Mercedes EQA | Review

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This is the Mercedes EQA, part of Mercedes’ electric offensive, which is already available to order in Ireland. In 2022 it will be followed by a number of all new all-electric cars such as the S-Class inspired EQS saloon. The EQS will shortly be followed by the EQB, which slots into the Mercedes-EQ range above the entry-level EQA and below the larger mid-range EQC. Next up in 2022 we’ll see the arrival of the E-Class inspired, fully-electric EQE which will be followed later in the year by the high performance Mercedes-AMG EQE 43 and Mercedes-AMG EQE 53 models.

Special mention : Premium interior, gorgeous ambient lighting.

Needs work : The EQA has excellent levels of safety kit but it can be intrusive and at times, downright pushy.

BHP 190 HPElectric / Auto
0-100 km/h in 8.9 secondsRoad Tax €120
Price: €56,120Boot space 340 litres
Range 423 km (WLTP)

This EQA is a new fully electric SUV with quite a big task on its hands because you’ve got more expensive bigger electric SUV’s than this such as the Audi e-tron and the Jaguar i-Pace. The EQA sits below those SUV’s and here you’ve got a market that’s got more mainstream offerings like the Kia e-Niro, Peugeot e2008, Ford’s Mustang Mach-e and the VW ID4. So does the EQA come straight in as the go-to premium family electric SUV?

Mercedes-Benz has big ambitions of launching six new electric cars across the next couple of years and this is part of those plans but while some of those future models are going to sit on their own dedicated EV platforms the EQA like the EQC and the EQV is based on a fuel-powered car, the GLA.  There’s quite a big difference in how those two cars look and the main change is at the front where you can see a very different front grille from the GLA. With the EQA you’ve got a black plastic front cover at the front plus you’ve got the popular big light bar.

There’s a few trim levels with the EQA, Progressive, Electric Art and AMG Line. No matter which one you go for you get 18-inch alloys as standard but if you do go for the AMG line then you have the choice of changing them to 19 or 20 inch alloys. At the back of the car there are new lights and a full width light bar along the rear. It’s very reminiscent of the EQC with similar styling too, again it’s quite different and distinctive from the GLA. 

There are a couple of differences inside such as the slightly different branding and displays on the screens and also some models have lights built into the dashboard. On some trim levels,  you can get seats that are partly made from recycled plastic bottles. Apart from that it’s the same look, the same layout and the same finish as you get in the GLA. In the electric car world this is one of the best interiors out there. It’s got a very appealing look and layout and it’s backed up by pretty good build quality with nice materials up front on the dash.

If you think the benchmark for electric car interiors would have been the Audi e-tron which is very well made inside, the EQA isn’t far off and it’s available now where the Q4 order books are open and pricing may differ for 2022. Many people would argue that it’s got a much more appealing layout, rather than the relatively sensible Audi e-tron interior. Not only is the EQA well built, feel nice to the touch and good to look at but the tech that comes with it is also among the best around in the electric car world. This model is also optioned with Artico Leather which is a man-made substitute for real leather that was introduced by Mercedes to sit between cloth and real leather upholstery in its trim ranges.

If you go for a GLA the entry-level trims get two 7-inch screens one for the driver display and one for the infotainment. On the higher trim levels you get two 10 inch displays but on the EQA every model gets the bigger screens as standard. They’re really clear but the only slight problem might be depending on where you have the steering wheel set, it might be blocking some of the driver display so you’ll have to check that it works for how you want to sit. The system itself is the same MBUX infotainment system that we’ve used on lots of other Mercedes. It has a simple layout that’s relatively easy to get your head around with a responsive touch screen. Crucially what makes this system so good is the fact that you’ve got a trackpad as well so you can control the screen while you’re driving without looking away. It’s far less distracting being able to do that.

You’ve also got slightly fiddly but quite useful touch sensitive pads on the steering wheel to control the infotainment system and also to adjust what you’re seeing on the digital driver display. again this compared to anything in the electric car class is very very impressive so there’s lots to like up front in the EQA. 

In the back the big change from the GLA is under the floor because that’s where the batteries are placed in the EQA. In order to accommodate the batteries, they’ve raised the floor which means the rear bench feels quite low in relation to the high floor. You end up with an odd seating position where your knees are higher than they are in a GLA. 

There’s no compromise on space so you’ve still got a good amount of legroom by electric SUV standards, it feels quite airy in the back. The GLA isn’t the biggest family SUV out there comparing it to the e-Niro, the e-2008 it’s pretty good, obviously an e-tron and an i-Pace have got a much bigger footprint and are more spacious.

The EQA is pretty good, similar to the GLA, is the fact that the three rear seats can fold down individually and you can even bring the middle seat down to give you easy access to the boot or to just stick your skis through. Rear seat space is slightly altered going from the GLA to the EQA and it’s the same story for the boot although it’s a bit more of an impact back there. You do lose a fair chunk of storage space in the EQA compared to the GLA. The space you’re left with is still a practical and simple shape. 

Inside there’s no load lip at the entry which makes it easy to load stuff into the boot and there is even a little bit of underfloor storage that’s just about big enough to keep the charging cables in.  This is one of the smaller boots in the electric family SUV class. 

As the EQA is based on the GLA, it doesn’t have a formidable footprint on the road. It’s a family SUV the same size as the Volvo XC40 or an Audi Q3. This EQA weighs 2040 kilograms which is pretty hefty especially when you consider that the lightest petrol powered GLA is about six hundred kilograms lighter than this and yet the Audi Q4 e-tron weighs around the same but feels so much heavier on the road. 

The overall ride quality has quite a firm feel to it with the electrically adjustable dampers and the smallest alloy wheels available in the lineup. This is by no means an uncomfortable car, it’s just that other electric SUVs are more planted over pock marked surfaces and due to the oddly high floor, it has a strange seating position in the rear.

The EQA isn’t a particularly quick car by electric car standards, it’s powered by a 66.5 kilowatt hour battery with one electric motor that drives the front wheels which has 188 BHP. The setup for the EQA 250 model has a 0 – 100 km/h time of 8.9 seconds which is not very slow but it’s certainly good enough by electric car standards. The range from the 66.5 kilowatt hour battery delivers a WLTP certified official of around 426 kms, using it normally we saw closer to 315kms range. We’re seeing quite a lot of new EV’s with over 500 kms range on offer so having this product with closer to 500 kms means that we’re hoping the next generation will loose the weight and gain more range. 

The EQA has an 11 kilowatt on-board charger which means if you’re charging from an 11 kilowatt home wall box then you can get a 10% to 100% charge in around 5 hours and 45 minutes but if you’re not charging at home and you need to charge out and about then the maximum fast charging speed of the EQA is 100 kilowatts which like the range is fine but not particularly amazing. 

Some other EV’s are able to charge at faster speeds, the Audi e-tron can charge at 150 kilowatts and the Tesla Model 3 can charge at 250 kilowatts. If you do want to eke out the range you have a few different drive modes to help you do that such as eco mode. And you also have a few different levels of regenerative braking to help you as well. You can control the level of  regeneration using the paddles on the steering wheel which in the fuel powered GLA of course would help you change gear if you had an automatic gearbox. Now a couple of taps on the left paddle puts the car in the most severe level of regenerative braking where you really do have to touch the brake pedal very gently, then you’ve got a mid setting and you’ve also just got a normal D mode.

With the regen on its lowest setting mode it has quite a big impact on the brake pedal. In normal D mode the brake pedal is a little bit numb and kind of difficult to judge the inputs you need to stop smoothly. In the strongest regen mode (D minus minus) that’s definitely a mode that you would use in slow moving stop/start traffic, it’s not the mode you want to have it in generally. It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t something that other EVs with similar one-pedal driving modes suffer from. Even though there are a few areas where the EQA is a little bit bumpy on the road it’s got a properly fantastic interior. 

The EQA is fairly expensive and with a €56,120 starting price it does look like quite a lot compared to the Kia e-Niro. This car costs more than the equivalent Ford Mustang Mach-e, the VW ID4 and the Skoda Enyaq. This model doesn’t have one but you can add a tow bar to your EQA. When optioned, it can tow up to 750 kilograms which isn’t enough for your next caravan holiday but should be enough for a small trailer or a bike rack. The sat nav has a function that calculates a route that will get the driver to their destination fastest, taking into account charging times on top of that. When you’re headed to a charging station on your sat nav then the car will heat or cool the battery so it’s at the perfect temperature for rapid charging when you arrive you’ll still probably end up just using waze. The voice command system in here is also one of the better ones around, you access it by saying “hey mercedes”. 

No frunk available in the front but there’s a great view of the bonnet.

All EQA’s get ambient interior lighting with a choice of 64 different colors to choose from so the Mercedes EQA could have been a cut price scaled down version of the electric luxury on offering cars like the original Audi e-tron and Jaguar i-Pace but it doesn’t quite hit the mark in that respect. It has its strengths mainly the first-rate interior by electric car standards with a great look and great tech and many people may be sold on that alone. Ordinary range means it doesn’t necessarily look like a bargain compared to those more expensive rivals. A closer direct competitor is the Volvo XC40 Recharge which itself is quite a pricey EV but compared to the Volvo, the EQA is more practical but not as good to drive. When you get to the more mainstream offerings like the e-Niro and VW ID3, they may not be as plush inside as the Mercedes but they are all together more rounded electric offerings that cost less. If you want an EV and aren’t fussed about having an SUV body then the Tesla Model 3 is a capable but somewhat awkward contender.

The EQA has excellent levels of safety kit but it can be intrusive and at times, downright pushy. Where it shines is the cabin refinement and on-board tech. The premium interior is it’s most impressive attribute, small boot space and 400 kms range could be improved however.