Mercedes-Benz EQA review

The GLA is a surprisingly roomy small crossover. The EQA isn't. The battery cuts into foot room for the people in the back seat, so row two feels more like a hatchback. You’re still sat loftily high, but your legs around around your ears in a strange squat, as if you’re a football manager watching a tense penalty shoot-out.

The boot is shallow-ish too, and only 340 litres under the parcel shelf. A recess under its floor takes the charging cables. Why not under the bonnet, then you wouldn't have to empty the boot to get at them?

WHAT ABOUT THE ‘NORMAL’ BITS OF THE COCKPIT?

For the dash and controls, there's not much to add to what we've said before about the various small Mercedes. The design is pretty wow, materials are plush and the night-time illumination jazzy. 64 colours of ambient lighting as standard is enough for anyone, surely?

The screens dominate, especially as every EQA has the full-sized pair. It's not entirely screen-dependent though: you can use a pad controller between the seats (we do) and natural-language voice activation. Or, you can operate the fast-rendering interfaces with a tap of the screens themselves, or via the strokeable buttons on the steering wheel. So there should be a way of operating MBUX to please just about everyone. 

Lots of electric-specific display options show you where your energy has gone. It'd be even handier if one or two updated in real time, so you could tune your driving and climate use in case you need to eke out the range. We managed 3.6 miles per kWh, which is superior to any VW ID we’ve tried, but not quite as frugal as Audi’s Q4 e-tron.