Germany’s big three premium automakers have been quite slow at bringing electric SUVs to market compared to Tesla and even other traditional rivals such as Jaguar.
Actually, Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz haven’t even begun deliveries of their electric crossovers — the e-tron, EQC, and iX3, respectively. The Audi e-tron looks set to win this race, though, as Audi has announced deliveries would begin in early 2019.
What about the EQC, then? Well, it will enter production in spring 2019 and will begin arriving in dealerships by the middle of the year in Europe and in 2020 in the United States. That’s at least half a year away so Mercedes-Benz thought it would be a good idea to keep the EQC in the headlines and allow Jay Leno to film a detailed review.
Also watch: Audi E-Tron Electric SUV Driven; Should You Cancel That Model X Or I-Pace?
Mercedes-Benz shipped a German-spec EQC 400 prototype to California accompanied by testing engineer Bastian Schult who had the mission of answering all the questions Jay Leno might have. As you can imagine, the former talk show host was very curious about the EQC so if you don’t know anything about Mercedes’ first all-electric SUV this is the right video to start with.
He inquired Schult about the pricing and the engineer replied the EQC would cost about the same as a Mercedes-AMG GLC 43 in Europe. The latter starts at €63,546 in Germany, which is roughly $72,650. Still, the U.S. prices for the EQC aren’t likely to follow the same logic.
Jumping to the driving part people are most interested in, Jay Leno says the EQC is totally a one-pedal car (at least in the city) thanks to the brake regeneration function. The lack of engine noise is also a plus but then again that applies to every electric vehicle out there.
Still, Mercedes-Benz paid extra attention to soundproofing since the EQC is a luxury car after all. The quick acceleration is another thing Jay notices when driving the EQC, although it doesn’t exactly blow him away. Check out the video for the full review.