2026 New Mercedes GLB Lets You Choose: 5 or 7 Seats, Petrol or EV!
You ask anybody what the most ugly Mercedes-Benz is, not you. But out of the normal series, most people will probably end up saying it’s the GB. It’s got none of the sleekness and the sexiness of the Aclass or the CLA. It’s just a kind of a malformed box of sadness. But now the new CLA is here and it’s ushered in an all new look for the GB that man has this car had a glow up. Look at that. It is so much better looking than the previous one. But not only is it better looking, it’s a smarter car under the skin. And it’s available with a two-prong approach of EV and hybrid combustion. So, our new GB, this is your petrol hybrid version. And the EV looks almost identical, just with a change on the grill, just like we saw in CLA. And both sit on the MMA platform, which like I said allows you both EV and combustion. And the great thing about GB and something that was actually a huge hit with previous buyers is the fact that this is both a five-seater or available as a sevenseater as well, which is quite rare in the compact class and something that you’ll be pleased in this new one is even better because this car is 10 cm longer, which means second and third row, a lot more space for those passengers in the back. So, join me today in this first look of the new GB. We’re going to look at the design. We’ll look at the interior. Then I’ll peek under the skin and show you all the technical bits that you’ll love to know. So join me. Let’s check out the brand new Mercedes GB. All right. Today’s episode of RBI is sponsored by a very special sponsor, and that is Extra, the smart wallet company trusted by over a million customers. But let me start by being completely honest with you guys. I’ve been approached by a lot of wallet companies. 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Use the code remove and you’ll get another 10% off or use this QR code here. There’s a link in the description and you can finally upgrade your wallet game or get a gift for someone you love. A huge thanks to Extter for sponsoring this episode of RBR. Now, let’s get back to the car. Okay guys, new GB. The ugly duckling got a glow up. And not only do I think it’s better looking than the previous car, I also think it’s better looking than the new CLA. Why? Yes, the CLA is sleek and it’s a coupe and everything, but because they had to build the body to house the battery in the floorboard, you always see this EV bulk kind of in the middle, right? But you look at the new GB, obviously, because of the shape of it, it’s hidden so much better and it suits the shape of car that much better. And then you compare it directly to the previous one, this one has so much more attitude. It has so much more muscle. Uh you just look at the direct front end, how much more interesting the lights and the grill look than you look at the rear. There’s so many nice little details around this car. So, what I think we need to do, we need to start off with the design. We’ve got the AMG line here. We’ve got the sport line in the EV as well. So, let’s have a look around both cars first, and then we’ll come back and we’ll have a peek under the skip. So, guys, here’s your new GB. And like I said, design-wise, particularly from further away over there, you can see it’s it’s it’s a lot squarer. It’s got more muscle to it. What’s nice is you look at the wheel arches and they’re painted unlike the previous one in the AMG line here which again helps accentuate the muscularity of the side. It feels I don’t know a little bit squarer. We’re going we’ll get to the rear in a minute which of course is quite different. Um but this whole light bar element and this new age grill it just seems to work better in GB than I think it did in CLA. I think not a lot of us really took to the CLA particularly on the front end. We look at the front end of this. It really works for an SUV. Like that light bar is more harmonious. Um, I love the grill of the combustion hybrid version, which is a more physical one. I’ll show you the EV one in a second, but you can see it’s got like those off-roading shapes in there. You’ve got the physical stars. You got a bit of ambient lighting glow around it, which is nice. And it’s a bit subtle compared to the lighted stars. So, I like that. And then like I said, all a bit more harmonious. You got your AMG line style air curtains on the side. Help to break up the bulk with the nice black finish there. Power domes on the bonnet. Come to the side. Wheels look really nice, don’t they? These are really nice wheels. They got kind of a smoked finish. They smoke inwards as you get to the Mercedes Star. I didn’t notice that at first, but when I saw it, it was like, “Oh, that’s actually why those look so nice.” Um, and that side view, that side view is very nice. I think they’ve taken a little bit of bit of G Wagon influence on this, don’t you? With that kind of boxy shape, you got the roof rails, you got a boxier window line. This black element helps really break up the bulk that you’d you’d otherwise notice in in this shape of car. Interesting. On the wing mirrors, we see a return of this double um indicator light, which we haven’t seen in many years. Actually, last time we saw it from what I remember, SL or SLC, something like that. Right, let’s go around the rear. The rear’s got something quite different going on here. And I think this is going to be one of those. There’s always a Marmite moment, isn’t there, in the new Mercedes-Benz. And most of them end up being around the stars that I think they bought an abundance of stars and uh they’ve just decided, right, we need to use these as much as we can. Where do we put them? So, they’ve they’ve chucked them everywhere, right? I’m going to give it four stars. You got one, two, three, four stars here in our rear light. I actually like the light bar, you know. I think it’s it’s what’s nice to me is it’s not a copype like what I would have hated is having a CLA light just plunked onto here because that’s what the CLA uses. They haven’t done that and GB got has got its own look on the rear which is great. Um does it remind you a bit of that countrymanesque look? Maybe. But to me it it’s so much better than the previous one. You’ve got a nice little roof spoiler at the top. You got the lower diffuser breaks up uh a lot of the bulk. Again, uh the light bar does as well. The badging is nicely placed in in kind of the right place in my opinion. You see more of like I keep saying, you see more of the shoulders thanks to the painted arches. Overall, that’s a it’s a handsome looking car, particularly compared to how ugly the previous one was. So, good job on that, Mercedes. Now, let’s go and have a look at the Sport Line and the EV, which is quite different looking. So, guys, there’s the EV version, Sport Line. Let’s go and have a look at it. Bit more color in this one than the uh the silver that kind of blended in with the mountains here in uh in Austria. And yeah, sport line doesn’t look bad at all. Interesting wheels again, aerero optimized, no doubt. Um, and there’s a lot of difference obviously in Sport Line versus AMG line. Let’s start at the front where the difference is quite obvious. So, the front end, obviously, we haven’t got that AMG line uh lower bumper. And the main thing I want to point out here is the EV grill, which is the main difference you’ll see on the other car as well, as I’ve shown you already, where this has got the lighted stars like we found in the CLA. I’m not going to count them. They’re like whatever they are. There’s there’s a lot of stars, okay? There’s a lot of stars and that will light up at night. It hasn’t got the border light like the combustion hybrid version does. And of course, this is all solid because you don’t need to have air going through into any type of engine. And the other difference, of course, between this and the combustion version is where the 1.5 L engine goes in that instead you have a frunk in here to give you actually more practicality probably than the other ones. So, that’s that’s not bad. Sport Line, however, if you get the combustion version, will look the same as this, minus the grill, so you’ve got this different lower bumper. You still maintain things like the power domes, but then you haven’t got the painted arches, which is a bit of a loss, isn’t it? Um, the chrome elements look nice. I like the chrome elements like we have in our window line on our on our lower sill here. That looks nice. Like I said, the wheels. And again, the rear, we’ve got the same light bar, uh, different lower diffuser with a massive chrome section, actually, and no roof spoiler. Um, it’s nice that the Sport Line and the AMG line have a have a different look. Sport Line is a bit more elegance like we used to have back in the day in in Mercedes cars. Um, but yeah, both pretty nice looking. Now guys, let’s have a peek under the skin and we’re going to start with our combustion hybrid version of this car, which I think is going to be a super popular car in the entry level as SUV from Mercedes, particularly with those seven seats. So, we start off basically the same basis as our CLA, and that’s a all new combustion engine. Mercedes actually now investing back into combustion, which is great. And this is a 1.5 L engine, cenamed M252. It’s super compact and it’s got a lot of advancements that help keep it compact. It runs on the Miller cycle for combustion, which means it’s really efficient as well. And that engine pairs up with a really advanced mile hybrid system, and that sits within the the main player in this is their new 8-speed EDCT gearbox. Within that, there’s a little electric motor that gives an extra 30 horsepower, and it’s fed by a 1.3 kW battery that charges itself up to 25 kW in all eight gears, so you never need to worry about charging it. And that will essentially power all three power levels of this car. Now, they haven’t said what power levels that will be, but we can take an educated guess looking at the CLA. There will probably be a 180, 200, and 220. And of course, you will have the option of formatic within there as well because look at the car. It’s ready to go off-road. I think UK pricing will probably be in the mid40s. So, like I said, a good start, a good start for an entrylevel super practical SUV from Mercedes-Benz with the combustion hybrid version. Now, let’s talk about the EV. So, our EV starts with two models. We have the GB 250 plus and the GB 350 formatic. There will later be a model with a smaller battery and a more affordable price point to come later, probably like a GB 200 or something, and that’ll come later. These cars are based on the 800vt architecture, which means super fast charging, talking well over 200 km, charged up in just 10 minutes, and it’s based around a allnew NMC battery of 85 kW. And essentially, what you’re going to get is big range out of this. They’re talking 613 and the 250. So that’s WLTP figures. Shave it probably by 100 and that’s still really quite decent for this shape and size of car. Then we come to the motors and your main motor in both of these versions is a new PSM motor that sits in the rear. It’s got a nextG silicon carbide inverter in there. It’s got a two-speed gearbox. Your first gear for acceleration and urban and the rest and second gear for motorway driving. And that powers both cars. It’s the more more powerful one. If you go for the 350 formatic, you get an additional ASM motor in the front that gives an additional over 100 horsepower in that, but that only it it has a DCU in there, so it disconnects when it’s not needed. So, keeping that entire thing really quite efficient, which is great. Then we have a onebox braking system. Now, this is really quite clever because you can even do hard braking with this. You can it can even use the ABS using the system. So, a ton of recuperation can be done through the one box braking system. And then we have two versions of suspension, which is different to the CLA. We have the passive one that that car has, but on wheels above 20 in, you can also get the adaptive suspension, which means in comfort mode in dynamic select, you’ll have a bit of a softer ride, and you go into sport and it gets more dynamic, which is great. So, those are your two EV versions. We’ve got the 250 and we have the 350. 250 starting around about 59k euros and the 350 a shade above that of course. So like I said the EV version of course going to be priced higher than our mild combustion. So just bear that in mind. And that’s not where the story will end for the compact class SUVs. I’m sure that a GLA will be coming in the future as well which is bound to be a bit more crossover like a bit more sporty looking. It should have its own look to that car which will be quite interesting as well in an interesting entry-level SUV to the Mercedes lineup once again. Now, let’s head inside and have a look at the interior and particularly I want to show you that third row inside. All right, we’re indoors, slightly warmer surroundings. And kindly, Mercedes have provided the original GB as a comparison. So, we compare it to new one, which is so much better looking, isn’t it? Look at that. Now, I didn’t realize when we were doing uh the other two that we have actually an AMG line here, but in the BEV. So, it’s nice now, rather than me just rendering that, you can actually see what it looks like. And let’s start with our grill here at the front, which you can see is pulsating with the Mercedes stars. You get a much better idea now what that looks like compared to I still I still think I prefer the combustion hybrid grill because of the the physicality and the kind of the analog nature of it. But that’s quite is it it’s nicer looking I think than the CLA one because it kind of it’s a bit concave. Then you’ll see the light bar a lot better obviously when we’re inside here. And like I said just sits a lot better. So that is what the BEV looks like in AMG line which is basically identical to the other one I showed you other than that grill. The other nice thing is we got some different wheels here again. So this is another wheel option that you’ll be able to have again aerero optimized as you would expect. These are AMG line wheels. The other thing is you can see the light bar and the the star lights a bit better now here on in the indoors. The other thing we didn’t touch on was the boot. Now, of course, this is our sevenseater, so you have a lot less boot space at this point. Still a little bit of storage there. That is significant in size for a boot, right? Look at that. I don’t have the lead. I’ll put it on screen. But that’s a big boot. And bear in mind, of course, this is the BEV. If you go for the five five seat version, you’ll have even more space within there as well. So practicality of course the name of the game when it comes to GB. But the reason that I brought you guys here, the reason I wanted to come here wasn’t because there was some third car. It was because this is where we could see the third row of the car. So this particular one is our seven seat option and you can see the third row in the back. We’ve got a 10 cm longer car as we said and a lot of that is coming to our rear passengers here where we’ve got more room. Wow, this is spacious. Got more head room. You’ve got more leg room, uh, more elbow room. Just generally speaking, it’s a it’s a larger interior, so it’s going to be a lot more comfortable. What’s lovely is they’ve got the fire on for us as well in there. And you can actually hear the fire. I love these little little thematic things that you can do in the new MBOS. Now, as we know, this is not going to be the only SUV they’re doing, but the GB is all about more people. It’s about more practicality. So, they’ve really designed this one with that in mind. So, for example, we can slide our second bench. Now, we also have the adjustability of the tilt and the sliding of the second bench is really important for the rear passengers. We’ll go into the third row in a minute. But, for example, they said that you can fit three fulls size child seats and two fulls size ones in the rear, which previously was not possible. So, a lot of thinking in terms of who is actually going to be using this and what type of practicality would they need. Now I want to try and jump into the third row because we really struggled with that last time that Jamie and I tried it when we were in the US. I think I think my ass is going to fit through this can. Um and we were squished like sardine cans. So let’s see if this one’s any better. Now let’s try and get into this. Yeah, this is not right. I’m not going to pull all of that up otherwise you guys aren’t going to see it. But this is way more comfortable than it was. I’ll try and find a clip of the previous one, but I’m 5’10 and I’m okay in here. They’ve increased the height apparently by 5 cm, which is no small amount, right? A lot of people rely on 5 cm. Jokes aside, um, a lot more spacious. And I I think the type of passengers are going to be using this, so you’re going to have, you know, either smaller kids or teenagers or whatever in the back here. Even someone like me, I’m not a massive adult, right? I’d be okay on a not massive journey sitting in the back here. Now, that is it fully fully closed up. And you can see I still have space here. I’m not kind of I’m not dying in here. So, this is much much much better than what it was before. Yeah, a lot more practical than before. Not a sevenseater as as I used to say to a lot of people previously. And before we sign off, um, we do need to touch a little bit on MBOS because it’s such such a leap forward compared to what you have in other Mercedes cars. And what’s cool is look, if I want to get out, I just push that and getting out is actually much easier than it was before. So guys, inside GB in our front, you can see it is identical, copy paste to the new CLA, which is no bad thing because like I said, the MBOS system is basically top of the range in terms of what Mercedes do at the moment. A good example is this like the thematic fire thing. And I mean, yes, it’s a bit of a gimmick, but it’s cool that that is something that is very much possible within here. Now, with the new MBOS, we have a number of different screens. This is your top version, which has your driver zone, your middle screen, and your passenger screen on this side. So, you can see passenger screen as well. And there’s a second version, which is your base version, which just has the driver zone and your central screen, and then that side is blocked off. So, by standard, you still have the main screens that you interact with. And in addition to that, we have a heads-up display. you can just about see hiding back there, which is very useful when you’re driving. But this is the basis of the interior, the system itself. If you want to know more about it, check out my full drive, the CLA 250 EV, where I go into a deep dive into what they’ve done with this. They’ve got an intelligent Mercedes assistant in here that makes use of GBT, Gemini, and all the top um AIs at the moment to get information that you need. But it’s also smart in itself when it comes to controlling the functions of the car. What’s more important is that these screens are actually really quite responsive. Um, you have an all new logic in terms of how it’s using, which is taking a bit of getting used to for me in all honesty. But you can see just how much they’ve expanded on the thematic elements. We’ve got Mercedes-Benz um terrain that we were just in now, which is very apt for this type of car and interior, cosmic glow. And then the whole theme, literally the ambient style, as they say in here, of the interior changes. Um, including a little bit on the driver zone here as well, which is nice. And there’s tons of them. There’s tons of them. And it’s nice that you can really customize the car to your own liking. Yes, the whole thing is just a screen, and I totally agree with you on that, but at least you can customize that screen and change the look of it, so it’s not always looking the same. Things like the turbine vents are beautiful. Even the vents in the middle here are nice. We’ve got tons of ambient lighting, shading everywhere, lots of storage space, and all new switch gear that the compact class has now introduced, including a return to nice physical buttons in our steering wheels like the older Mercedes steering wheels from the last generation. So, them listening to customer feedback on that. The only thing I don’t like, and I’ve said it many times, I don’t like having the start button on the stalk here. And we found the plug-in hybrids using the stalk to actually shift gears, which is just a no no as well. Hopefully they revert that shortly. But yeah, like I said, if you want to see a full deep dive of this system, check out the CLA 250 drive. I’ll leave a link in the description. This is that same fantastic system um that is really quite great to live with and where things like the passenger screen now actually useful with things like YouTube and gaming in there as well. So yeah, definitely check that video out. The other thing you will find that is unique in GB is the terrain mode which is a terrain driving mode which also gives you the 360 camera in terms of seeing under the bonnet. The invisible bonnet like you found in GLC like in G Wagon because of course this is an off-roader and you expect that type of feature to be in the car. When you get one of these cars make sure you get a color as well because the colored interior looks so much better. We got a lovely brown in here that breaks up all of the otherwise duller black single tone interiors. Yes. Overall, a great interior, big upgrade from previous GB and really at the top of what Mercedes do in terms of software and interiors. So, just because it’s compact class, don’t think that it’s somehow a level below. Like I said, do check out that CLA video because it’ll give you a lot of insights into how that system works if you’d like to see that. So, guys, that’s our new GB, the third body style in the compact Mercedes-Benz joining the two new CLAs. It’s going to be the most practical one with the five and seven seat options. And then to my eyes, much better looking than the predecessor, particularly in that combustion version. And then huge performance. The EV with great performance, the ability to tow up to two tons as well. And then the combustion version matching it pound for pound, but in a more familiar and affordable package is going to be a really attractive car to buyers. And as we hoped when the CLA first came in, the GB continuing that domino effect of pulling Mercedes back to the right direction where we wanted them to be, allowing us to choose the propulsion that we want in the body style that we think is better as well. So, uh, hopefully this is a trend that we will see continued in the future. I hope you enjoyed this episode of RBR. If you have, please do like and subscribe. See you guys next time.
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Mercedes’ most polarising compact SUV has been reborn! The previous #GLB was practical but awkward to look at, lacking the style of the A-Class/CLA and the presence of the GLC. But with the arrival of the new CLA, #Mercedes has now rebuilt the GLB from the ground up — and I think it’s a big glow-up!
This 2026 GLB sits on the all-new MMA platform, which comes as either petrol hybrid or a full 800-volt EV, and remains one of the few SUVs in the segment to offer 5 or 7 seats. Most importantly: it finally looks and feels like a modern Mercedes should.
In today’s First Look, we break down both versions of the new GLB — combustion mild hybrid and full EV — to understand how different they are underneath, how the new packaging works, and why this generation is far more family-focused than before. We explore design, interior upgrades, all seating configurations, the technical changes, and everything the press material reveals about efficiency, motors, batteries and range.
Mercedes has also taken major steps with rear accommodation, cargo space, and child-seat support. The GLB now grows by almost 10 cm, with most of that benefitting second and third-row passengers. And unlike rivals, it offers up to four child seats across rows two and three, plus one more up front — extremely rare in this class.
We’ll cover:
* The complete redesign of the 2026 GLB
* New hybrid models with 48V architecture and M252 engine
* All-new eDCT gearbox with integrated 30 hp electric motor
* Expected Variants: GLB 180 / 200 / 220
* EV: GLB 250+ and 350 4MATIC
* Suspension setups: passive and adaptive damping
* Seating: 5 or 7 seats with improved access and comfort
* Child-seat compatibility across all rows
* Real cargo-space
* Interior design, materials, and practicality upgrades
* MB OS system
* Upcoming New GLA
The new GLB represents the third body style in #MercedesBenz’s next-generation compact family and the most spacious option by far. It addresses the shortcomings of the previous model with improved styling, better packaging, serious EV tech, and a much more thoughtful approach to family usability.
Both versions — combustion hybrid and EV — feel genuinely competitive in today’s market, offering flexibility, range, efficiency and the rare option of seven seats. As hoped, the CLA has set off a domino effect inside Mercedes, and this GLB shows the brand moving back towards a user-focused, versatile compact lineup!
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