Mercedes-Benz S500E new car review

In a country like Australia, where plugging you car into a power socket to charge up seems as radical as basing your registration costs on how much CO2 it produces (common practice in countries that also offer financial incentives to buy EVs), the Mercedes-Benz S500e plug-in hybrid makes about as much sense as a cigar that doesn't stink.

Rich people don't smoke those foul-smelling tree trunks because they smell good, after all, they do it so that you'll sniff their moneyed miasma and be humbled.

In theory, and in our market, anyone rich enough to buy an S-Class and cares enough about fuel economy, no matter how high petrol prices rise, are in the minority. If they were more of them, surely cars like the V8 AMG S63, and even harder-drinking V12 S65 would not exist.

Nor are there lots of big wigs worried about doing their bit to reduce CO2 emissions, because that would involve mothballing the private jet, and maybe even the helicopter.

Fortunately, many inhabitants of the upper class don't have to worry about global warming - like the homesy, Trump-voting folks in Georgia where Drive sampled this car - because they know it doesn't exist, and it is merely a plot by evil scientists, lefties, the lying media and solar-panel makers.

A lot of mega-rich people can be mighty careful about how they spend their money, of course, and the ability to evade paying for things like London's Congestion Charge, by buying a PHEV S-Class, could be very appealing.

The savings on fuel are quite impressive as well, of course, with a claimed fuel-economy figure of 2.8 litres per 100km, a staggering effort for a land-ship of this size.

There is another, non-financial reason the S500e makes perfect sense when you drive it, however, and that is because the silent-running of this colossal car when in E-Mode seems like a perfect match for its expensive, sound-proofed office aura.

Sitting in the back of this S-Class, in almost absurd comfort, the whispering quiet of an electric motor as you are whisked from stock exchange to golf club to Illuminati meeting would really come in handy for powerful napping.

It really is only once you do away with engine noise altogether that you realise just how deathly quiet the cabin of this luxo-barge is. In some EVs, the silencing of your motive force only highlights the intrusion of things like wind noise and tyre roar, but not in the S-Class.

There's a sense of being wrapped up not so much in cotton wool as pashmina balls, completely removed from the world outside.

Adding to that feeling is the ride, which wafts and wallows you over the road in a hovercraft-like fashion, without any sense of actually being in touch with it.

From a state of full charge, driving mainly between 50 and 80km/h and with some restraint, I managed some 40km of E-Mode progress (Mercedes claims a 33km, all-EV range), while enjoying the benefits of engine-braking that EVs provide; that sense of being reined in as soon as you get off the throttle.

The acceleration of the car in this setting - and in the more restrained E-Save mode, which works harder to conserve and recharge you batteries - is just slightly more than adequate. Torquey but not terrific.

The engine only kicked into life once, when called upon to climb a steep hill, and then again, finally, when the red, charging-required light appeared on the dash, and the S500e defaulted to Hybrid mode.

You can achieve the same by pressing the Sport button, which is certainly the preferred setting in which to drive the big bus out on the open road.

In Sport, you get the kind of effortless, poor-person-in-pickup-truck-dismissing acceleration that an S-Class owner expects from the combination of a 3.0-litre, twin-turbo V6 and electric motor making a combined 325kW of power and 650Nm of torque.

Overtaking can be done with suitable ease and 0 to 100km/h arrives in a handy 5.2 seconds.

The S500e never feels fast, exactly, but it feels powerful and majestic enough when the petrol and electric power plants are working together.

Considering how much time the busy businessman, or woman, of today spends stuck in traffic, of course, the E-Mode is entirely suited to the driving around cities that will make up most of any S-Class's working hours, with the constant stopping and starting helping to recharge its batteries.

It's easy to imagine someone completing a typical commute to work and back without ever needing to burn petrol, or waste valuable time calling into a service station.

The S500e is never going to be the Benz that the enthusiastic driver chooses, but it offers a smooth and quiet powertrain option for the kind of owner who spends most of their time sitting in the back.

The chauffeur probably won't mind the slightly uninvolving , almost too-easy way that it drives, either. From the driver's seat, there's a sense that the goal of this car is to sit flat and corner smoothly, avoiding any excitement.

There is a feeling of being captain of a giant cruise ship rather than driving a car, and by comparison a vehicle like the S63 AMG Cabriolet that we drove a day earlier seems like a razor-edged rapier of a machine.

Like many German cars, the S500e does what it's designed to do - carry the harried executive in a giant leather-walled world of luxury and sweet-scented silence - within an inch of perfection. And if it saves them some money along the way - at least in European countries where PHEV ownership brings government incentives and financial benefits - that's a bonus.

Spending $319,715 (plus on-roads) to save money, of course, is an idea the rest of us might struggle with, just slightly.

2017 Mercedes-Benz S500e specifications

Price: $319, 715 before on-road costs

Engine: 3.0-litre V6, 85kW electric motor

Power: 325kW at 5250-6000rpm

Torque: 650Nm

Transmission: Seven-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive

Fuel use: 2.8L/100km

- For more information visit our Mercedes-Benz showroom