This week I had a phone call from Mercedes-Benz Gosford giving me the opportunity to take the GLC 300E on an extended test drive to offer my opinion about the car.

This Mercedes-Benz didn’t disappoint. The plug in Hybrid technology really impressed me combining at 1991cc, 4 cylinder engine, making 155KW at 5500 rpm, and 350 NM torque at 1200-4000 rpm, with and electric motor making 90 kw and 440 nm torque.

Combined this system creates 235kw and a whopping 700NM torque.

For more details please check out video review below on our YouTube channel.

Mercedes-Benz Gosford

373 Mann St, Gosford NSW 2250

Tel: +61 2 4320 0922

https://www.mbgosford.com.au/

Exterior

The exterior design is characterised by sporty features. A distinctive off-road look is accentuated by muscular surface contours and striking details such as the chrome trim that now continues from the front end to the rear as standard, and by the heavily contoured radiator grille.

The GLC now has LED High Performance headlamps as standard. Their contours have been significantly changed, and they are now smaller and flatter. This makes the torch-like outline of the daytime driving lights even more prominent, and the typical Mercedes-Benz light signature even more recognisable.

MULTIBEAM LED headlamps are available as optional equipment. Redesigned all-LED tail lights are also included as standard.

From the very start, the GLC was designed for space-saving integration of a battery. This is assisted by the lowered rear axle and a bodyshell designed for battery integration. The result is a large, level luggage compartment whose capacity of 395-1445 litres is only just below that of other GLCs.

More energy with more density: longer electric range

The Mercedes-Benz plug-In hybrids in the current generation have a purely electric, locally emission-free range of around 50 km (NEDC). The GLE even manages a range of over 100 kilometres (NEDC). The rated capacity increased to 13.5 kWh is decisive for this increase in the electric range. The battery of the GLE even has a capacity of 31.2 kWh.

The evolution of the cell chemistry from lithium-iron-phosphate (LiFePo) to lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt (Li-NMC) made it possible for the cell capacity to be increased from 22 to 37 Ah. The highly efficient battery system comes from the Daimler subsidiary Deutsche ACCUMOTIVE. The power electronics are housed in the engine compartment.

Onboard charger with 7.4 kW output: faster charging

The new on-board charger more than doubles the charging capacity from 3.6 kW to 7.4 kW and strikes an ideal compromise between size, weight and charging capacity. A discharged battery can thus be fully recharged in 1.5 hours at a wallbox with alternating current (AC), for example in the convenience of one’s own home (GLE: 3 hours 15 minutes). The same is possible in around five hours even at a conventional domestic power socket.

For direct-current charging (DC) the battery in the compact hybrids can be charged from 10 – 80 percent SoC in around 25 minutes. The GLE has a combined charging socket for AC and DC charging. It is located in the left side wall, symmetrical with the fuel flap on the right side of the vehicle. At corresponding DC charging stations, its battery can be charged in approx. 20 minutes (10-80 percent state of charge (SoC)) or in approx. 30 minutes
(10-100 percent SoC).

Electric pre-entry climatisation of the interior: pleasant temperatures even before starting off

The high-voltage on-board electrical system supplies not only the drive components and the vacuum pump of the regenerative braking system, but also the electric refrigerant compressor and the high-voltage heater booster. Both allow pre-entry climate control of the interior not only in summer but also in winter, because they can also operate without the combustion engine.

Hybrid traction head in torque-converter transmission: more powerful, more compact

The mechanical centrepiece of all the third-generation plug-in hybrids with a longitudinally installed engine is the nine-speed 9G-TRONIC hybrid transmission. This adds a hybrid traction head with an integrated torque converter, a clutch and a powerful electric motor to the familiar automatic torque converter transmission. All of the benefits of the basic transmission are retained, including the exceptional drive comfort, barely perceptible gear shifts, and a high towing capacity. The most powerful version of the basic transmission with a transferable torque of up to 700 Nm is used for hybrid drive, so that the combined power of the combustion engine and electric motor can be used when required. The 9G-TRONIC nine-speed hybrid transmission excels with very high efficiency, and particularly contributes to improved efficiency while driving under electric power.

For models with a transversely installed engine and the 8G-DCT dual-clutch transmission, a compact hybrid traction head was developed along the same technical lines as the corresponding component for models with a longitudinally installed engine. See the next chapter for details.

The major benefit of the new hybrid traction head is its compact design, which was achieved thanks to the innovative integration and connection of the separating clutch, torsional vibration damper and torque converter lock-up clutch within the rotor of the electric motor. All in all the transmission is only 108 mm longer than the basic 9G-TRONIC transmission.

In contrast to the second-generation traction head, in which the electric motor was connected directly with the transmission input and a wet start-off clutch was used as a starting and separating clutch, a torque converter between the electric motor and the transmission now takes care of starting off. The separating clutch has been improved with respect to drag torque, now that it no longer has to deal with starting off, in order to reduce losses during electric mode.

To optimise vibration decoupling, the hybrid transmission includes two torsional vibration dampers that damp the combustion engine excitations. The first vibration damper is installed between the engine and transmission, while the second is integrated in the torque converter.