From its chunky, squared-off wheel arches to its short overhangs, upright glasshouse, high-contoured bonnet and bulky shoulder line, the car does look like a Mercedes SUV that, electric or not, still draws from the same gene pool as the Mercedes GLE, the Mercedes GLS and even the Mercedes G-Class. Some of the car’s design details may remain suspiciously novel, and ultimately less appealing on the eye than they might be.
But considering the reception that the Mercedes EQS and EQE have met with, both more aerodynamically daring but also more anonymous-looking designs, the Mercedes EQB can be taken as encouragement that Stuttgart will yet find its way with the look of its first wave of formative EVs.
The car is based on Mercedes’ MFA2 platform, just as the EQA was, and the conventionally powered A-Class, B-Class, CLA, GLA and GLB before it. That gives it a steel monocoque chassis, strut-type suspension at the front and a four-link independent axle at the rear.
It’s one of several twin-motor EVs to mix in electric motors of different kinds. The one at the rear is a permanent magnet synchronous motor that, being the more efficient and torquey of the two, does the lion’s share of the work when it comes to keeping the EQB moving along at a cruise.
