Most people ring in the New Year at a party. I flew to New York City to pick up a Mercedes-AMG EQE 53 and drive it 1,100 miles home to Birmingham. Here's what the I-95 corridor looks like from the seat of a 617-horsepower electric sedan.
There's a version of this story where I find the right AMG EQE 53 at a dealership in Birmingham or Atlanta. That version doesn't exist. The spec I wanted — the right color, the right options, priced right — was sitting at a Mercedes dealership in New York City. So I booked a flight north for New Year's Eve, signed the papers, and pointed the car south toward Alabama.
This is how you end up driving a brand-new $110K Mercedes through the Holland Tunnel on December 31st with 11 miles on the odometer, a half-charged battery, and about 1,100 miles between you and your driveway. For an EV road tripper, it's also one of the better routes in the country to do it on — the I-95 corridor down through DC and the I-85 south through the Carolinas and Georgia is among the most charging-dense EV corridors in the United States.
New York City south on I-95 through New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and into the DC area for an overnight stop — roughly 230 miles on Day 1. Day 2: DC south on I-95 through Richmond and into North Carolina, then southwest on I-85 through Charlotte, Spartanburg, Atlanta, and the final push home to Birmingham — just under 900 miles to finish.
Getting out of New York City on New Year's Eve is its own event. The Holland Tunnel backed up, surface streets clogged, and the AMG EQE 53 sat in stop-and-go traffic doing what all EVs do best in gridlock — regenerating energy while everyone else burned fuel. By the time we cleared Newark and found open road on the Turnpike, the car had barely touched its range estimate. Cold Northeast air actually works in an EV's favor here: less thermal stress on the battery, better efficiency than a July afternoon in Alabama.
The AMG's Sport+ mode was firmly off for this leg. No point burning electrons in NYC traffic. Comfort mode, one-pedal driving, letting the regen do its work. The Burmester sound system was doing significantly more work.
First charging stop in Delaware — tax-free gas station country turned EV stop country. A mix of Electrify America and EVgo hardware is well represented along this stretch of I-95, and the AMG EQE 53's CCS port connected without drama. Speeds on EA hit the expected range for this hardware. Not breathtaking, but enough to top up while grabbing coffee and stretch legs after the tunnel chaos.
The Maryland and DC stretch of I-95 is one of the most charging-dense segments in the country. Tesla Superchargers, EA, EVgo — options every 20–30 miles. We didn't need to stop again before the hotel, arriving with comfortable range to spare. The hotel had Level 2 charging in the garage — a small overnight surcharge but worth every dollar to start Day 2 with a full battery rather than hunting for a fast charger before coffee.
New Year's Eve in DC. The city was alive. The AMG sat quietly in the hotel garage pulling electrons at 11 kW while the city counted down. By morning: 100% state of charge, 270 miles of indicated range. The car had other ideas about the EPA's 241-mile estimate.
New Year's Day on I-95 south of DC is as close to empty as that highway gets. Light traffic, clear skies, and 270 miles of range on a full charge. The AMG EQE 53 in its element — long open interstate, Sport mode, the air suspension settled and composed at 75 mph. The synthesized AMG exhaust note through the Burmester speakers on a cold January morning. Not a bad way to start a year.
Virginia's I-95 corridor has improved dramatically for EV charging over the past two years. Tesla Supercharger locations at Richmond and several points south, plus EA at major interchanges. We pushed through to Richmond before stopping — and this is where the range surprise really registered. After 110 miles of mixed DC suburban and open Virginia interstate, the indicated range still showed more than we expected. The EPA's 241-mile estimate was looking conservative.
This is where the Tesla Supercharger adapter earned its keep. A Supercharger stop just south of the Virginia/North Carolina state line — pull in, plug in via the CCS-to-NACS adapter, session initiated within seconds. No app fumbling, no failed handshakes, no hunting for a working stall. Just fast, reliable charging at the network that has spent a decade getting this experience right.
The I-85 junction in North Carolina is where the route transitions from I-95's dense urban corridor to the more spaced-out charging geography of the Deep South approach. Still workable — Charlotte is a well-served charging city — but the rhythm shifts. You start thinking a leg or two ahead rather than relying on chargers every 30 miles.
Charlotte through Spartanburg and Greenville, across the Georgia state line, into Atlanta. This is the longest stretch of the trip in terms of charging planning — enough EA and Supercharger options to stay comfortable, but you're covering ground fast enough that you want to be deliberate. A Blink stop in upstate South Carolina filled the gap between Charlotte and Atlanta without drama, though the Blink hardware delivered noticeably slower speeds than the Supercharger session. Functional, not impressive.
Atlanta's I-85 interchange is a charging hub — multiple networks within a few miles of the interstate. A quick top-up here before the final push to Birmingham. The city was New Year's Day quiet, the Perimeter barely recognizable without its usual gridlock. Got in, charged, got out in under 30 minutes.
The final leg. Atlanta to Birmingham on I-20 West — 150 miles of Alabama interstate that felt short after the previous 950. Left Atlanta with enough charge to make Birmingham without stopping, though the Greenville, AL Flo ULTRA station was bookmarked as insurance if needed. Didn't need it. Pulled into the driveway with range to spare, just under 1,100 miles from the Holland Tunnel, one full calendar year newer than when the trip started.
The odometer read somewhere north of 1,100 miles. The AMG had never seen a service center. And somewhere between Richmond and Charlotte, it became clear that the EPA's 241-mile estimate was leaving something on the table — our real-world average across the full trip, accounting for cold Northeast temperatures and hot Southern January driving alike, came out closer to 270 miles per charge. Better than advertised.
| Network | Used Where | Speed | Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla Supercharger (adapter) | VA/NC border | ~170 kW | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Best of trip — fast, reliable, seamless |
| Electrify America | Delaware, Atlanta | ~150 kW | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Solid — both sessions clean, no failures |
| Hotel Level 2 | Washington DC | 11 kW overnight | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Perfect — full charge, zero stress on Day 2 |
| Blink | Upstate South Carolina | ~75 kW | ⭐⭐⭐ Functional, slower than expected for the hardware |
The adapter is essential. The CCS-to-NACS adapter for the AMG EQE 53 should be in the car before any long-distance Southern trip. Tesla's Supercharger network is the most reliable fast-charging option along I-95 and I-85, and being locked out of it without an adapter on a 1,100-mile drive would add real anxiety to the planning. Carry it. Use it.
The hotel L2 strategy won the trip. Starting Day 2 at 100% from a hotel overnight charge changed the entire calculus of the southern leg. Rather than hunting for a DC fast charger before leaving DC, we left with a full battery and 270 miles of indicated range. For any EV road trip with an overnight stop, finding accommodation with L2 charging — even at a slight premium — is one of the highest-value decisions you can make.
Blink is the weak link on I-85. Not broken, but slower than its hardware should deliver. On a corridor where you have Supercharger and EA alternatives, Blink is the fallback rather than the destination. Worth having the app, worth using in a pinch, not worth routing around the better options to reach.
You learn more about a vehicle in 1,100 continuous miles than in any amount of back-road testing. The AMG EQE 53 revealed itself as a genuinely capable long-distance machine in a way that surprised me. The range beat the EPA estimate by a meaningful margin. The DC fast charging, while not class-leading in peak speed, was utterly reliable across four different networks. The air suspension made the miles disappear in a way that only a well-tuned German luxury car can manage.
The MBUX frustrations are real — there were moments navigating charging menus on the fly where simpler software would have been welcome. And the knowledge that a Porsche Taycan owner was pulling 270 kW at that same Supercharger stop while the AMG topped out at 170 kW is a hard thing to unknow. The charging speed gap is real and it matters on a drive like this.
But the car arrived in Birmingham with its composure entirely intact. Zero drama, zero failures, one dead-simple hotel L2 charge, and a range number that exceeded expectations. For a Southern EV driver who just flew to New York to buy a car and needed it to prove itself immediately — it did. That counts for something.
Happy New Year indeed.