Test Car Specifications
Model: 2026 Mercedes-Benz GLB 250+ Electric AMG Line Executive
Price: GLB range from £46,100, 250+ Electric AMG Line Executive from £51,050, car as tested £52,615
Motor: 200kW rear-mounted electric motor
Battery: 85kWh (usable) NMC lithium-ion
Transmission: two-speed reduction-gear automatic, rear-wheel drive
Power: 272hp
Torque: 335Nm
Emissions: 0g/km
Range: up to 362 miles
0-62mph: 7.4 seconds
Top speed: 130mph
Boot space: 145 litres all seats in use, 480 litres third-row seats folded down, 1,605 litres rows two and three folded down, 127 litres front boot
Max towing weight: 1,500kg (braked trailer)
Kerb weight: 2,200kg
Styling
You'd better be ready for an assault of three-pointed stars with the new Mercedes GLB Electric. Because they are everywhere. Not just in the usual places, such as for the goliath corporate emblem in the middle of the SUV's nose, or on the wheel centre-caps, or the bootlid, for instance. But there are 94 of them incorporated into what would otherwise be the radiator grille, if this wasn't an EV. In the Sky Control panoramic roof, there are another 158 of the things glittering down upon you. Grief, they're also incorporated into the front and rear light clusters, as well.
It's almost as if Mercedes is trying to hammer home the message that, with the GLB, you're definitely driving a Mercedes-Benz. And we get it, but we suspect this blunderbuss approach to festooning the SUV with stars might be perceived as overkill by some.
It also doesn't disguise the fact the GLB Electric is not exactly a looker. Having grown in every conceivable dimension save height (where the new one is 14mm lower) when compared with its GLB/EQB predecessor, in order to better accommodate seven people within, the boxy new Mercedes is more than 4.7 metres long and distinctly upright of proportions. It also wears the linked light clusters of the now-(or very-soon-to-be-)defunct line of EQ EVs from Benz, which somehow give it a strangely gawky look. So we'd stop a long way short of saying this GLB is in any way beautiful, and we guess quite a few observers would make up their minds along much the same lines too.
Interior
The cabin of the Mercedes GLB is utterly dominated by the Superscreen array and its housing, to the point there's not a lot else to talk about. In even its entry-level specifications, GLB Electric owners will enjoy a 10.25-inch driver's digital display alongside the main 14-inch MBUX infotainment interface, but higher grades and/or the options list can cob another 14-inch screen into the passenger-side dashboard, as well as a sizeable 12.2-inch head-up display for the driver. In fairness to Merc, all of this tech looks super-sharp and works well, but housing it in a trim panel that is effectively one slab-faced cliff of plastic and pixels is a potentially divisive decision.
Otherwise, material quality is good and the giant glasshouse of the GLB does make the interior properly light and airy, a sensation only enhanced by that vast star-studded pano roof up top. About our only other gripe in here is that the light, lined trim panels in the test car we were driving had (deliberately) mismatched patterns on them; so the surround for the central cupholders up front, for instance, had curved lines to the front on the passenger side and straight lines for the driver's half, and vice versa at the rear. We dunno, but it might just trigger your mild OCD, as it looks like they've been installed incorrectly at the factory.
Practicality
Kudos to Mercedes for cramming seven seats into an electric SUV which isn't a complete behemoth on the road, but you have to accept that the third-row seats are small enough that '5+2' is a much fairer assessment of the GLB's passenger-carrying capacity. Furthermore, with all 'seven' seats in use, there's just 145 litres of boot space behind the rear-most chairs in the Mercedes. Good news with this Electric, though - as it has no engine in EV format, the German firm jemmies a 127-litre 'froot' out of the otherwise-unused space under the GLB's bonnet.
Beyond that, 480 litres in five-seat format and up to 1,605 litres of space with both rows two and three of seating folded away are decent numbers from the GLB Electric, while storage solutions throughout the cabin are more than useful enough - although the cubby under the central armrest in the front is notably narrower and shallower in the GLB Electric than it can be in other zero-emission SUVs of a similar size.
Performance
While in other markets there is a 'lesser' Mercedes GLB Electric with a smaller battery pack of LFP chemistry, here in the UK the company is going to offer the SUV in two main zero-emission guises. The first is a single-motor derivative called the GLB 250+ Electric, which has a 272hp/335Nm motor mounted on the rear axle - so it's rear-driven, where any other Mk2 GLB with some form of internal-combustion engine onboard is in fact front-wheel drive, if not fitted with 4Matic AWD.
All GLB Electrics use, intriguingly enough, a two-speed reduction-gear transmission on the rear axle, which is a rare specification in the EV world even to this day; most prefer to use the cheaper single-speed set-up. Anyway, despite a kerb weight of 2.2 tonnes, the GLB 250+ Electric can run 0-62mph in just 7.4 seconds and goes on to a 130mph top speed as a result of that aforementioned 'gearbox' arrangement, while Mercedes claims a range of up to 392 miles is possible depending on wheel sizes. For our UK test AMG Line Executive car, that figure was set at 362 miles instead as it runs chunky 19-inch alloy wheels.
Above the 250+ is the dual-motor GLB 350 4Matic Electric, which - as its badging hints at - is an all-wheel-drive version of the Mercedes. Power climbs to 354hp and torque swells to 515Nm, trimming the 0-62mph time considerably to 5.5 seconds. You don't even lose a lot of range for that, because the company's maximum WLTP claim for this one is 381 miles, just 11 miles down on the 250+'s best figure.
Both these GLBs have a larger, 85kWh NMC battery than the LFP Electrics sold elsewhere in the world, while advanced 800-volt architecture results in a superb 320kW peak DC charging rate. That'll see the power pack go from 10-80 per cent charge on the GLB Electric in just 22 minutes, while a mere ten minutes of hook-up at the fastest speed should deliver around 160 miles of additional range.
In all honesty, while the performance of the 350 4Matic is nice (we got a brief go in one, while also driving the related CLA Shooting Brake Electric in that specification for longer), when it comes to the GLB then the 250+ provides perfectly sufficient urge for a family SUV like this. Throttle response is sweetly calibrated, as are the three levels of regenerative braking (basically off/coasting, medium and one-pedal) selected by using the paddles on the steering wheel, so making the Mercedes stop and go smoothly and in a fashion that won't obstruct traffic is effortless. About our only concern here is that if you mash the right-hand pedal when leaving 30mph zones, you can actually discern the moment where the two-speed gearbox switches between its ratios - this should really be a seamless switchover in an EV like this.
Ride & Handling
There's a wheel-size-related chassis difference in the Mercedes GLC Electric family and you unlock it by specifying any version on bigger than 19-inch alloys. Up to that point, the SUV will run on traditional springs and fixed-rate dampers; pop on a set of 20s, and adaptive shock absorbers enter the mix.
Having driven both the 250+ without them and the 350 4Matic with them, we'd be inclined to say go for the larger alloy wheels, even though the dampers are not startlingly transformative to the way the GLB goes down the road. What they do bring, however, is tauter vertical body control in the event of encountering large humps and compressions taken at speed in the SUV, so that the adaptively suspended version doesn't feel like it is hopping up and down on its tiptoes in the wake of such imperfections in the road surface. The passive chassis is occasionally a tad too bouncy for our liking, in other words.
But no matter how you spec the underpinnings of the GLB Electric, you're not going to get a thrilling drive. It's OK in the corners: grippy, blessed with rather effective and likeable steering, and not leaning terribly if you push it. Yet the Mercedes' significant kerb weight always comes to the fore, so that hustling it along a sinuous back road always feels like a slightly counterproductive and unseemly business.
It's much, much better just cruising along in a sumptuous manner, because the ride and refinement of the Electric is excellent - as you'd expect of a Benz. That said, there's nothing really about the driving experience of this GLB that feels, well, properly Mercedes-ish. If it weren't for that surfeit of three-pointed stars everywhere reminding you forcefully of the brand heritage everywhere you look, when you're behind the wheel of the SUV you could be in pretty much any other electric crossover of your choice (with a few notable exceptions). It's all a bit forgettable, you see, like the Mercedes has been polished so highly that any edge of defining character it might have possessed has been buffed away into the ether.
Value
As fully electric SUVs with seven seats onboard (no matter what you think of the tightness of row three in this machine) are fairly thin on the ground, the fact the Mercedes GLB Electric starts from £46,100 looks quite competitive. Obviously, our 250+ was the wrong side of 50 grand in AMG Line Executive spec with a bright colour splashed on its bodywork, so it's not what you'd call cheap. And those wanting the additional punch of the 350 4Matic will be looking at something more like £60,000 or thereabouts for this EV, so although the driving experience might not be very Benz-esque, the pricing surely is.
Verdict
An admirable effort at delivering a seven-seat, pure-electric, premium SUV with a reasonable road footprint and a price tag that's not excessive, the Mercedes GLB Electric is a clear step on from the EQB it supersedes. Long range and supremely comfortable, the only real issue with it is the unmemorable driving experience, but for many people the allure of the three-pointed star will simply be too much to resist. And, seeing as literally hundreds of the blinkin' things adorn the interior and exterior of this vehicle, then maybe the appeal of the GLB Electric will grab hold of those willing customers much sooner rather than later.
