Practical, but expensive

The EQB, further developed from the GLB and Mercedes-Benz’s answer to the foot-shaped shoe, breaks with most things associated with shapely elegance from Mercedes-Benz. But the owners will also never be blamed for behaving rowdy in traffic.

In return, the EQB provides features that make the car thoroughly functional with a large boot, it is good to sit in, good to drive with a good overview of the traffic picture and with room for seven, if you choose the seven-seater. But then the option to pull the trailer away is also selected. Even after the mid-life upgrade, the choice consists of either a trailer or seven seats.

Actually, this is a bit incomprehensible. Because in the GLB, which the electrification zeal killed in Norway, it was never a matter of either or, but both – i.e. full seat package and trailer weight from 1800 to 2000 kg.

An unmet need

I still lack a reasonable explanation as to why there must be some connection between the number of seats and trailer capacity in the most family-friendly and Hungarian-built passenger car from the Stuttgart group. Those who need to transport a lot of people with them tend to live such an active life that they would like to tow something behind the car, not just a trailer, but for example a boat or horse trailer.

I suppose that in the used market, being able to pull something behind the car counts for more than the fact that it can load half a football team. In addition, the third row of seats occupies 30 liters of luggage space when the car is configured as a five-seater and 90 liters as a two-seater. The EQB trailer weight of the 5-seater is stated at 750 kg for the front-wheel drive variant and 1,700 kg for the four-wheel drive – and best of all: the trailer coupling is included.

Smartest Mercedes-Benz

Now that I’ve finished sulking about the third row of seats, I’ll be the first to admit that the EQB, as a mix of SUV and utility vehicle, is smarter than all other small Mercedes. You get straight into the car, you don’t have to worry about low headroom or limited legroom in the back seat unless someone is sitting in the third row of seats, and for adults these emergency seats really only work as an alternative to queuing for taxis on New Year’s Eve.

Four-wheel drive, on the other hand, is no problem. Only the entry-level model only pulls on the front wheels and the variant makes up only five percent of the nearly 2,300 EQBs sold in Norway.

Not much new

What’s so new in the upgrade? The new star grill is nice and the information technology has been upgraded in content and with new screens, in addition to the fact that the steering wheel and steering wheel functions are now the same as on the larger models. Also gone is the control pad and the buttons around it on the center console, but at least MB chose to keep the center console’s audio volume wheel.

Fortunately, the air conditioning’s most important functions are still controlled via a separate panel below the three large and not particularly elegant air nozzles below the info/nav screen. And fortunately, the speed limit warning can also be easily switched off with a slight tap on the icon on the first screen.

Decent menus

The retardation is set via levers on the back of the steering wheel, but even if the speed is braked a lot, the highest step does not fully work as a single pedal function.

In general, it is relatively easy to find your way through the menus, but I cannot repeat often enough how distracting it is to have to go into an on-screen menu to change functions that could previously be done with the press of a button without taking your eyes off the road – and even about two touch surfaces on the steering wheel operate each of the integrated screens and many settings can therefore be made via the steering wheel.

Audio volume and the cruise control setup are controlled with two other and highly sensitive steering wheel touch surfaces. Especially the one for the cruise control could have benefited from a finer mesh.

The test car has a heated steering wheel in the standard package.

(case continues)

Tires that make noise

Different sound universes for individual acoustic setups are known from the larger all-electric models, says a cover letter from MB. But that requires ticking off the pig Burmester plant. Spare me artificial driving noise in a car like the EQB, where the expected silence has already been lost by the fact that the gorgeous 20-inch mounted Pirelli P Zero in the size 235/45 R 20 are clearly noisier than the standard 18-inch wheels with a 60 profile on the license plate.

It’s nice to have good legroom in the back seat and it’s nice that the two-part seat cushion can be lengthwise adjusted by 14 cm, which means 90 liters more luggage space with the seat in the forward position. The 40/20/40 split rear seatback makes it possible to have long items including several pairs of skis inside the car. The second row of seats is too narrow for three adults to sit there.

The EQB does not have a trunk, and in the seven-seater there was also no space for the luggage cover under the floor.

No sports car

228 hp in no way makes the EQB 300 4Matic a sports car. But it is fast and fun to drive enough to cover the needs it is set to cover. The steering assistance, which is supposed to be improved from the first edition, is by no means perceived to be so, but fortunately it is easily switched off.

The battery pack of net 66.5 kWt has not changed, but optimization of the driving programs should have contributed to increased range. It must be of academic importance, because BilAutofil’s consumption measurement ended up at 18.2 kWh/100 km, i.e. corresponding to the stated consumption. A similar test a year ago, but with the 64 hp stronger engine EQB 350 ended with 18.1 kWh/100 km in consumption.

Covers 400 km

The test car’s range is stated to be 400 km. It seems to hold true in summer temperatures and should last for most people. Far more important than range is how quickly a new 100 km is charged. It turned out to take 11 minutes, not least because the stated charging speed of a maximum of 100 kW was exceeded several times with a maximum speed in the test of 119.6 kW and with a constant speed just below 100 kW. Even when the filling level exceeded 80 percent, the speed was above 80 kW.

Then a plus is noted in the book for the reversing camera hidden under the Mercedes star on the tailgate so that it is kept clean when not in use.

EQB in 300 4Matic variant is priced from just under NOK 550,000. But it is before the options, which in this case raise the price by just over NOK 200,000 to three quarters of a million. As a used car, it seems to be excessively optimistic even with a giant and a few hundred small stars in the plastic grill.

SUMMARY

Super practical multi-purpose SUV that is easy to fall in love with, but the price of attractive options makes it a hard sell.