SIGNIFICANCE AND COMFORT, SILENTLY DELIVERED
ANOTHER electric SUV. Getting quite popular now, aren’t they? Though this one carries special significance. It’s the first model in an ambitious plan by Mercedes-benz to launch 10 new EVS by the end of 2022 (three will be from Smart), at a cost of 10 billion euros. That’s billion, with a B.
By that measure, this SUV promises to be the most significant new MercedesBenz of the year. Hell, maybe even the next decade.
Dubbed EQC, this is our first chance to see what the world’s oldest car maker has in store for us as it squares up to take on Tesla and the growing hoard of similarly timed EV rivals from Jaguar, Audi and BMW.
First impressions? It’s all very familiar. Parked in front of our hotel in Oslo, Norway, its sleek proportions are hauntingly similar to Merc’s existing mid-size SUV, the GLC. Only the blacked-out grille and the aero wheel design hint at the gravitas at play here.
This is quite intentional. Unlike the radically styled Jaguar I-pace and Tesla Model X, the EQC isn’t a new-from-theground-up design. It shares much of its core DNA with the GLC, including its suspension hard points and 2873mm wheelbase. The two are even made in the same factory, on the same line, which gives Merc the freedom to scale EQC production up or down depending on demand. Clever, right?
Mercedes Australia is hinting the EQC will cost around $140,000 when it arrives here in October this year. That’s about $20K more than an equivalent I-pace or Model X, though the Benz is more powerful than both. Combining an 80kwh battery with dual electric motors (one for each axle) results in outputs of 300kw and 760Nm.
Prod the throttle and the rate of acceleration is ferocious. In fact, despite a portly 2495kg kerb weight, the EQC is so sharp off the mark that it can nip into gaps in traffic that no conventionally powered SUV, with its comparatively glacial throttle response and time-sapping gearbox, could manage. Officially Benz claims the EQC will hit 0-100km/h in 5.1sec, though it feels faster than that. This is real pushyou-into-your-seat kind of stuff.
It’s no sports car, however. Unusually, suspension is a combination of conventional coil springs up front and air suspension out back (there are no adaptive dampers) and the set-up is biased towards comfort. I can’t recall having driven a softer Mercedes this side of an S-class, so supple is the ride quality, even on standard 20-inch wheels. Aussie EQCS will be fitted with the optional AMG Line styling pack as standard, and customers can choose larger (and handsome) multi-spoke 21-inch hoops, but even here, the ride is relaxed and well controlled.
The trade-off to this waftiness is that the EQC never feels as agile as a Jaguar I-pace, which is also some 362kg lighter. The Benz is more of a polished cruiser, which is a character trait only enhanced by steering that’s mute and remote.
Perhaps the most engaging thing about the steering is found on the wheel itself. Traditional paddle shifters remain, but with no gears to cycle through, their task is to moderate regenerative braking. There are five settings to play with: D auto, D+ (for coasting), D low, D medium (about 30-35 percent regen) and D high (75-80 percent regen for one-pedal driving). It’s intuitive to use, with noticeable step-changes between each of the settings.
Range-wise, the EQC is officially in the same ballpark as its rivals with a WLTP claim of 374-417km. Our drive route saw consumption hover around 24kwh/100km, suggesting a realworld range of around 340km. Charge times vary between 40 minutes for an 85 percent fill (from 10 percent remaining) on a 100kw DC charger, to 11 hours on a home wall box. And unlike our experience with the I-pace, the EQC’S predictive range software is reassuringly accurate, seeing us arrive at our destination with the prescribed amount of charge remaining.
There are five drive modes to choose from, including a new addition dubbed ‘Max Range’, which deploys a host of measures to eke out additional kms. The most obvious change is felt through the throttle pedal, where haptic feedback is used to limit your speed.
In fact, most of the EQC’S support systems are genuinely worthwhile. Owners can use an app to precondition their car, check charging information, and set their destination in the sat-nav.
If the EQC’S exterior styling is slightly derivative, things are more radical inside thanks to an all-new dash design, square air vents with rose gold detailing, and the inclusion of Merc’s twin 12.3-inch screen digital display. It’s a luxurious place to sit and, as you’d expect, it’s eerily quiet. A two-layer system of rubber bushings is used to isolate the twin electric motors from the subframe and then the subframe to the vehicle, to improve NVH. And the wheelarches are lined with an acoustic shroud that cuts rolling noise by 7db.
Rear-seat packaging is superior to a Jaguar I-pace, which is interesting given the Jag’s bespoke platform. And it’s here that we get to something of an EQC compromise. Sharing a platform with GLC means Mercedes hasn’t been able to fully exploit an EV’S packaging freedoms. There’s no frunk, for example, and the cabin space, while good, is no better than a regular GLC. In fact, the 500L boot is marginally smaller.
But there’s no escaping that the EQC is a remarkably convincing first salvo for Benz’s burgeoning EQ brand. This isn’t an outlandish SUV that requires vast degrees of readjustment, but one that’s polished, familiar, and likely to hit the sweet spot for Mercedes fans looking to embrace zero emissions.