Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate (W213) Debuts; AMG E 43 Leads the Way with 401hp

The latest-generation W213 Mercedes-Benz E-Class receives its customary estate derivative to complement the sedan variant that debuted globally earlier this year at the Detroit Auto Show.

Like its forebears, the all-new W213 E-Class Estate is engineered to offer highly spacious accommodations. Despite sporting a sleeker profile than its predecessor due to a more aggressively-tapered roofline, the E-Class Estate is still able to provide 670 litres of cargo room in its default five-seater configuration.

For additional cargo space, the rear backrests can either be adjusted 10 degrees steeper to free up a further 30 litres behind, or folded away altogether in a 40:20:40 split to provide a 1,820 litres of usable volume. With the narrowest point between the wheelarches measuring 1.1 metres apart, Mercedes-Benz claims that the E-Class Estate’s cargo hold is big enough to fully accommodate a Euro cargo pallet on board.

Ensuring the vast cargo hold is able to commensurately carry heavy loads, Mercedes-Benz fits self-levelling rear air suspension as standard with all variants of the E-Class Estate. The system is able to keep the vehicle perfectly horizontal even when loaded with a payload of up to 745kg. Further down the road, Mercedes will additionally offer the Estate with a children-only third-row folding bench seat as an option.

Forward half of the cabin is carried over from the sedan model, which can be specified with two optional 12.3-inch hi-res displays that merge under a shared glass cover to form a widescreen cockpit. Information displayed is fully configurable by the driver. Touch sensitive controls on the steering wheel allow the instrument cluster and multimedia system to be controlled at the swipe of a finger. Further controls are provided in the form of a touchpad with controller in the centre console, which can also recognise handwriting, plus Linguatronic voice control.

Externally, the E-Class Estate comes with the same frontal fascia as its saloon counterpart, with a choice from either the classic star-on-bonnet Mercedes grille for standard and Exclusive trims, or the sportier central star grille in the Avantgarde and AMG Line trims. At the rear, however, Mercedes departs from what it practiced with the predecessor by penning an appearance that gives the Estate a more distinctive identity from its sedan brethren; the rear light clusters are, in fact, more reminiscent of the C- and S-Class coupes in their narrow-slit profile.

For its European launch, Mercedes will offer the E-Class Estate with a similar mix of petrol and diesel engines as seen in the E-Class sedan, all engines mated with Stuttgart’s latest in-house 9-speed automatic transmission. Diesel power is supplied by the all-new 2.0-litre OM654 four-cylinder engine in 150hp and 194hp configurations powering the E 200 d and E 220 d respectively; above it, a 3.0-litre V6 supplies 258hp and 620Nm for the E 350 d.

Petrol engines, on the other hand, consist of the familiar 2.0-litre M274 four-cylinder producing 184hp and 211hp for the E 200 and E 250 respectively. We expect to see these two configurations for the Malaysian market when the E-Class sedan launches here later this week. Higher range petrol models come in the form of the E 400 and AMG E 43 variants, both powered by V6 engines with 4Matic all-wheel drive as standard.

The full range of engines for the E-Class Estate are summarized below:

Mercedes-Benz Malaysia has traditionally not given the E-Class Estate too much attention in our market. The W212 E-Class Estate was officially offered in our market as a CBU in E 250 guise, but sold only in limited numbers. It remains to be seen if the company’s current model offensive will include the E-Class Estate in its upcoming product line-up.

The all-new Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan will launch in Malaysia later this week. So stay tuned for more information on that.