Mercedes-Benz Gls450 vs Audi Sq8 E-Tron

What's the difference?

The ‘Upper Large SUV over $120K’ segment of the Aussie new-car market is what you might call the top end of town, not only in terms of the extravagant models available but also their purchase prices, which stretch well into six figures and require monthly lease payments that rival home mortgages.

It’s where you’ll find some of the most prestigious marques in the automotive world including Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Range Rover, Lexus and BMW. And, of course, Mercedes-Benz with its big GLS which represents the flagship of the German manufacturer’s SUV fleet.

It was given a refresh in 2023 with cosmetic and multimedia upgrades along with powertrain enhancements, but there have only been minor changes since then. We were recently entrusted with the keys to the latest GLS to see if the ‘S-Class of SUVs’ leaves any room for improvement.

Late last year, Audi gave its large SUV range a freshen up by stocking its showrooms with the Q8 55 e-tron model; a rebadged, facelifted full-sized electric SUV designed to go head-to-head with things like the Mercedes-Benz EQE.

As it turned out, the Q8 55 was destined to become the mid-spec model and now Audi has book-ended the Q8 range with the entry-level Q8 e-tron 50 and the flagship SQ8 e-tron.

And while the previous 55 model was available in Sportback and SUV (station-wagon) forms, the latter has now been dropped.

That leaves the 50 model as an SUV only, while the headline act – and the vehicle we’re testing here – the SQ8 can be had in either body style.

The reason we’re concentrating on the biggest, baddest, most expensive variant, is that’s precisely what Audi is tipping the Australian market will gravitate towards.

In fact, as many as 70 per cent of Q8-platform sales could be the SQ8. That’s in line with the Australian market’s fondness for spending up big on the sportiest version of many makes and models, but it remains a bit of an anomaly in the rest of the car-buying world. Nevertheless, it remains the reason we’re focussing on that variant here.

Of course, electrification has never been more important for a carmaker operating here since the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard was announced recently, and even though the Q8 range will be a small percentage of Audi’s sales here, any EV represent progress towards meeting corporate targets.