Mercedes-Benz GLB Electric review

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Mercedes takes its seven-seat EV below £50,000 and adds 320kW charging for good measure

It has to be considered the most sincere compliment to BMW’s Neue Klasse iX3 that, in the year of its introduction, arch rival Mercedes has taken the trouble to surround it with not one but two fresh competitors. 

On the more expensive, premium side, there's the new-generation Mercedes GLC Electric: the five-seat SUV that has indirectly replaced the seminal EQC. But while that car probably counts as the iX3's closer rival, there is another that bigger families should consider. And, as if to highlight how much money Mercedes continues to pour into its electrification efforts, it’s built on a different platform than the GLC and has a ‘grille’ ready to dazzle in an entirely different way - with less reflective metalwork and more actual illumination, if you like that sort of thing.

This is the new Mercedes GLB Electric. Replacing the EQB, it’s larger than the car it’s succeeding, stretching beyond 4.7m. As far as UK sales will be concerned (deliveries will start this summer), it's exclusively a seven-seater. And Mercedes is evidently more serious about its passenger-carrying practicality than it was with its predecessor, which was the sort of SUV you might more accurately have described as a 5+2.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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The new GLB is 48mm longer than the EQB but some 60mm longer in the wheelbase. For some occupants travelling in the second and third row, Mercedes claims, it offers as much as 68mm more space, either on leg room or head room. In some positions there’s more than 60mm extra of both.

This becomes the biggest car yet built on the MMA platform, also used by the CLA Saloon and CLA Shooting Brake. That gives it a strong technical start: an 800V electrical architecture that delivers DC rapid charging at up to 320kW, as well as Mercedes’ very latest ‘EDU 2.0’ main drive motor (with its two-speed gearbox and silicon-carbide power inverter). 

The GLB will work with 400V rapid chargers – the ones that have been around for longer – only if you’re prepared to spend £850 on a converter option. I wouldn't bother, as there are plenty of 800V chargers around, usually in the same car parks.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

At launch, there are single-motor GLB 250+ and dual-motor GLB 350 4Matic derivatives. There's a cheaper GLB 200 with a smaller LFP battery, but that won't be offered in the UK. A trio of 48V petrol hybrids will come a little later.

The 250+, which will account for the vast majority of UK GLB volume, is driven by its rear axle and comes with a slightly unremarkable but perfectly acceptable 268bhp. The 350 4Matic pumps reserves up to 349bhp with an addition front motor.

Both of the EVs at launch have 85kWh of usable battery capacity, and the GLB 250+ offers up to 379 miles of official range in UK-market trim, from a little over £46,000. The long-range Peugeot e-5008 offers slightly longer legs still for similar outlay. But the best that the old EQB could manage was 322 miles of range, from about £53,000. Even in these inflationary times, that’s decent progress.

INTERIOR

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Cramming three rows of seats into a car that's less than five metres long always requires some serious compromise. Less, however, in EVs than in ICE cars, because there are no pesky engines and propshafts to package.

At 4728mm in length, you don't really expect the GLB to offer genuine, adult-appropriate, three-row passenger space, but it gets creditably close.

Adults of any height would be more than happy in the first and second rows. Unlike in the CLA on the same platform, the second row doesn't seem to suffer from the EV-typical high floor, and there's considerably more knee room too. 

The second-row seats slide forwards and back by 140mm in order to juggle space effectively. With a bit of compromise, it is possible to squeeze a pair of average-height adults in the third row. Access is tight, and a sticker on the door sill tells you that you're not supposed to (it specifies a maximum height of 171cm), but it's doable. Still, they will be short of leg room, and have their knees in the air. But that's par for the course in this class, and the Peugeot e-5008 doesn't do a whole lot better. 

Those familiar with smaller seven-seat SUVs know not to expect much boot space to be left once you do put all of the seats up. But here the GLB’s secret weapon comes into play: a remarkably roomy and usefully square-sided 127-litre frunk, big enough for a couple of big holdalls or smallish wheelie bags. This certainly isn’t a car that’s left with no carrying space at all when filled with people.

The front of the cabin is practical, with plenty of storage and broadly comfortable, adjustable seats. There’s a glossy, plasticky look to what’s around and about you, Mercedes preferring to fit shiny metallic trim to the doors and centre console, then panel the whole dashboard with its trio of Superscreen displays. On the higher trims, that is; AMG Line Executive and below have a panel of stars instead.  

Technology apart, though, the background tactile quality and sense of integrity of many of the fixtures and mouldings isn’t so impressive and doesn’t do much to lift the GLB into more rarefied territory than its opposition inhabits.

It feels like we’ve been writing this for a long time and as yet to no great avail, but if Mercedes wants to cement a reputation for really distinguishing luxury and quality compared with so many new competitors, it’s high time it refocused its attention away from digital systems and back towards simpler material things.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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The GLB’s driving experience wouldn’t seem to be in such need of refocused priorities. This feels well worthy of a luxury billing.

We've tested a single-motor GLB 250+ and a dual-motor GLB 350 4Matic. Both were smooth and quiet, with ample performance; a particularly comfortable and well-isolated ride; neat, fluent and intuitive handling; and all the drivability options you could want in a largish, comfort-first EV.

You wouldn’t feel short-changed by the performance level of the regular single-motor GLB 250+, but neither is there much of an efficiency compromise to be paid if you decide to spend a bit extra on the GLB 350 4Matic. Mercedes’ extra motor for this car adds less than 50kg and costs less than 10 miles of WLTP range in some cases (because that motor is capable of disconnecting completely from the front wheels when it’s not needed).

Regen control can be automatic or manual – typically via nudging the drive selector level forwards and backwards in the latter case, although AMG Line models also get shift paddles to accomplish the same thing. So it’s not difficult to adjust the car’s trailing-throttle characteristics as you drive; to let it coast when the road is open and clear but check its momentum more at other times.

RIDE & HANDLING

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The GLB becomes the only MMA-based car to be available with adaptive dampers. All the test cars on the European launch event had them fitted, but UK buyers will have to spend extra on AMG Line Premium trim, and take a car on 20in wheels, in order to get them.

They deliver a car with some configurability to its character, which is a bit more level and contained in Sport mode and a bit more supple and absorbent-riding in Comfort mode. But, refreshingly, it doesn’t feel all that particular about being in the right drive mode for any given road or situation. It just rides and handles assuredly well. 

The GLB may be a 2.2-tonne car, but it manages its bulk quite tidily on a winding mountain road and has a flavour of the related CLA’s polished fluidity about its handling. It rides with a settled, filtered sort of composure and deals with broken and bumpy surfaces well.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Thanks to the GLB's simple manual regen controls, you feel like you can maximise the car’s efficiency quite easily – although, quite clearly the hard work is done by the engineers specifying the right kind of motor, inverter and body design to be efficient in the first place.

Our testing suggested that a real-world range of 275-300 miles would be possible from the GLB 350 4Matic and 300-325 miles from the GLB 250+. That's a little way short of what an iX3 might give you, but then that's not a seven-seater.

We've yet to test Peugeot's long-range (97kWh) e-5008, but experience of the standard-range model suggests that's not as efficient as this Mercedes in typical motorway running, so it might not turn out to be the rangier option in the real world, despite what the WLTP lab test results suggest.

For those willing to accept less range and performance still, the forthcoming GLB 200 should bring the car's entry price down well below £45,000, where it will start to rival cars like the Tesla Model Y Standard Range even more directly, almost bundling its seven-seat practicality as an added bonus.

VERDICT

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Mercedes is due to have a busy 2026, since it’s choosing to mark its 140th anniversary year with a new product bonanza the likes of which we haven’t seen from it for some time.

A revised S-Class will be part of it, likewise a new, electric AMG GT 4-Door Coupé. Yet even in that company, we suspect the GLB won’t end up looking like the car that has been hurried through to make up the numbers.

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It’s impressively practical and better to drive than it probably needs to be, thanks to plenty of performance; slick and intuitive drivability; a smooth, comfortable ride; and fluent, neat handling.

Moreover, the dual-motor GLB 350 4Matic is a better invitation to spend a big bigger than cars of its ilk often tend to be, since it hits a standard on efficiency creditably close to that of its single-motor sister.

Big families have had few realistic options for electric transport thus far, counting the expensive, large SUV fayre (Volvo EX90, Kia EV9, Hyundai Ioniq 9) and boxy, van-shaped MPVs (Vauxhall Vivaro Life and siblings, Volkswagen ID Buzz). The GLB Electric picks up where the EQB left off in filling the void in between but does a significantly better job in several key areas.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As a road tester, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews and comparison tests, while also managing the magazine’s Drives section. Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s in-depth instrumented road tests.

He loves cars that are fun and usable on the road – whether piston-powered or electric – or just cars that are very fit for purpose. When not in test cars, he drives an R53-generation Mini Cooper S or a 1990 BMW 325i Touring.

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tesla Roadster, Ariel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren Senna, Renault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.