make all three feel like they belong to the same car.
That is probably the most G-Class thing about it.
