Denza B8 vs Mercedes-Benz GLA35

What's the difference?

There’s a new name in the luxury upper-large SUV segment and it’s one many buyers will be unfamiliar with. Enter the Denza B8, a brand positioned to BYD much like Genesis is to Hyundai, or Lexus to Toyota.

The flagship B8 6S leans heavily into luxury, space and rugged, squared-off styling, but the big question is whether it does enough to stand out against established heavy hitters like the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series, Land Rover Defender and Audi Q7.

And then there’s the bigger question - do we actually need an XL SUV with a plug-in hybrid powertrain? More to the point, who exactly is this pitched at?

Fast SUVs, we can't get enough of them. The fastest of the small SUV set was the previous-generation GLA 45, a high-riding version of AMG's bonkers A-Class hatchback. Tons of power, more ride height (and, by extension, a better ride) and an obnoxious soundtrack.

It had its problems - the GLA was literally just a jacked up A-Class, so it had tight rear legroom and a chintzy interior but for me it was the pick of the two cars because it didn't rearrange your spine and, perversely, was more fun to drive.

This year, we got the second generation GLA which built on the success of the first GLA. While, yes, it is a jacked-up A-Class, it is much more of an actual SUV and with it comes more space, more of its own personality and, like its hatchback sibling, there's a new high-performance version, the GLA 35 to sit under the even more bonkers GLA 45.