All of a sudden, the market for luxury EVs is extremely competitive. There are very good cars from a number of brands. Even when it comes to compact luxury EVs, there’s the BMW iX1 and Volvo XC40 Recharge and its sibling, the C40 Recharge. The Mercedes-Benz EQA arrives in this competitive landscape, and even before we drive it, one thing is for sure. It has its work cut out.
So, Mercedes-Benz has decided to do something different. It might be compact, but the EQA has more features than anything else in the price range. It might however appear very similar to the GLA that it is based on, both inside and out.
Design of the EQA
The EQA incorporates Mercedes-Benz’ EQ-specific design playbook. That means that the front headlamps and DRLs are connected by a light bar. There is similar treatment at the back as well. The light bars along with the large blacked-off grille (adorned with numerous three-pointed stars apart from the large roundel in the centre) by themselves form an integral part of the visual identity of the EQA. Based on the GLA, the EQA’s general shape and proportions have not been tinkered with. As a result it continues to be a handsome, compact SUV with the right proportions. If anything, the changes to the EQA only add to the design of the car. There are changes to the wheel-design with the EQA getting ten-spoke, aero-optimised 19-inch AMG-Line alloys that do work well with the rest of the design.
But something you cannot really shake off is the fact that the EQA does look a little small and doesn’t have the sort of road presence that some of its rivals have. India’s car buyers have held that against way too many cars over a very long period of time. I am hoping they don’t hold it against the EQA.
Interior comfort
The EQ playbook is followed on the inside as well. The AC vents get a nice Rose gold finish, there is a panel adorned with illumination for the front passenger like on the EQB, and the seats are made out of sustainable materials (recycled PET bottles and vegan leather). The cabin in itself is the same as on the GLA and that’s no bad thing at all. Materials are nice to the touch in most places and they are put together well. The dash layout along with the infotainment and instrument cluster displays are carried over from the GLA and they continue to be good here as well. Space on offer is good at the front and at the rear as well. The front seat gets active kinetics and the seat itself is very supportive with good bolstering.
The presence of a battery pack at the back has meant that the floor has been raised and that can be felt at the back as you sit a little more knees-up. Not particularly troublesome but not exactly very comfortable either. There is ample boot space (though not class leading) and it is fairly easy to load and offload luggage.
Tech features in the EQA
All the cars in this segment and price range come well-equipped with features. Mercedes-Benz in particular has been setting the bar when it comes to the features that they offer on just about all of its cars. The EQA too sets the bar when it comes to tech on offer. The twin 10.25-inch screens are high-res and very responsive and are equipped with the latest MBUX software. A first in the segment, the EQA gets a heads-up display that shows you useful information like traffic signs, turn-by-turn navigation and more. There’s a good 360-degree camera, augmented reality-based navigation that overlays turn by turn navigation instructions on a camera feed that’s on the infotainment display, and park assist. I am not really sold on how useful AR-based navigation is, given that it doesn’t work with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. But it sure looks cool, and seems like an early preview of what navigation tech might look like in the future. There’s a blind spot monitor, and ADAS Level 1 which enables auto emergency braking. There is no adaptive cruise control.
Performance of the Mercedes-Benz EQA
I was driving the EQA a few short days after I had driven a competitor that a lot of people looking at the EQA would definitely be considering. And to me, the difference in performance was stark. The EQA gets 188hp of power and 385Nm of torque and those are respectable numbers. Over a few hours, we drove the EQA inside city limits on a busy weekday in Jaipur. In the few instances I got to accelerate hard for a brief period, I couldn’t help but remark that the EQA just doesn’t have the performance its rivals have. It does 0-100kmph in 8.6 seconds and gets to a top-speed of 160kmph and that might just be enough for just about everyone who intends to use it as a luxury car for the city. But I am not convinced it packs enough performance for a car that costs Rs. 70 lakh on road. A couple of days after I drove it, a fellow journalist remarked that the EQA has all the power you need, and he’s probably right. Most people don’t go looking for outright fun in their car.
I even had a conversation with one of the engineers behind the EQA, and he told me that the decision to not go with a EQA 300 4matic or even a 350 for India was in fact rooted in a desire to offer more features at a compelling price point. So that’s that then.
In terms of refinement, the EQA does a very good job with very little road and tyre noise audible inside the cabin at city speeds. The powertrain too goes about its business unobtrusively with the power delivered in a smooth, linear manner. The brakes however could have had a bit more feedback. They have enough and more bite but are not that easy to modulate when you are driving quickly.
Range and battery
The EQA gets a 70.5kWh battery pack that according to the WLTP is good for 560km on a full charge. In the real world, based on our time with the car, it should return 425-450km comfortably. And that is a very healthy number that allows the EQA to be positioned as something much much more than a pure city car. It also supports fast charging at 100kW. Mercedes-Benz’ growing EV network makes it very easy to plan something like a Mumbai-Goa trip with the EQA.
Ride and handling
Mercedes-Benz has got it right when it comes to the ride quality on the EQA. It rides well over broken sections, rounds out the edges of bumps and potholes and does it without too much body movement. The suspension setup then is tuned better than the EQB which had a bit of a hard edge to the ride. We weren’t able to venture out of the city to really test the handling, but initial impressions are positive. There wasn’t much lateral movement and like some recent Mercedes-Benz models, I expect it to settle in to a nice spot when it comes to the ride and handling balance. Driving in the city, its compact dimensions make it easy to manoeuvre and park in our crowded cities. The steering has a nice weight to it without feeling overbearing and the cameras and sensors allow you to make light work of crowded markets and tight parking spots alike.
Verdict
The EQA ticks all the right boxes. It will look good in yur parking lot, keep you comfortable, has all the tech and features you could ask for, has a large battery pack with good range, is compact and easy to drive and is relatively accessible for a Mercedes. At Rs. 66 lakh (ex-showroom) for a single fully-loaded variant, the EQA is also good value. What it doesn’t have however, is power on tap that could make it a fun car to drive through a winding narrow road. That’s all. That’s the only thing missing. If that isn’t a deal-breaker for you, the EQA could very well be perfect for you.
