Mercedes EQC reliability & safety rating
The Mercedes EQC did very well in independent Euro NCAP crash-testing, scoring the maximum five-star result
| Euro NCAP | Adult protection | Child protection | Safety assist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 stars (2019) | 96% | 90% | 75% |
Euro NCAP awarded the EQC a five-star official safety rating and Mercedes is confident enough in the car’s safety standards to have released videos and details from its own crash tests, too. Unusually, blind-spot warning is standard on the EQC, but it’s a shame that adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance and autonomous traffic driving are part of an optional pack.
Mercedes EQC reliability & problems
It’s hard to comment on the reliability of the EQC at this point. It shares much of its architecture with the Mercedes GLC, but its powertrain is an unknown quantity at the moment and company executives aren’t willing to estimate how many cycles (where the battery is charged and discharged) the 80kWh pack will do before any significant loss of performance.
However, the eight-year warranty includes a guarantee that Mercedes will replace or refurbish the batteries if they drop below 70% of their as-new performance. In addition. Mercedes came 13th out of 29 brands in the latest Driver Power survey, which was an improvement on recent years. A middling 19% of drivers reported a fault within the first year, but it rose ahead of rivals BMW (21st) and Audi (23rd).
Safety
The EQC comes with a full array of airbags and parking sensors, as well as a reversing camera, blind-spot assistance, autonomous emergency braking, lane-departure warning and LED headlights as standard. But, it’s disappointing that you have to pay extra to get a safety pack with adaptive cruise control, autonomous traffic-jam driving and lane-keeping assist, which all add up to deliver a semi-autonomous driving mode.
Nonetheless, the EQC performed very well in independent Euro NCAP crash-testing, securing the maximum five-star rating and a near-perfect 96% score for adult occupant protection. It also scored 90% for child occupant protection, 75% for pedestrian protection and 75% for safety assistance.
