ANCAP has awarded a five-star safety rating to the new Mercedes-Benz EQE, which was introduced to Australia in February 2023. The EQE is the second battery electric model in the large car segment to be rated by ANCAP, with the rating applicable to all variants.
ADULT OCCUPANT PROTECTION
The passenger compartment of the EQE remained stable in the frontal offset (MPDB) test. Protection of the driver’s chest and lower legs was adequate, with good protection offered to all other body regions. Protection of the front passenger dummy was good for all critical body regions.
The front structure presented a moderate risk to occupants of an oncoming vehicle in the MPDB test (which evaluates vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility), resulting in a 1.83-point penalty being applied.
In the full width frontal test, protection was adequate for the chest of both the driver and the rear passenger, while good protection was offered for all other critical body regions.
In the side impact test and the oblique pole test, protection offered to all critical body regions was good and maximum points were scored in these tests.
The EQE is equipped with a centre airbag to protect against occupant-to-occupant interaction in side impacts and it provided good protection for the head of both front seat occupants. Prevention of excursion (movement towards the other side of the vehicle) in the far side impact tests was assessed as good for the vehicle-to-vehicle impact scenario, and adequate in the vehicle-to-pole scenario.
CHILD OCCUPANT PROTECTION
In the frontal offset and side impact tests, protection of the 10-year and 6-year dummies was good and maximum points were scored in these tests.
The EQE is fitted with lower ISOFix anchorages on the rear outboard seats and top tether anchorages for all rear seating positions.
Installation of typical child restraints available in Australia and New Zealand showed most child restraints could be accommodated in most rear seating positions. However, the Type A capsule could not be correctly installed in the rear outboard seating positions and one of the selected Type A convertible seats could not be correctly installed in rearward facing mode in the outboard seats using the ISOfix anchorages.
VULNERABLE ROAD USER PROTECTION
The EQE has an ‘active’ bonnet with sensors that detect when a pedestrian is struck, and actuators that lift the bonnet to provide greater clearance to stiff components in the engine bay. The car was tested with the bonnet in the raised position and good or adequate results were recorded over most of the bonnet area, with some poor results recorded at the base of the windscreen and on the stiff windscreen pillars.
Protection of the pelvis was mixed, with areas of good and poor performance, while the bumper provided good protection to pedestrians’ legs.
The EQE is fitted with an autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system capable of recognising and reacting to pedestrians. Testing of this system showed good performance in pedestrian scenarios, including for AEB back-over, where full points were scored. Good performance was also seen in cyclist test scenarios.
SAFETY ASSIST
In addition to the AEB system, which is capable of functioning at highway speeds, the EQE features a lane support system (LSS) with lane keep assist (LKA) and emergency lane keeping functionality, as well as blind spot monitoring.
Tests of the AEB (car-to-car) system showed good performance with collisions avoided or mitigated in most test scenarios, including AEB junction assist where the vehicle can autonomously brake to avoid crashes when turning across the path of an oncoming vehicle in most of the tested speed combinations.
Tests of LSS functionality showed good performance in LKA scenarios, with adequate performance in the more critical ELK scenarios.
A speed assistance system with speed limit information function is standard, informing the driver of the local speed limit and allowing the driver to accept the change in speed accordingly.
A seatbelt reminder system is fitted to all seating positions, but occupancy detection is only fitted to the front passenger seat. A driver drowsiness monitor system is fitted as standard.