paulhx
Active Member
Yes, entirely feasible but sort of missing the point and some taxpayers who have subsidised your car to the tune of £5k might take a dim view.v
I am having my home charger installed today. :bannana:
Yes, entirely feasible but sort of missing the point and some taxpayers who have subsidised your car to the tune of £5k might take a dim view.v
I am having my home charger installed today. :bannana:
fields5069
Active Member
Yes, entirely feasible but sort of missing the point and some taxpayers who have subsidised your car to the tune of £5k might take a dim view.v
I am having my home charger installed today. :bannana:
To be honest I think they should be taking a dimmer view of the conditions attached to the subsidy. The lenient mpg and emissions tests enable companies like Mercedes to make these sorts of cars, which in the real world sometimes don't even come close to the mpg possible from a good small-engined turbo petrol.
In my case, even if I charged at home, a daily 50 mile commute would probably see me up in the high 40s mpg, maximum. Maybe 50s at a push. When I do have the time to charge (no driveway and garage is accessed from the next street over), it's usually used up ferrying my daughter around town. I probably struggle to get the equivalent of 40-50 mpg as the charge is all gone within 6 miles, however I'm aware that I'd get more like 25 mpg tops with no charge doing short journeys.
Taking advantage of a tax loophole and then blaming the government for that loophole existing is such a lame point of view.
There are a number of c350e owners and prospective owners on here that are moving from an efficient diesel and have a driving profile of large miles per annum on motorways etc. that know that their consumption and fuel bills will go up. They don't care, as company miles are expensed and they save enough money on BIK. As the electric car grants are made from a limited fund, they are also using up the allocations here too.
Equally there are some owners that charge at home and work, and have a commute/driving profile that suits a hybrid.
I'm sure the car could log the times it charges from the mains. You could then legislate to have a 'charging proportion' from plugging in necessary over the first year or you pay the grant back. That was only people intent on genuinely limiting consumption would go through with it.
fields5069
Active Member
I think you misunderstand, I don't actually care about anything other than the fact that I have a cracking car for low BIK tax. I'm not aware of any tax loophole, that would imply that I'm making some effort to avoid the tax. On the contrary, I will pay all the tax I'm due to pay. I haven't offshored anything, honest!
TheCorm
Active Member
TheCorm
Active Member
I will be charging every day at work but not sure about home, I don't have a drive, I have some ideas but currently the whole electric car thing expects you to have a drive which of course we'd all love....but not everyone is so lucky.
fields5069
Active Member
Well, if everyone uses it, can it really be termed a loophole? So your 1.6 diesel puts out 99g, eh? Reeeeeaaaally.
I think you misunderstand, I don't actually care about anything other than the fact that I have a cracking car for low BIK tax. I'm not aware of any tax loophole, that would imply that I'm making some effort to avoid the tax. On the contrary, I will pay all the tax I'm due to pay. I haven't offshored anything, honest!
It's considered a loophole, if it allows abuse of its intended purpose, which in this case is to encourage the use of electric/plug in vehicles to reduce emissions.
If you take advantage of the two tax incentives purely to get a better car and save BIK payments, while perfectly legal, it would be fair to consider that an abuse of the program.
A better analogy to yours, would be someone who has extra children solely to get the extra benefits awarded. They're not doing anything illegal, but you would consider them to be abusing the system that was set up to do good.
You're entitled to do what you want, but equally you can't absolve responsibility for your decision, by blaming the manufacturers or the government for it.
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Thing is with the BIK, its based on the emissions. These are calculated from the EU cycle test WHICH only is designed for Petrol or Diesel cars.
So, in order to test the car (at the manufactures labs I may add, only a small number of cars are actually officially tested.) the cars are tested with a full battery FIRST for say a 13 mins then 6 mins for extra urban. ... (cant remember the exact figures.)
As these cars and other Hybrid's use the battery for most of the test cycles, the CO2, MPG etc are zero for x % of the test, then when the engine kicks the data is recorded and used to calculate the figures over x miles/KM.
So the engine may of only been used for say 3 mins of a 15 mins test so the Co2 is very low and the MPG is very high as there is no measurement for the electric element.
Really.. They need to do 2 tests, one pure EV plus engine and then 1 engine only to create an average over a longer period of time / distance.
That way you will have realistic figures, plus able to tax the cars correctly.
UN Regulation 101[edit]
Several measurements are usually performed along the cycle. The figures made available to the general public are:
So, in order to test the car (at the manufactures labs I may add, only a small number of cars are actually officially tested.) the cars are tested with a full battery FIRST for say a 13 mins then 6 mins for extra urban. ... (cant remember the exact figures.)
As these cars and other Hybrid's use the battery for most of the test cycles, the CO2, MPG etc are zero for x % of the test, then when the engine kicks the data is recorded and used to calculate the figures over x miles/KM.
So the engine may of only been used for say 3 mins of a 15 mins test so the Co2 is very low and the MPG is very high as there is no measurement for the electric element.
Really.. They need to do 2 tests, one pure EV plus engine and then 1 engine only to create an average over a longer period of time / distance.
That way you will have realistic figures, plus able to tax the cars correctly.
UN Regulation 101[edit]
Several measurements are usually performed along the cycle. The figures made available to the general public are:
- Urban fuel economy (first 780 seconds)
- Extra-Urban fuel economy (780 to 1180 s)
- Overall fuel economy (complete cycle)
- CO2 emission (complete cycle)
Disappointing news back from Lex unfortunately; I've attached the response but in summary: No.
The reasons given are that they don't like MB being able to track the car and that the built in MB breakdown recovery conflicts with the Lex policy.
I'm disappointed to be honest, but I can't see a resolution to this without stamping my feet and making a scene; something I'd rather avoid.
Hopefully rumours of a lease-friendly version of Mercedes Me are true and we will see this soon.
The reasons given are that they don't like MB being able to track the car and that the built in MB breakdown recovery conflicts with the Lex policy.
I'm disappointed to be honest, but I can't see a resolution to this without stamping my feet and making a scene; something I'd rather avoid.
Hopefully rumours of a lease-friendly version of Mercedes Me are true and we will see this soon.
fields5069
Active Member
I see, I think you are maybe over-thinking but fair enough. It makes me sound like I'm laughing in the face of the system, which you could say everybody driving an "eco" car is doing also to a lesser extent. Pretty much everyone is paying less than they should in BIK tax, only the pure electric vehicle drivers can claim the high moral ground there. I think the main point is that the tests as they stand are too lenient. Making the tests more strict and real-world wouldn't have resulted in me paying more, it would have resulted in the manufacturers producing a better resolved version of the PHEV model.
TheCorm
Active Member
Disappointing news back from Lex unfortunately; I've attached the response but in summary: No.
The reasons given are that they don't like MB being able to track the car and that the built in MB breakdown recovery conflicts with the Lex policy.
I'm disappointed to be honest, but I can't see a resolution to this without stamping my feet and making a scene; something I'd rather avoid.
Hopefully rumours of a lease-friendly version of Mercedes Me are true and we will see this soon.
We're still waiting to hear from our lease company, but it's nonsense....why do they care if they can track you, it's only the individual who should have any concern about this....and it's not going to force you to take the car for repair, you make the choice yourself, I will be taking it to my nearest Arval approved main Mercedes dealer.
If they were not allowing you to specify it as an option then perhaps but they're taking away something that is a feature of the car.
We have 2x Outlanders and 1x Leaf at our company and those employees are able to make full use of pre-climatisation and finding charge points etc....it's just not on that these features are denied to c350e drivers.....
derekthetree
Active Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2015
- Messages
- 270
- Car
- C350e
Hmm bad news, I thought you can choose to activate only partial aspects of the Connect Me service, so if you only want the charging parts (independent of any location info) this is possible?
Still waiting to hear a response to my emails...
Regarding the Mercedes Me services, I believe that Mercedes should come up with a lease friendly version that the lease companies are happy with. It must be simple to split the offering and only activate parts of it.
Or alternatively if the lease companies don't want you connecting Mercedes direct in the event of a breakdown then they should get the individual to sign a declaration that if you do you are liable for the costs etc. It cant be too hard. They have done the hard bit by developing the service.
Or alternatively if the lease companies don't want you connecting Mercedes direct in the event of a breakdown then they should get the individual to sign a declaration that if you do you are liable for the costs etc. It cant be too hard. They have done the hard bit by developing the service.
C350e Jan 2016
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2016
- Messages
- 19
- Car
- C350e Sport Premium Plus
When I ordered the C350e, "rapid" charge was part of the specification which you get a separate lead for charging at Ecotricity charge points on m'way......stop for a toilet break and a brew and full charge in 45 minutes. MB have recently owned up that rapid charge is not now an option due to the fact that they have fitted a 3.7kw limiter on the car. To rapid charge, the car has to be able to accept @45kw like VW and Mitsubishi. Ecotricity are fully aware of this. Standard charge therefore takes about 4 hours pulling 10 amp with 2 green lights and fast charge takes about 2 to 2.5 hours with 4 green lights pulling 13 amp. When you talk to MB about this, they do not respond....not good.
C350e Jan 2016
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2016
- Messages
- 19
- Car
- C350e Sport Premium Plus
Had mine 10 days and it broke down. Heater booster failure. I have been put in a Skoda by Europcar until they fix it but parts are on back order. They have had it 12 days now and still no information about when I'm going to get it back. They have not even had the decency to contact me direct....poor ! Good luck with yours...
