Occasionally, we automotive journalists get it wrong. Car and Driver swooned over Audis of the 1980s despite being spectacularly unreliable, but lovely cars for sure. Porsche could hardly give away what are now multi-million dollar Carrera GTs when new, because the press found them scary to drive. More recently, more than a few of my compatriots have been a tiny bit over-eager about electric vehicles being definitely, one hundred per cent, for sure the one and only future of motoring. One area where we were wrong is the 2025 Mercedes-Benz G 580 EQ.
Instead of guessing how successful a product is going to be, I have the benefit of writing this after the G 580 EQ has spent some time on the market. It has proven to be a miserable failure. One sentiment you’ll see peppered throughout the litany of articles and their comment sections about the electric G-Wagen’s slow sales is that it received pretty unanimously glowing praise from the motoring press. It shows how out-of-touch we are; we auto journalists are often hopeless fools blinded by our own hubris, but in this case, even with the benefit of hindsight on my side, I'd like to join my colleagues and dig in my heels: this thing is brilliant.
Making sense of the electric G-Class
I'm not pretending. I know the electric G-Wagen ain't selling, but it should be. The rationale is pretty air tight: most of these things live pampered lives as urban commuters. They may be serious off-road weapons at their core, but that mission has been superseded by their nuclear capability as a status symbol for the nouveau riche. An electric powertrain is vastly better suited to the task of waiting in line to leave the parkade on Cumberland Street in Yorkville than any gasser, let alone the fire-breathing and fuel-swilling V8s so favoured in these beasts. Why wouldn’t you want an EV if it otherwise looked and felt exactly the same?There's a problem with that very rational, very German, and frankly very correct supposition: the nouveau riche that have made these fire-breathing Galendewagens a status symbol don’t want to admit they’re wrong. It’s a crime the artisans in Affalterbach are hand-building so many incredible engines that will pretty much only sit idling, but they’re only guilty if they admit to it. As such, the electric G 580 is a bit of a dud, sales wise.
As of 2025, the only way to get a V8 in a G-Wagen is to shell out big bucks for a G 63. The base G 550 is now powered by the electrically turbocharged 3.0-litre inline-six, and the G 580 is motivated by no less than four electric motors, each with their own two-speed gearbox. Unlike the Chevy Silverado and Silverado EV, which are completely different products that share nothing, the G 580 is built on the same assembly line in Austria where the Gelandewagen has always been built.
It's more F-150 and Lighting, where the electric truck looks and feels largely the same, seemingly only benefiting from being electrified. I don't mean that in the boring ways like efficiency and refinement, but in all the cool ways, too. With a combined 579 horsepower and a whopping 859 pound-feet of torque, the G 580 EQ is capable of delivering forward thrust that is just as rapacious as the fire-and-brimstone V8, with the instantaneous response that’ll make jumping the highway merge line all the more authoritative. It is, in a word, alarming.
Can you still treat it like a G-Wagen?
But whatever. I’ve long said that being quick in the age of electricity isn’t an achievement, even if it is a nice ace-in-the-hole. This isn’t just a G-Wagen-shaped golf cart that’s too fast for its own good. It is a proper Gelandewagen through and through, and passed the same excruciating Schockl durability testing that made the G-Wagen the icon that it is. For instance, the 116 kWH battery housed between its widened frame rails is protected by a monolith of a skid plate reinforced with lightweight carbon fibre. It still weighs 127 pounds. For some loose reference, the carbon fibre chassis tub of a McLaren Artura is 180 pounds, and that has to support the entire car.Not only can you bash it off rocks, you can drown it. Without having to worry about hydro-locking an engine, the G 580’s water fording depth rises to 33.5 inches, and the entire powertrain is indeed waterproofed. The G-Class EV can tolerate being completely submerged, you'll just ruin the HVAC system and the rest of the lovely leather lined interior if you keep going — but you can keep going until you drown yourself, if so inclined. It’s also rated to handle extreme temperature swings, so you won’t break if you get it screaming hot jumping dunes in the desert and then bury it in an ice bath, for example. All things that might get in the way of the Hermes store.
G-Turn, G-Roar, G-all-the-things
Then there’s the G 580 EQ’s party trick: G-Turn. It can spin its motors in opposing directions and rotate in place, like the tank that it is. I foolishly tried this in the parking lot in the office and learned that it’s not at all meant to be an easy and convenient parking assistant, as it's a bit of a convoluted process to initiate. It’s also really meant for off-roading, as it loudly and violently shreds the tires on pavement, making a hell of a scene in the process of impressing the valet at the Ritz.On the topic of dry pavement, the G 580 EQ handles better than its gasser counterparts. It feels noticeably less like an unruly brick than you’d expect. Ride quality feels marginally better too, thanks in no small part to its independent rear suspension. It uses a De-Dion rear axle layout that’s long since fallen out of favour in conventional wisdom, but is uniquely well-suited to electric applications that need to take a beating and keep going. Off-road articulation doesn’t suffer as a result of this; the EQ is better here in a way than the solid-axle gassers.
Mercedes isn’t oblivious to the appeal of sound, fitting the G 580 EQ with something called G-Roar. It sounds tacky, but works better than you’d expect, using the speakers to fill in the deep acoustic frequency of the missing V8. It’s surprisingly restrained, not trying to mimic the pounding eight-cylinder thump. I'd even say it's rather quiet, subtly filling the void with a modest undertone of manliness, and it's among the better faux-engine-acoustics that pervade EVs. Whereas a lot of EV acoustics seem like they’ll be super cringey in a few years, this doesn’t feel that way.
G 580 EQ range and charging
Speaking of things that plague EVs, let’s talk about range. The electric G-Class has an estimated range of 385 kilometers, which should get you from your Lorne Park estate to the Mink Mile in downtown Toronto and back at least six times — unlikely in one day, but not impossible in a wedding. The G 580’s built-in range calculator is even more optimistic, with our tester showing up to 488 km in the real world, as EVs like sitting in traffic and the sweet regenerative braking that comes with it. That extra trip to Nobu and then a quick dalliance to Prada could make all the difference. If wherever you’re lunching has nearby DC fast charging, you can go from a 10-to-80 per cent charge in 32 minutes.
What's the G-Class EV like inside?
The rest of the experience is exactly what you’d expect from a G-Wagen. The cabin is well-appointed with fancy materials, awash in mood lighting, stacked with lovely chairs and not enough rear legroom, and is mostly quiet, save for the signature wind whistle. Tech is exactly what you’d expect, save for — to my shock and awe — an updated trackpad which actually works really well. Perhaps most importantly, the doors open and close with the exact, delicious, cold-war-bunker-door cluh-thunk as they always have.It hits all the signature G-Wagen notes perfectly. The G 580 EQ has more power, better handling, and better articulation, but doesn’t feel at all removed from the classic truck feel. It's still very much a military brick, closer to a Jeep Wrangler than any other Mercedes, in the best way. They’ve even calibrated the four motors to deliver power in a vaguely similar way to the traditional V8; there’s just a lot more of that power, right now. Visually, our First Edition tester adds some blue accents inside and out and an optional, squared spare tire holder that I could live without. Otherwise, you’d be very hard-pressed to tell it apart from its fossil-fired counterpart.
Is the electric G-Wagen worth it?
Perhaps the craziest thing about the G 580 EQ is that, in a twisted way, it's almost sensible. The G 63 AMG has a demonic thirst for fuel, and this … doesn’t. At all. In the realm of tough-chic monster trucks, it's also relatively compact, easy to manoeuvre, and shockingly light, at — insert biggest air quotes ever — only 6,908 pounds. In contrast, the GMC Hummer EV is a full three feet longer, a foot wider, and 2,700 pounds heavier. That’s more than 80 cases of Beringer Estate wine, plus the skid they rode in on.And then there’s the money. This loaded tester rings in at $237,000 as-tested, which is not cheap, but it's some $12,000 less than the G 63 starts. Moreover, those are just sticker prices; getting an allocation for a G 63 is a brutally expensive endeavour on its own, whereas you could — gasp — negotiate something resembling a deal on one of these supposedly unsellable electric G-Wagens. And being electric, you’ll get to park in the EV spots right in front of Lavelle, instead of walking like a gas-drunk peasant. Maybe there’s something my auto journalist brain can’t comprehend about the 2025 Mercedes-Benz G 580 EQ, but I can’t see how in this particular realm, these don’t make all the sense in the world.