First look: 2026 Mercedes-Benz GLB | 5 or 7 seat electric and hybrid SUV
Welcome to our first look at the all-new Mercedes-Benz GLB. It’s a whole new generation of model. It’s changed in many ways. It’s going to be available with both petrol hybrid and fully electric versions, and those aren’t going to be called the EQB like its predecessor. All versions will now use the GB name. In this video, we’re going to show you through everything you need to know about it, from design to the interior, and of course, what powertrains are going to be available. So, let’s go. This time round it’s built on an allnew platform and that means it’s also got more space inside. The whole vehicle is actually 10 cm longer and the wheelbase, the space between the front and the rear wheels has increased by 6 cm and you’ll see a little bit of that when we get inside. But I want to talk first of all about the front and the design of this because there’s going to be no mistaking this for a Mercedes. Now there is going to be a little bit of a difference between the two models. Although overall the look is quite similar. This is the fully electric GB. And the way you’ll be able to tell that is by this illuminated but enclosed front grill section. You have a whole host of stars in the front here, including one large one, which depending on the market that you’re in, will also be illuminated. You get a welcome design, a welcome pattern animation when you approach the car. And of course, you have a familiar look across both versions, hybrid and electric. When it comes to the headlights, these are made up with a daytime running light signature, which has the three-pointed star in it, and that includes a light bar that runs all the way across the front. But if you go for the hybrid version, you don’t get this grill complete with its 94 + one large star instead because that engine needs to breathe. This section is much more open to allow air flow in. and you get an illuminated outline. So, the outer frame of this grill is illuminated with a thin strip of light. And that’s the easiest way to differentiate the electric and the hybrid models. You’ll be able to get a GB in a number of different trim lines. This is the AMG line version. And one of the ways you can tell the AMG line is these wheel arches are colorcoded to match the bodywork. Only the base model, and that will vary depending on which country you’re in in terms of what it’s called, gets a kind of roughened textured plastic uh surround on the wheel arches. There’s a choice of wheels. They range from 18 up to 20 in. And if you go for the 20-in wheel option, you get adaptive damper as standard, regardless of whether you’re choosing the hybrid or the electric version. Like all of the current generation of Mercedes-Benz, you get flush fitting door handles, but if you again go for a base level version, you do get more traditional door handles. So, it’s not an essential thing to have it, but these are things that do help improve air flow, aerodynamics, and maybe add a little kilometer or two to your overall driving range. And then at the back, you’ve got a single charge port on the driver’s side if you’re in a right-hand drive market. And at the back you get that very upright rear end that we’ve seen on the previous generation of GB that continues here. The other big thing is this full width light bar. It’s got this large illuminated panel runs all the way across the back. Really does stand out. Makes it very easily identifiable. You can see these three-pointed stars here that glow when you have a kind of welcome sequence. And you still get an electric tailgate as standard on this version. Now you’ve got two different options. You have a 5 seat or a 7 seat version. This is the seven seat version. So it has a 480 L boot. If you go for the five seat version, you get a little bit more room because it doesn’t have to fit in the mechanisms for the seats and you get 540 L. Either way, it’s a pretty good boot size. It’s a nice wide aperture. Flat load level in here as well. And you do have a little bit of extra storage underneath there. You just want to put some odds and ends. The seats do fold flat here as well. And if you do need to pull them up, just very easy. Pull them up like so. And they just click straight into place. In terms of powertrains, you have two electric versions. Both use an 85 kWh NMC battery. The GB 250 Plus has a rear drive setup with 272 horsepower, 335 new meters of torque, and a driving range of 631 km. The GB 350 Formatic adds an extra motor to the front axle for a total output of 353 horsepower and 515 new m of torque. And the good news is, thanks to how efficient that powertrain is, you still get a 614 km range and it can pull up to 2 tons. The GB’s 800vt architecture means that it can charge up to 320 kW on a fast charger, meaning you can add up to 260 km in as little as 10 minutes. You’ll get 11 kW AC as standard and the option of a 22 kW AC charger, too. The interior of the new GB mimics what we’ve seen in the CLA already. And of course, the big thing that is most obvious is this huge panel of a dashboard. It is quite an impressive thing. It’s made up of a 10.25 in display in front of the driver for your digital instrument display and then a pair of 14in displays for the central infotainment system and an additional screen for the passenger. and they can do their own thing with the info within the infotainment system as they’re sitting there. It is quite nice in terms of how it all looks. It’s a very clean design. Okay, there’s not as many physical buttons as we would like to see. For example, the climate control is done via the screen, but of course, there is a voice assistant if you do prefer to use that as well. Um, the driving position itself is actually quite nice. So, you’re sitting in a good position. The seats are quite comfortable. There’s a good degree of adjustability in the seats themselves. Steering wheel also manually adjustable. So again, reach and rake. You can move it over quite a wide amount of room there. So getting a comfortable driving position for most people shouldn’t be that much of an issue at all. Also, you’ve got the latest steering wheel on the GB, and this has seen a slight return to rollers and rocker switches for your volume and various sort of things like that for adjusting your cruise control. There is still some haptic buttons further down on this kind of two spar arrangement, but it does feel a little bit nicer. You’ve got the traditional two stalks here. All your lighting, wipers, everything is done on the left side and your drive shifting is done on the right side, including an onoff power button. So, where you would normally press in the park button, that also actually turns off the ignition. The display itself is a nice simple affair. You can also have an optional head-up color display if you want. And overall, it feels quite nice. Obviously, this is a top-of-the-line version, but the material quality, all the surfaces are all nicely done, and there’s a fair degree of functionality to this. You’ve got big air vents in the center. You’ve got more circular air vents on either side, complete with the built-in ambient lighting. And speaking of which, if you do swipe between the different ambient lighting, you can have different menu style here in terms of the background, that also adds to the all the ambient lighting throughout. So, you’ve got it here on the side of this center console and around the air vents as I showed. There’s also a glass roof and I’ll show you that in just a moment. But, yeah, you can go through the different menus depending on what your preference might be. And actually, the the infotainment system itself is very nice to use. It’s the latest MBOS operating system and it just works very very well. You’ve got a lot of different functionality to it. You can have obviously your full navigation display here if you want. Um you can then go through various other options. You’ve got full connectivity with uh the various smartphones that you might have. So Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, you can do all of those things. You lot of central controls here as well for adjusting your vehicle settings. And when the passenger is there as well, they can then have this screen function and go through various things, whether it’s a YouTube, even Disney Plus. If you’re sitting there and you’re charging away, uh you can have a quick catch up of your favorite episode. So once you’re driving, that kind of goes off unless there’s somebody sitting here. And as I mentioned, then you have the central display. It all works quite quickly as well. It’s the one thing I find that it it does go through everything quite quickly. So, it’s very quick to react uh all the right things that you might want to have in a touchscreen. And there’s even a front-facing camera as well. You can take selfies or do all sorts of things. The center console here, you’ve got two cup holders. Nice and simple. You’ve got a wireless phone charger here as well, so you can just pop your phone down there and have that charge away. And you do have some physical buttons here as well. So, you’ve got some volume controls. You’ve also got the dynamic select button here as well. So pressing that will then go through your various different uh drive modes. You’ve got comfort, normal, sport. On this formatic version, you also have a terrain mode as well, which again gives you a little bit more scope for adjustability in terms of any off-road conditions. There’s bit more storage underneath here. This is a similar design to what we’ve seen in the CLA, but this being the GB, it’s much taller. Therefore, you’ve got a lot more room in here. It’s more easily accessible. You’ve got USBC charge ports in there. And you also have a little bit more room underneath this center armrest. Not the biggest. It’s not the widest in the world, but it’s fine if you want to put some odds and ends in there and maybe keep them out of sight. As I mentioned, the seats nicely bolstered. You can see here in the passenger seat, it’s got a nice bit of side bolstering. More thigh support here as well. That’s something that’s also mimicked in the back. We’ll show you that in just a moment. But there’s one other thing I want to show you, and that was that glass roof. Because all GBs now get this panoramic glass roof. And as you can see, it looks absolutely spectacular. Probably even better from the rear seat. But you can also have an option of having it closed in certain segments, so it will frost the glass depending on how you want it. Or you can have up to 158 stars. And these all change according to the ambient lighting as well. Getting into the back is even easier than before. Not only do the doors open to a nice angle, but the actual cutout here for getting in and out has improved over its predecessor. So, it’s much easier to get in and out of the GB. Now, this is the seven seat version, and first of all, lots of room in here. So, I’m sitting behind my normal driving position. I’m of average height. I’m 5’8 and I’ve got a lot of room here. So, I’ve got plenty of knee room. I can get my feet comfortably underneath the seat in front. And yeah, it’s actually pretty comfortable here. That big glass roof obviously helps flood more light into the cabin during the daytime. So, again, that adds to the sense of spaciousness, but you can also slide these seats forward and back. So, if you do need to have a little bit more room for those in the back, you can pull this forward. Or equally, you can then slide that back this much further. So, there’s still a good bit of versatility within this version of the sevenseater and you also have a bit more room in the 5-seater as well. So, either way, I think passenger space is one of the big improvements in this GB over its predecessor. As we mentioned earlier in the video, that wheelbase is 6 cm longer. And you know what? It makes itself known in the back. You’ve got ISOIX points in the two outer rear seats in the middle row. And if you go for the seven seat option, the two seats in the third row also have ISOIX points. So in total, four ISOIX, perfect for small families. And finally, just in terms of practicalities, well, you’ve got a pair of USBC charge ports back here. You’ve got nets on the backs of the seats. And you’ve got decent enough size door bins for putting in alens, small drinks, bottles, and the like. If you’re not using this middle seat, you can also pop this out and get two more cup holders here as well. So, overall, there’s a pretty good amount of space in the back here. But, let’s go and see what that third row is like. You might remember the EQB was a little bit limited in terms of how much space it had in the third row. Well, this is better. It’s got 3 cm more headroom, so I can fit in here. Now, it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world. My head is just about brushing the headlining here, but if it was just a short journey, I could actually fit in here. And there’s actually enough room for two of me to sit in here because there’s actually a bit of a space between the two seats that conveniently has two cup holders in here. Now, okay, I’ve got the seat set up here. I could probably slide that forward a little bit more if I want, but I actually my knees aren’t pressing up against the middle seat row. So, it is actually a big improvement. These seats are always just used often as a bit of an emergency measure. You’re not always going to use this as a perhaps a full seven-seater, but if you do need to use it, these aren’t anymore just seats for kids. Two adults can fit in here if you need them. The electric GB has one more trick up its sleeve, and that’s the frunk. Okay, you’ve got to reach in here and pull the lever twice, but you don’t have to do any faffing around underneath here. Just lift it up. And hey, presto, a 127 L frunk. It’s enormous. You can get all sorts of things in here. So, yeah, bravo. There’s a lot more functionality in this new GB. So, that’s our first look at the allnew Mercedes-Benz GB. You can find out more about it by visiting our website. It’s completecar.ie. You’ll find a link to it in the description below. And it’s a great resource for finding your next new car, keeping up with all the latest car news, and of course reading our in-depth reviews. We’ve also got a great weekly email newsletter goes out once a week, and it’s well worth signing up for that because there’s a lot of exclusive content in there, too. Thanks for watching.
A brand-new Mercedes-Benz GLB has been unveiled. As before, the SUV will be available in a five- or seven-seat layout, though it’s more spacious. The electric versions will retain the GLB badge this time around – instead of “EQB” – and they’ll be joined in the lineup by hybrid models.
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Contents:
00:00 – Introduction
00:29 – New design and platform
02:06 – Exterior design
03:10 – Rear design and boot
03:49 – GLB boot space
04:20 – Powertrain options
05:00 – Charging performance
05:18 – GLB interior layout
10:55 – GLB rear seats
12:57 – Third-row seats
13:57 – GLB frunk
