Most electric vehicles are built with their battery packs laid flat under the floor like an enormous skateboard. The hotly anticipated latest EV from Mercedes-Benz is not. Instead, its battery pack nestles between the frame rails of a classic body-on-frame truck, automotive architecture that’s over a century old.
And while other Mercedes EVs are built with aerodynamics in mind—slippery, lozenge-shaped vehicles with low drag for maximum range—this throwback is defiantly boxy. Iconic, in fact. Its overlong name is G 580 With EQ Technology, but that’s not what most people call it. It’s simply the electric G.
Geländewagen. The name that puts the G in Mercedes-Benz G-Class says everything about this rugged off-roader’s spirit. Gelände is “terrain.” Wagen is “vehicle.” It is a machine built to shrug off craggy mountain paths, ford streams, and plow through deep mud. Born in the shadow of Austria’s Schöckl Mountain, it is as tough and purposeful as any Land Rover Defender or Jeep Wrangler.
Yet the sort of climbing the G-Class is best known for is the social kind. The vehicle of choice for celebrities from Hollywood to NYC, it’s spotted more often downtown than on some forest service road in the backcountry. It was built for the latter but over the years has become a status symbol almost without equal. The dissonance is a bit like seeing hiking boots on everyone at a black-tie affair. What’s up with the G?
The story of the Geländewagen begins in the 1970s, with the then-shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Concerned with strengthening his country’s military, Pahlavi approached Mercedes-Benz with a sizable contract for military trucks. While they were at it, he mentioned, perhaps they could build something a little smaller? Something he could take hunting.
As it happens, Mercedes already had plans for such a vehicle, and the shah’s suggestion was just the impetus needed. The company had formed a partnership with Steyr-Daimler-Puch, an Austrian manufacturer mostly of military vehicles. Having built incredibly capable machines including the six-wheeled Pinzgauer, Steyr-Daimler-Puch was an ideal pick to help develop an ultimate civilian Land Rover.
Mercedes-Benz in the 1970s was the kind of company that put its entire might into engineering vehicles. Just look at the virtually unkillable W123-chassis sedans, many of which soldier on today. Overengineering was the order of the day, and the ur-Geländewagen was tested against the most extreme conditions around the globe.
The first production models arrived in 1979, just as the Iranian revolution caused Pahlavi to exit stage left. It was not the luxurious bauble we know today but relentlessly utilitarian, bordering on agricultural. Fitted with a four-wheel-drive and three locking differentials, it was a proper little Austrian mountain goat, Germany’s answer to the Land Rover.
Locking differentials are still part of the standard kit on a modern G-Class, and having three of them is almost unheard of in a production vehicle. Push a button, and you can lock the centre differential to ensure a 50-50 power split between the front and rear axle. Lock the front or rear differentials and power is evenly split side to side. With all three locked, a G can crawl over or through pretty much any obstacle.
This made the early G-Wagen popular with wealthy farmers and the like, in much the same way as early Land Rovers were. The engines available did not make much horsepower, and amenities were few. It was a tool for the job, whether in civilian or military application. To those familiar with them, it was not particularly desirable beyond its utility.
However, the G-Class wasn’t officially sold in the U.S. and Canada until 2002. In the meantime, some were imported under grey market rules and later sold at considerable markup when they were no longer officially available. The combination of exclusivity and price turned a humble off-roader into a plaything for the rich, in much the same way the Defender was perceived in our market.
Mercedes-Benz noticed this untapped market and launched the G-Class (as it was now commonly called) in North America with the choice of two V8-powered models. The more costly one, the G55 with tuning by AMG, defined what the badge would mean here.
AMG is Mercedes’s performance arm, best known for adding ferocious power and grip. Seeing those three letters on a ponderously boxy SUV didn’t make much sense at first, nor did the low-profile tires on an off-roader, but the public voted with their wallets. The G55 was a glutton for fuel, accelerated like a startled bison, and featured lashings of leather and wood inside. It made no sense, but everybody wanted to be seen in it.
Pope John Paul II had a G-Class Popemobile. Various Kardashians have been papped in Gs. Arnold Schwarzenegger liked his G so much he had it converted to electric power.
To this day, more of the AMG G63 version are sold in Canada than the entry-level G550. This new battery electric version might change that, especially on the streets of Vancouver, which has one of the highest EV adoption rates on the continent.
With a 116-kilowatt-hour battery pack and four electric motors totalling 579 horsepower and a globe-rotating 859 pound-feet of torque, the electrified G should equal its combustion-powered siblings in on-road performance. Meantime, it’s got some extremely clever tricks, such as the ability to rotate its wheels in opposite directions, spinning a perfect 360 while remaining in place. Its fording depth is 85 centimetres, some 15 centimetres greater than the gasoline powered Gs.
If the exterior looks like the past, then the inside is as futuristic as any Mercedes, with twin 12.3-inch screens, a voice assistant, and augmented reality navigation. The luxury appointments are the kind you expect to find in an S-Class, with massaging seats that feature adjustable bolsters to hold you in place should you actually take it off-road. There’s a grab handle up front for nervous passengers, and even that features wood inlay.
Perhaps most appealing, the G580 is still built the same way as always. The assembly line remains located in Graz, Austria, and most of the build is done by hand. This method would be unthinkable for a more modern product, but the cost and limited availability of the G-Class allow Mercedes to put a little more time and labour into its manufacturing. Further, it also allows for near-endless customization to demanding tastes.
This new electric G-Class is, as the G always has been, a blend of the old and the new. Progress is relentless. An electrified future beckons. And yet, there are some traditions that stand outside time.
