Lotus Exige vs Mercedes-Benz Eqs450

What's the difference?

To say the Lotus Exige 350 Sport exists at the very pointy end of motoring is a sharp understatement. It is, in essence, a track car that you’re somehow allowed to drive on the road, which means it's hugely compromised in various ways as a vehicle for day-to-day use, yet it's not really fair to criticise it for those failings, because commuting was never its intended purpose.

While it would obviously shine in its natural environment of a race circuit, the fact is you could also enjoy it enormously between track days if you pointed it at a suitably smooth and winding bit of country blacktop.

The performance, handling, steering and stopping are all fantastic, in the right conditions, and you can see how someone might justify it to themselves as a far cheaper version of a ($327,100) Porsche 911 GT3. The difference being that a Porsche doesn't make you fold yourself up like a pocket knife every time you get in.

The Lotus, then, is a car for the extreme enthusiast, only. And possibly for nudists, too.

Does electrification enhance the seven-seat SUV experience? In the case of the EQS450, the answer is yes. Smoother, quieter and with plenty of easy-flowing power, the brand's family-focused luxury electric SUV behaves exactly as you might expect.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

The Lotus philosophy is summed by this slightly absurd mission statement: "Simplify, then add lightness". In the words of the great Barnaby Joyce "you don’t have to be Sigmund Freud" to work out that lightness is not something you can 'add', but you get the idea.

Everything about a Lotus is focused on the power-to-weight ratio, and this 350 Sport version takes the Exige to the ultimate degree, weighing in a full 51kg lighter than the S version, at just 1125kg, and with its hefty 3.5-litre supercharged V6 it is capable of lapping the company’s Hethel, UK test circuit a full 2.5 seconds faster.

Lap times, rather than road manners, are what this car is all about, and as such there are no creature comforts of any kind.

The Exige is an eye-catching beast, though, looking a bit like Darth Vader's helmet strapped to a skateboard. Everything about it is a statement of intent, and while the interior is as bare as Barnaby's brain, the gear lever, with its exposed workings and shiny silver knob, is a thing of strange beauty.

It’s a handsome SUV, and one that’s not immediately recognisable as electric — especially given there are little exhaust-pipe-mirroring design flourishes at the rear which make you look twice.

Aussie-spec cars get the AMG exterior treatment, which includes AMG alloys, aluminium-look side steps and the power-domed bonnet, but there's still nothing overly 'shouty' about the design, with the sleek, smooth body panels (accentuated by the hidden handles) making the EQS450 look smaller than it actually is.

Inside, it’s a super-comfy space to spend time, and the little fluffy pillows attached to the headrests should be standard in every car. The tech on offer is ample, too.

But it does all feel a little gigantic, with great swathes of wood panelling and massive screens, all of which make you feel bit like you’ve been shrunken down and are now living amongst the giants.

Both the words 'practical' and 'space' have no place in a road test of this Lotus, so shall we just move on?

Oh, all right. There is no shoulder room to speak of and to change gears you have to fondle your passenger's leg. You're also in danger of breathing into each other’s mouths accidentally, you’re sitting that close.

Speaking of impractical, the door apertures are so small, and the whole car so low, that getting in or out is about as much fun as attempting to hide in a child's suitcase.

Cupholders? Forget it, nor is there anywhere to put your phone. There are two tiny oddment storage holes just near each well-hidden door handle, and a kind of slidey, slick shelf where a glove box might be, on which it’s not safe to leave anything.

Put things on the floor and they will slide under the super low seats and never be seen again.

The Lotus people pointed out a parcel shelf behind the seats, but I think they imagined it, and there is a tiny boot at the rear, behind the engine, which is smaller than some actual boots.

The EQS450 stretches 5136mm in length, 1965mm in width and 1718mm in height. That's about the size of a Nissan Patrol and long enough to make it a proper seven-seater.

The middle row can be adjusted forwards or backwards, and with the front seat set to my 175cm driving position, I found I had ample head and knee room to get comfortable.

USB-A charge points abound, and there's wireless device charging, and because of the sheer size of the cabin, the storage options are plentiful. The central bin between the front seats, for example, seems styled on the Grand Canyon.

In the third row, though, things get a little tighter, but it’s perfectly good for kids. My knees were touching the seat in front, however, and it still requires some acrobatics to climb into.

At the rear, with all three seats in place, you'll find 245L of room (measured to the ceiling), growing to a maximum 1030L with the third row flat. Stow the second row, and you'll find a maximum 2020L of storage space – which, and take my word for it – is plenty.

One small quirk, though. While the second row is electric, stowing away at the touch of a button, the third row isn't. That means, when it's flat, you have to climb into the boot to pull it back up, or attack it from the rear door. Either way, it's more awkward than it needs to be.

Arguably the biggest hurdle the EQS450 has to clear is its asking price, which is a considerable $194,900, before on-road costs.

Inside, you'll find leather seats and trim, a big 12.8-inch central display (and a head-up display), a 12.3-inch digital instrument display, a Burmester sound system with 15 speakers, a panoramic sunroof and cooling and heating in the front seats.

Outside, there are 21-inch alloys, flush-fitting door handles, illuminated running boards and LED lighting, which Benz calls 'Digital Lighting', and offers 1.3m pixels of light per headlight.

In the past, Lotus engineers were satisfied with the power they got from tiny four-cylinder Toyota engines, but this Exige 350 Sport is a Very Serious Car and thus has a relatively whopping 3.5-litre, supercharged V6 shoehorned into its backside, which makes 258kW and 400Nm, and that's enough to fire this tiny machine from 0-100km/h in just 3.9 seconds, although it feels, and sounds, a lot faster.

The six-speed gearbox feels like it's been stolen from an old racing car and is an absolute joy to snick shift at speed.

There are two electric motors delivering the driving power, one at the front axle and one at the rear, which will deliver a combined 265kW and 800Nm, fed through a single-speed transmission and with all four wheels being powered.

That's enough for a sprint to 100km/h of 6.0 seconds.

Lotus claims a combined fuel economy figure of 10.1L/100km. We don't believe that would be easy to achieve, because the temptation to rev the hell out of it and hear it roar would be too great, and too constant.

There's a huge 107.8kWh on board here, but the EQS450's driving range is a less impressive 483km. Maybe something to do with the 2918kg weight of this big SUV.

Don't get me wrong, 483km is plenty to cover almost anyone's weekly commute (and then some), but early promises had pointed to a range of more like 600km.

When it comes time to plug in, you'll find the EQS450 is set up for 200kW DC fast charging, which should see you go from 10 to 80 percent charged in just 31 minutes.

Home charging is, of course, a slower proposition. A three-phase 11kW supply should take 10 hours, while a 7.0kW wallbox will be slower again, and more like 15 hours.

It's rare to find a car that is such an improbable mix of furious fun and infuriating annoyance. The Lotus is rattly, noisy, hugely firm to the point of punishing, with seats that offer encouragement but not support.

It is the opposite of comfortable and so hard to see out of that driving it around town, in any sort of traffic, feels borderline dangerous. There’s also the distinct sensation that you’re so low and so little that all those people in their SUVs won't see you.

Throw in the fact that it's so painfully, stupidly difficult to get in and out of and it's definitely not the sort of car you take if you're heading to the shops. I got so sick of its hard-edged annoyances at one stage that I became too grumpy to even take people for joy rides in it. I just couldn’t be bothered with the hassle, but then an inner-city suburb with high kerbs and even higher speed humps is not the Exige's natural environment.

The gearbox is a thrill a minute, as is the engine.

Making it even more of a challenge around town, at low speeds or in parking situations is the steering, which isn't so much heavy as wilfully obtuse. Doing a three-point turn is the equivalent of 20 minutes of bench pressing your own body weight. At least.

Out on a winding bit of country road, however, the steering becomes one of the best things about the car, because its pure, unassisted weighting feels so alive in your hands. There’s a sense of actually wrestling, or finessing it around corners that makes you feel a bit Ayrton Senna.

Indeed, the whole car comes alive, and starts to make some kind of sense, once you're on a smooth, perfect piece of tarmac. It is fast, noisy, thrilling, utterly and overtly involving, stiff of chassis and firm of ride, with brakes capable of pulling you up with indecent haste. It’s also, thanks to its low centre of gravity and mid-engined layout, beautifully balanced.

The gearbox is a thrill a minute, as is the engine, particularly once you explore the upper rev ranges, at which point the scenery really does become a scary blur out the ridiculously small windscreen.

Sure, you can't see anything behind you other than the engine, but what a lovely sight that is, and nothing is going to catch you anyway.

It does feel edgy, of course, and sharp, and it’s not as easy or refined to drive as some cheaper sports cars; an MX-5 makes for a far more pleasant companion. But this is an extreme Exige, a machine built by and for genuine enthusiasts.

And, above all, for the sort of people who will take it to a race track, which is where it both looks and feels completely at home.

Unfortunately, on public roads, it would be annoying more often than it would be thrilling, but the truly hardcore Lotus aficionados would never admit such a thing.

The drive experience is, well, unremarkable. But I don’t want that to sound negative, because that's not how it's intended.

The EQS450 SUV does exactly what you expect a circa-three-tonne, premium electric SUV to do, and it does it all well.

It's powerful enough without being exhilarating, comfortable enough, and laden with enough tech to satisfy almost anyone.

It's just that it also doesn't exactly ignite the senses. But the question must be asked, what seven-seat family-focused SUV does? Few, if any.

So, surely the real test is if electrification has improved the formula here, and I'd argue that it definitely has.

For one, the EQS450 is properly whisper-quiet in the cabin, with Benz employing multiple sound-deadening techniques at once to lock out road noise. And with no pesky engine to interfere, the cabin is about as serene as they come.

The power delivery is predictably smooth and easy, too. There is no headline-stealing acceleration figure here, but the power is potent and plentiful, and more than enough for any real-world situation you might encounter.

The ride, too, is commendable. Aided by Mercedes' air suspension, it glides over all but the most broken road surfaces. And it is fitted with rear-axle steering, which really does cut down a turning circle that would otherwise surely resemble that of a cruise ship.

It feels heavy at times, though, and even the most high-tech suspension can't eliminate body roll entirely through tighter corners (physics and all that).

But unless you're really pushing – and why would you be – the cabin is calm, comfortable and cosseting.

So, exciting? Not really. But comfortable and calming, which are probably the traits its owners will value much higher.

The EQS450 SUV is yet to be ANCAP crash tested, but you can expect an extensive suite of active safety equipment, including AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection and junction assist, adaptive cruise control, active lane keep assist, lane change assist and steering assist, traffic sign recognition and eight airbags.

Your Lotus comes with a three-year unlimited kilometre warranty and three years of roadside assist. A service costs $295, plus parts.

The Mercedes EQS450 is covered by Mercedes-Benz's five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, with servicing required every 12 months or 25,000km.

You can prepay your service costs, coming in at $2350 for three years, $3695 for four years or $4280 for five years.

The battery its covered for eight years or 160,000km.