New £57k electric seven-seater has lots to offer

EVERY so often a car comes along and we ask why no one thought of it before.

The Mercedes EQB is one of those. It’s an electric seven-seater.

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There are loads of seven-seat crossovers around. And loads of electric crossovers.

But the only seven-seat electric crossover until now has been the Tesla Model X, falcon-wing doors and all. That’s £106,380.

Bet you never thought you’d hear “Mercedes” and “bargain” in the same sentence.

Don’t get me wrong, the EQB is still stupidly expensive at £57k but that’s almost half the Tesla’s money.

I should also say the EQB is never going to fit seven grown-ups.

It’s based on the petrol-engined GLB.

Only the engineers had to raise the floor to squeeze the battery underneath. Which steals foot space.

So the middle row of the EQB is OK for tall people but only if it’s a shortish journey.

And in the back-back, you’re maxed-out with a couple of pre-teens.

Behind that, the boot is pretty tiny when all seven seats are up.

But actually, all of that is pretty much standard for anything but the most mammoth seven-seaters. It hardly matters.

People only use all seven seats for carting around school sports teams.

Or taking kids and grandparents to the zoo or suchlike. Little baggage, shortish distances.

Thing is, for this sort of short-radius driving, an electric car is ideal.

Charge it at home and in the case of the EQB you can venture 100 miles away, and back, without worrying about a flat battery.

It’s actually certified to go 250 miles on a full charge, but that assumes nice warm weather and keeping away from the outside lane on motorways.

I got 180, not hanging about, on a freezing day.

Mercedes says a version with a “particularly long range” battery will be released later.

All the initial versions have a two-motor four-wheel-drive system, so at least winter traction is no issue.

The suspension’s ride is pretty firm, but it sits true and solid on the road.

There are two power options. You step up from 228hp to 292 for £1,500.

We tested the more powerful, the EQB 350.

There are no other changes between that and the base EQB 300, but the extra gumption gets you to 62mph a second and a half sooner.

No doubt granny and the car-sick kids in the back will be delighted.

The stylish dashboard has well-made fitments and is also blessed with Merc’s big-screen systems, which splurge out enough trip-computer info to keep even a NASA Mission controller happy.

Even operating the basics of music and navigation can be baffling at first.

On second thoughts you don’t need to. You’ve got a bunch of 12-year-olds on board.

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