Costs & verdict
Everyday costs, plus how reliable and safe it is
Compared with similar four-wheel-drive electric SUVs the Mercedes EQB is quite reasonably priced. The 350 4Matic EQB costs a little more than the mid-range Volvo XC40 Recharge Plus and Tesla Model Y Long Range, and a bit less than the Audi Q4 e-tron S-Line.
If you don’t mind doing without four-wheel drive and couldn’t care less about a premium badge, the Kia EV6 is available for far less and has the benefit of much faster charging and a greater EV range.
AMG Line Premium Plus adds the adaptive suspension, which is a big step up from the entry-level trim, but not so significantly big from mid-spec AMG Line Premium.
All EQBs come with automatic emergency braking (AEB), traffic-sign recognition and lane-keeping assistance. The optional Driving Assistance packages adds blind-spot monitoring and adaptive cruise control.
As with the closely related Mercedes GLB, the EQB was given the full five stars for safety by Euro NCAP after crash testing. It scored higher marks for child and pedestrian protection than the XC40. The Q4 e-tron also scored five stars, but it was tested under a newer and tougher regime, making a proper comparison impossible.
In terms of reliability, Mercedes finished in a rather poor joint 23rd out of 32 brands included in the 2022 What Car? Reliability Survey – behind Audi (21st)and Volvo (17th).
Charging up the EQB takes around 34 hours from a domestic three-pin plug, so you’re better off installing a dedicated wall box if you can, to cut that down to 11 hours. Rapid charging from a 150kWh charger can top up the battery from 10-80% in 30 minutes, but a far more common 50kWh charger will take just over an hour.
Every Mercedes has a standard three-year warranty with unlimited mileage. The EQB also gets an eight-year/100,000-mile policy for the battery pack.
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