Mercedes-Benz Eqe300 vs BMW 218i

What's the difference?

The EQE53 SUV is Mercedes-AMG's first fully-electric SUV.

That means it doesn't have a thundering V8 like a lot of its petrol-powered AMG siblings, but what it lacks in ear-splitting noise it makes up for in colossal but quietly delivered shove.

Which, when you have a sleeping child in the back, is exactly what you might need, because this after all is a family review and we're testing how good this silent beast of an SUV is when it comes to family duties.

Sometimes a name change can make all the difference.

Google used to be called “Back Rub”. The Spice Girls started off as “Touch”. And – particularly in Germany – some premium sedans became known as “coupes”, as they struggled to stay popular against SUVs.

Case in point: what is essentially a 1 Series hatchback with a boot has been more glamorously badged the “2 Series Gran Coupe” since 2020.

Still following the sedan script with four doors, it’s BMW’s tilt at Mercedes’ booted A-Class hatch, the rakish CLA, unveiled early last decade as the Concept Style Coupe and now in its third series-production iteration – though since 2019 a more conservatively styled A-Class Sedan has also existed, that goes up against Audi’s A3 Sedan.

But we digress. Now there’s a “new” 2 Gran Coupe, coded F74, though it’s really a heavy facelift of the superseded F44. Oh, and the ‘i’ no longer exists in the badge, so (M-enhanced models aside) it’s just numbers from here on in. 218. 220. M235.

Regardless of names, does it live up to the BMW promise?