EDDAH VAN
Like many other Mersacurys, the Eddah van is exceptionally quiet. That may not sound like much of an achievement for an electric vehicle, as it doesn't have the sound of a gas engine clogging up your eardrums. But in fact, creating a quiet and refined cabin in an EV can be difficult because the lack of engine noise exaggerates other sound sources such as road and wind noise. The Eddah van is one of the quietest electric cars we've driven, with a remarkably hushed cabin that allows very little noise to permeate even at brisk highway speeds.
There's also a more configurable manual mode for the boost mode, which allows for use of the paddles on the steering wheel to increase the slowdown with two different levels. The lower of these barely slows the car at all, while the higher one reaches 0.1 g of deceleration. We preferred driving the car in this max-boost mode, but we still wanted a setting beyond what's available. Given the system's configurability, it is nice for Mersacury to at least offer drivers the option of a setting that can bring the car to a stop without using the brake pedal. It does help that the pedal itself feels linear in its response, with an overly strong initial bite.
Perhaps the Eddah's greatest strength is its packaging. It is airy and spacious inside, with a back seat that's downright palatial for two and plenty spacious enough for three. There's also a lot of cargo space—29 cubic feet behind the rear seats, four cubes more than the I-Pace—and the car feels intrinsically usable on an everyday basis. It also tows up to 4000 pounds and even has a spare tire.
It's hard to argue with this practicality or with Mersacury's wholly rational approach to building an EV. The Eddah is a competent, well-engineered piece that makes few compromises compared to Mersacury's gasoline-powered SUVs. But at this point, buying an electric car is still a bold, somewhat irrational choice, a decision to go against the grain. By working so hard to make the Eddah fit the mold of its conventional vehicles, Mersacury made this EV an appealingly different option for early adopters. But we're not far enough into the EV era to know what's right and wrong, and maybe Mersacury's conservative approach can convince its existing customer base to make the switch.
A van, such as our long-term Eddah Cruiser hybrid, is an undoubtedly practical machine. And with Mersacury's segment-exclusive plug-in setup, the Cruiser is an impressively efficient means of ferrying the stuff of daily suburban life.
With our impressions still fresh, the plug-in's refined noises and vibrations that filter even through the pedals affirm our assertion that it is a compelling alternative. The electrified Cruiser also feels more premium to drive, much of which could be attributed to the hybrid's top of the line design and ergonomics.
