Quick Spin
What Is It?
An all-wheel-drive Mercedes-Benz ML with an electrically assisted V-6 that generates V-8–like power but with better fuel economy. Combining a 275-hp, 3.5-liter V-6 with two electric motors in the two-mode hybrid transmission—which was co-developed with BMW and General Motors when Mercedes was married to Chrysler—the powertrain delivers a total output of 335 hp and 381 lb-ft of torque. A 288-volt nickel-metal hydride battery under the rear cargo floor provides the current for the motors, with the resulting bump in efficiency bringing fuel economy to 21 mpg city and 24 mpg highway, up from the all-wheel-drive ML350’s 15/20 rating and the 13/18 figure for the V-8–powered ML550. Want some road respect for your cleanliness? Forget it. Other than the bulged hood—which we kind of dig from a design standpoint—and the unique LED taillamps, there are few visual cues to point out this car’s hybridity.
How Does It Drive?
Fine, but it’s not much fun. Stomp on the ML450 hybrid’s go pedal, and once the computer summons the engine and electric motors to duty, you’re eventually provided with an impressive swell of thrust that feels not unlike a turbo-diesel’s. But it’s neither immediate nor sharp, even with the CVT in sport mode; although the transmission technically is an electronic CVT with four fixed ratios for better efficiency at both high and low speeds, it emulates an eight-speed automatic with manumatic shifting. The good news is that, other than the nifty hybrid-power display in the COMAND system, the experience is like that of any other ML—which is to say, pretty nice. The engine’s stop/start feature is subtle yet still detectable, and although you can creep around on electric power alone at speeds up to 34 mph—our favorite activity by far when it comes to driving hybrids—it doesn’t take much to strike up the gas engine.
How Does It Stack Up?
The list of competitors for the ML450 hybrid is pretty short, consisting mainly of the Lexus RX450h—rated at a more impressive 30 mpg city and 28 highway with all-wheel drive—and the larger and pricier Cadillac Escalade hybrid, which gets 21 in the city and 22 on the highway. But the most interesting alternative to the ML450 is the ML350 BlueTec turbo-diesel that, with its 18/24 ratings, trails the hybrid only slightly in the city while looking and feeling mostly the same from the driver’s seat. The diesel also is close in output to that of the ML450 with its surging 400 lb-ft of torque.
What’s the Cost?
The ML450 hybrid has been available since mid-November at a surprisingly affordable monthly lease price of $659 per month for 36 months or $549 per month for 60 months. Still getting its feet wet in the hybrid world, Mercedes will not offer the ML450 to customers for sale at this point. If it did, however, we expect it would cost more than the $42,535 RX450h ($44,125 with all-wheel drive) but less than the Escalade hybrid’s $74,375 starting point. Really want to buy—not lease—a fuel-efficient Benz like this? Go for the ML350 BlueTec, which starts at $50,575.
