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I'm Frank Marcus with Motor Trend and this is the all-new, all-electric Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class. The GLC-Class will be the first product to market on the all-new Mercedes-Benz Electric Architecture, MBEA. That platform is about as important for Mercedes-Benz as the Neue Klasse is for BMW. Fittingly, the first two products on both of those platforms will be arch-rivals. This GLC-Class will go up against the BMW iX3. Each company built its own brand new electric-electronic architecture from scratch to be highly centralized and software-defined. They both broke all the vehicle functions down into four different areas, zonal control, and they're running them with supercomputers that have impressive statistics. For this one, 254 tops, 450 kd-mips, and 8.3 t-flops, whatever those are. The GLC 400 4MATIC will boast 483 horsepower and 590 pound-feet. Mercedes is bringing its electric line back to a much more traditional look, so we've got a very upright grille, the TriStar headlights in there as well. Relative to the previous GLC-Class, the wheelbase is 3.3 inches longer. That gives you almost two inches of extra legroom in the back seat. 94 kilowatt-hour battery, 330 kilowatt charging speed on 400 will be 175, all which will make this a pretty good road trip vehicle. As luck would have it, I was here four months ago and drove the iX3 on very beautiful Mediterranean roads in Spain. I'm about to take the GLC-Class out onto the similar roads here in Portugal. Let's see how they fare. All right, Motortrend is getting its first ride in the new GLC 400 4MATIC. Underneath, the GLC brings air suspension, adaptive dampers, and optional rear-wheel steering. The BMW iX3, on the other hand, sticks to a simpler mechanical layout with steel springs but keeps the ride sharp and responsive. On battery and range, BMW again plays the efficiency card. Its cylindrical pack delivers 100.8 kilowatt-hours of usable energy and a claimed 400 miles of range. Mercedes uses a slightly smaller 94 kilowatt-hour prismatic pack, good for an estimated 360 to 380 miles. And when it comes to charging, BMW peaks at 400 kilowatts and can add 230 miles in 10 minutes, while the GLC tops out around 330 to 350 kilowatts. Inside is where Mercedes throws a knockout punch. The optional 39-inch hyperscreen dominates the cabin with crisp graphics, customizable themes, and an AI assistant powered by Google Gemini, Chat GPT, and other platforms working behind the scenes. Conversational navigation is mostly handled by the Google side of things. Chat GPT and so forth is used when someone asks a more elaborate question. They're trying to make this AI more of a companion. Add in an eight-layer panoramic sunroof, and it's pure futuristic theater. The interior design is quite nice. This is a leather product here with moccasin stitching. The materials are obviously very high-grade. People had been sort saying that GLCs didn't seem like real Mercedes, and so they've really attempted to make this one every inch a Mercedes. Let's go ahead, turn on the sound experience. So here's Silver Waves. Here's Vivid Flux. One of those Star Wars hovercraft things, maybe. Let's try Serene Breeze. This one's kind of musical. Let's try Fractal Fusion. Granular Fuzz is the weirdest one. I was kind of getting broken chainsaw from this one. Vivid Flux is my fave. On the road in Portugal, the GLC impressed with cushioned ride quality, whisper-quiet traction, and strong EV punch. But Comfort Mode's soft suspension tuning had some passengers reaching for the ginger chews on winding mountain roads. Switched to sportier settings, though, the GLC hunkers down and delivers natural steering, stout braking, and surprisingly athletic handling for its size and weight. So far, I have been operating in D-Auto. There are shift paddles that allow you to alter that mode. The automatic works pretty well. I did try it out a little while, mostly to get a better feel of how the brake pedal feels, and it's actually pretty good. On the electric motors, Mercedes built the rear one itself, and it is more powerful, and it's permanently engaged. When you're coasting or you don't need traction, the front motor decouples, and it can re-attach in 240 milliseconds. So it always feels like a rear-drive car. Car does have rear-wheel steering, which gives it the turning radius of a compact car, which is nice. This is very flat cornering. In some of these tight hairpins, when I accelerate hard out of it, I can feel the back turning. Another big difference between BMW and Mercedes is that the rear unit has a two-speed drive unit, whereas BMW, and most of the rest of the world, uses single speed. Makes the whole drive system considerably more efficient. So how does it stack up against the BMW? The ix3 feels lighter, more agile, and boasts more advanced hands-free driver assist features. Mercedes fights back with power, elegance, and tech-forward luxury, but price could be the deciding factor. Early signals suggest GLC may run at least 10 grand more than the ix3, making BMW the value choice, and Mercedes the indulgence. One thing's for certain, this rivalry is just getting started. We're not going to know how these two really shake out until we get them both home on our track. To find out how that battle royale works out, and for everything else automotive, click by motortrend.com.