The long-running German saloon has gone electric – but it keeps all the strengths that made it great
The arrival of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class Electric seems a seminal moment on the road to full electrification. Here we have the firm whose founder, Karl Benz, patented the combustion-powered passenger vehicle 140 years ago, launching an electric version of the defining model in its line-up.Boss Ola Källenius describes this new EV as designed to “hit the centre of the Mercedes fan base”. While the GLC SUV is Stuttgart’s best-seller nowadays, the compact executive saloon market remains the arena in which German premium brands are judged (and with the Neue Klasse BMW i3 on the way, our road testers are already salivating to do some judging). So an electric C-Class is a big deal, even if Källenius claims the aim is to ensure you don’t really notice the change in powertrain. “The feedback from dealers and customers is that we’ve hit the spot,” he tells me. “They say ‘that’s a beautiful car and oh, it’s electric? Yeah, great.’”As with the closely related new electric GLC, in style and name this is an electric C-Class and not, say, an EQC saloon. In fact, Mercedes has quietly ditched its EQ branding entirely here: the official name of this first variant is the 400 4Matic electric. Yes, with a lower-case ‘e’.So is this a true C-Class that happens to be electric, or is just an average electric saloon with a fancy grille? Let’s find out.
