Tested: 2025 Mercedes-AMG E53 Is a Plug-In Hybrid That Rips
The latest E53 boosts the output of the inline-six and adds an electric motor to crest 600 horsepower.
More and more performance variants are turning to electrification as the way forward. Based on Mercedes-AMG’s latest E53, it’s easy to understand why. Although the mid-size AMG sedan is substantially heavier—891 pounds more than a Mercedes-Benz E450 and 850 heftier than the previous E53 sedan—you sure wouldn’t guess it by the test results, which have improved in just about every conceivable way.
The 2025 E53 takes the turbocharged inline-six from the prior model but adds a new twin-scroll turbo that ups the boost from 16.0 to 21.8 psi, bringing the engine’s output to 443 horsepower and 413 pound-feet of torque, gains of 14 horses and 29 pound-feet. That uprated six gets additional assistance from a 161-hp, 354-lb-ft electric motor integrated into the nine-speed automatic transmission. Total output rises to 604 ponies—one more than the previous E63, which has yet to return—and 553 pound-feet.
2025 mercedes amg e53view exterior photos
Marc Urbano|Car and Driver
HIGHS: E63-adjacent performance, improved braking and cornering, useful EV range.
The E53 is an absolute ripper in a straight line, lunging to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds and hustling through the quarter-mile before the clock strikes 12 (11.6 seconds at 120 mph). That’s only about a half-second behind the last top-dog, V-8-powered E63, as well as the lighter and more powerful C63, and nearly a second quicker than the previous E53. Plus, we prefer the E’s smooth six to the C63’s high-strung four-cylinder anyway. The E53 doesn’t stop pulling until 174 mph, 43 mph higher than the last E53 we tested.
Braking and cornering grip improve as well, stopping from 70 mph in 154 feet and from 100 mph in 307 feet, and its Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires hang on for 0.94 g of skidpad stick. Keen-eyed students of the specifications panel will notice that the E53’s 50-to-70 passing time has lengthened by over a second. That’s because the engine is off in Comfort mode when nailing the throttle at 50 mph, and there’s a delay before it wakes up. Selecting a more aggressive vehicle mode that forces the engine on will improve this stat.
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2025 mercedes amg e53view exterior photos
Marc Urbano|Car and Driver
The underlying E-class is already dynamically solid, one of the reasons we voted it on to our 2025 10Best Cars list, and the E53 builds on that excellent foundation. It’s balanced and predictable pushing toward the handling limit, thanks to both proper chassis balance and communicative steering. Our biggest complaint is brake-pedal response, which blends regenerative braking before calling on the optional upsized rotors (carbon-ceramic in front) that are part of the $3150 AMG Dynamic Plus package, which also includes an electronically controlled limited-slip differential and active engine mounts. Although the braking performance is excellent, we were never quite sure what left-pedal response we were going to get with light inputs, as the brakes’ behavior seemingly changes depending on drive mode and other real-time happenings.
LOWS: Flinty ride with a lot of tire noise, nonlinear brake pedal, way heavier than before.
Ride quality and interior noise are areas where the E53 takes an unfortunate step back from the luxuriously smooth and quiet E350 and E450. Impacts are sharp, and there’s quite a bit of tire slap, particularly with the high tire pressures specified on the door-jamb placard (44 psi front, 51 psi rear). Lowering them by 15 psi to the low-load setting made the ride far more tolerable. The tire noise over our not perfectly smooth test surface is probably why our sound-level reading wasn’t better than 72 decibels, way louder than the 67 we recorded in the E450. If the roads aren’t pristine where you live, consider the standard 20-inch wheels rather than the optional 21s.
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2025 mercedes amg e53view interior Photos
Marc Urbano|Car and Driver
Then there’s efficiency, something this plug-in hybrid should do better. We averaged a reasonable 24 MPGe overall and got 29 mpg in our 75-mph highway test loop, which beats its EPA highway figure by three mpg (although the previous E53 did even better at 32 mpg). That’s after the 21-kWh battery pack is depleted, which takes 44 miles at 75 mph. As with other Mercedes plug-ins, the E53 handily beats its EPA electric range figure in our highway test.
The E53 also has sufficient electric-only thrust in stop-and-go traffic, which prevents us from having to constantly dip into combustion power to keep the pace. We found the E53 to use only second through sixth gears during electric operation, and the shifting is much smoother than in some PHEVs that, like the E53, have a motor upstream of the transmission. Although we appreciate the E53’s impressive electric range, we don’t quite understand the included DC charging capability, which is rare on PHEVs. We measured 23 minutes to charge the battery from empty to a 90 percent state of charge, which would gain only about 40 miles of EV range. Unless you’re already planning to stop for a separate reason, we don’t think this is a wise use of anyone’s time.
2025 mercedes amg e53view interior Photos
Marc Urbano|Car and Driver
The E53 starts at $89,150, some $17,150 more than the next-step-down E450 model, which gets a less powerful version of this turbocharged inline-six. Then again, Mercedes is not afraid of a lengthy options list, and the last E450 we tested rang in higher than this E53’s starting point. There’s still lots of room to climb on the E53, as our car had $20,650 in options, including multiple performance add-ons—the aforementioned 21-inch wheels and tires, brake upgrade, and limited-slip diff. Even the AMG-branded fuel cap costs $110 extra. As with the regular E-class, we’d skip the upgraded infotainment and its selfie-camera frivolity.
