On the face of it, electrifying the latest generation of G-Class might seem cruel and unusual for a car with the environmental credentials of a Saudi oil rig - yet to Mercedes it makes total sense. Its off-road heritage notwithstanding, the modern G-wagen is chiefly bought by well-heeled people who live in global cities - the same global cities that will be among the first to enact the most stringent emission regulations, including an outright ban on combustion engines. The G-Class is also famously expensive, heavy, large and fast - character traits that lend themselves to battery power. It requires some additional effort to make EVs work credibly well when away from asphalt, but there are benefits to electric power here, too. And while you cannot reproduce the unique sensory pleasure of a V8, you can easily duplicate its showy output. The new G 580 develops 587hp and costs £180,860 in First Edition format pictured.
Not an oil rig then, but reading about the electric G-wagen certainly brings to mind one of those futuristic cities being built in a desert somewhere at mind-blowing cost. With a jumbo, torsion-resistant 116kWh battery squeezed into a modified, reinforced ladder frame chassis and four e-motors driving a wheel each via half shafts - capable of summoning up 858lb ft of torque between them in the right conditions - the G 580 suggests a level of money-no-object development that would make a sovereign wealth fund blush. On one hand, this seems appropriate: grafting new technology onto the G-Class without forfeiting its stronger-than-time reputation has been one of Mercedes’ more prominent success stories in the last ten years, and has required no little expense or technical ingenuity. On the other, there is inevitably a price to be paid for electrification.
Firstly, there is the current model’s aforementioned and long-standing association with the V8. Even allowing for the popularity of big-capacity petrol engines among luxury SUVs generally, few rival the G-Class when it comes to the proportion of buyers choosing the most bombastic version possible. Future legislation notwithstanding, it seems unlikely (based on current trends) that a substantial number of Mercedes-AMG fans will be inclined to trade in their side exit exhausts for the prospect of none at all. At 4.7 seconds to 62mph, the G 580 is adequately fast in that neck-craning way that EVs specialise in, but the G63 is faster still and (more importantly) endows its raw speed with moreish depth and proper mechanical heft. Despite the audible presence of ‘G-Roar’, a synthesised approximation of a V8, the G 580 never really threatens to overcome this charisma deficit.
Nevertheless, the quality of its performance is not nearly as limiting as the quantity of tech required to produce it. Weight has always been an underlying issue for the Geländewagen - the G63 we tested last summer weighed 2,753kg, and it came with hydraulically interlinked adaptive dampers - the G 580 does without these and tips the scale at 3,209kg (both with EU-weighted driver). Unsurprisingly, this leaves its mark on the driving experience. While there is no variant of the G-Class that seems light on its contact patches, the battery-powered model pushes down on them as forcibly as a fully-loaded Transit might, and though there is no sluggishness associated with the added burden of its two-tiered battery and 26mm-thick underbody shield, it weighs down on almost everything the chassis is asked to do dynamically.
Admittedly - and encouragingly for markets like California - the effects are less noticeable around town and on flowing, runway-wide A roads, where the G 580 is adequately comfortable on its standard-fit 20-inch rims and, wind noise aside, certainly refined enough; but on uneven Scottish B roads the occasionally laboured wheel control and palpable sense of mass when cornering are hard to miss. And even if you’re inclined to think either respectable enough for such a heavy, high-sided car, the effect under braking, where you're inclined to factor in the sort of slowing distances usually associated with a bulk carrier, is unavoidable. Again, being quick to get going and slow to stop are hardly new traits for the G-Class, but the cleverly constructed, surface-modulating fluency of the combustion models is in much shorter supply.
A back-to-back go in the current G500 - the six-cylinder derivative we identified as the G-wagen best suited to Britain just last month - confirms as much. It shares the G 580’s front double wishbones and De Dion-style rigid rear axle, but at 2,665kg, it is more than half a tonne lighter than the EV and feels it. Probably Mercedes should be commended for delivering a battery-powered G-Class that manages to hold any kind of candle to its siblings when at so obvious a disadvantage - and it is certainly no less luxurious or likeable to sit in - but that thought does precious little to dilute the fact that the G500 changes direction quicker, rides more deftly and doesn't need so much braking. It isn’t limited to 112mph either, nor a range of 283 miles. In other words, you would need a particularly compelling use case to choose plugging in over fuelling up.
Intriguingly, and somewhat counter-intuitively, one of them might conceivably involve off-roading. Not of the run-of-the-mill sort, of course (any G-Class is vastly overqualified for that) but when Mercedes talked about using the G 580’s quad-motor configuration to set a new standard away from the road, it evidently meant it. As is so often the case, this proved to be less about outright power than control: the system’s ability to very precisely meter the amount of torque it delivers to each wheel via four individual two-speed transmissions - the effect amplified by a ‘low range’ gear reduction ratio - conveying an astonishing amount of slow-speed traction. Granted, this works best if you let the intelligent off-road crawl function do its thing (which essentially automates progress, leaving you with just the steering to worry about) but the result, admittedly with the standard tyres swapped for an all-terrains, seemed virtually invincible in the face of a heavily flooded quagmire.
Exciting, it must be said, it isn’t. The silence and the sheer unstoppability of the G 580’s tank-like crawl is almost eerie, not least for the extent to which it is doing better than any human could - although probably it is for this reason that Mercedes has also installed novelty features like G-Steering and G-Turn. The former allows the car to turn very abruptly around a locked inside rear wheel, the latter (which is much more precious about when it can be activated) causes the wheels on either side to turn in opposite directions, meaning the 3.2-tonne SUV can almost turn on the spot. This is undeniably impressive, although in its ground-churning ability to dig holes while going nowhere, it arguably functions better as a metaphor for the car than as an actual thing you’d ever use.
Ultimately though, while it’s tempting to make light of the G 580’s apparent redundancy given the other (superior) G-Class derivatives available, the fact remains that it isn’t. For one thing, short of something like a Rivian, there is precious little to rival the G-wagen when it comes to battery-powered off-road alternatives - and until the Range Rover Electric arrives later this year, there isn’t likely to be for some time. Moreover, for all the ways it can be found wanting, there is nothing about the G 580 that doesn’t seem expensively or expertly assembled - and its identity as a bona fide G-Class, with all the bandwidth and build quality that conveys, is never in question. Mercedes might have chosen to build a less able and therefore more profitable EV, but laudably, did not. And with the First Edition out of the way, making the follow-on version £30k cheaper than a G63 ought to convince some city-dwellers to make the switch. Just no one reading this.
SPECIFICATION | 2025 MERCEDES G 580 with EQ Technology Edition One
Engine: Four electric motors, one per wheel; 116kWh battery
Transmission: Two-speed, one per motor, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 587
Torque (lb ft): 858
0-62mph: 4.7 seconds
Top speed: 112mph
Weight: 3,209kg (EU)
MPG: na
CO2: 0g/km
Price: £180,860 (as tested; G 580 from £154,810)
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