Ford Transit Custom vs Mercedes-Benz Eqb350

What's the difference?

The Ford Transit Custom Trail has plenty of appeal as a work van or a camper fit-out candidate. It’s a well-packaged, comfortable and contemporary van that’s nice to drive and as a bonus, with all-wheel drive it’s given the scope of capability to be able to tackle mild off-roading situations with confidence.

It’s built for work and play and though it’s limited to two-up for travels, the Trail offers so much potential as a camper conversion for adventure seekers its few niggles are easily forgotten when you’re busy making memories.

I really liked the combustion version of this car, the GLB, for its funky style and flexibility and I was pleased to find how easily Mercedes has made the conversion to a fully-electric layout for the EQB.

Despite a tall price, the EQB 350 is a compelling option for those seeking something a bit more luxurious than the Tesla Model Y, something a bit larger than the Volvo XC40 Recharge, and something a bit smaller than the Audi e-tron or the EQC.

The main trade-off for this 350 variant is the loss of the seven-seat layout in favour of more performance. Instead it offers a huge boot, has a sufficient range for city-based buyers, and offers surprising levels of fun, too. 

Just make sure you’ve considered its rivals which may potentially offer more range or features for the same money.

It looks like a van but with some striking yet low-key flourishes that all kind of work as a whole. Those include a Trail grille and the matt black alloy wheels. The yellow sticker-pack is a neat touch.

The Trail has more presence than a regular Trend with its 30mm-taller raised suspension and overall adventure-ready look with strong front end and chunky wheel arches.

The striking but low-key theme continues inside with a neatly laid-out yet spartan cabin. The two synthetic leather seats are topped with Trail embossing and lined with yellow stitching.

The cabin is separated from the rear cargo area by a bulkhead, which incorporates a small wired window.

The EQB has a very predictable design in that it doesn't stray from the combustion car’s formula. At all.

The only evidence from the outside this is the electric version is the blanked out grille, and closer observers might notice the rear light bar which cuts across the boot lid is different from the split tail-light design which appears on the combustion car.

Still, to my eyes, the GLB is a cool design with its upright boxy look bucking the curvaceous trend of most EVs, and, indeed, the rest of the Mercedes line-up. 

Its rebellious streak makes it one of the most appealing SUVs in Mercedes’ current range, and it comes with a bit of toughness which is missing from the EQA. 

If nothing else, it’s a completely different look from Tesla’s amorphous Model Y, and this may be enough to appeal to some.

Inside is identical to other Mercedes models which sit on the MFA2 small car platform, immediately setting itself apart with the big high-resolution screens, glitzy ambient lighting, as well as an abundance of chrome and gloss black.

It’s designed to impress from the first time you hop in, and there’s no doubt it does, but it may be a bit over-the-top for some, particularly fans of the more conservative Mercedes designs of eras past.

The chrome in particular becomes a bit of a problem, as it has an annoying habit of catching the reflection of the sun and sending it directly into the driver’s eyes.

It all feels as plush as a circa-$100,000 luxury car should though, with the ‘Artico’ seat trim being one of the better synthetic options on the market, and soft-touch surfaces throughout the cabin selling the Mercedes promise. 

The GLB toughness is even reflected in the chiselled out finishes in the door, dash, and centre console, helping to set it apart from the tamer EQA.

The software is also fast, high resolution, and well presented, which bodes well given the amount of screen real-estate, and the amount of customization is impressive, too.

Again, there are many who will prefer its look and feel to the Apple-store chic of the Tesla Model Y, or the pared back Scandinavian approach of the XC40 Recharge, but also those who won’t. Like many new Mercedes products, it continues to polarise buyers.

It’s a van so there are two distinct sections to the Trail, the cabin and the load space.

Firstly, the cabin. More a work-friendly than family-friendly interior, this Trail is a two-seater with plenty of durable plastic everywhere – ready for work and life – as well as charging (with USB-A and -C ports) and storage (including a van-favourite dash-top slot for logbooks etc, outboard moulded cupholders and a nifty pop-out cupholder), all amenities enough to cope with most daily van-related duties.

The seats are comfortable, supportive and have a fold-down lock-in-place armrest.

Now for the load space. There are no seats back there and as such it has plenty of potential as a work van or touring vehicle.

Access to the rear load space is via a barn door at the back and this Trail has a sliding door on both sides.

The cargo area is substantial – 3002mm long (to the bulkhead; 3450mm long if load-through hatch is used), 1392mm wide (between wheel arches) and 1425mm high (floor to roof). Easily big enough for work equipment or recreational gear. It can cope with four Euro pallets (each measuring 1200mm x 800mm) and it has a listed maximum load volume (with the bulkhead) of 6.8 cubic metres.

Load height through the rear barn doors is 531-585mm, depending on how much weight is already onboard.

The load space has the aforementioned metal bulkhead (with window and load-through hatch), load area protection kit (full height walls and moulded floor), LED lights and eight tie-down loops.

Otherwise, this is a load area ripe for customisation. Maybe a plethora of shelves for a tradie, or some bedding and extra storage for an adventurous person or couple.

This should be the GLB’s calling card. It’s a car with an ideal footprint, not as wide or as long as most mid-size SUVs, whilst also offering a larger cabin and boot.

The big drawback for this variant in particular is the lack of a seven-seat option, as the all-wheel drive requires the under-floor space which is required to give rear occupants legroom. 

It’s a shame, too, because I found the two rear seats in this car’s GLB combustion equivalent to be surprisingly accommodating for even adults.

As a result of these missing seats, though, the full volume can be exploited in the boot, which comes in at a whopping 495 litres.

It’s rivalled by the Model Y, which also has a cavernous boot, although it has a much larger storage area than the Volvo XC40. 

As an added bonus, there is a decent under-floor storage area which has enough space for all your charging cables, although there is no so-called ‘frunk’ with what is normally the engine bay taken up by cooling and auxiliary hardware. 

At first glance there’s so much going on under there, you’d be forgiven for thinking the EQB has an actual engine!

The cabin is also enormous as well as configurable. The EQB has massive rear doors (as it’s designed to be a seven-seater) to make it easy to get in and out of, and once you’re settled in, the amount of space for me (at 182cm) behind my own driving position is very impressive, with ample leg, arm, and headroom.

Rear passengers score the same nice synthetic leather seat and door trim as the front passengers, a bottle holder in each door, as well as two in a flip-out caddy on the drop-down armrest, two nets on the backs of the front seats, dual adjustable air vents, and power outlets on the back of the console. There is also a separate section of the split sunroof to benefit those in the back seat.

Up front the cabin is equally flexible, although it immediately seems odd that the front seats are manually adjustable. Almost unforgivable in a $100,000 car. 

At least the trim is comfortable, and again, the space is configurable for people of all shapes and sizes. 

Storage options include large bins in each door, a split-opening armrest console with USB-C outlets inside, a slide-open area underneath the climate unit, which houses a wireless phone charger and additional power outlets, as well as the usual glove box arrangement. 

Soft trims continue into the doors, although one small annoyance is the excess of chrome trim which has the unfortunate habit of reflecting harsh Australian sun into your eyes if it hits at the wrong angle.

The software is nice and quick, but can be cumbersome and over-complicated to operate at times, particularly when using the centre touchpad, or adjusting the dash with the small touch elements on the wheel. 

It is also notable the Apple CarPlay as-tested only took up a centre portion of the screen, and is not set-up for widescreen mode to take full advantage of the hardware.

Minor complaints aside, though, the EQB follows its combustion GLB twin in having by far one of the most flexible and configurable cabins in its class.

The EQB range kicks off from $87,800, before on-road costs, for the base 250, but the car we’re looking at for this review is the top-spec 350 4Matic, which wears a price-tag of $106,700.

There’s no doubt it’s a hefty price, even for an EV, and especially for a sort-of ‘small’ SUV. There’s more to consider, too. As I mentioned in the intro, the all-wheel drive system precludes the seven-seat layout in this top-spec car, and it has less range than the front-wheel drive model, too, dropping from 371km to 360km.

On the upswing, the dual-motor powertrain is far preferable to the so-so front-wheel drive option, and the 350 also gains an AMG-spiced bodykit and flat-bottomed steering wheel, as well as a panoramic sunroof.

Outside of the extra flair, the EQB 350 is almost as well equipped as you could hope, with the flashy dual-10.25-inch 'MBUX' screen set-up, Nappa leather steering wheel and interior appointments with Mercedes’ signature 'Artico' synthetic seat trim, LED headlights, ambient interior lighting with fully customisable RGB controls, dual-zone climate, a wireless phone charger, 20-inch alloy wheels, as well as keyless entry and push-start ignition.

Given the EQB’s dimensions it would seem its most direct rival is the Tesla Model Y, although it may not be a favourable comparison. 

At over $100,000 the EQB 350 is still more expensive than the top-spec Model Y Performance, which is even more powerful than our Merc here.

Other more indirect rivals include the Volvo XC40 Recharge (from $74,490 in twin-motor form), or less performance-oriented Lexus UX300e ($80,691 for the top-spec Sports Luxury), although neither are as large as the EQB, and the Lexus has about half the performance.

The Ford Transit Custom Trail has a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine producing 125kW at 3500rpm and 390Nm at 1750-2500rpm.

The Trail has a clever eight-speed automatic transmission and an on-demand all-wheel drive system.

It all works rather well, but it’s a van afterall and as such it is less dynamic and more dependably driveable than perhaps a cross-shopped SUV wagon. However, as an AWD van the Trail can be trusted to keep its grip on wet bitumen, soggy grass and loosely-gravelled tracks and that’s a strong part of its appeal over a 2WD van.

While the EQB 350 loses its valuable third-row seats, it gains a much more impressive drivetrain than the lesser EQB 250 variant. 

While that car has a so-so front-motor set-up producing 140kW/385Nm, the top-spec 350 sports a much more capable 215kW/520Nm dual-motor system.

This allows a 0-100km/h sprint time of 6.2 seconds, and while it’s not as fast as the entry-level Tesla Model 3, it’s still impressive for a 2153kg SUV.

The all-wheel drive capability also adds a level of confidence which can’t be matched by a front-drive, more on this in the driving section of this review.

The Ford Transit Custom Trail has an official combined cycle (urban/extra-urban) fuel consumption figure of 8.5L/100km. On this test I recorded 8.8L/100km.

The Trail has a 70-litre fuel tank so going by my on-test fuel figure you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 795km from a full tank of diesel. However, as with any vehicle, once you’ve loaded the Trail with real-world burdens (e.g kids, dogs, camping gear, etc) you’ll soon see that fuel consumption increase.

Regardless of which version of the EQB is chosen, the SUV has a 66.5kWh lithium-ion battery pack, and in the case of our all-wheel drive 350, this grants it a 360km WLTP-rated driving range between charges.

My car was reporting around 350km of range at or near a full charge, while my week of testing produced a dash-reported consumption figure of just 18.2kWh/100km.

This is surprising for two reasons. Firstly, I subjected the EQB 350 to a significant amount of freeway testing during my time with it, which usually produces worse consumption numbers for EVs, but it actually bested its official 21.0kWh/100km official figure by a decent margin.

Secondly, I’m puzzled to find this car outperformed the smaller and lighter EQA 250 I had on test in 2021 in terms of overall consumption, and by a significant margin. Very odd.

When it comes to charging up, the EQB can be charged at a rate of 100kW on a fast DC charger, for a 10-80 per cent charge time in a claimed 30 minutes. 

On the slower but cheaper-to-install AC standard, the EQB has an 11kW inverter, allowing a convenient ‘slow’ charge time of 4.1 hours. Expect between 25 and 30 hours on a standard wall socket.

It’s easy to get in and out of the Trail’s driver seat with a wide-opening door and a big step to help you inside.

The seats are comfortable and it’s simple enough to dial-in your driving position via the tilt-and-reach adjustable steering wheel and manually-adjustable seat.

Word of warning: the auto transmission is operated via a stalk mounted on the right-hand side of the steering wheel column, which takes some getting used to.

Once underway, the Trail is punchy enough around town and in the suburbs with its 2.0L 'EcoBlue' turbo-diesel engine offering a more-than-adequate amount of power and torque (125kW and 390Nm) and its clever auto helping out with nifty moves through traffic (for a van, anyway).

Visibility is impressive from the cabin and you’re afforded a convenient vantage point with the Trail standing a bit taller than its regular Transit Custom stablemates as it’s on lifted suspension, but feeling composed on most surfaces.

The Trail has a listed kerb weight of 2046kg and a turning circle of 12.1m, pretty standard for a long wheelbase van, so this is not an insubstantial vehicle and it’s a bit tricky to 'flip a u-ee' if the situation demands it.

It has six drive modes – 'Normal', 'Eco', 'Slippery', 'Tow/Haul', 'Sport', 'Trail' – which each adjust engine torque, throttle response and traction control, among other things, to suit the road surface and conditions.

But we’re all here to see how it goes off-road, aren’t we?

Well, obviously this is no rock-crawling machine and it’s not intended to be. It’s best thought of as having an all-wheel drive system that gives this van mild off-road capabilities, as in it can tackle wet bitumen, soggy grass, lightly corrugated bush tracks and very shallow mud puddles with more confidence than the Transit Custom Trend it's based on.

In a nutshell, the AWD Trail will be able to handle most low-level traction-compromised scenarios. But it does not have enough ground clearance, wheel articulation, grip or underbody protection to tackle any terrain beyond modest off-roading.

Speaking of grip, the Trail as standard rides on Bridgestone Duravis R660 (215/65 R16) rubber, a van/light truck commercial tyre and they are not so well suited to dirt tracks and the like. Grippier all-terrain tyres would help this van perform slightly better off-road than on its showroom rubber.

In its favour, the Trail has a front skid plate and underbody protection in case it cops some knock from the ground during its adventures.

Not in its favour, however, especially as a potential touring vehicle, is the fact it has a space-saver spare wheel and tyre.

If you’re thinking of using your Trail as a tourer, it’s worth knowing payload is listed as 1179kg, maximum braked trailer towing capacity is 2500kg, Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) is 3225kg and GCM is 5725kg.

This is where the 350 version of the EQB shines. This car is a beast to drive with plenty of power available at your right foot, and incredible amounts of traction to match from its torque-vectored all-wheel drive system. 

This lets it be rapid, but not scary, and despite its square and upright body, might surprise you when it comes to carving a few corners.

Like many EVs, the EQB’s weight feels low and centred, but it appears the suspension has been adjusted to remove any bouncy quality, which might come with the additional weight added over the combustion variants, with nearly 500kg of lithium batteries under the floor.

In fact, the ride is also one of the things which impressed me most about the EQB. It even has huge 20-inch AMG wheels, yet it dealt with bumps of all shapes and sizes in an impressive manner, keeping the body under control, and communicating remarkably little in terms of vibration or unpleasantness into the cabin.

The steering offes a nice balance of feel and electrical assistance, a trait which combines with the EQB’s convenient size to make for an easy SUV to park and manoeuvre.

When it comes to the EQB’s traits as an electric car, there are several modes available to alter the experience. 

Using the paddle shifters, there are several regenerative braking settings to choose from. While none of them are a ‘single pedal’ mode, the D- mode is pretty strong, and clearly contributed to the EQB’s surprisingly good energy consumption in my time with the car.

Activating D+ mode, which can be combined with a sporty driving setting, tones down the regenerative setting almost completely and feels as though it unleashes more potential from the potent electric motors. 

While the sportier settings made the 2WD EQA I tested last year feel a little twitchy and prone to wheelspin, the all-wheel drive system keeps this well under control in the larger EQB for impressive acceleration characteristics.

The breadth of this SUV’s ability is perhaps its most impressive attribute. It can feel comfortable and tame around town, with alarming speed and tenacity when attacking the open road should you so desire. 

Sure, it’s not as whiplash-inducing as some of its rivals, particularly the Volvo XC40 Recharge or Tesla Model Y, but for a luxury SUV like this it’s more than what you could ask for. 

The EQB scores a thorough suite of active safety equipment including freeway-speed auto emergency braking (7.0-200km/h), lane keep assist with lane departure warning, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, as well as one of the best adaptive cruise systems on the market.

In the event of an impact, the EQB scores dual front, side, and head curtain airbags (the side and curtain bags cover both rows) as well as a driver’s knee airbag. There are the usual dual outboard ISOFIX child seat mounting points on the rear row, as well as three top-tether points.

The EQB scored a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating to the current 2022 standards, but this rating only covers the base 250 variant. It scored highly across all criteria.

Ford’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty applies to the Trail.

Servicing is set down for every 12 months or 30,000km and capped-price servicing is offered. Four scheduled services will set you back $2000 (including a brake fluid change at year three) which isn't over the top for a vehicle of this type.

Ford Australia has about 195 independent Ford dealers in Australia, with many located in metropolitan or suburban areas.

Mercedes offers a five year and unlimited kilometre warranty, with five years of roadside assist. The high-voltage battery components are also covered by a separate and industry-standard eight-year and 160,000km warranty.

Service intervals are once every 12 months or 25,000km and the service plan costs an average of $440 a year for the life of the warranty which is expensive for an EV, especially considering Polestar offers free servicing for the first five years, and Volvo’s electric offerings are around half the cost over the same period.