Kia EV6 vs Mercedes-Benz GLB

The Kia EV6 is £465 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £160 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Kia EV6 comes out roughly £545 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 301 miles for the Kia EV6 and 268 miles for the Mercedes-Benz GLB - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Kia EV6 goes roughly 32 miles further between charging stops. Both rapid-charge to 80% in a similar time, around 18-20 minutes.

The two are within 29 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 539 mm of total clearance for the Mercedes-Benz GLB and about 510 mm of total clearance for the Kia EV6. The Mercedes-Benz GLB also turns in a 0.4 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 89% battery health for the Kia EV6 and 84% for the Mercedes-Benz GLB. That gives the Kia EV6 a modest edge in retained real-world range. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.