A first for German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz, the EQC 400 4Matic electric SUV starting at $137,900 launches next Monday in Australia showrooms.
Representing the Mercedes-Benz brand has no doubt been first and foremost on the minds of the German carmaker’s engineers, who have poured all the comfort, performance, safety and luxurious practicality they can into this electric driving machine.
Forming the flagship model of Mercedes-Benz’s EQ series, the EQC offers 434km driving range (a number I am told by a Mercedes representative tasked with putting kilometres on the vehicle is reflected accurately in normal driving conditions).
The EQC400, which will be available for sale from early 2020 in seven standard colours (polar white, brilliant blue, high-tech silver, graphite grey and obsidian black) will be pitted against Mercedes-Benz’ own GLC, which starts at $66,100 for the base GLC200 variant.
Three additional “Designo” colours are also available as an optional extra – “Diamond White”, “Hyacinth Red” and “Selenite Grey Magno”, while the interior standard black ash trim can be upgraded to “carbon-fibre” and “aluminium” look trims for no extra cost.
All upholstery is in standard AMG trim black leather, and while microfibre trim can be added at no cost, an upgrade to premium trims including Nappa leather can be added in packaged options.
These options include “Edition 1″ badging, which includes an upgrade to 21” multi-spoke alloys, the two-tone Nappa leather, “climatised” front seats, tri-zone climate control, augmented reality navigation and badging on the B-pillar for $6,900 MRLP in graphite grey and $8,600 MRLP in diamond white.
A third “Electric Art Line” package is also available for $5,900 MRLP that includes rose gold stitching, a textured dashboard in metallic silver grey as well as an air ioniser, multi-contour seats with massage function, choice of leather and climatised front seats.
If not after a whole package, individual options are also available including aluminium-look running boards ($1,200), augmented-reality naigvation ($600), climatised front seats ($1,800), heated rear seats ($800), tri-zone climate control ($1,400), and rear roller sunblinds ($600).
Upgrading the standard 20″ AMG alloy wheels to 21″ multi-spoke alloys costs $1,800.
At home, work or at the shopping centre, the EQC can top up the 80kWh (usable capacity) lithium-ion battery at a rate of up to 7.4kW, which comes standard with both an 8 metre AC charging cable compatible with Australian 240V socket, and a 4 metre cable for use at AC public charging stations.
Using a DC fast charger can charge at a top rate of 110kW for an extra 220km range per half hour’s worth of charging – and for free for the first five years if using one of the Chargefox network fast-chargers thanks to a deal announced last Tuesday.
Careful to ensure the all-electric EQC delivers performance, the dual asynchronous motors output 300kW and 760Nm torque giving the 2.4 tonne all-electric SUV the ability to accelerate from 0-100km/hr in 5.1 seconds.
Featuring Mercedes-Benz’ most up-to-date MBUX system, 2 side by side 10.25″ touchscreens allow access to numerous navigation, connectivity and functions of the vehicle including remotely starting the motor and locking or unlocking the vehicle.
Cruising speed and other key driving info are visible in the windscreen thanks to a “heads up” display, while the Mercedes-Me Connect delivers extra features including live traffic, parked vehicle locator, emergency calling, diagnostics, valet parking controls, speed fencing and geo fencing.
Standard safety features include active distance control, evasive steering assist, active braking assist, lane keeping assist, blind spot assist and attention assist.
All new EQC vehicles will now come standard with an acoustic vehicle alert system (AVAS) in line with overseas safety laws to warn oncoming pedestrians of electric vehicles driving at low speeds.
A well-featured addition to the Australian SUV market, we look forward to giving you drive impressions later this week of the EQC400, for which we suspect Mercedes-Benz will be hard pressed to meet demand.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.