Styling
Mercedes' recent fetish for its own world-famous corporate emblem seems to have abated somewhat with the GLC Electric, which is notably less star-studded than vehicles such as the
CLA Shooting Brake and
GLB compact seven-seater. Sure, the GLC still has the three-pointed motifs in its lamp clusters fore and aft, but the grille here isn't festooned with the glittery little devils. Instead, it's an 'Iconic' item.
Presumably supposed to make you think of glorious gunsight-topped Benz radiator shields from the distant past - such as you'd find on the snout of the W123, for example - the Iconic grille here remains a light-up item. Apparently, 942 polycarbonate backlit dots do the work of making this appendage glow at night, if you're into the techy side of things. Oh, and Mercedes still gets its quotient of heavenly bodies into the styling somewhere: there are 162 illuminated stars integrated into the full-length pano roof up top on the GLC Electric.
Overall, we're not entirely sure the Mercedes electric SUV is what you'd call out-and-out beautiful, but it's certainly not ugly either. The body is nice and slippery for aerodynamic purposes (Cd: 0.26), it looks good in grander AMG Line and above specifications with the meatier front bumpers, the wheels can be whopping 21-inch items to balance off the shape, and there are some good, strong colours available for the GLC Electric, including striking Manufaktur Patagonia Red.
Interior
A high-quality cabin is the hallmark of a good Mercedes and, thankfully, the one in the GLC Electric is a belter which lives up to its manufacturer's reputation. It is, like the other EVs in the marque's current portfolio, dominated by the MBUX Hyperscreen dashboard, a great, monolithic edifice housing three digital screens: 10.3 inches for the cluster, and 14 each for the main infotainment and the passenger display, in our range-topping Premium Edition test car. With 8K resolution, it does look fantastic and it works well enough, with a healthy range of configurability and fine controls, but we understand that this digital overload won't be to all tastes - especially when there's a head-up display for the driver loaded on top of all this dash-based technology.
Luckily, the plush, accommodating seats and sense that everything in here is made of top-notch materials should mitigate any concerns you might have about the GLC Electric's cabin. There are also useful stowage solutions dotted all around the interior, including deep and sculpted door pockets, a central cubby beneath the armrest, and one of those under-dash areas with USB-C sockets sequestered within.
Practicality
Aside from the touches we mentioned above regarding stashing your clobber in the cabin, the Mercedes GLC Electric has a wheelbase knocking on the door of three metres long. This, as you'd expect, results in a wonderfully generous amount of legroom in the back of the SUV, while there's also more than adequate headroom too, despite the inclusion of that panoramic roof. The floor in the rear footwell isn't quite flat for its full width, but it's not far off as the central hump is very low, so it looks like you might actually be able to get three people sitting abreast on the rear bench.
The main boot at the back of the GLC rates at 520 litres with all seats in use, which is decent. It has a variable-height floor, so you can configure the load bay just how you want it, while there are various functions and features to make life easier for end users (buttons to raise and lower the rear air suspension if fitted, switches to drop the back seats from the open tailgate area, hooks and lashing eyes and 12-volt sockets and so on). If you drop the 40:20:40 split-folding rear bench down, up to 1,690 litres of cargo capacity is provided, while there's even a 'frunk/froot' under the bonnet serving up another 128 litres of volume - being an ideal place for stashing the EV's charging cables, for instance.
Performance
As at the time of writing this review, Mercedes is offering just the one powertrain for the GLC Electric, which is the 400 4Matic. Handily, it's a dual-motor gem, the PSM units on each axle generating 360kW between them. In PS, that's actually 489.6hp, but Mercedes is being dignified and saying the car peaks at 489hp, rather than rounding it up to 490hp as it legitimately could. Anyway, backing this up is 800Nm of torque, while the NMC battery fitted into the chassis is a 94kWh usable affair.
All told, it results in a vehicle which weighs 2,655kg, a not-inconsiderable amount of mass. Despite this, though, it'll run 0-62mph in just 4.3 seconds, while its unusual two-speed reduction-gear transmission is designed to give it a higher V-max than most EVs, should you require it - the Merc will top out at 130mph. And yet it can also go the best part of 400 miles to a charge, 395 being the exact figure for a flagship Premium Edition like our car on the biggest 21-inch wheels; ultimately, on a set of 20s, the GLC Electric can achieve a theoretical 406 miles without needing to visit a charging point.
These are impressive figures, if viewed in isolation. But there are specifications of both the BMW iX3 and the Volvo EX60 which'll get closer to 500 miles, on paper, rather than 400, so maybe the Mercedes is a little undersold in this department. It does, however, have 330kW DC charging capabilities as a result of its 800-volt architecture, leading to a 22-minute 10-80 per cent replenishment time of its battery pack. As standard, it comes with 11kW AC charging but, for a grand, you can up that to 22kW and trim a 0-100 per cent top-up at home to just four-and-a-half hours. Bear in mind, though, that at the other end of the AC scale, a typical 7.4kW domestic wallbox is going to need something in excess of 13 hours to do the same job.
Anyway, back to the Mercedes' on-road performance. It's swift. Like, stupidly swift, for something so hulking. But the calibration of its power delivery is neatly done, so that it doesn't jam your head back into the seat's restraint if you slap the throttle down suddenly. Instead, it simply finds masses of traction from its 4Matic system and shoots off effortlessly down the road, build pace in a linear and most pleasing fashion.
A system called One-Box helps with the other side of pace management, as it aims to serve up natural and progressive pedal feel for the brakes. There are three levels of regen to pick from, using the GLC's steering wheel paddles (so go for strong, normal or off), and no matter which one you're in, the way the SUV slows down feels organic and reassuring.
Thus, no problems with the motive power of the Mercedes GLC Electric, nor with its stopping prowess. What we're not quite so convinced by is the Sound Experience. These are a selection of six compositions you can pick from to overlay the performance of the big EV, and they're given some truly wacky names: Silver Waves, Vivid Flux, Roaring Pulse, Serene Breeze, Fractal Fusion, Granular Fuzz. No; honestly.
Now, one of Mercedes' arch-rivals does something similar, because you have to hear both Expressive and Relax in something like a
BMW iX to believe them - they're brilliant, by the way. But that's because they were rustled up by none other than Hans Zimmer, a man who has produced haunting, ethereal and award-winning scores for a whole host of famous films.
We know Mercedes worked with will.i.am on Sound Drive, but that was a system where a Mercedes-AMG
was the musical instrument. This Sound Experience is different and was developed in-house, and it's a... less-successful affair, if we're honest. There's some amusement to listening to the horror-movie background music synths of Granular Fuzz, or the strange thudding bass of Roaring Pulse, but these 'tunes' are the acoustic embodiment of gimmickry. Because we think that you, like us, will try these six things once or twice, and then never use them again. It's far preferable to have the GLC Electric whirring along in its quietest mode.
Ride & Handling
Mercedes has long had a tradition of prioritising exemplary ride comfort and refinement over any sort of dynamic acuity, and if there's anywhere that ethos is going to be a massive success, then it's in a large, hefty, electric SUV. Good news, then, as the GLC Electric is a dream to travel in. It's so silkily smooth as it traverses all manner of road surfaces, at all road speeds, that you can't help but be delighted to be in it. Major kudos, too, for the rolling refinement. At one point travelling at very high velocity, we had to double-check the speedometer because both the wind and tyre noise on the Mercedes didn't seem to have increased at all, in line with the supposed rate at which we were now thundering along.
Perhaps the only (admittedly) moderate warning we'd give here is that our Premium Edition had the optional £2,500 Refinement Package fitted. This equips the SUV with both Airmatic air suspension and four-wheel steering, so we don't know quite how a passively sprung example would feel at this stage - we'll have to sample one later and report back. Nevertheless, apart from a very minor lateral shimmy that manifests in Comfort mode, which can be eradicated with no great loss to the overall supreme cushiony softness of the GLC Electric by putting the air springs into their Sport setting (either by selecting Sport itself, or setting it up to do so in the customisable Individual programme), we have precious little to fault about this Mercedes EV's genial manners and masses to praise.
You're now immediately imagining that it's not much fun to drive, as a form of payoff for all this kinematic sophistication. And, true, it isn't thrilling. If you need a sharper-steering electric SUV, both the iX3 and the Macan Electric can provide a better behind-the-wheel experience, which is an age-old story of both BMW and Porsche always trying to engage their drivers more than Mercedes has ever usually attempted to with its own clientele.
But there's no way you could call the GLC Electric's handling bad. In fact, it's suitably polished, with plenty of grip, positive and well-weighted steering, and minimal body roll - there is some squidge and lean, but only an informative amount, rather than detrimental wallow - so that you can hammer the Mercedes down a twisting road and through higher-speed flick-flack corner combinations without fear that it will become unruly in the process. It's maybe not that memorable or invigorating to do so, granted, but it's more than capable of such behaviour when pressed. And, best of all, it never feels like it is 2.65 tonnes of German engineering while it is going about its handling business.
Value
The GLC Electric range in the UK starts from just beyond 60 grand for the entry level of five specifications, which is Sport. You don't have to skimp on kit here, as this version of the Mercedes EV comes with 20-inch multispoke alloys, heat- and noise-insulating privacy glass, LED high-performance headlamps with Active Highbeam Assist, heated comfort seats, Thermatic two-zone climate control, wireless smartphone charging, and the Parking Package, among more.
From there, you step up through three different levels of AMG-related trims, which are AMG Line, AMG Line Premium and then AMG Line Premium Plus. The Premier Edition, which we've run the rule over here, is pretty much fully loaded, but it's £73,350 basic and there was still the financial space to add another £4,500 of optional kit to it, bringing the grand total to just 150 quid shy of £78,000. So, not inexpensive. But then, when was the last time any Mercedes was able to be legitimately tagged as such?
Verdict
There are lots of very good, premium, long-range, zero-emission SUVs on the market right now, but the excellent Mercedes GLC Electric is one of the best - mainly because it decides to offer up unmatched comfort and refinement at the expense of being the last word in driver involvement. Yet despite deciding to eschew the sharpest of chassis, it's still properly rapid, it has long legs and ultra-fast recharging times, the cabin is superb, it looks appealing enough on the outside, and it's a pleasure to travel in. For all these reasons, we reckon this brilliant machine is easily Mercedes' most convincing all-round EV package it has delivered to market so far.
