Mercedes-Benz GLE 450e SUV: Comfortable, smooth, powerful | Automobiles

The sky outside is a misty-grey, with those tiny little rain drops that appear to float in mid-air all around. It’s a damp affair out there, and, as the ambient temperature is hovering at around 7C, it can be tough to ever get fully dry, or fully warm. Such is life near Canada’s westernmost edge on Vancouver Island as I weave along the Pacific Rim Highway on the way to Ucluelet, B.C. in the Merc.

I don’t really mind, because both of my arms rest comfortably on heated leather-clad surfaces. My hands grip a thick, leather-wrapped wheel (also heated) and the seat uses a combination of a heater and massage feature to provide a simulated hot-rock massage as I drive. (I’m wondering if the spa appointment that awaits me will have anywhere near the same effect.) Add the smell of the high-level leather that graces almost every surface — it’s coloured in “macchiato beige,” which is nice — and my long drive becomes that much more tolerable.

Such is life inside the well-appointed cockpit of the Mercedes-Benz GLE 450e SUV.

The GLE is Mercedes’ entrant in the competitive mid-size luxury SUV segment, which is populated by the likes of the BMW X5 and Acura MDX. To help differentiate the GLE a little, it also comes offered as a four-door coupe (think the height of an SUV, but with a more sloped roofline) and with a selection of engines, from the entry-level turbocharged six-cylinder ($82,800) to a fire-breathing twin-turbo V8 ($161,900).

It may be categorized as a mid-size SUV, but stepping inside, you might be fooled. The roof is tall, and, while that may make it look a little awkward in profile, it makes for plenty of headroom both front and back — Marge Simpson wouldn’t feel cramped in here, so you can imagine what it must be like for those of us with more normal ‘dos.

It’s not perfect, though; there’s plenty of space overall, but why do I have trouble finding a place to stow my sunglasses? There’s no holder ahead of the rear-view mirror as is often the case, and, while you could balance them on the wireless phone charger just ahead of the cupholders, you’d then be wasting that feature. There is a large touchpad for the infotainment system just ahead of the cupholders; as you can navigate the system as a touchscreen or with touchpads on the wheel spokes, I have to think that perhaps the space required for that big touchpad would be better used for a storage cubby.

In its pricing, my GLE 450e tester sits in the middle of the pack, ringing in at $90,100 before options. That ‘e’ at the end is important, as it denotes this particular GLE as a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, or “PHEV.” That means it gets a gas engine and an EV motor, but with an enlarged battery that offers enough juice to be able to drive with both EV and gas power at the same time, or for extended periods using only EV power … up to 77 kilometres, says Mercedes. According to Natural Resources Canada, meanwhile, it helps provide a combined fuel economy figure of 9.9 litres/100 km. I found those EV range figures to be pretty accurate during my test; I saw 75 km of EV range, which is not bad at all.

Once the charge depletes, you can plug it in, just as you can an EV. If you opt to spend an additional $650, you get level III DC fast charging, which will return charge from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in just 20 minutes.

Of course, the battery will also charge itself while the vehicle is coasting or coming to a stop. The GLE 450e even provides drive modes that will enable you to force it to use only EV power — if you have enough charge — or completely lock out the EV battery to save your power for when it’s most needed, say in traffic as you head back into town.

For this blustery drive, however, I wanted to feel the other benefit of that engine and battery: the performance. It’s enough to provide a combined 381 horsepower and 479 pounds-feet of torque (motive force), figures that are on-par with the more performance-oriented models in the lineup. The power on-tap helps the GLE come alive as you depress the pedal, and combines with the nine-speed automatic transmission to send you down the road without worrying whether you have enough power to, say, safely enter the freeway. It’s a very gutsy thing and while the engine note gets a little harsh when stressed, that’s probably only noticeable because the ride is otherwise so quiet, especially in EV mode.

It’s smooth, too. My tester didn’t have the optional air-ride suspension. But the way the suspension is tuned is right on, so bumps both large and small do not affect the ride as you might think they would looking at them. I can only imagine how the air-ride would change all that.

When you’re at the wheel of something as refined as this vehicle is, you tend not to worry too much about “what could have been.” Much better to just choose your favourite drive mode, settle in to your three-level, macchiato-coloured, fine leather seat and be on your way.