Thanks to Garage 42 for giving me the opportunity to participate in the test drive of EQC. In the following, I will talk about my feelings of driving EQC from 8 aspects.

First of all, let me talk about the background. I have driven my family’s GLC before and currently drive ES6 of NIO.

Exterior

Compared with the GLC at home, EQC has a stronger sense of sportiness and softer body lines. The overall feeling is more youthful and fashionable. The headlights are quite cool, especially the headlight effects after starting the vehicle, which show a strong sense of technology.

Interior Space

The luxury interior standard of Mercedes-Benz is maintained, and I really like the blue-patched seats, which are soft and comfortable to the touch, and the workmanship is very good. Other interior designs are also highlights, especially the speaker cover/front side soundproofing inner plate, etc. The details are exquisite and luxurious. The space is relatively average, and the trunk and rear space are basically enough.

Digital Cockpit

In addition to the instrument panel, there is also a central control screen with a relatively small size, which is less operable compared with the large PAD-style screen of other electric vehicles. The instrumentation display style can be selected, imitating the display interface of fuel vehicles, including information such as power consumption/ endurance/remaining power.

The most praiseworthy feature of this car is its HUD function, which is rich in content and comprehensive in information. The display is very clear, including ADAS status/current road speed/current vehicle speed/LCC speed/time/navigation information, etc. Even the navigation information includes lane information and road information. The central control screen supports Baidu CarLife and Apple Carplay. It should be noted that you need to prepare a Typc-C.

Compared with most of the electric vehicles on the market, EQC retains almost the same physical buttons as GLC. Most functions and operations can be done with physical buttons. I personally think that the memory of the physical buttons is slightly more complicated.

The traditional seat control and comfort buttons of Mercedes-Benz are uniformly retained in the car. The seat heating button is also in the same position. In the current weather in Shanghai, it is very comfortable to have seat heating (It will be even better if there is a heated steering wheel).Translate the following Markdown Chinese text into English Markdown text in a professional manner, retaining the HTML tags inside Markdown and outputting only results. Additionally, one thing to praise is that there are two Type-C interfaces in the center console armrest, which may not be very convenient for some people now. However, it is very forward-looking when Type-C becomes mainstream.

Driving Experience

The overall feel of EQC is similar to that of a petrol car, especially noticeable in terms of driving and handling. It must be said that traditional luxury brands still have absolute advantages in chassis tuning, and their tuning skills for handling and turning are very robust and stable. The tuning of the independent suspension is also very appropriate, and there is no strong discomfort on bumpy roads.

As an electric car, EQC needs to be turned on and off with ignition, just like petrol cars. I don’t quite understand this design, which means that many times you need to turn off or connect to the power before you can operate it, such as charging. You need to “turn off” before you can start charging. Although I find it troublesome, I guess rigorous Germans would say “live operation is not allowed, safety comes first.”

Performance

The power of EQC can be described as abundant, with dual motors producing 300kW and a 0-100km/h acceleration time of 5.1 seconds. The segmented throttle pedal design and very slight kinetic energy recovery will make you feel closer to the driving habits of petrol cars.

There are several main driving modes such as Sport/Comfort/Eco, which can be directly adjusted through the dynamic key on the center console panel. The power output in different driving modes has different restrictions, mainly reflected in the control of the throttle pedal. Compared to many electric cars that have strong kinetic energy recovery in Eco mode, the passenger experience is much better.

Range

When buying an electric car, most people are concerned about the size of the vehicle’s battery pack and how long the range is, including the real range of the vehicle outside NEDC.

But in fact, when driving an electric car in the city, people rarely pay attention to the range. There are many ways to replenish energy in the city, which are relatively diverse and convenient. The distance for daily commuting is also quite controllable, so there is no need to worry too much about range.

EQC has a 79-degree battery pack and an NEDC range of 415km, which is also a moderate data. The actual range of a single trip is basically about 8/10 of NEDC, which is within expectations and performance is relatively stable.

ADAS

To be honest, before driving this EQC, I did not do too much research to understand the information about its assisted driving, including hardware configuration and assisted driving logic, so I was a bit confused during use.

Translation:

By pressing the buttons on the steering wheel, the assisted driving can be activated, and the range of adjusting cruise control speed is ±10km/h (usually electric cars have the option of ±1 and ±5); the main function of assisted cruise control is lane sensing and following the car in front, which works perfectly by occasionally drifting off when there is no car in front but quickly recovers and maintains its course. However, the conditions for successful lane changing after indicating are not very clear, and hopefully, the visualization aspects can be enhanced in the future.

The vehicle’s active safety reminders are comprehensive, timely and efficient for lane departure and collision warnings. However, the reminders are quite frequent and tend to interrupt the music, leaving room for optimization in user experience.

As previously mentioned, the car-following logic is excellent. Furthermore, after activating the assisted driving, when the car in front slows down to a stop, the timing, degree of deceleration, and the distance to the car in front from the point of stopping are all very close to the driver’s driving style, making it a more human-like driving experience. This feature makes the EQC better compared to many other brands’ electric cars.

A surprising point is that the EQC displays the lane-level speed limit accurately, with precise lane positioning, and it is unclear whether this is due to high-precision map positioning or using services similar to Qianxun positioning.

Car system

I believe that the most significant differences between electric and conventional cars lie in performance, intelligence, and voice recognition. The EQC’s car system is still somewhat traditional, reminding me of my GLC, where the factory functions stayed largely unchanged after two years of use, and with navigation not frequently used, the entire car system is usually occupied by Carplay or CarLife. Hopefully, Mercedes-Benz can expand further on the car system in the future.

The intelligent voice wake-up feature could be more organic (amenable to customization), but due to the system’s traditional nature, the intelligent voice’s function is somewhat limited. Nonetheless, the voice wake-up rate is relatively high.

Conclusion

Overall, the EQC experience is comparable to that of conventional cars. The Mercedes-Benz brand style is highly distinct, and for owners accustomed to driving conventional cars, the transition to the EQC carries relatively low learning costs, making it easier to adapt to the new car.

In conclusion, the EQC is like the running shoes chosen by our parents: it may not immediately attract the same attention as our peers, but when we put them on and start sprinting or go on a hike, we will feel its charm.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.