Mercedes-Benz EQB EV review: part hi-tech, but weirdly old-school

Although perhaps not the most stylish Mercedes-Benz available on the market, the all-electric EQB makes up for it with functionality for any situation.

The Mercedes-Benz EQB is packed with practicality.

There’s a reason why, should you accidentally tune into the Met Gala or any other fashion-focused red carpet event, you’re more likely to see a dress made of meat, or, more recently, one consisting entirely of a single strategically placed feather, than you are a comfortable pair of cargo shorts or a sensible flap cap.

And that’s because practicality really has no place in the whimsical world of high-fashion, a fantastical realm where people receive hearty applause for turning up to an event dressed in what most restaurants would consider a menu.

The same is true of cars, of course. No teenager has ever had a dog-eared poster of a three-row SUV, or worse, a bulging people-mover, on their wall, sandwiched between pictures of the Lamborghini Countach and the Ferrari 250 GTO.

The Mercedes-Benz EQB

The point I’m making here, I guess, is that the Mercedes-Benz EQB — the storied brands’ new all electric SUV — is very, very practical.

Billed as a compact, three-row SUV (though ours only had five seats, and a much bigger boot as a result), the brand has been forced to stuff a whole lot of practicality into a not-so-large space, and the visuals reflect that. It’s short but tall, but it also looks a little bland, and a little top heavy, given what we’ve come to expect from Mercedes, which usually churns out sleek, stylish and sporty designs, no matter the model.

The back row of the EQB

It’s a little confusing in the commendably spacious cabin, too. The EQB is part hi-tech — with its digital driver display replacing the dials in front of the steering wheel, its 10.25-inch central touchscreen, and an inflator in the driver’s seat so you can get your lumbar support just right — but also weirdly old-school in places.

Like the manual wheels beside your seat you need to turn to adjust your sitting height. That’s odd, in a $106,700 premium SUV.

Still, there are enough party tricks to wow the neighbours here. The ambient interior lighting comes in more colours than a packet of Skittles, and I never get bored of asking the AI-powered on-board assistant to do things for me. And trust me, issuing commands like “Hey Mercedes, open the sunroof. Now change the interior lights to blue. Oh, and my passenger is cold, give them a little more heat” never fails to impress people who haven’t seen it before.

The high tech interior of the EQB

Also impressive is the power on offer. This is the big daddy in the EQB range — there’s also a two-wheel-drive 250 variant — and this one gets dual motors delivering 215kW and 520Nm of instantaneous torque, the latter being more than enough to surprise sportier-looking cars at the traffic lights.

You’ll find 100km/h in around 6.2 seconds, which isn’t lightning quick by EV standards, but the fact that so much torque is available the moment you touch the accelerator ensures the EQB feels plenty perky enough getting up to 70km/h, which is the part that really matters in the city and its surrounds.

Below you is a decent-sized 66.5kWh battery pack, which translates to a 360km driving range — more than enough for most people’s working week, but a little underdone in a world of the 400km-plus between charges offered by some EVs.

The EQB has a driving range of 360km and can charge on Fast Charger 10-80 per cent in just 32 minutes

You can help boost that range a bit by deploying the adjustable regenerative braking (which feeds energy back to the battery), but I’d warn you off using the strongest settings, which reverses forward momentum so aggressively it feels less like you’re slowing down and more like you’re being dragged backwards through time.

It’s a very competent, mostly very comfortable EV drive experience which, while not setting new benchmarks anywhere, shrinks the gap between ICE and electric (the EQB is very heavily based on the petrol-powered GLB SUV) to something so small you could just as easily not notice what is — or isn’t — under the bonnet.

Plenty of headroom

And, like its fuel-burning sibling, practicality is the real perk here. While the smaller 250 model can be had with seven seats, this 350 is strictly a five-seat affair, and so open the boot and you’re met with a space that is plenty big enough to meet almost all cargo-carting needs.

That high roofline means plenty of cabin space, too. I’m no giant, but I had heaps of head and legroom, and I suspect you‘d have to be on delivery duties with the Sydney Kings before you heard any complaints from back seat riders.

So, super stylish the EQB ain‘t — at least, not compared with some models in the Mercedes family -but this comfy pair of cargo shorts might just be the practicality-packed answer you’re looking for.