Nice but niche

Of course, it's not a real seven-seater, but that was never why you were considering it in the first place. So, where does it fit in?

Several years ago, while some commentators were quick to accuse fledgling S Chinese auto manufacturers of shamelessly copying their trendsetting German counterparts from luxo-hatches or land yachts built by BMW, Audi and Mercedes - what we're seeing now, in truth, is no different.

Ownership of niches by a sole competitor is simply not allowed. The binary nature of segmentary leadership or imitatorship is a never-ending round of roulette exclusively determined by the swiftness and the madness of marketing executives.

Since launching in 2021 (locally in 2022), Mercedes has enjoyed a category-specific monopoly in its positioning of the EQB as an EV crossover with its optional seven seats. Based on the GLB SUV, the EQB's transformation from diesel dinosaur to voltage vulture was a simple one, with mixed effect, it has to be said. It ditched the conventional powertrain in favour of an electric motor at each axle and it was fuelled by a rather small (and ahem, by extension, range-limiting) 66.5 kWh battery.

Curiously, MBSA opted to offer only one power specification in the EQB, which develops 215 kW and 520 N.m. This means, as with the more compact EQA entry EV, the three available derivatives are distinguished only by equipment grade. They ranging in price from R1 379 000 to R1 523 400.