2025 Mercedes-AMG E 53: Wheels' in-depth review of the bold new plug-in hybrid

Try to be all things to all people and, more often than not, you’re in the express line to losing your identity. When we first heard of the new plug-in hybrid Mercedes-AMG E 53, it sounded as if Affalterbach was teasing us with a car that promised a bit of everything for everyone, as long as your pockets were deep enough.

It could generate a monstrous 450kW power output, the same as the last E 63 S with its powerhouse 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8. But where that car returned a combined fuel figure of 9.3L/100km, this new E 53 AMG has just 18 per cent of the old car’s thirst fuel at the bowser – a claimed 1.7L/100km. It’s also bigger, better equipped, safer, and around $50k cheaper than the last time the E 63 was in Aussie showrooms. Where’s the catch?

The first thing to note is the unwieldy full name of the vehicle, the Mercedes-AMG E 53 Hybrid 4Matic+, and the hybrid part is key, because as well as being all-wheel drive, this is a plug-in hybrid. As we all know, this means having to recharge it to achieve those fuel consumption figures and it entails carrying a round a battery pack. Where the old E 63 weighed 1880kg, this new E 53 tips the scales at a gut-busting 2390kg. So temper those expectations – this car is a very different proposition to the old E 63.

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I hold none of that against AMG. If this is the price of complying with increasingly stringent emissions legislation, then so be it. Comparing its weight against the old car is merely a method of indicating that this big sedan offers a decidedly different take on things. Wheels readers are a nuanced bunch and realise that while lighter cars are nearly always more fun, the old figures that we’d store in our heads regarding what does and doesn’t represent a heavy car in any particular class probably need a rethink.

I’m sitting by the side of the road at Toolangi trying to take stock of what I’ve just driven. To be honest, my emotions are shuttling between confusion, disappointment and a kind of acceptance. I’d had my expectations managed by a trusted colleague who had driven the car and had muttered “Just don’t expect it to be a C 63,” and even taking that into account, I was still somewhat nonplussed at the way the E 53 tackled one of my favourite stretches of road.

Of course, I’d instantly dialled almost every available setting to maximum angry and set into it. Only in this way would I find out just how far shy of Mercedes’ best sport sedans it would come on the truly challenging Chum Creek Road. Quite a long way was my initial assessment. These big AMGs were never particularly long on subtlety, but in Sport+ mode, so many of the E 53’s calibrations just seemed slightly off for performance driving.

Bully the car and the transmission shocks the driveline, the spiky throttle map pours everything on too early as you pick up the gas, inducing understeer, and there’s an unsettling flywheel effect that limits the effectiveness of engine braking. Once you do get on the picks, the car’s initial default to re-gen braking doesn’t offer the bite and aggression you want in those first couple of centimetres of pedal travel. It’s a car that’s hard to build any sort of rhythm or flow with. I didn’t know quite what to make of it.

The longer I sat there, the more it dawned on me that just as I’d need to update a few of my mental yardsticks around vehicle weight, I’d also need to make corresponding changes to what I could reasonably expect of a 2.4-tonne vehicle on a poorly-surfaced road that would most enjoyably be tackled in a hot hatch. Was I the problem here, not the car? So I tried again.

Instead of driving the car as if it’s on a quali lap, I dialled back the drive mode into Sport, adjusted my attitude and set off again. It was a revelation. Driven at more reasonable fast road speeds, the E 53 coalesced beautifully. I was able to appreciate the heft of the steering, the agreeable suppleness of the ride, the implacable power-down traction, the huge reserves of torque available and the way that the sedan could cover ground barely any slower once you’d worked out how to get the car into its happiest operating window. Instead of feeling frustrating, the E 53 suddenly felt willing and amenable. Endearing, even.

Mercedes people would always point to the fact that the 53 and 63-badged AMG models had quite different philosophies, and there’s some truth in that. Yet this straight-six 3.0-litre hybridised powerplant is, if rumour is to be believed, set to be plumbed into the nose of the next generation C 63 AMG after legions of buyers turned their backs on the hi-po four-pot version. In order to succeed there, it’d need to wick up the attitude quite considerably, but that’s certainly not beyond the talents of AMG’s engineers.

This M256M powerplant is a fundamentally strong engine. After 177km of mixed driving today, the fuel gauge is reading 7.6 litres per 100km, and it’s also showing battery usage of 10.1kWh per 100km. The spec sheet claims that the 21.2kWh useable battery (with 7.4kWh buffer) will cover 100km, but in real world conditions, you should probably bank on around 75km if you force the vehicle into EV mode and tickle it along. Do bear in mind that you’ll then be driving a heavy car with just 120kW at its disposal, so don’t expect any Tesla-style acceleration. The electric motor is built into the 9G-Tronic torque converter transmission and can weigh in with an instant boost of 480Nm, lifting peak system torque to 750Nm.

The plug-in hybrid system gives with one hand and takes with the other. Pop the boot open and you have a mere 376 litres of space available to you versus 540 litres in an E 300. It’s fairly leisurely in its charging rates too. The car comes with an onboard 11kW onboard AC charger, which translates into a charging time of over two hours. That’s no problem if you’re plugging it in overnight, and DC charging on public chargers is capped at 60kW, which means you’ll be there 20 minutes to top up from 10 to 80 per cent. You’ll probably get the stink eye from Taycan drivers if you’re doing so on an ultra-fast charger.

The E 53 always starts in Electric mode, but meaningful throttle demand will fire up the internal combustion engine. A stealthy getaway is great for early starts or late arrivals home without waking the neighbourhood. There’s also an effective battery hold function that allows you to maintain what battery percentage you have, for instance if you plan on driving around a city centre and don’t want the engine firing up, although perhaps the percentage of AMG’s Australian customers who might value this function hovers somewhere around zero.

One thing Australian AMG buyers can be counted on is wanting a stack of equipment and, unlike most other markets, E 53 AMGs for Down Under come with the AMG Dynamic Plus pack as standard. This comprises the composite braking system with six-pot fixed calipers up front biting down on 390mm discs. There’s an electronically controlled rear differential, dynamic engine mounts and a launch control facility that will fire the car through 100km in just 3.8 seconds without undue drama, pulling full power and torque from the engine and motor.

Now, given what we’d said earlier about the E 53 AMG being happier when its not being pushed hard up a horrible stretch of road, it would be understandable if potential buyers went through the mental process of wondering whether the simpler and lighter $132k E 300 might be a more sensible purchase. Drive the two back to back, it’d take somebody relatively uninterested in engineering to choose the four-cylinder E 300. I’ve long maintained that an E-Class feels at its best with a sextet of cylinders up front and the E 53 AMG does nothing to change that particular opinion.

Away from the twists, compressions, ramps and mendacious cambers of Chum Creek, there’s an engaging pliability to the E 53’s ability to adapt to conditions. True, it always moves like a slightly musclebound heavyweight boxer in an expensive suit, and you’re aware that there’s a lot of unsprung masses and serious rubber on the ground – in this case big Michelin Pilot Sport 4S hoops, 265/35 ZR21 up front and 295/30 ZR21s at the rear. That said, it’s otherwise impressively refined, with double-glazing up front helping to temper the sound of any wind rush over the mirrors and A-pillars.

There’s a languid, long-legged quality to it when you snick into Comfort mode. The two-valve adjustable dampers allow enough malleability to iron out surface imperfections without ceding too much in overall body control. The longer you spend with the E 53 AMG, the more its sheer versatility starts to win you over. I remain to be convinced by the sheer complexity of its various drive selection systems. While it’s great that you have the facility to tailor the suspension settings, the stability control modes, the transmission, the exhaust sound, the throttle response and the AMG Dynamics program, it’s all a bit much for a car of this ilk.

Mercedes probably needs to have a sit down and think about how it can more coherently deliver choice without such confusion. In effect, the problem is that there are three ascending strata of functionality here, namely Individual settings for functions like ESP, with the AMG Dynamics settings up next and the three drive modes at the top of the hierarchy, yet they’re presented with no such distinction.

It’s hard to see what this tangled knot of functionality delivers over and above a customisable Individual drive mode (or two), which is the solution most of Mercedes’ rivals have settled upon.

We stop for lunch and it’s hard not to admit that the E 53 is a damn good-looking thing. Its stance is near perfect, the gently bulging arches hinting at its potential, and there’s just the right amount of space above the tops of its tyres to give it a potent, hunkered mien. This car rides on the optional 21-inch forged alloys, although 20-inch rims are standard.

Other AMG-specific touches include the vertically slatted and border-illuminated grille, front and rear aprons, 11mm wider fender flares, a rear lip spoiler and subtle side skirts. An auxiliary cooler peeks from the central lower inlet of the front clip, and you’ll notice that there’s an external opening to help cool and depressurise the front wheel arches. There’s also a pair of 1.1 million pixel adaptive matrix headlamps. It’s not overt or showy but by the same token you’re not about to mistake this one for an E 300.

The cabin’s come in for quite a refresh too. The dark, open-pore ash wood makes a welcome change from piano black trim, and this car features the optional AMG performance seats, trimmed in soft nappa leather. The dash is dominated by the three integrated screens of the Hyperscreen which, in this instance, also includes a 12.3-inch passenger screen which can be rendered invisible to the driver such that the front passenger can watch movies and link Bluetooth headphones if they really want to be utterly unsociable.

The central 14.4-inch infotainment screen works slickly and information is generally well presented. The icky flexible strip of buttons beneath and the plastic haptic sliders that you’ll end up using to control functions like stereo volume could use a rethink though. The 17-speaker Burmester stereo brooks little in the way of complaint, from me at least, although the seat vibrator, which zizzes in time with the music earned an instant and strident no. At least you can switch it off.

Encouragingly, the changes in cabin trim materials for this E 53 not only improve the ambience over lower models, but the fit seems better too. Mercedes still has a little way to go in order to re-attain its once peerless reputation for cabin integrity, but the company is making some significant strides in the right direction. Rattles and squeaks from the sybaritic E 53 are noticeable by their absence.

Naturally, Mercedes offers a a whole host of optional packages for the car, from the dark look AMG Night Package ($3000) to the AMG Carbon Fibre Package ($6000), which finishes the centre stack, steering wheel, mirror caps and rear spoiler in glossy open weave carbon. The AMG Performance Seat Package is $5000, the Energizing Package Plus is $5300 and the Edition One package was $29,990 but the limited allocation of this all-encompassing option package has long since been accounted for. Regardless, it’s relatively easy to blow through that $199,900 asking price.

Start ladling gear onto the E 53 and it gets uncomfortably close to the orbits of V8 powerhouses like the $259,000 BMW M5 or the $255,000 Audi RS7 Performance, both of which offer arguably a more immersive driving experience. But to view these cars as natural competition for the E 53 is to misunderstand its role in the greater scheme of things. Yes, both the BMW and the Audi will deliver a more potent hit of adrenalin, but the beauty of the E 53 is that it has some very beguiling light and shade to its personality that’ll hook you in time and again.

That’s not damning it with faint praise. There’s a simple equation that determines how much long-term enjoyment you’ll get from a sporting car and it’s how often you use it multiplied by how much fun it is. Because the Mercedes-AMG E 53 is the sort of car you’d relish driving every day in virtually very condition, it more than stacks up against these more expensive but more singular – and more wearing – rivals. The romantic in me would love to see Australia get a wagon version of the E 53 as a cerebral antidote to all of these overblown super-SUVs, but the realist knows that the order bank would likely have tumbleweed blowing through it to the sound of crickets.

A 480kW plug-in hybrid isn’t the complete answer to Mercedes’ vexed voyage through the minefield of emissions legislation, but it’s a smart and timely aid to the company’s navigation. Last year, of the 1,237,287 new vehicles sold in Australia, only 7.4 per cent of them were purely powered by electricity. In other words, 92.6 per cent of you said no thanks to a pure EV. Mercedes has felt the sting of this hard, having gone large on a seven-vehicle EV line up for Australia that has, for the most part, failed to land too many telling blows.

The E53 offers electrification on Australia’s terms. It delivers smarts, capability and huge power and torque; all in a package that’s never cowed by the sheer scale of this country’s geography. It just quietly and effectively works. What it perhaps lacks is that clincher; that absolute billboard reason to separate you from your $200k. If you can look past that and see its formidable blend of talents for what they are, it’s unlikely that you’re going to be disappointed.

Straight Talking

Although the system output for the E 53 AMG is rated at 450kW and 750Nm, the internal combustion engine alone generates the lion’s share of that figure. It weighs in with 330kW and 560Nm, the latter also having a transient overboost up to 600Nm for up to ten seconds. It follows a tradition of Merc straight sixes that included the M104E36 fitted to the 1993 C 36 sedan, the first model truly co-developed between Mercedes and AMG. The inline six layout went on hiatus for Mercedes back in 2000 with the demise of the C 43’s M113.944 unit, finally being revived in the 2017 E 53.

Specifications