Mercedes-Benz Eqb350 vs Holden Acadia

What's the difference?

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.

The Holden Acadia is a proper seven-seater SUV in that it will fit adults in the third row without turning your friends into enemies. It’s also practical and well fitted out with storage places and utilities such as USB ports.

I was particularly impressed with the advanced safety equipment on-board even at this entry LT level. Yes, it’s a V6 petrol and it’s not the most fuel-efficient SUV, but our time with it showed that with cylinder deactivation and the stop-start system it might not be as thirsty as you’d think.

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.

To fully understand the look of the Acadia, take a peek at the GMC website - but make sure you shield your eyes in the same way you would during a solar eclipse, or when welding, or in an atomic blast.

You’ll understand when you get there but suffice it to say contained within the site are some pretty confronting trucks and SUVs. Once you’ve recovered, you’ll realise the Acadia is the supermodel of the GMC family.

Yep, it has a big, blocky, truck-like look but it’s a refreshingly tough styling alternative to more elegant looking SUVs such as the Mazda CX-9.

The Acadia is also one of the smallest members of the GMC family, yet its dimensions position it as a large SUV in Australia. Even then it’s not huge compared to other large SUVs here, so you won’t have an issue piloting it in Aussie car parks or fitting into spaces.

The Acadia measures 4979mm end-to-end, 2139mm across (with the mirrors out) and 1762mm tall.

Along with the Mazda CX-9 the Acadia would also consider the Kia Sorento and Nissan Pathfinder to be among its rivals.

Inside, the Acadia is a modern and stylish looking place, although it’s a bit unrefined. Still, as one YouTube commenter reminded me parents will like the wipe clean surfaces.

Well her comment wasn’t written that politely but being a parent, I concur that the hard plastics have that advantage.

The interior is not all unrefined. The seats, even in the entry grade LT we tested, while cloth (and only available in Jet Black) are sculptured with bolsters and finished with a textured pattern that looks and feels great.

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 Acadia’s practicality game is strong. It boasts seven seats with third row positions actually able to fit adults, five USB ports sprinkled through the cabin, and a cargo capacity of 1042 litres with the third-row seats folded flat and 292 litres with them in place. If you have three kids, even teenagers, the Acadia could be the perfect family personnel carrier for you.

All three rows are spacious and even at 191cm tall I had good shoulder and elbow room up front, and in the second and third rows I had enough legroom to sit in each seat behind my seating position without feeling cramped.

Feeling a bit down because you might not be able to stretch the budget to get the LTZ-V? Well, cheer up – the LT has more headroom and that’s because it doesn’t get the sunroof which eats into the ceiling height.

Cabin storage is excellent. There’s a wide and deep centre console bin, a hidey hole in front of the shifter, a tray for second row passengers, six cup holders (two in each row) and decent-sized door pockets.

Directional air vents for everybody on board, three-zone climate control, two 12-volt power outlets, privacy glass and proximity unlocking complete a great practicality package.

The front-wheel drive Acadia LT lists for $43,490, which is $4500 less than the all-wheel drive version.

The standard features list includes 18-inch alloy wheels, roof rails, LED running lights, three-zone climate control, proximity key, rear parking sensors, Bluetooth connectivity, six-speaker stereo, 8.0-inch screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, noise cancellation, dual chrome exhaust tips, privacy glass and cloth seats.

The value is pretty darn good here and you’re not missing out on much by not stepping up to the $10K more LTZ grade, apart from wireless charging, and power and heated leather front seats.

The Acadia costs about the same as the Pathfinder ST but is better value; about $500 more than the entry grade Kia Sorento Si; but undercuts Mazda’s CX-9 Sport by about $3K.

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.

All Acadias come with a 3.6-litre V6 petrol engine which makes big dollops of power and torque or 231kW (at 6600rpm) and 367Nm (at 5000rpm).

A nine-speed automatic swaps gears, and in the case of our two-wheel drive LT test car the drive went to the front wheels only.

The V6 gets the thumbs up for its stop-start fuel saving system and cylinder deactivation, plus good acceleration and the smooth power delivery you’d associate with a naturally aspirated engine, but a thumbs down for needing to rev hard to make that mumbo.

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.

We were surprised by the Acadia’s fuel efficiency. After filling up the tank I drove for 136.9km on a combination of hilly country roads and peak hour evening city traffic and then filled up again – only 13.98 litres were used. That’s a mileage of 10.2L/100km. The official combined consumption figure is 8.9L/100km.

So, while the engine is big and not particularly new (it’s an evolution of the V6 built by Holden in Australia for the Commodore) it does have fuel-saving tech like cylinder deactivation and a stop-start system – which you can’t switch off.

Still, not the most fuel-efficient seven-seater – those with turbos and smaller capacity engines such as Mazda CX-9 are truly amazing in the way they can deliver grunt without getting thirsty.

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. 

I drove the Holden Acadia back-to-back with the Nissan Pathfinder – you can watch the model comparison in the video above, but the upshot of that experience was important.

See, while I wasn’t a major fan of the Acadia driving experience when I first met the SUV at its Australian launch in 2018, when I drove it straight after the Pathfinder the difference was like night and day.

The Acadia is comfortable, from the big seats to the smooth ride. If you’re covering a stack of territory the Acadia makes a great highways cruiser and will chomp up big distances  effortlessly.

That V6 does need to rev hard, but it’s powerful and acceleration is swift, while the nine-speed automatic shifts pretty seamlessly. Noise cancelling tech keeps the cabin fairly serene, too.

Look, it’s not the most dynamic of SUVs and there was a bit of tyre chirp in the corners when pushed, but this isn’t a performance car and nor is it trying to be.

Small windows mean a cooler, tough look, but the downside is a dark cabin and occasionally visibility is limited by the A-pillars or out the rear windows.

A 2000kg braked towing capacity will rule the Acadia out for many thinking of pulling a large caravan or big boat. The Pathfinder’s 2700kg braked towing capacity is a strength of that SUV.

Do you need all-wheel drive? Nope, but it’s handy for dirt and gravel roads. Still the 198mm ground clearance with only front-wheel drive should see you get down bumpy roads that regular sedans couldn’t handle.

The Acadia was given a maximum five-star ANCAP rating when it was tested in 2018 and even the entry-level LT we tested is equipped with an outstanding amount of advanced safety equipment.

Standard on the LT is AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane keeping assistance with lane departure warning, lateral impact avoidance, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, rear seat passenger reminder and airbags which extend all the way to cover the third row.

Now, you should know the driver’s seat vibrates if your parking sensors detect you coming close to an object. Yup, it’s weird. If that’s not your thing you can go into the screen’s menu and change that to an audible ‘beep’. I’m more a ‘beep’ kind of driver.

A space-saver spare wheel is under the boot floor and I’d advise you to familiarise yourself with how to access it (it’s a bit tricky) in daylight before (or if ever) you’ll need to use it for real.

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.

The Acadia is covered by Holden’s five year/unlimited kilometre warranty.

Servicing is recommended every 12 months or 12,000km. Expect to pay $259 for the first service, $299 for the second, $259 for the third, $359 for the fourth and $359 again for the fifth.