Mercedes-Benz's electric future, from the passenger seat

Friday, 29 March 2019

It's not every day that you get access to a manufacturer's latest and greatest vehicle before its highest paid employee, but such an opportunity was afforded to us recently with the brief appearance of Mercedes-Benz's first all-electric SUV, the EQC, in Melbourne.

A single pre-production EQC 400 (its official model name) was in Melbourne for its local public debut at the Formula 1 season-opening Melbourne Grand Prix, with selected prospective customers and media being given a ride (no driving…), meaning we got our backside into the seat before Mercedes' five-time world champion driver Lewis Hamilton who would get to see it later in the day.

Sure, it's a little thing, but when you're not being paid US$50 million a year, the little things do matter.

Accompanying the EQC was the engineer in charge of testing for the project, Karl Scheible, who did all the driving, as well as explaining Mercedes-Benz's thinking when approaching its first EV.

**READ MORE:

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'It really is my baby,' said Scheible who has worked on testing the EQC for the past three and a half years. 'This car is number 450 of 455 pre-series cars and is one of the last test cars. It is very close to series production. The E-drive system is series and the battery is finalised.'

 The EQC 400 is the first in a line of pure electric cars Mercedes-Benz will sell under its new EQ brand. It has plans to sell 10 dedicated battery-powered cars in the 'near-term future', including an EQA hatch, EQV van/people mover and EQS flagship limousine.

The EQC is a five-seater mid-sized SUV that is longer, but slightly narrower, than its conventional counterpart, the GLC that it shares its 2873mm wheelbase with (and also the same basic underpinnings), but it is a massive 315mm lower in overall height, giving it an attractive stance that is somewhere between a traditional SUV and a station wagon.

It is powered by two electric motors that produce a combined 300kW of power and 765Nm of torque, and an 80kW/h battery pack that Mercedes claims offers at least 400km of driving range and a 0-100km/h sprint time of 5.1 seconds.

In the metal the EQC is a striking looking thing that is different enough from the GLC that it is clearly something special, but doesn't deviate into spaceship weirdness. This is a very deliberate move from Mercedes, considering it sees a lot of potential customers coming from inside its existing owner base who have wanted an EV, but also want a proper Mercedes-Benz.

This approach is most obvious inside, with a superbly finished interior that blends modern touches - like the company's huge twin 10.25-inch screens and new MBUX interface - with traditional Mercedes-Benz luxury, all put together with a quality that is closer to S-class levels of finish and refinement than the GLC.

From the passenger seat the EQC feels incredibly smooth and effortless as Scheible guides it gently around the tight and winding Todd Road go-kart track (yes, really!) in Melbourne. Upping the pace sees it displaying extremely little in the way of body roll, a result of the low centre of gravity created by having its heavy battery pack mounted within the floor and the unusual combination of an air-spring front and steel-spring rear suspension set-up that is made possible by the EQC's extraordinarily stiff platform (again, thanks to all those batteries.)

'The car has two engines, each with 150kW - one on the front axle, one on the rear axle,' said Scheible as he accelerates between the corners.

'They are very similar concept and construction, but the front engine is more efficient.'

As a result of this, Scheible says that around 80 percent of normal daily driving will only see powered delivered from the front axle. But if you accelerate, you will use both engines and we can shift the torque from 100 per cent front to 100 per cent rear, or to both. It depends on how you drive.'

The rear motor is used more when in Sport mode, however, which is rather noticeable when Scheible slams us back in ours seats with a demonstration of typical EV instant acceleration down the straight before tipping it into a series of S-bends, where it feels nicely agile, while sitting impressively flat.

While Scheible was the only person allowed to drive the EQC at the track, there was one other person on hand later that day that was allowed to get behind the wheel - in Melbourne rush hour traffic no less.

Yes, that's right, despite me bragging about getting into it before him, Lewis Hamilton, actually drove the fully road legal and registered (apparently at great effort and expense by Mercedes-Benz Australia) EQC to an event in the company's inner CBD 'Mercedes Me' store.

While you would expect a Mercedes employee (even the highest paid one) to praise one of their products, Hamilton really did seem to be genuinely excited by the EQC.

'It's beautiful!' he exclaimed after he was dragged away from the car. 'It rides so smooth, I was not expecting that.'

Hamilton then revealed that he was actually an EV owner himself, with his current daily driver (and only prior experience in an EV) being an electric Smart.

'One of the first questions people as me is 'what kind of car do you have?' And expect me, as a racing driver, to have super fast cars (which, to be fair, he also owns a lot of), but I drive a Smart electric. And I love it. But I'm looking forward to upgrading to this one.

'Honestly, I was not expecting it to have so much power and the delivery of the power is so smooth. It's crazy to think how far technology has come over the years.

'Its really great to see Mercedes investing so heavily into it because it is the future and Mercedes don't know how to lose - when they set their eyes on something, they do it better than anyone else. I am so excited to be here seeing that!'