C350e owners club

[Deleted member 126969]

What do people do about charging when out and about? Is it worth joining one of the many charge point schemes? I looked at exotriciry and it told me not to continue as my car wasn’t suitable for rapid charging.
One of the others wanted to charge me an admin fee every time I charge..... confused by it all!

I’ve never even considered it given how small the battery is and how many of the charge points are really aimed at fast charging pure EVs. None of those I have looked at made financial sense either.

 

[Rich Dobie]

BTW, just taken delivery of my new 350e Sport Estate. Order September 17th 2017. Delivered to dealer last Friday.

I order mine at the start of sept (350e sport estate) and not due until the end of March!!! Mine is through a company car broker (Arval) so I expect that’s the reason for my extra +2 months!

 

[Dodgy]

I spoke to Zenith, our lease company, yesterday. Mercedes have told them they’re not taking orders for the C350e at the moment. Drivers are choosing the BMWs instead (330e and 530e).

They’ve also just launched pure EVs as options (although the BMW i3 was already on the list. The i3 is more expensive now than my C350e was when I ordered it.

I can’t see the full list, but I’m not sure BEVs are going to fly off the shelves at that price.


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[wivenhoe]

I spoke to Zenith, our lease company, yesterday. Mercedes have told them they’re not taking orders for the C350e at the moment. Drivers are choosing the BMWs instead (330e and 530e).

They’ve also just launched pure EVs as options (although the BMW i3 was already on the list. The i3 is more expensive now than my C350e was when I ordered it.

I can’t see the full list, but I’m not sure BEVs are going to fly off the shelves at that price.


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A colleague in work ordered a 530e before Xmas and was told by the lease company it wouldn’t be delivered before May. He got an email this week saying car will be delivered on the 7th Feb ! I have waited almost 8 months for my E350e which is finally in the port today.

 

[CaptainChaos]

What do people do about charging when out and about? Is it worth joining one of the many charge point schemes? I looked at exotriciry and it told me not to continue as my car wasn’t suitable for rapid charging.
One of the others wanted to charge me an admin fee every time I charge..... confused by it all!

Don't bother. The car isn't suitable for rapid charging so it isn't worth any admin or membership costs. Leave the charge points free for EV users who genuinely need them and haven't got a 200bhp petrol engine to get them home!

 

[CaptainChaos]

I spoke to Zenith, our lease company, yesterday. Mercedes have told them they’re not taking orders for the C350e at the moment.

That's because they are waiting for prices on the new C-Class models.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Had probably the worst range so far from an almost full charge (99%) today. 8 mile round trip, only did 6 of those on battery. Yes I had the heater on (set to 22) and a bit of AC and passenger seat heater but it wasn’t that cold today. That’s getting on for 10p a mile, might as well use petrol.

Hope that picks up in the spring!

 

[JP350e]

Snapped my charger flap off at the weekend. It was only a matter of time. In the dark, unplugged it and clipped the flap with my knee as I moved around the corner to stow the cable. Barely felt it. Terrible piece of design imho (and I work in product development). Hard plastic. Knee level. No compliance. And what’s worse is that they made something easy to break but hard to fix. If you broke your door mirror off every time you brushed against it and then had to replace the door to fix it, they’d soon be in trouble.

Sigh. I know it was my fault being careless, but it feels like a tiny bit of careless crime is punished by an outsize cost.

Unless anyone has a better idea it’s off to the body shop for a new bumper tomorrow.

You don’t need a new bumper, they change the hinge only (had mine done a while back)!

 

[JP350e]

Had probably the worst range so far from an almost full charge (99%) today. 8 mile round trip, only did 6 of those on battery. Yes I had the heater on (set to 22) and a bit of AC and passenger seat heater but it wasn’t that cold today. That’s getting on for 10p a mile, might as well use petrol.

Hope that picks up in the spring!

I’ve managed just 3 miles of electric in the not too distant past, including using pre-heat first while car is plugged in!!

Mind you, I think my battery is on the way out, preheat yesterday 6.5C ambient temp and the battery was down to 67% at departure time (car was plugged in to 16a wallbox at the Rome). It’s often down a little when outside temp is around freezing but never this bad. Anyone else seeing this at all? Car is about 2 1/2 years old..

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I’ve managed just 3 miles of electric in the not too distant past, including using pre-heat first while car is plugged in!!

Mind you, I think my battery is on the way out, preheat yesterday 6.5C ambient temp and the battery was down to 67% at departure time (car was plugged in to 16a wallbox at the Rome). It’s often down a little when outside temp is around freezing but never this bad. Anyone else seeing this at all? Car is about 2 1/2 years old..

That's worrying. Given it's pretty much impossible to know how much energy is being used for pre-heat, the only way to know for sure would be to measure the charge process and work out exactly how much energy it has received to charge. You could get one of these:

Power Consumption Meter Energy Monitor KWH Calculator Usage Plug In Electricity | eBay

Only £10, plug in and charge with the 'brick' and get a reasonably accurate direct reading of battery capacity from when you start charging to what it calls full. Assuming a starting point of about 20%, you'd expect it to take close to 6kWh to reach full (5.1 being 80% of 6.4kWh + overheads), although that does depend a lot on how much it takes for battery cooling (or heating) during the charge process. If it took a lot less than that I'd say you've got good evidence for a warranty claim myself.

 

[Dodgy]

54% to do 5 miles @ 12C just now. My battery has never been very good, but that’s a lot better than a couple of colder-weather trips recently.


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[Deleted member 126969]

Winter really exposes just how small the battery is I think. I don't think the car itself is doing a bad job purely on electric drive in terms of Wh/km, but the extras like heating, demisting etc are a disproportionately high load when you only have about 5kWh to go at in 'Hybrid'.

Same two things always disappoint me about the car - battery capacity and the god-awful racket the ICE makes. If the C400e ICE sounds nice (or even OK) as well, I'm going to be properly pissed!

 

[Borderterrier6]

We must have a good one, range has dropped since the cold weather started down to 12 miles, does this most days. Pre climate is used when it’s plugged into the the charge point so no range drop there. Summer time it was doing 14 to 15 most days.

Car is charged every day at least once and has now done just over 10k miles.

 

[Skye64]

Hi, washed the car and filled the screen wash. Closed the bonnet and now every time I drive, bonnet open and alarm comes on. Tried closing, resetting factory settings etc but nothing works. Any ideas please before going to Mercedes. Thanks

 

[Dodgy]

We must have a good one, range has dropped since the cold weather started down to 12 miles, does this most days. Pre climate is used when it’s plugged into the the charge point so no range drop there. Summer time it was doing 14 to 15 most days.

Car is charged every day at least once and has now done just over 10kmixture miles.

12 miles is the most I’ve done in the summer on battery only. Not sure whether it’s the type of roads here, but it doesn’t seem to be extreme: mostly suburban with some dual carriageway, speed limits from 30 to 70, moderately hilly...


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[Dodgy]

Hi, washed the car and filled the screen wash. Closed the bonnet and now every time I drive, bonnet open and alarm comes on. Tried closing, resetting factory settings etc but nothing works. Any ideas please before going to Mercedes. Thanks

Nothing concrete. Is there a bonnet open sensor that’s being affected by a leaf, twig or other debris?


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[Rassiloth]

You may remember me posting about managing to damage the backend of the car. Well it's now been sorted.

The company sent Autoglass mobile repairs to look at it but as the damage would mean taking the damaged panel off, and this would involve the charging port, they declined it and went away again.

In the end it went to a specialist body shop in Southport and was there for a week. They have done a very good job though. Was not so fond of the Skoda Octavia the company gave me as a stand in!

Unfortunately it is also time for me to move on from the company and so the car is going back on Friday. The lease company offered me a chance to buy it but with the lease termination costs included that was a non starter!

Over the last 9 months I have had a blast with the car and I will miss Sport+ ;-)

The highlights:

- About 8500 miles
- 50ish mpg average
- Between 11 and 15 miles on electric depending on weather
- Great fun to drive
- Limited boot space can be a challenge at times
- SatNav (Command) does not understand roundabouts

I will miss the car but it's successor (an ex demonstrator Passat GTE) will have to tide me over for a while. I'll certainly look seriously at the C400 in the future as the hybrid does suit my driving requirements at the moment.

As an aside, anyone working for a large three letter IT company may find a well looked after C350e PP turning up on the redeployment list.



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[CaptainChaos]

Hi, washed the car and filled the screen wash. Closed the bonnet and now every time I drive, bonnet open and alarm comes on. Tried closing, resetting factory settings etc but nothing works. Any ideas please before going to Mercedes. Thanks

I would imagine there is a plunger type switch somewhere. Try and find that and push it in and out a few times, then drop the bonnet from about 12-18" up.

 

[CaptainChaos]

the god-awful racket the ICE makes

I'm sure something is wrong with yours Chris. Other than an occasional rough idle, my ICE is pretty subdued. It makes a reasonably meaty sounding drone when pressing on, at other times it's just there in the background. It's certainly not an Alfa twincam, but I wouldn't describe it as a god-awful racket. Have you got any oil in it?

 

[350e]

What do people do about charging when out and about? Is it worth joining one of the many charge point schemes? I looked at exotriciry and it told me not to continue as my car wasn’t suitable for rapid charging.
One of the others wanted to charge me an admin fee every time I charge..... confused by it all!

I have an account with Chargemaster (£7.85/month) which I find useful because I often travel to Milton Keynes and use the chargers in the Premium Parking area (£2/hour) which is free of charge whilst plugged in. Elsewhere because my car is registered with MK’s Green Car scheme I can avoid all parking charges in the city in specified areas, I was told that I can drive in a bus lane but haven’t confirmed that.
Cost of electricity is 9p/Kw and usually I am invoiced for 36p.(4Kw) approx one and half hour charging
Of course there are many free charging locations in the country where Chargmaster provide the facility, local councils and stores like Waitrose and others. All that is required is their card to open the charging port.

Of greater interest to many will be the fact that OVO Energy, my electricity/gas supplier at home, took over my Chargmaster subscription for a period of two years when I switched to them from Ecotricity a few months ago.
They even give me and any new customer (you) a £50 bonus if I get you to switch

I also have a Pod Point card which in Peterborough enables me to park and charge for free, and no doubt elsewhere.