How Do the 2027 BMW iX3 and 2027 Mercedes-Benz GLC With EQ Technology Compare?

Key Points

• Both BMW and Mercedes-Benz are launching their next-gen electric SUVs around the same time.
• The BMW iX3 has quite an impressive digital architecture.
• The new Mercedes-Benz GLC With EQ Technology sports an interior far above and beyond any EQ product.

It’s always interesting when two directly competing products debut and/or launch around the same time. Did they plan that? Are you sure they didn’t? It’s a neat happenstance, but it’s also a fascinating look into how each automaker answered the same question. In this case, it was the dual representation of the 2027 BMW iX3 and 2027 Mercedes-Benz GLC With EQ Technology sharing U.S.-market debut headlines at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Related: 2027 Mercedes-Benz GLC With EQ Technology: Hitting a Stride

These aren’t casually related, either — these are direct market counterparts from the two biggest German luxury marques in history. Both the iX3 and GLC With EQ Technology (henceforth referenced here as the GLC EQ for brevity) are all-new compact/mid-size tweener all-electric SUVs that represent a reset or strategy rethink for their respective brand. As my time spent up close with these technocrats revealed, they go about it in similar ways, with radically different results.

The iX3 Is Much Like a Rolling Smartphone

• Takeaway: The iX3’s new Operating System X operating system with Panoramic Vision is one of the more impressive setups we’ve interacted with in quite a while.

BMW seeks to redefine itself not only in the era of electric vehicles, but in user-machine interactions. Or in this case, maybe user-device interactions — the iX3 is much like a rolling smartphone as it is a crossover. This is the debut platform for its new OSX and the supporting Panoramic Vision. If OSX is the digital architecture, the 43.3-inch Panoramic Vision display is its lovely, avant-garde facade; stretching nearly the entire length of the lower portion of the windshield, this is closer to a head-up display than a true screen, and it’s eminently configurable with widgets, readouts and graphics.

This is done via the trapezoidal 17.9-inch center infotainment screen, where swapped and reorganized widgets are just a long-press-and-drag away. This, along with all interactions with the new OSX architecture, are appreciably quick and almost immediately reactive. You know how the overwhelming majority of automotive infotainment feels as sluggish as a 2013 smartphone? OSX feels like a mid-grade device from today.

I’m not damning with faint praise here. From my relatively brief interaction with this new infotainment system, it truly is one of the quickest, most handsome and most stylish on the market. It’s a crucial success, considering the iX3 is the most software-defined vehicle we’ve yet seen from the brand. There’s also the exception of a small cluster of physical controls on the center console for the hazard lights, drive selector, window defrosters and — blessed be! — a physical volume roll knob.

Climate control is handled via the center touchscreen, including the vents. It’s annoying until you futz with them and realize just how quick and simple to use these e-vents (digi-vents?) are. In our up-close look at the iX3, I begrudgingly admitted I could see a use case given you can save vent, fan and temperature settings to driver profiles. Of course, the sheer amount of menus, nested menus and sub-nested menus will keep you occupied (or frustrated) for some time, but the system’s level of personalization from a colorway, shortcut and profile perspective is admirably executed and impressive.

The Equally Welcome Updated Mercedes-Benz MBUX

• Takeaway: Mercedes’ updated MBUX system gets a new optional Hyperscreen, emotional modes and artificial-intelligence integration, among other things.

Mercedes’ newest iteration of its long-standing MBUX setup is equally welcome, if not somewhat evolutionary. Most of the same controls and layout are here as the most immediate predecessors available in the EQ model series. Now, AI is deeply integrated with much of the surface functions — as is the case with the BMW, too — to the point where Mercedes bills it as a digital assistant.

No comment there, but the new GLC EQ offers in-car video conferencing for certain work-related platforms and has added a ton of entertainment and productivity apps to the digital suite. Most of this is available across the GLC EQ’s trim range with its standard 14-inch center screen and the 10.25-inch driver display, but I recommend springing for the one-piece 39.1-inch Hyperscreen display for maximum techno-superiority. It works particularly well with the new Apple CarPlay-compatible Dolby Atmos experiences that can be paired with a selection of active emotional motifs, including a virtual desert campfire, lush forest or misty waterfall. It’s a smidge AI in appearance, but at least you can keep the kiddos occupied while charging.

Everything Is New in the GLC With EQ Technology

• Takeaway: The GLC EQ’s interior is an impressive and characterful leap above the existing EQ model lineup.

I had scant time to poke around either car, but if style and “wow” factor is a priority, check out the GLC EQ first. Compared to the current and past EQ products, holy smokes — it seems like Mercedes genuinely took customer and media criticism to heart with the new GLC EQ and infused its interior with the rather tricky balance of both character and elegance, at least by the screen-forward standards of 2026. In the GLC EQ I checked out, gone was the smudge-prone gloss-black plastic, supplanted by a matte-finished aluminum trim with a very chic herringbone motif.

Being a complete redesign, everything inside is new. The wireless device charging pads are repositioned on the flat center console, the latter wearing a few lines of nice stitching so as to not detract entirely from the ritzy surroundings. Speaking of stitching, the vegan leatherette in this 400 trim was almost what you’d find on a baseball glove.

The steering wheel incorporates touch-capacitive controls for all but the volume and cruise-control speed, a welcome alternative to BMW’s full touch-capacitive wheel controls. This is a bit unfair, as the iX3’s wheel controls are better than just about any touch-capacitive panels I’ve used in some time. Run a hand along and across these clear panels, and you’ll note no reaction; it’s only when you deliberately press on a volume or track control where a meaningful vibration indicates activation.

A Minimalist Interior in the iX3

• Takeaway: The iX3’s interior is notably more minimalist and reserved than the Mercedes’, though the funky steering wheel is a standout.

The rest of the iX3’s interior isn’t as glitzy and adorned as the Mercedes’, but this is by design. Similar to the extant iX cockpit, BMW’s leaning heavily into its minimalist approach, incorporating backlit textile accent trim on the dash and a floating center console with storage underneath. The steering wheel is quite funky with its vertical — yes, as in north/south — spokes, though a more traditional two-spoke unit will be available as part of an M Sport Package.

From the tech front, BMW takes it with such an impressive and reactive clean-sheet redesign. Mercedes takes the laurels for the physical interior character and design, though I’d imagine the base versions of the GLC EQ are a bit staid while top specs of the iX3 are impressively eccentric.

Read More Luxury Electric SUV News on Cars.com:

• Mercedes-Benz Reveals All-New, Electric 2027 GLC With EQ Technology
• 2027 BMW iX3: First of Brand’s New Generation of Vehicles Revealed With 400-Mile Range
• 2026 BMW iX: New Base Trim Brings Starting Price Down $12,100
• All-New 2026 Mercedes-Benz GLB Debuts With Electric Power
• Find Your Next Car

Which Should You Get?

• Takeaway: If you’re a techie, go with the iX3. If you prefer a smidge of style, stick with the Mercedes.

The iX3 launches in dual-motor “50” grade, offering an estimated 400 miles of range from a 112.2-kilowatt-hour battery pack that peaks at a very impressive 400-kilowatt DC fast-charge rate. Under ideal circumstances, BMW says it will zip from 10%-80% charge in just 21 minutes.

The GLC EQ isn’t too far off the iX3. A 94-kWh battery pack returns “over 400 miles” in the European testing cycle (that estimate will be lower here in the states), and a 330-kW peak DC fast-charge rate recoups 188 miles in just 10 minutes. Charging seems to go to the BMW, but Mercedes claws a few points back when it comes to power and performance; the iX3 50 xDrive packs 463 horsepower and 476 pounds-feet of torque against the GLC EQ’s’ 483-hp dual-motor launch trim.

Having just sat and futzed with these cars while stationary, it all comes down to personal preference if you’re looking to cross-shop. However, if you’re jonesing for a breakdown of comfort, storage, on-road driving and an actual take on which next-gen electric luxury crossover is king, you’re going to have to wait for when we get behind the wheel sometime later this year. Stay tuned.

Editor’s note: This story was updated Feb. 3, 2026, with an updated figure for the battery of the BMW iX3’s battery pack.

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