The Mercedes-Benz GLE, GLE Coupé and the AMG 53 and 63 models are all getting updated.
The luxury SUV market is still an extremely lucrative one and just like clockwork, Mercedes-Benz has come up with a facelift model to serve this market for 2023. Their GLE range of products may not be the most popular here, but in the USA where it’s made, this is the sweet spot in terms of size and price for luxury vehicles. There’s no all-new model this year around, what we have is an extensive update of the GLE that first debuted in October 2018.
Instead of staggering the release of the different variants of the GLE, Mercedes-Benz has decided to show the entire updated GLE family in one go. This includes the standard GLE and GLE Coupé, as well as AMG 53 and AMG 63 S models.
The biggest change to the standard GLE and GLE Coupé is the new GLE 400e 4MATIC model, which is a new plug-in hybrid powertrain level. This combines a 2.0L turbocharged 4-cylinder petrol motor with 381hp and 650Nm of torque. This powertrain enables bouts of zero-emissions driving thanks to a 23.3 kWh battery. 0-100km/h is dispatched in about 6 seconds. All other GLE powertrains now feature a 48V mild hybrid system.
Design changes on the new GLE are pretty minor, mostly confined to the grille, bumper and light clusters. The new grille features cut-outs on the horizontal chrome band as well as the three-pointed star motif. The front and rear light cluster look unchanged but the graphics and internal layout of both have changed.
That seems to be the extent of the exterior design changes and the changes only get less dramatic on the inside. A new steering wheel brings capacity touch controls for both displays. There’s new chrome trim on the air vent and the ‘Piano Black Flowing Lines’ trim package available on the GLE for the first time on a non-Maybach model. On the GLE 580, an Off-Road Engineering Package is added, which includes 1.2″ of additional ground clearance and some underbody protection.
Other changes include displays for gradients, roll angles and steering angles while in off-road mode. There’s also a front-wheel view through the centre display.
AMG Models get similar design changes but no new powertrain changes. The GLE 53 models do get a larger turbocharger and some new programming. This increase the powertrain’s torque and drop its 0-100km/h time to under 5 seconds. There are some market-specific changes to equipment on AMG models.
