Mercedes-Benz has long been a forward-thinking car manufacturer – and you could say that they’ve done so ever since Bertha Benz took her husband’s new invention for a little drive through the Schwartzwald. By developing the 2023 Mercedes EQB, the company has shown that it’s got its finger on the pulse of what many people today want.

The 2023 Mercedes EQB is a capacious SUV that’s been designed with the needs of modern families in mind – and it’s fully electric. With either five or seven seats available (seven seats is one of the options for the Mercedes EQB 250), there’s room for everybody. If you opt for the seven-seater, the rear seats fold down when you want them (an old trick but a good one) giving you some more luggage space – which you can access with the clever hands-free boot opening function.

The 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQB simply oozes style.  Although it’s a sizeable SUV and it’s got the typical body shape of one , there’s something sleek about the lines.  Perhaps it’s that integrated LED light strip above the black panel grille and the matching one at the back that gives this selection. Perhaps it’s the way the designers have been able to play with the curves and angles given that an EV doesn’t have the same design requirements as a traditional ICE (internal combustion engine). Colour is a black and white issue – literally, unless you opt for one of the metallic shades available as an extra-cost option (I rather like the denim blue metallic option). Whether you prefer Polar White or Night Black or one of the metallics, the 2023 Mercedes EQB sits nicely on 19-inch (standard on the 250) or 20-inch (standard on the 350 4M) alloy wheels.

Open the door and you’ll get a good look at the range of seats with nice-looking black ARTICO upholstery (with red topstitching in the 350 4M). Isofix child seat holders are available on four of the rear seats (if you go for the maximum of seven seats), giving parents that extra bit of flexibility and the ability to rotate who gets to look out of which window. You won’t be able to see this, but the driver and front passenger seats are both heated and have four-way lumbar support. As if the seats weren’t comfortable enough already (and they certainly are), the Mercedes EQB also has automatic dual-zone climate control to keep things at the right temperature; this system also includes a pre-entry climate control system that avoids the all too common problem of getting into a car that’s hot enough to use as a sauna, as long as you set things up with the Mercedes Me app.

The ability to play with the interior lighting colour (64 colour possibilities) is plenty of fun and can make the interior look just the way you want it, but the Mercedes-Benz EQB also has a stylish line (i.e., design package option) that enhances the interior (the Electric Art) with  rose gold interior highlights – very on trend.

Naturally, the connectivity and infotainment systems that come as standard in the 2023 Mercedes EQB are impressive. It boasts the full MBUX system with touchscreen, touchpad and Linguatronic (voice) input, which allows you to interact with – just about everything. The display panel looks smarter and more sophisticated than the computer I’m writing this review on (and that’s saying something) but is easy to navigate and interpret. What’s more, you can customise the style of the display on the dash to your taste.  You can also turn things up another notch in the tech department with the Innovation option package, which adds in a heads-up display and Mercedes’ “Interior Assistant” function that can read your gestures and guess what you want to do, like jump to the next track on the playlist or turn the lights on. The Mercedes EQB has all the connectivity and smartphone integration you could ever hope for, to the point that you can say “Hey Mercedes” and ask a question like you’d ask your phone, and all your apps can turn up on the display panel. You could even say that the Mercedes EQB is a smartphone you can drive with enough comfortable seats for the whole family. If you (or your passengers) simply have to use their own phones during the drive, then it’s good to know that the Mercedes EQB allows wireless charging as well as one of the options. As is the case with any EV, of course, if you charge your phone or other device from the Mercedes EQB’s battery, you will reduce the range.

Which leads me nicely to the topic of what powers this EV SUV (or should that be an ESUV?). This will depend on which variant of the 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQB you opt for. In the 250, you get a single electric motor powered by a 66.5 kWh lithium ion battery designed to deliver a consistent 140 kW of power and 385 Nm of torque, allowing the SUV to do the 0–100 km/h sprint in 8.9 seconds. In the 350 4Matic, the same battery is harnessed to a dual electric motor delivering 215 kW of power and a thundering 520 Nm of torque (well, it would be thundering if the electric motor made a noise – perhaps sizzling would be a better word). This means that the Mercedes EQB 350 4Matic has a 0–100 km/h time that would have been seen only in sports cars rather than family SUVs 20 years ago: 6.2 seconds.

Range is an important consideration with any EV and this is often the deciding factor for many when it comes to purchasing one. Under ideal test conditions (which is always the case whether you’re discussing an EV or an ICE), the smaller 250 carries on for 507 km and the larger 350, with its heavier demand on the battery, goes for 445 km. The battery can charge in a shade more than half an hour (32 minutes) at a fast charging station, with a maximum DC charging capacity of 100 kW. I’d also recommend purchasing the home Wallbox charger accessory as soon as this becomes available in Australia so you can charge up your Mercedes EQB at home at the end of the day.

As you would expect in what is practically a computer you can drive, and given Mercedes-Benz’s track record in innovative safety features, the Mercedes EQB has all the driver aids you can think of. Parktronic parking assistance; 360-degree cameras; active assistance for braking, steering and staying in your lane; active distance assistance; blind spot assistance: it’s all there. These active safety features are things that you’ll notice every day when you drive the Mercedes EQB SUV, so you may never get to experience the other safety features, such as the full suite of airbags.

If you’ve never owned an EV before because you’ve always had the needs of a growing family in mind, then the 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQB would be a great one to start with.

The 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQB models include the:

• 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQB 250
• 2023 Mercedes-Benz EQB 350 4Matic

For any more information on the new 2023 Mercedes EQB or, for that matter, any other new car, contact one of our friendly consultants on 1300 303 181.  If you’d like some fleet discount pricing (yes even for private buyers!), we can submit vehicle quote requests out to our national network of Mercedes-Benz dealers and come back with pricing within 24 hours. Private Fleet – car buying made easy!