A recently announced finalist for 2021 New Zealand Car of the Year honours, the Mercedes-Benz EQA is put through its paces by David Thomson.
What’s new?
It’s a rare thing indeed for the same car maker to win New Zealand Car of the Year honours in successive years; indeed, something that has only happened once in the 33-year history of New Zealand’s premier automotive award.
With the reigning award winner being Mercedes’ EQC, the company’s first EV to hit our streets, its new junior sibling, the EQA, has the chance to secure a double for the German brand when the votes for 2021 honours are tallied.
Derived from the latest second generation GLA model, the EQA also takes its place as the second of Mercedes’ all-electric EQ range that will expand within a couple of years to comprise 10 models of various shapes and sizes. Though the EQA is a little longer and stands slightly taller, it uses the same suspension set-up and underlying platform as the GLA, with much of its bodywork and interior in common too.
But the EQA has been reprofiled for optimal aerodynamic efficiency, and extensively re-engineered to accommodate both a 66.5kWh battery pack, placed low, between the axles, and an associated electric motor system.
For the EQA 250, which is the only variant on offer in New Zealand at present, the motor is a single 140kW/375Nm unit positioned quite conventionally under the bonnet and powering the front wheels via a direct-drive transmission.
Already available overseas, and likely to be seen here in 2022, a more powerful all-wheel drive version with a supplementary rear electric motor is also produced.
The EQA 250 carries an $85,500 base price, which takes it over the qualifying threshold for a rebate under the Government’s clean car discount scene. The test car also took a range of extra features, taking its price to $94,150.
What comes as standard?
The standard EQA equipment list is extensive, embracing such items as adaptive suspension damping, keyless entry and start, Mercedes’ fully digital dual widescreen MBUX infotainment and instrumentation interface, satellite navigation, smartphone mirroring, power-operated and heated seats trimmed in artificial leather, 64-colour LED interior lighting, dual-zone climate control and wireless phone charging.
Key elements in the safety package include adaptive LED headlights, adaptive radar cruise control, traffic sign recognition, and active assist systems for steering, braking, lane-keeping and blind spot monitoring.
The test car featured the AMG Line Sports Package raft of extras priced at $2950, (described later on). Two other packages are on offer: the $2900 Vision Package, which adds a panorama sunroof, enhanced parking support with a 360-degree surround view camera and a premium 12-speaker Burmester surround sound audio system; and the $2,500 MBUX Innovation package which provides both enhanced MBUX features and a headup display, with black wood interior trim as a further $300 item.
What does it look like?
Smoothly styled, and standing fairly tall, the EQA has a chunky and more substantial look than you might expect of a vehicle spawned off Mercedes’ small-car platform.
So long as one is aware of Mercedes’ EV names, EQA badging just forward of the mirrors and on the tail are the vehicle’s all-electric status giveaways. Otherwise, the solid front grille and the absence of exhaust tailpipes are clues. LED strip lights connecting the head lights up front and the tail lights at the rear are further pointers of difference from a regular GLA, and also give the EQA a more futuristic, technical look.
The test car’s appearance was enhanced by the aforementioned AMG Line sports package, which adds a gloss black grille and other enhancements about the nose, a revised chrome-edged rear apron, and 20-inch AMG multi-spoke alloys shod with 235/45 R20 tyres.
What’s it like inside?
The EQA’s interior is largely a straight lift from the regular GLA. The dash is dominated by the dual screen MBUX set-up. Always notable for its pin-sharp graphics, sophisticated ‘hey Mercedes’ voice-command system, gesture control functions and customisation options, the MBUX set-up gets a few extra tweaks in the EQ with selectable screens for EV motoring.
A quintet of chromed turbine-like rotary air vents are the other familiar signature features up front, with one on either side of the dash, and a trio clustered in the middle.
Following the current trend for dark trims above as well as below the waistline, the cabin is not especially airy, despite reasonably big windows and the panorama sunroof. It’s classy though, with an abundance of soft-touch surfaces, plenty of trim contrasts, and red contrast stitching.
Trimmed in a mix of suede-like and more conventional artificial leather, the front seats are comfortable and supportive, and the driving position is decidedly car-like for a crossover SUV.
The centre console is significantly wider at the base of the dash than between the seats, which gives the front of the cabin a roomy feel. It provisions the wireless charging pad at the base of the console, with the MBUX’s somewhat fiddly haptic control system located between this and the lidded centre bin.
Space differences from the GLA are apparent in the rear of the cabin and boot, with the EQA’s floor being raised to accommodate the vehicle’s batteries. So while the EQA matches the GLA for quite decent legroom, the rear seating position is more knees-up.
The 40:20:40 split arrangement for the rear seatbacks provides load carrying flexibility, but overall luggage capacity takes a big hit with the all-electric installation, dropping from 495-litres to 340-litres when the rear seats are raised, and from 1430 to 1320-litres when folded down.
What’s it like to drive?
Left to its own devices, the EQA is fuss-free and undemanding: push the start button to bring everything humming to life, select drive, depress the accelerator, and glide away; heck, with its advanced adaptive cruise control, the EQA will not only adjust its speed to maintain station relative to the vehicle ahead, it will slow you down to a conservatively safe speed for open-road corners, roundabouts and the like.
But there’s a far more engaging way to spend time behind the wheel, which involves selecting between the various drive modes, and using the EQA’s paddle-shift controls, rather than the brake pedal, to slow the vehicle via regenerative braking.
Of the drive modes, comfort or eco are fine around town, but they are not the most responsive for open-road driving, delivering quite muted throttle response, light steering, and soft ride.
Sport mode sharpens everything up (albeit while reducing range) while individual mode allows a driver-selected mix-and-match.
Within this, sports suspension and steering settings are recommended on South Island open roads, both for the level of driver engagement engendered, and because the sports suspension setting delivers the most composed and assured ride on typical highways.
In part because there is no mechanical noise and excellent acoustic refinement, the EQA gathers speed in a quite deceptive fashion.
With mechanical sport mode selected the electric motor’s peak outputs of 140kW and 375Nm endow the EQA with a decent turn of pace.
That said, the accelerator needs a hefty prod to rouse the drivetrain from its normally relaxed demeanour. Slowing down becomes part of the fun for the enthusiastic driver, the challenge being to avoid simply mashing on the conventional brake pedal, and instead using the paddle shifts — which intensify the regenerative braking through three different stages — to retard progress in a measured manner.
With some thought and practice, ‘‘single pedal driving’’ — in which the brake pedal is rarely, if ever, used — is achievable, especially on the open road. As well as being the most engaging way to drive the EQA, it is also the smoothest, and once mastered, the most economical.
Ease of electric motoring?
Drivesouth honed the ‘‘single-pedal’’ approach on the extended Dunedin-Ranfurly-Dunedin run that has become a standard test for any EV I think has a real chance of achieving a 280km real-world open road range over varied terrain on a single battery charge.
Despite setting out from Dunedin 5% short of fully charged, the EQA managed the trip without recharging — but it was a close-run effort mind, with just 25km of range remaining on the return home.
Energy consumption was 20.8kWh per 100km on the trip. This compared with a typical energy use of 17.0kWh/100km driving the EQA around town, and an official combined cycle figure of 17.2kWh/100km. So in terms of real-world range and depending on conditions, the load it is carrying and the manner in which it is driven, the EQA is a 250-290km machine on the open road.
Around town, 350km plus should be easily achievable between re-charges, though most vehicles will be charged more often than that, either via home-charging (in which case a dedicated home ‘‘charge box’’ is recommended), or via commercial rapid chargers. The current 50kWh commercial rapid chargers are capable of taking the EQA from 10% to 80% of full charge in about an hour. The EQA is also compatible with more powerful 100kW/h chargers, which would deliver a 10-80% charge in about 35 minutes.
Verdict
Possessed of highly credible real-world range, decent performance, and a genuine luxury feel, the EQA is a fine second addition to Mercedes’ pure-electric line-up. The fact that its price tag is above the threshold required to trigger a Government clean car discount is unlikely to deter potential buyers, most of whom will probably take more of EQA being about $60,000 cheaper than its senior electric sibling, the EQC.
Photos: David Thomson
