(upbeat music)
- Behind me is Mercedes first all-electric car,
the Mercedes EQC.
If you've been watching my channel for awhile
you know that I like electric cars,
and we've had a chance to see this car
a few times over the last year.
But this is the first time I've really
had the chance to drive it, to explore it,
to learn what it's like on the roads,
start driving it in the mountains, in the city.
I wanna share with you
my five favorite unique features
about this Mercedes EQC.
The number one item on my list,
has to start with the inside of the vehicle.
I've been in quite a few electric cars
over the last couple of years,
and I've not seen a car that is more luxurious
on the interior, than the EQC.
They have custom stitching, all along the inside.
There's a nice mix between white and black leather.
In our Tesla the whole thing is white in one car,
the whole things is black in another.
Sometimes white doesn't do so well with kids,
and with blue jeans and different things.
Its difficult to really tell you on camera,
how comfortable it actually feels inside of this car.
You can tell that the leather is higher quality,
that the foam that they use inside is really comfortable.
You've seen the video where we cut open an S-Class seat,
and you saw all the thought that went
into the seat within the S-Class.
You can easily move the seat
in multiple different directions,
you also have the seat warmers
and the ventilated air-cooled seats.
You have the white crossed-stitch pattern,
the black leather up here.
What looks like carbon fiber,
with these accents of copper that go through it,
to kind of represent the coils within the battery.
At night-time there's the EQC blue lights
that shine right here,
but you can also customize the lights
to have different mood lighting in the car,
however you want it to be.
Mercedes has over 100 years of experience
designing seats inside of cars,
and you feel it in the EQC.
It just feels like a higher quality ride experience.
(bouncy music)
The second thing that I really like about this car,
has a little bit to do with the Tesla Model 3,
and the Model Y, and the potential refresh,
on the S and the X.
If you've seen the way the Model 3's screen works
is that you have a giant screen
that's right here in this area,
and that's really all that you have.
And it's a really strange thing because
you don't have any heads-up display right here
to be able to see how fast you're going.
I'm not saying that the Mercedes screen
that goes across is better,
what I am saying, is that Mercedes did something
inside of the EQC, that I think that could
be a very simple thing for even Tesla to fix.
It's a heads-up display
that projects onto the windshield.
You can see the kilometers per hour,
the direction that you're facing,
and a few other items that are just on the screen.
The way that it works, is up here on the dashboard
you have this box, and in this box is a mirror,
and down inside is all of the display information.
It projects onto the mirror,
and then up onto the windshield.
It does take a little bit of getting used to,
and at the very beginning it's a little shocking
to see that in the line of sight.
After about 20 minutes of driving the car
it becomes less of a distraction,
and it becomes more of something that helps you
know how fast you're going.
I love this feature in the EQC.
Totally useful.
So this isn't one of my top five,
but I just want to show you this,
because I think it's really cool.
First notice, no tow hitch.
Nothing. Nothing down here.
You pull the tow hitch button,
and watch this.
There you go!
You have a tow hitch!
It's like magic.
Didn't quite make the top five,
but that was pretty cool right?
(upbeat music)
Third thing that I really like about the Mercedes EQC,
is the recuperation mode,
a regenerative braking type mode.
In some electric cars they only have two options.
Which is no regeneration,
so basically when you let off the pedal, it just cruises.
It's actually using the motor to brake
and it's pushing energy to the batteries,
and recharging the batteries in a way.
Giving you a little bit extra range
so you can drive a few more miles.
This has five modes of regenerative braking,
but they call it recuperation.
If I let off the pedal, the car just cruises,
and it's just coasting like you're in neutral.
If you put it on maximum mode, the car's stopping.
It can come to, basically a complete stop,
without even using the brakes,
and it's charging the batteries back up.
Mercedes does a really good job on their display,
and actually showing you
what the battery and what the motors are doing.
So you can see when I completely let off the pedal,
everything lights up blue.
Both of the motors are charging
the battery at the same time,
and the car comes to a complete stop
without me even pushing the brake.
But there's also a special one,
if you hold down the paddle for a few seconds,
it says D Auto.
The cool thing about this one,
is it's using the topography maps and the GPS,
and also how much battery you have
in your car right now.
It'll change the recuperation levels
based off of the needs of the car,
and the places that you're driving.
If you're going down a really steep hill,
it uses the camera and sees cars in front of you.
It will kick in the higher mode of recuperation,
and slow you down as you're going down the hill
without you having to use the brake.
So really clever system,
and this is something that I didn't know
that I was missing in my life,
until I drove the Mercedes-Benz.
I need more recuperation in my life.
(energetic music)
The fourth thing that I like
about this Mercedes EQC.
It is legitimately, the quietest car,
I have ever ridden in.
No joke, it is crazy quiet.
If you remember,
back when I cut open a Tesla tire,
we found some sound dampening foam inside of the wheel.
That was pretty cool.
Yesterday we met with the employee,
that his entire job for the last year,
has been to make the car ride
as quiet as humanly possible.
He decreased the decibels by nine decibels,
from where he started.
They took the motor,
and they put custom-fitted foam all around it
before they put the plastic cover over the motor.
The motor is obviously attached to the car,
but they detached it from the frame in two different places.
So they have little connectors,
so that the vibrations, and the noise from the motor,
hopefully would not transfer over to the car
so that you would hear it and feel it.
They have giant thick foam squares
that are all within the car,
between the inner systems
and the outer frame of the car,
especially around the wheel wells.
It's really really quiet.
So it's kind of a strange thing when
you're driving in the car.
I really like the attention to detail that Mercedes did.
To take additional steps to make sure that this car,
is as soundproof as possible,
so that you don't hear little squeaks and noises.
Because that's my number four.
This car is crazy quiet and peaceful to ride in.
(relaxed music)
The fifth and final thing
that I really like about the Mercedes EQC.
It has augmented reality,
that is built in to the GPS navigation.
What the GPS does, is when you are coming up
to a place where you need to turn right,
it utilizes the front-facing camera.
The front-facing camera turns on,
and then certain points of interest, or streets,
or the way that you're supposed to turn,
will pop up digitally enhanced, over the video.
So it's like live video of the outside,
but then you get these digital images that crop in,
that help guide you.
If you have a turn that's coming up,
a blue arrow will come out and be pointing forward.
One of my favorite parts about it
was when it first came on we were super confused.
Because you often see
a rear-view camera that comes up,
like say you put it in reverse,
and you get the rear-view camera
that shows what's going on behind you.
All of a sudden we saw a camera image
of what was in front of us.
Zach kind of got a little upset with that one.
- I was like, why in the world
would I need a camera image on the screen,
of what I can look out the window
and see with my own eyes. (laughing)
It was kind of weird.
But then we noticed that it was
overlaying the directions on top of the map
and like motion tracking it, you know with us in real time.
And then it turned into a really cool feature.
That's something I have not seen in a car,
that I think is incredibly valuable,
and maybe a glimpse of what we're going to see
in the future.
- Electric cars are the future,
and I like where Mercedes
has taken those aspects of this vehicle.
So the EQC is rolling out, right now in 2019.
Then in 2020, it should roll out in the United States.
I'm excited to get my hands on one in the United States.
Do some more testing, make some more videos.
Who knows?
Maybe I can trade in, or get rid of one of my electric cars,
and swap it for this. We'll see.
For a more in-depth video
about the features and benefits,
and the specs of the Mercedes-Benz EQC,
make sure you check out Zach's channel.
And his video, I'm gonna link it right here,
and link it in the description,
which does a great job of breaking it down.
We had a blast out here.
Thanks Mercedes-Benz, for sending us out here.
I'm excited to go see the family,
but I'm a little sad to leave Norway.
This has been a nice trip.
All right, see you guys later.
(upbeat music)