The electric G-Wagon can drive through water up to 85 centimetres deep.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
For a certain wealthy and extroverted demographic – think crypto bros, rappers, flashy entrepreneurs, rich kids and social-media stars – the first ever electric G-Wagon is easily going to be the hottest car of 2024.
Mercedes-Benz took what was already a hot commodity – the G-Class SUV, better known as the G-Wagon – and electrified it, stuffing a battery down the middle of its ladder-frame chassis. It’s been given a dull name, the 2025 Mercedes-Benz G 580 with EQ Technology, but everyone will probably just call it the electric G-Wagon and it’s anything but dull.
A ridiculously overengineered quad-motor, quad-gearbox powertrain allows the electric G-Wagon to perform some impractical but novel new stunts that seem tailor-made for TikTok.
Press the right sequence of buttons on the dashboard and the electric G-Class will pirouette through two full turns on the spot by spinning its left and right wheels in opposite directions, or perform perfect computer-controlled drifts around tight corners at low speeds. I tried both functions in a muddy field in France and it felt not so much like driving as something entirely new, like equestrian barrel-racing or dressage but with cars.
Officially, Mercedes will tell you those new tricks are for off-road use only, but there’s not much to prevent a teenager from doing back-to-back 360s in a mall parking lot, which, as far as I can tell, may be the most practical real-world application.
The 2025 Mercedes-Benz electric G-Wagon has four gearboxes, one for each motor.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
Despite weighing in at a whopping 3,085 kilograms, this truck can move in ways no other road-going vehicle can. (In basketball terms, it’s like the Nikola Jokic of cars; it may look ungainly, but wow can it hustle.) Because it doesn’t guzzle gas like other G-Wagons, this one could pose less of a threat to the environment, although it remains a potential threat to pedestrians with that tall, blunt front end.
During our brief test drive with the electric G-Wagon, it scrambled up rain-soaked muddy trails and powered up frighteningly steep hills covered in loose, jagged rocks. It’s for conditions like these that the truck needs four gearboxes, one for each motor. Each gearbox has two speeds: high-range for the road and low-range for extreme off-roading. It’s a devilishly complicated engineering solution that ensures the electric motors won’t overheat during prolonged off-roading. (It could do pirouettes until the battery is empty, although the tires would probably explode long before that.)
A 26-millimetre-thick underbody armour plate weighing 58 kilograms is designed to protect the battery pack should a driver somehow beach this truck on a sharp object or scrape its underbelly over rocky terrain; thankfully, I never got a chance to see whether the armour works as advertised.
The trunk with a rear door that opens sideways.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
I did, however, test the waterproof seal of the battery, motors and associated electronics by submerging them all in thick brown water that went up over the wheels and sloshed against the doors. It felt for a moment as if Mercedes’ newest EV was about to become a boat, but we did eventually make through the pond and back to land.
Because the electric motors don’t need to breathe air like a combustion engine, this G-Wagon can drive through deeper water (up to 85 centimetres, which is just above the top of the wheels) than its gas-burning counterparts. The company created a test-rig for the EV that could twist and stress the battery pack while submerging it in water to ensure it never leaked. Even if a driver were to exceed the truck’s maximum wading depth, water would only start to trickle into the cabin through the air vents; either that or the whole truck would float and the wheels would lose traction, an engineer from Mercedes explained.
Such extreme off-road prowess does limit the truck’s on-road manners, but that’s always been the case with every G-Wagon. The steering still feels only vaguely connected to the front wheels because, under the boxy sheet metal, this EV is a body-on-frame truck with a solid rear axle. That said, the electric model does feel more responsive when accelerating than the gas-burning AMG G 63 and more agile in corners than the G 550.
The backseats of the 2025 Mercedes-Benz electric G-WagonMatt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
But perhaps what’s most impressive about the electric G-Class is that the company bothered to invest so much time, money and effort into making a truck that can pirouette, wade and climb.
There were sleepless nights during the development process, said Manuel Urstoeger, who led the engineering of the car’s electric drive unit. “In the beginning, it was challenging to persuade upper management that we need four two-speed gearboxes.”
There’s no doubt the electric G-Wagon is an absolute marvel of engineering, nor is there any doubt that it’s overkill for what is ultimately a lifestyle accessory that most owners will never take off the pavement. I suspect that Mercedes could have simply ripped out the old truck’s combustion engine and filled the space with an electric motor and Duracell batteries and this EV would’ve still been a hot commodity.
The front seats and dash of the electric G-Wagon.Matt Bubbers/The Globe and Mail
At some point over its 45-year production run, the G-Wagon went from being a utilitarian truck to a status symbol on par with the Hermès Birkin bag or Audemars Piguet Royal Oak wristwatch. That it can drive through almost a metre of water and climb 45-degree slopes won’t matter much. In Ontario, the fact it will get the coveted Green Vehicle licence plate – which grants access to special high-occupancy lanes on the highway – is likely a bigger selling point.
Prices haven’t been announced yet, but the fact it’ll likely cost more than $200,000 and has a driving range of only 473 kilometres (as rated by the overly generous European WLTP energy efficiency standard) won’t be a deal breaker; it’s an electric G-Wagon and that alone makes it desirable. Don’t be surprised if demand outstrips the limited supply of 2025 models that will begin to arrive in Canadian dealerships this winter.
The writer was a guest of the automaker. Content was not subject to approval.
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Matt Bubbers