Citroën ë-C5 Aircross vs Mercedes-Benz GLC

The Mercedes-Benz GLC costs £27,035 more than the Citroën ë-C5 Aircross. For that premium it adds 83 miles more WLTP range, 170 kW faster peak rapid charging and 203 kW more power. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the Mercedes-Benz GLC comes out ahead overall.

The Citroën ë-C5 Aircross is £27,035 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £176 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the Citroën ë-C5 Aircross comes out roughly £26,995 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 224 miles for the Citroën ë-C5 Aircross and 297 miles for the Mercedes-Benz GLC - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Mercedes-Benz GLC goes roughly 73 miles further between charging stops.

The two are within 23 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 487 mm of total clearance for the Mercedes-Benz GLC and about 464 mm of total clearance for the Citroën ë-C5 Aircross. The Citroën ë-C5 Aircross also turns in a 1.2 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the Citroën ë-C5 Aircross and 84% for the Mercedes-Benz GLC. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation.