Mercedes EQC 400 review: first all-electric passenger car is off the pace
This five-door hatchback costs a whopping $137,900 ... and while that is amazing, the vehicle is not.
According to recent figures, London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s war on pollution is so successful that otters are now frolicking on the banks of the Thames, small boys are playing tag in the streets and ospreys are nesting in Berkeley Square.
Yup. What they’re saying is that since April, when Khan made it even more expensive to bring diesel cars into the centre of the capital, people with enormous Porsches and Range Rovers have decided to leave them at home and hop to work instead. While not breathing out in case they upset Greta Thunberg.
None of this would be a problem if you bought a Mercedes EQC 400 4Matic AMG Line Premium Plus. While it may sound like some kind of VIP package on a cruise liner, it is in fact Mercedes’ first all-electric passenger car. And although it’s a five-door hatchback, the version I tested costs an enormous $137,900. I have never been so amazed by a price tag. It’s almost exactly twice what I would have guessed.
Unlike Jaguar’s I-Pace, this car was not designed to be electric from day one. Instead, it was adapted from an existing platform, which means it weighs exactly the same as Nottinghamshire. That’s probably why it can’t go as far on a charge as the Jag.
And that was my first problem. For a while, I used it for pottering around the farm. It has four-wheel drive, so I figured it would cope. But it was wet and the car had road tyres, so it didn’t really. And then I had to go to London. Now, I can’t charge an electric car at home in the Cotswolds because it blows all the fuses, and I can’t charge one in London because I live on the top floor of a tower block. So I’d have to make it there and back on one charge, which is doable, but only just. And as I didn’t want to spend the last 50km of the return leg panicking, I thought I’d better take my Range Rover instead.
There’s another issue. The EQC’s satnav has a facility that will direct you to the nearest charge point. But it didn’t know about the one at my local farm shop. Or at the Soho Farmhouse. As a car, then, the Mercedes is fairly useless. But as an electric car it’s not bad.
A few things puzzled me, though. Why does it have a radiator grille when it has no radiator? Why does it have flappy-paddle gearshifters when it has no gears? And why has the electric motor been made to look like an engine when it isn’t one? I should also ask why the range readout is so small that I needed spectacles to read it, because in an electric car this is pretty much all you need to know: how far have I got left?
It’s quick, though. Really quick. It’ll hit 100km/h in 5.1 seconds, with a top speed of 180km/h. And it feels planted too, probably because of that airliner weight (almost 2.5 tonnes). I liked driving it. And I liked being in it.
A lot of it is standard Mercedes, but the central command unit comes up with all sorts of graphics that, at first, make no sense. You may well have been driving for 30 years, but don’t for a minute think you could get into this car and just set off. Because if you do that, I guarantee that the first time you want to turn left, you’ll accidentally put it into neutral.
Imagine having a private pilot’s licence. You’re entirely familiar with many of Piper’s dentist-killers and could fly any of them in your sleep. Right. Now imagine you suddenly find yourself at the controls of an F-35 fighter jet and it’s time for some mid-air refuelling. You’re going to need to spend a little time with the instruction book, that’s for sure. It’s the same with this car.
Is it worth the price tag? Well, if your lifestyle could accommodate electric propulsion, then yes. As battery-powered cars go, it’s pretty good. But I don’t think it’s quite as good — and it definitely isn’t as good-looking — as Jaguar’s cleverer, purpose-built I-Pace.
Mercedes-Benz EQC 400
Engine: Two electric motors (combined) 300kW/760Nm
Transmission: Single-speed, all-wheel drive
Range: 434km
Price: From $137,900
★★★
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