BMW i7

Put it next to the S-Class and what you are trading is a style of refinement, not a quantity of it. The Mercedes shields you from an engine that remains under the bonnet. Having no engine to shield you from, the BMW delivers a cleaner sort of quiet, though it also lets tyre roar on coarse northern motorway surfaces come through a shade more clearly. In the abstract, neither wins. Give us a city-shaped day and the i7 takes it comfortably. Give us four hundred motorway miles and we would still send you to the Mercedes.

Blame battery packaging for the fact that capacity stops at two large cases and two cabin bags instead of going further. Squarely shaped, the load area takes hard cases neatly enough, but nothing cavernous lies hidden beneath the floor. Three people flying long-haul with full suitcases should ask for a different vehicle. Two passengers with a week's luggage, or a business pair carrying cabin bags and briefcases, will never think about it.

What most people overlook is what happens once you pass two hours. Electric range planning stops being an afterthought on a long run and becomes part of the itinerary proper, so we build in a stop that lands alongside something you were doing anyway. Getting in and out asks nothing unusual. Sill height matches a conventional saloon, the rear doors swing wide, and where automatic doors are specified your chauffeur opens and closes them without ever reaching across you.