Mercedes EQV review

Introduction

By the mid-2030s, electric aircraft could be transporting tourists and business folk in ultra-comfort without burning fossil fuels. But if you're happy to stay on the ground, you can already get a taste of electrified luxury transport – in the Mercedes EQV.

The EQV – based on the Mercedes V-Class – is an electric MPV that places comfort high on its list of priorities. It's available with up to eight seats, and many examples will spend their lives delivering VIPs to airports and grand prix circuits, or acting as transport for large (and wealthy) families looking to go green.

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Most of the EQV’s rivals are SUVs – including the Kia EV9 and Volvo EX90 – but if you’re looking for the kind of space afforded by the EQV’s boxy shape, rivals are limited to long-wheelbase version of the Volkswagen ID Buzz (with seven seats).

So, do the EQV’s talents stretch far enough to make it absolutely the first choice if you’re looking for a large electric MPV? Read on to find out...

What’s new?
- July 2020: specifications and pricing revealed for new EQV electric MPV
- March 2019: Mercedes releases details of ‘Concept EQV’, its first fully electric premium MPV

Overview

Few electric rivals can carry you and up to seven passengers with quite as much space to spare as the Mercedes EQV. However, given its high cost, it’s likely to appeal most to fleets and VIP shuttle services. If you do get one, we recommend going for Sport Premium trim.

Pros

• Spacious seating
• Well equipped
• Great infotainment system

Cons

• Mediocre range
• Unrefined
• Expensive to buy

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Performance & drive

What it's like to drive, and how quiet it is

The sole power option for the Mercedes EQV is a 201bhp electric motor (badged EQV 300). It drives the front wheels and delivers a 0-62mph sprint time of 12.1 seconds, which is slow for an electric vehicle.

Still, the EQV doesn’t feel sluggish on an open road, partly thanks to the electric motor’s immediate response to your accelerator inputs. It picks up speed quickly enough when the traffic lights go green, and while acceleration tails off somewhat once you get going, it's capable of stretching its legs to a top speed of 98mph.

The ride is not particularly cosseting, and models with the standard suspension feel a bit jittery and unsettled, bouncing along on undulating roads, much like a diesel V-Class. That’s likely to calm down when there are passengers or luggage on board, though.

Top-spec EQVs get air suspension, which deals with larger bumps and ruts well, but can leave you feeling like you’re floating a bit too often. Indeed, it never really settles down – and for our money, we’d stick with the standard set-up.

The EQV’s handling is not very inspiring. It’s fine for ferrying passengers around airports, but if you’re a private buyer looking to let your hair down on a country road after the school run, you'll find an electric SUV more enjoyable to drive.

Even changing the car into its Sport driving mode doesn’t make much discernible difference to either the accelerator response or steering, which is light in all situations and doesn’t offer much in the way of feeling. At least that steering makes the EQV easy to manoeuvre along tight city streets.

Plus, the EQV leans over a lot in the bends, so we’re certain your passengers will thank you for your restraint on faster roads.

Refinement isn’t particularly impressive either. Wind and road noise are not too bad, but over broken surfaces you'll hear a lot of sound from the suspension, which is particularly noticeable because of the lack of engine noise.

The brake pedal is extremely firm but is at least consistently weighted, so it doesn’t take too long to get used to how much pressure is required to stop smoothly. The EQV has regenerative braking, so when you lift off the accelerator, the car slows down.

You can use the paddles on the steering wheel to increase or decrease the regen effect, but unlike in some electric cars, it never gets strong enough to bring the EQV to a halt completely, meaning you can’t drive it using one pedal.

The EQV has a large 90kWh battery, but because it’s a big, heavy car, the official electric range of up to 213 miles is towards the lower end of the electric car market. And you’re unlikely to match that figure in real-world conditions.

It’s worth noting that cheaper electric seven-seaters can travel a lot further – the Kia EV9 has an official range of up to 349 miles.

Interior

The interior layout, fit and finish

The driver’s seat in the Mercedes EQV is set quite high and offers an excellent view of the road ahead. Large side windows and door mirrors mean you can easily see what’s coming up alongside you, but the view behind isn’t quite so clear, because the third row of seats hinders your vision through the rear screen.

Fortunately, all models come with parking sensors (front and rear) plus a reversing camera (and a 360-degree camera on the top trims). As an option, you can get a rear-view camera, which can display a camera feed of what’s behind you at the flick of a switch. That's handy if you have tall passengers' heads in the way.

The driver gets a folding armrest and the seat feels comfortable, although it doesn't provide much side support during cornering. You can make plenty of adjustments to the seat and the steering wheel, so it shouldn’t take long to find a comfy driving position.

Despite its Mercedes Vito commercial vehicle origins, the EQV has a dashboard that looks and feels much more limo than bread van. There's lots of leather and chrome, plus faux-leather across the dashboard, to make it look and feel pleasingly smart inside.

Much of that luxury feeling extends to the rear of the EQV, where ambient lighting in up to 64 colours adds a premium feel, but it's not hard to find rougher, scratchy plastics in the interior.

The infotainment system is top notch. Every model gets a 12.3in touchscreen alongside a same-sized digital driver's display. They run the latest version of Mercedes’ MBUX software.

It’s one of the best set-ups out there, offering lots of features and a variety of ways to control them – whether through voice, touch, steering-wheel controls or a dedicated mousepad-style controller on the centre console.

If we’re being picky, it would be nice to see the EQV’s plethora of steering-wheel controls slimmed down somewhat, because it’s easy to press the wrong section while you’re driving. For usability, the system is still behind rival systems with rotary controllers (which you get in some BMW car models), but it's comfortably easier to get along with than touchscreen-only set-ups.

As part of a mid-life facelift, the EQV’s system is now smarter, and can factor charging into your route planning – ensuring you’ll reach any destination you set out in the sat-nav. As well as showing you where public EV chargers are located, the system can tell you the speed they can charge at.

Passenger & boot space

How it copes with people and clutter

The Mercedes EQV’s large doors make it easy to get into the front seats. The rear seats are even easier to access thanks to the electric sliding doors, which are controlled with buttons as standard and are a real plus point when there’s not much room either side. It also helps you to feel like a real VIP.

While the Mercedes V-Class is available in two lengths, the EQV is only available in one – but it’s still a long vehicle. The battery is under the floor, so there’s no compromise on interior space compared with the conventional model.

The interior is very roomy, and the floor is flat, so it’s easy for passengers to move around inside.

While you can’t have your EQV in quite as many configurations as the regular V-Class, there’s still a plethora of seating options to choose from. As standard, the car comes with six individual seats arranged across three rows. They're comfortable, but not the most supportive.

As an option, you can replace the seats in the second and third rows with benches, allowing the EQV to transport up to eight passengers, which in turn allows for versatility depending on your needs.

The second and third rows of seats are on rails that run from front to rear, allowing you to position them to maximise leg room for either of the two rows or enlarge the boot space. Nobody should feel hemmed in, because there’s masses of head and leg room. Indeed, it’s difficult to think of another electric car that offers your passengers as much room to stretch out.

Even with eight seats fitted, the boot area is massive, but the rear-most seats don’t fold down to increase its size. The only option is to remove the third row altogether (and the seats are cumbersome things to lug about and store).

Even so, we don’t think your family’s holiday luggage will trouble the EQV’s boot. And while you’ll need to leave lots of space behind you to open the boot lid fully, a handy hatch allows you to reach into the boot area when that space isn’t available.

Buying & owning

Everyday costs, plus how reliable and safe it is

The Mercedes EQV is a vast car – and commands a vast amount of money to buy. It comfortably costs more than most luxurious seven-seat SUV rivals, as well as the Kia EV9 electric seven-seater.

That its purchase price is so high probably rules the EQV out for most private buyers, except those with big families, big bank balances and a taste for the finer things in life.

However, for corporate fleets, shuttle transfer services or VIP travel operators, it’s easy to imagine the EQV finding a home. Or, if you’re looking at running one as a company car, the EQV currently makes a lot of sense because it attracts a very low BIK tax rate.

Sport trim models come reasonably well equipped, with 17in alloys, adaptive cruise control, and 12.3in screens for the driver's display and infotainment.

We’d consider stepping up to Sport Premium to get smartphone mirroring, a 360-degree camera, a rear table tray and electric front seat adjustment. It also adds some exterior styling tweaks.

The jump from there to Sport Premium Plus is too steep to recommend, particularly as it’s only really the adaptive suspension and upgraded stereo system that you get for your extra money.

By modern electric car standards, the EQV can charge at a medium speed. It has an 11kW on-board charger, which should allow it to charge from 10-100% from an 11kW home EV charger in 10 hours.

The maximum charging speed of the EQV is 110kW, so from a fast charger of the kind you’d find at a motorway service station you can get a 20-80% charge in 40 minutes. It’s worth remembering that the Kia EV9, with its maximum charging speed of 210kW, can do the job a lot faster.

Mercedes doesn’t have the most consistent reliability record, as was highlighted in the 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey. The brand finished quite low down the table, in 22nd place out of 31 brands.

At least the EQV gets a three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty, which should offer reassurance. Plus, the battery is covered by an eight-year or 100,000-mile warranty.

The Mercedes V-Class – which the EQV is based on – scored the full five stars in Euro NCAP safety tests in 2014, but that rating has expired now, and the tests today are much tougher. Still, the model comes with driver fatigue monitoring and automatic emergency braking (AEB), as well as seatbelt pre-tensioning, a blind-spot warning and lane-keeping assistance.

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