Autotrader | NEW Mercedes GLB First Look: 7 Seats, Towing Ability, Hybrid & EV
If you’ve got a family and you’re looking for a big premium family SUV, step this way and have a look at the new Mercedes-Benz GB. When the original came out in what, 2019, it ticked a lot of boxes. Spacious enough to carry seven people. Tick. Handsome to look at. Tick. Big Mercedes badge on the front. Double tick. And there’s a new one. Mercedes are bringing out a second generation car that promises to be even better. Mercedes calls this a versatile everyday hero. And normally when a car company says that kind of thing, you roll your eyes. But with this, they might have a point because the new GB can seat a full handball team, carry a broken washing machine to the tip with ease, toes two tons, drives 392 mi, and will let you do all of that using the power of either petrol or for the first time, electricity. Yeah. So, there’s an electric version and a hybrid version. And I’m going to focus first of all on the electric version because I think this car could go down quite well because think about it. How many premium electric SUVs are there on the market that seat seven people that have really good range? More on that in a second and can tow a full-size caravan. Okay, let’s focus on the looks to begin with. Very, very distinctive. Obviously, you got this light bar across the front. Typical Mercedes. You got this three-pointed star design for the new headlights. That looks okay. The grill very distinctive. It’s massive. And in the case of the EV, it’s got 94 individually animated three-pointed stars that shine brightly at night. You’ve also got, depending on where you live in the world and your local laws, this illuminated three-pointed star. So, when you look in your rearview mirror, you’re not going to confuse this vehicle for another vehicle. The other thing that’s going to interest you is what’s under the bonnet, or rather, what’s not under the bonnet. Let’s take a look. One of the big advantages the EV has over the hybrid is the fact it doesn’t have an internal combustion engine. So, what you get is a very sizable front boot. In fact, it echoes. Hello. Hello. Hello. That’s massive. That’s around half the size of the boot you get in a Ford Fiesta. Very generous. At the side, it’s a chunky old beast. Boxy, but handsome. The wheelbase has been extended by 60 mm, giving 68 mm more legroom in the back. We’ll check that out in just a minute. There are new 20-in wheel designs riding on adjustable independent dampers for comfort. And there are the usual pop out door handles as you’ll find on all modern Mercedes. Most importantly, though, this car is available in both five and sevenseater variants. We’ll take a closer look at the seating arrangements very shortly. Before that, let’s take a look at the back of the GB. Probably my favorite angle on this car. It looks strong, confident, purposeful. It’s got a nice stance to it. I think the light bar is a bit played out. Everything’s got a light bar these days, hasn’t it? But at least this one curves down at the sides and it makes it look a bit more interesting than the norm. Plus, we’ve got Mercedes three-pointed stars in there as well. So, decent looking back end. Whether you like it or not though, I think you’re going to like the boot because it’s very, very spacious. In the 5-seater version, you’ll get 540 L of boot space, and that is quite a healthy amount. It’s also got some underlo storage, believe it or not, where you can stash your charge cables, and that in conjunction with what you get in the front boot makes this car very, very practical. And speaking of practical, if your current car isn’t packing enough junk in the trunk, if it drinks fuel like it’s on a night out, or spends more time with the mechanics than with you, then maybe it’s time for Autotrader. As for the second row of the GB, really nice back here. So much space. That front seat is adjusted for me at 5’11. And I’ve got ton of leg room. That’s really good. We’ve also got some netting down here. Not a fan of that. I prefer a solid compartment for hiding my gadgets. Headroom really good. Sometimes on cars with panoramic glass sunroofs, they can eat into the headroom. That’s not the case here. It’s so airy and spacious as well. Really like that. That’s very good. You got a couple of uh USB ports down there. That’s handy. No transmission tunnel in this car, so whoever’s sitting in the middle won’t have to straddle a transmission tunnel. That’s a really nice touch. The other thing to look at is whether the window goes down all the way. It didn’t on the CLA, but it does on the GB. That’s really nice. So, yeah, I can imagine my family being quite happy with this little cup holder here. Oh, what’s this? Look, we’ve got a uh is that a mobile phone holder? Although, you have to sit like that to watch it. Don’t know what that is, but you do have a couple of cup holders as well. Yeah, on the whole decent. The other cool thing about these seats is that they move forward and backwards. So, you can actually slide it forward to give yourself more boot space at the expense of legroom or more leg room at the expense of boot space. Those who opt for the sevenseater version of the GB will obviously find a bit more flexibility in terms of the seating arrangements. The third row of seats isn’t the most spacious, but it’s certainly large enough for even adults on a short trip or for younger passengers on longer journeys. The boxy exterior shape of the car will ensure plenty of headroom even for those sitting in the third row. The interior is really rather nice. It reminds me a lot of the new Mercedes-Benz CLA, and that’s a good thing because that car is lovely inside. I like these seats. They’re very comfortable, quite supportive as well. I like the use of materials as well. We got leather. We got this shiny trim in the center. Shiny trim on the door cards. We’ve also got loads of room in here as well. So, two cup holders in the center. And these are clever because they’re adjustable. If you push this button and that button, it actually reduces the size of the cup holder in order for you to hold smaller cups or bottles. And you can actually remove that and have one large storage space in the center. That’s cool. We’ve also got a little bit of storage here that’s deep, but not very girthy. And down here, separate storage for carrying a bag or a purse without having to perch it on top of the center console. We’ve also got a new steering wheel. Again, the same steering wheel from the CLA, which is good because it’s got some physical buttons, including a physical adaptive cruise control button and a physical volume knob. Sadly, no physical volume knob on the center console, but that is acceptable. Not everything is perfect in terms of practicality. The glove box is on the small side. You might even struggle to get gloves in there, but on the whole, good-looking car. Love these vents as well, illuminated, and the movement on the vents is really rather nice. As for the rest of it, completely dominated by screens. And how you feel about that, that’s your own personal choice. To me, it looks like they’ve slapped on three separate iPads and called it a day, which isn’t the most interesting way to design an interior if you ask me, but at least the system works really well. For the driver, you got a nice clear display that shows all your driving information. You’ve got this large center screen for your infotainment system, which is very, very clever and responsive. and it has AI built in so you can ask it questions and it will answer you in a very comprehensive way. We’ve also got a third screen for your passenger on which your passenger can play games and quite decent games as well including Fortnite and watch YouTube or Disney Plus. So your kids are going to love that. And the clever tech doesn’t end there because this car has a very interesting sunroof. It’s massive for a start which is really good. It’s got loads of three-pointed stars in it which is maybe a bit cheesy but it does something very clever. You can cycle between it being perfectly opaque or perfectly clear at the touch of a button. So on this screen, you can actually press that button and it will go completely opaque. Look at that. To block out the rays of the sun or press clear and it will reverse and reveal the sky. But it doesn’t stop there because you can actually choose which specific panels you want to be opaque or clear to block out the bits that you want to block out. Very clever. Very cool. Just want to give you a couple of interesting tech nuggets about this electric GB. So, it’s going to deliver just shy of 400 mi of range, which is really quite impressive for a large 7seater family SUV. And it’s going to charge very quickly as well. This uses 800 volt architecture, which means it should be able to top up at 320 kW, and that means it should be able to add around 160 mi of range in as little as 10 minutes. That’s not bad. If electricity isn’t your thing, Mercedes will also release a hybrid version of the GB a few months after the EV. That car will use a 1.5 L petrol engine and a small battery to help efficiency and power. Inside and outside, it will look similar to the EV, but has a unique grill that loses the illuminated stars, but gains an illuminated grill outline. Very cool. Now, back to the EV. In terms of pricing, we haven’t got final confirmed figures for the UK just yet, but I would speculate that this should come in at slightly cheaper than a CLA shooting brake. And that would make it in the electric version just shy of £50,000, which to me ain’t bad because, let’s face it, it’s a good-look car. It’s featurerich, lots of tech, very comfortable, does the towing and the good range and all that good stuff. So, yeah, one to watch in the future. Speaking of which, stay tuned because we’re going to have a full review of this car and the hybrid version coming in the not too distant future. Thanks for watching. Like, subscribe, and I’ll see you again soon.
We take our first look at the new Mercedes GLB — the compact SUV that promises EV and petrol options, more space, more tech and more confidence on the road. This update brings sharper styling, a smarter cabin and the latest MBUX system, plus the option of seven seats for families who want flexibility without stepping up to a full-size SUV.
In this video we walk through the exterior changes, explore the upgraded interior, test the new infotainment features and break down the engine options. We also look at practicality, boot space, third-row access and everything else that matters if you’re thinking about buying one.
Is the new GLB now the sweet spot of the Mercedes SUV range? Let’s find out.
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00:00 Intro
00:13 2nd gen GLB
00:54 EV and Hybrid options
01:16 Front styling
01:57 Front storage
02:18 Design changes
02:47 Rear styling
03:14 Boot
03:45 Rear interior
05:02 7 seater variant
05:26 Front interior
06:45 Interior tech
08:12 Range and charging
08:42 Hybrid GLB
09:06 Pricing
