Mercedes-Benz on BMW turf causes electric storm in a teacup

The fierce rivalry between Mercedes-Benz and BMW needs no introduction.

It starts at the very top in how their respective engineers try and outdo each other and spans all the way down to the respective owners’ ongoing rivalry for bragging rights.

Last week, the ongoing duel reached new heights as we were looking for a place to charge the all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQB 350 4Matic The Citizen Motoring had on test.

In South Africa, the public network of charging stations for electric cars is run by a company called GridCars.

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All the charging stations in the country and their status are shown on a live map on GridCars’ website or app, allowing owners of electric cars to find the closest or fastest or whatever they require at any particular point in time.

These chargers are situated at malls, golf courses, office parks and various dealerships selling electric cars like Jaguar and Porsche for example.

If you have an active GridCars membership, you can charge any electric vehicle at any public charging point by activating the charge with your account card.

BMW vs Mercedes-Benz

While cruising around Bryanston in the EQB, we decided to give the battery a quick top up at a DC chargers at a BMW dealership across the road from a Mercedes-Benz dealership nogal that doesn’t offer charging.

We swiped the card and plugged in the fast charger’s cable… at which point the security guard at the gate came charging.

“Sir, you can’t charge a Mercedes here,” he fumed. “That type of thing is not allowed at a BMW dealership.”

Much to our bemusement, he was dead serious. A quick explanation of the GridCars system put the exhausted fellow at ease.

It turns out he was just not educated on the whole process and apologised profusely when the penny dropped.

Not for a second did we begrudge the poor guy for his initial reaction. In fact, we think him defending his hallowed BMW turf so fiercely against a shameless infiltration by the enemy was rather noble.

But little did he realise in this woke new world we find ourselves in, even the fiercest of enemies will break bread together when they can share resources.

READ MORE: WATCH: Controversial new Mercedes-AMG C43 slower than before

Don’t feel left behind if you have never seen or heard of a EQB badge before. It’s still quite new locally and Mercedes would probably not have sold more than a few dozen of them.

Mercedes-Benz has reserved the EQ designation for its all-electric portfolio and the EQB is the electric version of the GLB, an SUV which slots in between the GLA and GLC which can be ordered with seven seats.

Still a proper Mercedes-Benz

While the EQB looks very similar to the Mercedes-Benz GLB from the outside, there are a few distinctive differences. These include the closed black panel grille with central tree-pointed star and continuous light strip at the front and rear.

The range comes with exclusive wheel designs, which in our tester’s case was 20-inch 20-spoke black and silver alloys.

The Widescreen Cockpit and changeable ambient lightning are highlights of the cabin, which creates a proper futuristic image through the application of tubular elements in an aluminium finish.

The Mercedes-Benz EQB 350 is powered by an electric motor on the front axle which sends 215 kW of power and 520 Nm of torque to all four wheels.

It has a claimed 0 to 100 km/h time of 6.2 seconds, which we definitely don’t doubt after giving some hot hatches a proper fright at the red lights, with a top speed which is limited to 160km/h.

A 66 kWh battery is said to give the EQB a range of over 400 km. We could not get anywhere close to this number, but then again, we had more fun dishing out mommy wagon hidings than we tried to save precious coal resources.

At a 50 kW DC charger, like the one we used at the BMW, can get the battery from 10 to 80% within an hour.

Conclusion

The Mercedes-Benz EQB 350’s price of R1 379 000 sounds exhuberant, but it is very much par for the course when you take Mzansi’s ludicrous high taxing of electric vehicles into account.

Bur very much like its GLB sibling, the EQB probably faces a stiffer challenge from its own electric contemporaries than from that other place across the road.

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