With over a dozen adjustments and massage, of course the front seats are impeccable, and rear seats are as well, with more limited adjustments but also heating, cooling and massage like the front, plus lounge-worthy legroom and headroom for VIPs. While manufacturers are fixated on promoting the technology and self-driving capabilities, to me it is the comfort and pampering (like power trunk closing) that are the hallmark of this car.

But if you’re interested in the technology, the S-Class pretty much has it all. Intelligent Drive is Mercedes-speak for automated driving assistance systems, of which there are many: automatic emergency braking, blind spot warning, lane-keep assist, active parking assist, attention assist (which warns you if it detects you getting tired), and the pinnacle of the breed, adaptive cruise control with steering assistance, which is as smooth as they come in the S-Class. It keeps you locked in your lane and following at a safe distance behind the car ahead within the flow of traffic on the highway. It takes a large measure of the stress out of a busy highway commute, and although you must still have hands on the wheel and eyes on the road, the car itself can handle all the details to get you to your exit.

Of course, the S 550e is equipped with another entirely different technology as well, and that is the hybrid powertrain. The gasoline engine in use is Mercedes’ familiar twin-turbocharged 3.0L V6, starting with 329 hp and 354 lb-ft. In addition to the biturbo 3.0L V6, this S-Class packs a 114 hp, 251 lb-ft electric motor, powered by an 8.7 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. Electric range is up to 33 km, but even with our best effort to drive efficiently, we only managed to get 25 km on our commute to the office and home. Official fuel ratings offer an optimistic rating of 11.1 L/100 km in city driving, 8.1 on the highway, and 9.7 combined, but this can sway drastically depending on your access to charging. The 8.7 kWh battery pack can charge in as little as four hours on a 24V charging station, and overnight (8–10 hours) should do it on household 120V, so if you have charging at the office and a short commute, you can spend much of the week driving on electricity.

The hybrid system also has some tricks up its sleeve, working in tandem with the car’s radar and route guidance to optimize efficiency. Just as all the sports cars have their Sport and Sport+ modes, the S 550 e offers a range of modes to optimize efficiency through its driving characteristics. Hybrid mode is your basic auto mode that allows the vehicle to dictate when to use full electric, when to blend in the gas engine, and when to charge the battery on the go. E-Mode locks the car in fully electric driving mode until the battery is exhausted (or until you exceed 140 km/h, at which point the gas engine will kick in to assist). E-Save uses the gas engine exclusively in order to save the battery charge for later use, should you wish to conserve your electric driving for city use, where it is more effective compared to high-speed highway cruising. A Charge mode is also available, which attempts to restore and replenish the charge, and is most useful when descending fairly significant distances, such as when cruising from Whistler down to Vancouver for example.

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