Mercedes-Benz EQB (2024 – ) Electric review

The fact Mercedes also makes the petrol and diesel-powered GLBs on which the EQB is based presents a stark demonstration of how much more expensive electric cars are to buy up front, the bottom-line price in equivalent trim nearly £13,000 more. As always with electric cars, though, the purchase or monthly finance cost is only part of the story, and if you can buy as a company car and, preferably, charge from home there are potentially huge savings to be had in things like tax and ‘fuel’. The option of a bigger battery and the extra range of the new EQB 250+ also means less reliance on the expensive public network for those with a home wallbox. Unfortunately for Mercedes the EQB also looks expensive in like-for-like comparisons with equivalent electric crossovers, though those extra two seats in the back remain a big selling point.

Like many premium brands the cost of repairs when things do go wrong reflects badly in Mercedes’ ranking on popular reliability tables. Generally, we’d say electric cars look a little more dependable than their internal combustion equivalents because there is less mechanically to go wrong but, against that, they rely on complicated tech so we’ll have to see how that plays out over time. The standard three-year/unlimited mileage warranty (eight years and 100,000 miles on the battery) is nothing special, especially when you consider the five or even seven years offered by brands like Hyundai and Kia.

Safety will be an important factor for the family buyers attracted to cars like the EQB, so it’s good news Mercedes includes a base level of all the assistance systems you could want. Three cheers for this including the genuinely useful stuff like a reversing camera and blind-spot warnings that many rivals hide in the options, or reserve for the higher trim levels. Also for the fact lane-keeping tweaks to the steering are rather less intrusive than they are in many rivals. You can pay more to increase the scope of the various systems – signified by them gaining an ‘Active’ prefix to their descriptions – but we’d be confident the standard package is enough.

We like the boxy shape of the EQB, and the fact it looks a bit more like a traditional SUV than a crossover. On the basis if that’s what you want you may as well embrace the look! It also means practical advantages over the related EQA, including much better forward visibility, which helps your confidence in high pressure situations like supermarket car parks or the school gate drop-off. It’s more spacious inside as well, the middle row sliding back and forth to balance legroom against boot space as required, while the third row of seats folds flat and out of the way when not needed. If the kids are bringing their mates along, or you’ve drawn the short straw on the after-school club taxi rota, they then extend with a quick tug of a fabric handle, though there’s nowhere to stash the parcel shelf, the remaining boot space is tiny and legroom in both rows is only really suitable for smaller kids. That’s fine, though, and the flexibility of extra seats when you need them is pretty much unique among electric cars of this size, and enough to seal the deal for many. Driven back-to-back with the EQA the EQB also rides a lot more comfortably, swallowing the bumps rather than thumping over them while the silence of the electric drive and premium quality all contribute to the calming sense of luxury.

There are rivals with bigger screens these days but the MBUX operating system powering Mercedes’ paired displays was already one of our favourites, and in this updated car it’s been made even slicker. We appreciate the fact it’s integrated into a stylish and luxurious looking dash surrounded by high-quality fittings, rather than perched on top of it like an out-of-place flatscreen TV as well. Mercedes has, thankfully, ditched the fiddly touchpad interface, though the touch-sensitive ‘switches’ on the steering wheel remain awkward to use. If you’re not shy about starting a conversation with the car with a cheery ‘Hey, Mercedes!’ you’ll apparently find the voice activation works better than before, but each to theirs on that. In better news the kids will love arguing over the 64 colour options for the ambient lighting, which is standard along with things like a power tailgate, heated front seats, a decent stereo and smartphone integration via CarPlay and Android Auto. A pity you don’t get wireless charging until you move further up the range but, other than that, even the entry-level trim looks well-equipped, which at least makes some sense of that burly asking price.

Where many electric rivals chase headline grabbing power outputs and acceleration stats Mercedes takes a more conservative approach to performance, which is absolutely fine for a family car like the EQB. In a welcome development the previous twin-motor 4MATIC all-wheel drive versions are now joined by a front-wheel drive EQB 250+, which has a bigger battery and can now do over 300 miles on a charge according to the official figures – a big step up from before. To help in that cause you can swap between an ‘intelligent’ regeneration setting that harvests energy back into the battery by slowing the car automatically for bends, gradients and junctions or manually adjust this from the paddles on the steering wheel. A neat setting in the infotainment also keeps tabs of how much range various systems like climate control may be swallowing up, so if you need to max it out you can switch them off as need dictates. Overall while you may not be blitzing any hot hatches away from the lights in your EQB the power is plenty for a car of this nature, and its smooth and silent delivery makes it a very relaxing place to rack up the miles.