Practicality and Boot Space
The EQV is huge, which these days is a luxury in itself. So revel in all that space inside, for all your passengers as well as their luggage. Electrically-operated sliding side doors make getting in and out of it a cinch, too, even in tight parking spaces, and if you’re trying to get kids in child seats then it’s also a doddle, because you can clamber in beside them. Try that in your SUV. The boot is vast, and there’s a huge (again electrically opened) hatch that’ll provide you shelter when you’re loading shopping or luggage, while if you want to just chuck something in quickly or space is tight, the rear window opens independently of the hatchback.
You can move the seats around, too, with the middle individual captain’s chairs able to be put where the rear three-seater bench is positioned in the third row, or you can turn seats around to have the five rear passengers facing each other. Make that decision early and stick with it though, as shifting them isn’t the work of a moment - the seats are very heavy indeed. You can remove them entirely, should you need to, turning the EQV into a plug-in luxury van to take to the tip – or recycling centre as they’re called these days. When it comes to practicality, then, this big plug-in box, ticks every box. It’s very useful indeed.
Technology
There’s Mercedes-Benz’s high-end MBUX (that’s Mercedes-Benz User eXperience in case you’re wondering) all housed in a screen that’s big enough to rival your telly at home. It all works well, too, and there’s apps aplenty, sat nav and DAB in all.
We’d suggest the Sport Premium model simply because it adds a few bits of tech that are very useful in the EQV, notably the 360 degree parking camera, and electrically-operated memory front seats, and, perhaps as importantly these days, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity – the EQV Sport doing without all this. Go all in with the Sport Premium Plus and you’ll get the excellent Burmester surround sound system, which is powerful enough to drown out even the noisiest of passengers.
Safety
Mercedes-Benz has safety at its very core, and that’s evident with the EQV. All come massively equipped as standard, with enough safety-related acronyms to trouble a multipack of alphabetti spaghetti. There’s Assist everything, be it Blind Spot, Lane Keep, Attention, Active Brake, Highbeam, Tyre Pressure Monitoring, Hill Start and plenty more besides. Should the worst happen and an accident be unavoidable, there’s plenty of airbags, ISOFIX child seat mountings and seatbelts to keep you as safe as is possible.