Mercedes EQB vs Tesla Model Y / TEVAdrive

hello and welcome to another episode of tiva drive and we are back on the shores of Georgian Bay comparing these two amazing cars electric cars on my left is the Mercedes eqb 350 2023 model year which we just got and we've been driving it for about a week so we have our Impressions ready we want to share them with you and on my right is our friend TJ's model y performance and you may ask why are we comparing this eqb350 was it model y performance quite a few reasons number one the price they are in the same price range 75 grand 76 grand for the model y performance this is a seven seater this could be a seven seater if it wasn't performance so you can get a regular a model y long range seven-seater for now because they are being discontinued but whatever vehicles are in stock you can still get them around 75 grand as well so we then in that respect they might be cross-shopped however soon enough the seven seater will not be offered uh in a seven seater which means Mercedes will have the market all to itself in the small seven-seater pure electric cars all right so let's uh give you a walk around number one let's mention the differences first of all the eqb is a car built on the universal platform meaning that there is a gas version called the glb and we have the pure electric version here the eqb with us the eqb 350. the specs are 288 horsepower 6.3 seconds to 100 70 kilowatt hour battery versus a bigger battery on the on the Tesla that's estimated to be over 80. the way you can tell the electric version of this car from the gas version is the blanked out Grille the unibrow there's a blue accents here and the unibrow that stretches from one end through the middle all the way to the other end so there's a white LED unibrow that lights up at night it's not part of the drls the drls are only on the sides but at night the unibrow will light up the other differences are in the back which we'll show you in the in a moment there's another red LED unit brow in the back of the car which the gas version does not get um the other major difference is that Mercedes such as BMW do not have fronts the Tesla as everybody knows as a substantial uh Frank or front trunk storage for your luggage in the front of the car the Mercedes and BMW chose not to do it their excuse is that the it's because of the couple zones which we call BS and as many commenters did before because Tesla is one of the safest cars and it still has the front trunk or Frank in all of their cars so there's no need for us to even prop the the hood here on the car because there's nothing there just All Electronics this car is equipped with 18-inch wheels you can get a bigger wheels on that car you have the eqb badge here which kind of lets you know that this is an electric version of the car the other difference between the two cars is the Tesla has a fixed glass roof the Mercedes with all its cars electric or gas you have the Panorama roof split into two parts the front part you can open actually open so we'll show you that in a moment so it's an opening sunroof with a sunshade that opens and closes as well um uh this being a seven seater version we'll show you the access to the third row the interior is typical Mercedes this a car has many more buttons than the eqe and equs that we just drove as more physical buttons it still has the mbux hyper screen in the center which stretches to the to the middle then we have the second row which moves because there's a third row behind it so the second row seats actually move front and forward and backwards so that you can allow access to the third row the third row we just folded because we want to show you the comparison of the trunk space in the Mercedes versus the trunk space in the model y so let us show you the back of the car now and here's the one of the differences with the gas version is you can see the first of all that's it says eqb 350 right here it is 4matic telling you that it's an all-wheel drive version of the car and you have the famous red LED unit brow which does not exist on the gas version of this car which is called the glb the way you Pop the trunk is you press on the Mercedes logo here is the trunks right now you can see the third row is folded down which will give us a good comparison with the space in the model y once this third and the third row is up and we'll show you in a moment once we try and actually put our friend TJ in the third row once the seats are up and they come up right to the end here the shape of the car helps the the Headroom in the third row so that's one of the advantage of the eqb versus the model y here it is a bit of a storage space there's a tire repair kit funnily enough we didn't we did not find any charging cables in this car this car didn't come with any charging cables um uh yeah so I don't know if they got lost somewhere by one of the previous journalists or whether it just comes in a bag that you have to buy separately we saw that bag in the eqe that we drove last week there was a fairly large bag with a only level one uh cable it's not dual voltage it was just 120 volts basic cable but this car we did not get any cables with it so that's about it all right so since you've seen the uh the eqb let's show you this the Tesla Model Y and compare the two spaces you want to Pop the Trunk by the way our friend TJ here he upgraded quite a few things in his Tesla Model y uh including the front front trunk closer so this is the space in the Tesla Model y as you can see they are both pretty spacious uh the only thing is comparing with uh with the eqb it's much more upright so there's probably you can fit slight a bit more stuff uh you know in the in the eqb just because of the shape of the car so the space here will be limited on the on the vertical here because of the shape of the of the rear hatch but it is a substantial trunk and the big difference here is of course the huge amount of space you have under the floor which you do not get in the eqb and that's one of the differences that you can tell that this is a dedicated platform versus a universal platform that the Mercedes uses for the eqb um we're going to show you the Interior Space uh in a moment we'll jump in to compare the space in the front row second row and with the third row up as well and again we have to mention that the third row if this was not a non-performance with a third row seat the seats would have come up to here and your your Headroom would have been limited because of the hatch and again the the seven seater is being discontinued apparently for Canada I was worldwide it's probably worldwide Canada so anyway so Canadians will not have the seven seater option on the model y anymore um we're not sure why but whatever cars there are in stock and we just checked the Tesla website there were two or three cars ranging between 74 and 79 grand for the model y long range seven seater priced anywhere from 74 to 79 which is in line with the eqb or you can get for the same price a five-seater model by performance okay so that's it for now let's jump inside and show you the Interior Space okay so here we are inside the 2023 Mercedes eqb sorry about this wind is blowing and the seat belt is hitting the b-pillar um we're inside a 2023 Mercedes eqb 350 4matic we're trying to demonstrate this space inside with the front row accommodating passenger like myself six foot three 190 centimeters I'm gonna try and jump in in the second row and then our friend TJ is in the third row a Tesla Model y owner who is uh gracious enough agreed to uh make this shoot to photo shoot with us and give us impression of the space in the third row so right now I position the the front seat as close as possible to make it a safe driving position so I can still drive for not very comfortable for me but this is the closest position for me to be able to drive safely um in the in the passengers sorry the driver position so let me just jump in the second row we position the second row in order to allow the third row passenger to be there so we had to push the seat forward both the first row and the second row we had to push them forward as much as possible in order to allow space for the third row passenger so let's show you the second row space okay so here I go and again very tight space for a person like myself no space for my knees behind the seat so basically I have to keep my knees on either side so if I close the door you know there's no more space for anyone to be sitting in the middle seat perhaps a child that's about it and as you can see the difference how much we had to move the left side of the the 60 of the rear bench we had to move it forward uh substantially compared to this side the 40 side of the rear bench is pulled all the way back and this is how far we had to push the this side in order to allow the passenger in the third row so let's show you our friend TJ who is squeezed himself into the third row right there so we're gonna show you the space we're gonna open up the third row and uh the acrobatics needed to get into the uh you want to show it to shoot it from this side maybe to show the the leg room is not really quite substantial so here is TJ sitting in the third row and uh yeah the acrobatics needed to uh so if we close the seat you know and again a couple of inches here it's yeah it's not horrible but it's a it's a real process to get in and out so yeah it's it's very difficult to get in and out uh so perhaps children teenagers might be able to do this exercise uh people our age will uh avoid it at all costs but you know technically you could be traveling with uh you know uh six people and a child in the middle of the second row um and the space for people who are of a smaller stature it's it's doable but again short distances no long distances with seven passengers for sure however you know again your choices are being narrowed down in terms of the small electric SUVs with seven seats because Tesla Model Y is getting out of the business of 7 consider so eqb will have the market all to itself pretty much all right so here we are inside a 2023 Mercedes eqb uh 350 4matic and comparing it with a TJ's model y performance and we mentioned why before we're comparing it to model y even though many of you already commented that they're not comparable in our view they should be compared anyways because they are similar size similar price range and you get the choice of this Mercedes starting at 75 grand or you can choose model y long range seven-seater around 75 grand or you can go with the model y performance five-seater 475 around 75 grand the seven seater option is being deleted for Canada we're not sure about the rest of the world but it will no longer be available in fact if you go to the Tesla website right now you cannot build one anymore it just says that you can get whatever ever is in stock and the three cars we saw in stock in the Toronto area were prized between 74 and 79 Grand that's for a seven seater but that no longer will be available so Mercedes eqb7 Cedar will be the only option and correct us if we're wrong but it's the only affordable seven-seater full electric option that's going to be left in the marketplace for now until Hyundai and Kia come up with the seven seaters which will be much bigger much larger and most likely more expensive as well okay so here we go TJ is has never driven this car before he is a model y owner model y performance owner and we can mention here the comparison of of the statistics so the the model y long range price around the same uh is they range the rated range for the long range is about 530 kilometers for the performance is 459 kilometers the battery in the model y long range in performance is need to be just around 80 just over 80 kilowatt hours where this car is 70 kilowatt hours so obviously a much shorter range so Teslas uh you know 5 30 and and 450 depending on the version versus 358 kilometers on this car obviously much shorter range uh the horsepower here the acceleration is 6.3 seconds here because you only have 288 horsepower all-wheel drive versus we don't know how much how many horsepower exactly on the Tesla but you have a five second acceleration on a long range 3.7 second acceleration on the performance version so let's see how natural this driving of this eqb will be let's hit the road and we'll talk about our experiences in terms of driving consumption charging speeds etc etc so we just turned on what Mercedes calls seat kinetics it's not a seat massage it's seat kinetics which basically means that it's changing the position of the seats slightly both the seat back and the seed bottom every few seconds it's changing the position slightly so I guess it it's it's supposed to replace the uh you know the seat massage which it is not uh simply it's called seed kinetics um so I will give TJ a few moments to kind of get a feel for the car because it's the first time he's driving it so we're gonna go right here uh we're driving by on the shores of the Georgian Bay as usual uh where this is where we test all the cars so what we can mention number one is the the sunroof as you can see here uh we can you can close the blind so we're gonna close the the front blind is separate from the rear blind so that's what it looks like closed and then you just open it here and then you know the nice thing of course is that in all the Mercedes electric cars you can actually open the sunroof so you can either tilt it or you can open it so the opening is not exactly super large buddy you've got a nice section here if you want to Santan while driving you've got the sunroof here so we can mention also that TJ used to own a BMW so he wasn't always a Tesla guy he had a BMW I3 just like ours and he switched to a model 3 then now he's driving a model y um so we're gonna pop the the Tilt this way okay there we go we're gonna close it um the mbux screen is the same very similar to the eqe and the eqs so we won't be going through all the options because you can look at the videos that we have of the eqe and eqs sedans and SUVs there where we explained the various options on the mbux system the the differences here in this eqb is the presence of way more physical buttons so first of all all the climate functions are located here in the physical buttons yeah we can go left uh so the the buttons are here for the temperature um you know you have your AC recycling um you have your hazard lights here um and that's all the physical buttons are here then you have this certain amount of buttons here for your uh modes driving modes and the drive modes are are basically three just like in the other cars you have the um individual you have sport you have comfort and you have Echo and you can see the reaction is quite quite a bit different eh so this is the Eco so drive it in Eco for a bit and I'm gonna switch it to sport but you can feel the difference in the accelerator pedal right away between the various modes so this is Eco now I'm gonna switch it to sport do you feel the difference yeah yeah the reaction yeah the reaction is quite a bit different so we'll keep it in the sport mode and we're gonna embarrass uh uh the Mercedes here uh we're gonna ask TJ to uh to floor it from the stop sign and he owns a 3.7 second model y performance so we'll see uh what his reaction will be uh in this Mercedes eqb350 that has a 6.2 second acceleration uh so twice as long as they ask his model Y which is priced the same however we as we mentioned before some people may still be cross wrapping these two cars because of the third row seat here and the shape of the car that gives this car more Headroom in the third row uh for like teenagers or you know smaller adults it is possible to transport okay so let's see okay try and floor it yeah so it's it's not a model y a little bit decent a little bit of wheel speed wheel spin yeah you get the torque right so that it's an electric car you always have that instant torque yeah which is great it doesn't have the throw you in the back of your seat um feeling but uh it's it's awesome so now you are in the smallest region so if you tap the left shift paddle twice you're gonna have the maximum Regen perfect I was wondering about that yeah and will it take you to a complete no it will not so let's try it at the stop let's see how far you can get with the regen and then you you will be forced to uh press the the uh the brake pedal see it doesn't stop so you still have to yeah it's not a one full one pedal driving so a lot of the um you know or you know companies such as Mercedes and BMW and Audi actually our Audi is the same issue um this is a stronger region in our Audi uh I don't know is it about the same as your model y or is it not as strong that the region uh when when you're braking uh I I don't think it's quite as strong but I might be just uh you know hanging on the fact that it doesn't take you to a completion complete stuff it's a good it's a good pull until the very end yeah and then it just creeps forward then you have to it lets you down yeah exactly so we're not sure why these companies choose not to have a full one pedal driving it's like almost they're forcing you uh to press the the physical brake and even though uh you know you're pressing on the physical brake pedal you're still using a region as well but and I guess then at certain certain point the the brakes uh we'll we'll kick in as well um so yeah so the more physical buttons compared to the uh model uh why of course but in the eqe and eqs as well there's way more physical buttons here in the eqb um and uh yeah you cannot compare the range because again the Tesla Model y has over 500 kilometers 530 to be exact rated range even on the model y performance which is a much shorter range of 459 kilometers this car offers average of 358 kilometers only because of the smaller battery um our experience during our test drives was the lowest indicator was about 320 kilometers when we picked up the car so somebody before us was driving it pretty aggressively and it was showing only 327 kilometers with full and the most we got was 380 kilometers roughly so it's nowhere near the range of the Tesla because it has a smaller battery but it's a decent range that's kind of the range that we're getting now after a few years on our model sorry on our Audi e-tron that's more or less the range that we're getting um and uh so it might be sufficient for for some and of course in the winter now we're driving in this car in May a nice warm day uh well it's 17 degrees sort of uh warm uh in the winter you your range would definitely be below 300 kilometers uh on the cold winter day uh so now we're driving without the climate and let's try and turn the climate on so we just do it by pressing the button here no it's been blowing like crazy but because it's set to when let's set the uh temperature to a kind of 22 and it's not a dual zone also it's probably a single zone anyway so um that's about it for for the for the interior and then uh oh this guy almost went off the road I guess he's texting or something he's being distracted um they just pulled out in front of us all right so anyways yeah um what is your impression driving this car after driving uh model 3 and model y after after a few years would you find a case for anyone to be cross-ropping these these two cars yeah absolutely I mean it's it's comfortable it's it's got that electric familiar feel um you know the performance model 3 versus the you know non-performance I I mean performance is nice when you want to when you want to really give it but did any electric car has more than enough capability uh acceleration wise and with the torque that comes with an electric motor so I don't really factor that into it but um it's got good Comfort good visibility I like the gauges and the display um not as clean uh as the Tesla obviously but um would would you miss the the single screen functionality in the test life you went back to a Mercedes or a BMW in your opinion I mean Tesla just does it so well a lot of people actually you know my son included says oh I I would definitely want a car with uh with a medical display and I honestly don't miss it I don't miss it at all um but it's also because I think Tesla just does such a good job of the interfaces the whole interface um I think this is great I like the heads-up display uh I think that with the head-up display this is where the future of the car design is going I think you may see these queens getting smaller and the cars are relying more and more on the head-up display they have more and more information on the head-up display less and less on the center display here again so we mentioned to you our consumption numbers we mentioned to you the range we can just quickly mention our experience with fast charging and again this car is supposed to be capable of 150 kilowatts in the maximum charging speed which is way less than the Tesla so it'll take you longer to charge this car although the battery is smaller so in that sense even though it charges slower because the battery is smaller the charging times might be similar and it's also not about the top speed it's about the car charging curve we were not able to bring it down to a very low state of charge but from 70 to 90 percent the car was charging at a rather slow speed so we maxed out around the 70 kilowatts so the the only way you can enjoy the maximum 100 150 maximum is probably at a very low state of charge probably if we bring it down to like 15 or 20 percent this is where we may see um the the higher DC rate of of charging even on the eqe when we brought it down as load to as low as 15 percent we went on an IV charger that was supposed to be capable of 150 and all we got was about 129 on an eqe which is supposed to charge faster than this eqb so again when you're trying to compare with the Tesla Model Y what was the top rate that you got in terms of the charging speed on your on your model y to that again would have happened at the lower state of charge probably under 50 state of charge yeah low end not for too long like only a few minutes at that rate um and obviously at the V3 uh superchargers V3 superchargers again so how the hope is that the Tesla will eventually open up their Network to other AVS like they did uh and at selected locations in the US and of course in Europe as well so we're just waiting for Tesla to do the same uh in Canada hopefully it'll happen sooner rather than later so we can repeat our Trans Canada trip we don't have confidence to do it right now uh in our e-tron or any other pure electric car except Tesla but we will gladly do it again once Tesla opens up and there is rumors that that may happen hopefully soon so that's about it for our review of this Mercedes eqb 350 4matic and comparison with model y there are no really no other cars that can be compared with this of course in the similar price range you would get you know a Hyundai ioniq 6 or Ikea ev6 but they're all five seaters they do not have to offer the seven seat functionality so right now the Mercedes after Tesla canceled at seven seat version of the model y Mercedes will have pretty much the market to itself for someone that needs the third row that needs the seven seats uh if you have any questions about our experience our tests of this car do not hesitate to comment under the video and as usual don't forget to press the Subscribe button on our Channel and uh thank you for watching and we'll see you at the next review