Mercedes-Benz Eqb350 vs McLaren 750S

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.

Not just a love letter to the intoxicating delights of the mighty V8 engine, the McLaren 750S is a genuine joy across the board.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

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.

McLaren concedes the cosmetic updates for the 750S are “relatively subtle”, but there have been some key changes.

The front bumper and splitter are new, as is the rear bumper, while the rear wing is now bigger, with 20 per cent more surface area.

Also at the back, a new (and lighter, of course) stainless steel exhaust is now centre-exit, rather than off to either side.

Like the 720S before it, the 750S looks more like a statement of intent than a designer’s dream, with aerodynamic function over form the order of the day.

In the cabin, you’re looking at two sports seat, a grippy Alcantara steering wheel, and two relatively small screens by today’s sizeable standards.

You can have your cabin trim in full Nappa leather, or the leather mixed with Alcantara, and the audio is taken care of by Bowers & Wilkins.

Still, the 750S delivers everything you need and nothing you don’t in a car in this category.

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.

Next question, please. This is a stripped-back, lightweight, two-seat supercar designed to get you to, and then around, a corner in the least amount of time possible. So, no, you can’t fit much in the way of grocery shopping in the back.

You can, however fit a total 150 litres (front) and 210 litres (rear) in the 750S, and it gets bonus points for having deep cut-outs in the roof that make slipping in under those scissor doors far easier than you might expect.

The McLaren 750S can be yours in hardtop ($585,800) or drop-top Spider ($654,600) guises, both of which have travelled north from the pricing applied to the 720S, which was $489,900 at launch, and its Spider equivalent, which was $556,000.

What you’re getting, though, is more — and less— of everything. More power, more performance, more downforce and more stiffness, combined with less weight, with McLaren having taken a forensic approach to stripping kilos from the 750S.

What you're not getting, though, is much in the way of niceties, with the McLaren 750S offering less interior tech and comforts than a mid-range hatchback (“it now has Apple CarPlay,” they exclaimed excitedly).

But for mine, that only enhances the drive experience, with the 750S offering a genuinely pure-feeling drive — a steering wheel free of buttons, a cabin largely free of distractions, no safety chimes bonging, and a nuclear reactor attached to your right foot. These are all good things.

Elsewhere, the McLaren 750S rides on ultra-lightweight forged alloy wheels (19-inch front / 20-inch rear) wrapped in Pirelli P Zero rubber as standard, and there are thinly cushioned carbon-fibre-shelled racing seats that hold you snuggly in place, and are every bit as comfortable on bumpier roads as cuddling a cactus.

In the cabin, McLaren has worked to up the tech, though its best to remember this is pared-back over plush.

A steering column-mounted driver display is new, and delivers all your key driving info, and it’s framed by all your go-to switches, like your 'Drive Mode' options. 

In the centre, an 8.0-inch portrait-style screen now has Apple CarPlay as standard (but not Android Auto), and there are USB-C and USB-A connections for your devices, too.

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.

Ah, now we’re talking. In the huge-displacement world of supercars, a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 might sound a little on the small side when put up against V10s and V12s out of Italy. 

But this mid-mounted, twin-turbo powertrain perfectly compliments the overall balance of the 750S, and when its 552kW and 800Nm (fed through a seven-speed automatic) meets the lightweight McLaren, the results are staggering.

The zero to 100km/h dash is dispatched in 2.8 seconds, while 200km/h flashes by in 7.2 seconds. Want to push to 300km/h? You’ll need just 19.8 seconds.

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.

McLaren says you can expect 12.2L/100km on the combined cycle, with emissions pegged at 276g/km. But you can also expect to win the lottery. It doesn’t make it likely.

It’s hard to imagine how softly you’d have to treat the 750S to get anywhere near those numbers, but I know you almost certainly won’t. The temptation is simply too great.

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. 

Usually we wouldn’t be dedicating much space to the kilogram’s shaved here and there off the total weight of a vehicle, but it’s important in this case.

In the 750S, that starts with a bespoke carbon-fibre monocoque platform, which is not only light, but also so inherently stiff that even chopping the roof off for the Spider version required no extra bracing or supports, and only marginally impacts the performance figures.

Then, there are the lightest alloys ever fitted to a series McLaren, which reduce unsprung weight by up to 14 kilos.

That rear wing isn’t just bigger, but also lighter, saving another 1.6 kilos, the carbon-fibre-backed seats save a whopping 17.5kg, the new suspension springs shave another two-or-so kilograms. The list goes on and on.

All up, they've found 30 kilos between 720S and 750S, which is now 1389kg total.

The result is a vehicle that feels endlessly athletic — light, lithe and perfectly balanced — but also one that, when you’re feeding on that endless power, feels as though it might suddenly take flight.

Flat-footed acceleration is laugh-out-loud fun, the tyres scrabbling for grip with each donkey-kick gear shift, even past 100km/h, with the rear end shifting around slightly as the Pirelli rubber deals with the physics of what’s happening. It’s loud, visceral and intoxicating, and you absolutely never tire of it.

But the magic in this McLaren is that it's more than just brutally fast in a straight line, it's also one of the most engaging vehicles I've ever driven, and one that provides a near-telepathic connection to the car, its tyres, and the tarmac below.

The more time you spend behind the wheel, the more tameable it feels, and even at warp speeds (somewhere above 270km/h), you feel connected and in control, owing mostly the open lines of communication between the tyres, the steering and the driver.

Also ferocious is the McLaren's braking force, combining carbon ceramic discs with a rear wing that doubles as a jet-style air brake, and stamping on the brake pedal produces vision-blurring force that leaves you feeling like you're not just stopping, but hurtling backwards through time.

So, race track, tick. But away from it, the McLaren – with its 'Proactive Chassis Control' hydraulic suspension – is surprisingly compliant when you want it to be, with its 'Comfort' drive mode delivering exactly that, softening the important bits so you don’t rattle yourself to death on the freeway.

If the 720S was a benchmark, then this 750S is something else entirely, shifting the needle in every important way to create a vehicle that sparks pure, unadulterated joy from behind the wheel.

Safety systems hardly abound here, and nor is McLaren or ANCAP likely to pony up for the 750S for crash testing.

You do get front and front-side airbags, front and rear parking sensors and a reversion camera, as well as a handy nose-lift function which should stop you scraping over steep speed bumps and the like.

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 750S is covered by a standard three-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, which is fully transferable.

Owners can also spring for an extended warranty, which can cover the McLaren for up to 15 years.

Servicing is required every 12 months or 15,000km.