C350e owners club

[Deleted member 126969]

Are you sure about that energy figure? What current was it charging at?

That said, the warnings about low HV battery when it shows 100% charge don’t bode well. Neither does the 500m range. Do be aware though, the car will fire up the ICE at some odd times, more so in cold weather though.

 

[AngusMac]

Hi Chris-S,
The figures are from a TP smart plug(HS110), it gives the current power usage in Watts and a a total consumption, I'm using the supplied 3 own charger set at the lower power setting ( only the two bars lighting up)
Looking at the figures in a bit more detail when first plugged in it was drawing 1838w. this dropped as it got close to fully charged, if we say were 240V supply, that's 7.6 Amps.
and the total to fill the battery 0.64 kWh, if that represents 60% of the battery then that's indicating the capacity of the battery to be 1.06 kWh's.

Now things get very strange ...... took the car out for a 1 mile trip, ICE ran most of the time, and used 25% of the battery.
plugs it in, it took just under 30minutes to charge up and the plug said it used 0.65 kWh's ..... now that equates to a battery capacity of 2.6 kWh.

but I don't understand how filling a battery from 40% and 75% takes the same amount of power somethings not right, I will continue to record the power used to charge the car over the next week to get an average and report back.

 

[zipdip]

I got suckered into this thread by not looking at the start date which was 2015,so fast forward to the latest posts and what a difference 5 years makes at the start of this thread guys were hoping they would get their new cars later in the year and it was all hope and into a new era of the 300E,read the later posts and it is whatever you do make sure you have MB cover because if you do not these cars will break you,maybe we should have bought a Pruis,I am pleased I resisted my thoughts about buying one,I was lucky I met a guy who ran three for his business and he said they all give him grief.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

@AngusMac With those numbers, I think it needs a diagnostic at a dealer, BEFORE you hit the 63k mile mark! The battery still has some warranty left on it the moment and MB seem to apply a 30% capacity loss before they will consider an intervention, which yours seems to be way beyond.

 

[AngusMac]

@AngusMac With those numbers, I think it needs a diagnostic at a dealer, BEFORE you hit the 63k mile mark! The battery still has some warranty left on it the moment and MB seem to apply a 30% capacity loss before they will consider an intervention, which yours seems to be way beyond.

The car is
Booked in to MB at the end of the month. Has anyone on the forum had the HV battery replaced by MB ?

 

[Dodgy]

The car is
Booked in to MB at the end of the month. Has anyone on the forum had the HV battery replaced by MB ?

Not me. I did run a poll a couple of years ago on this thread and if I remember correctly, about 10 people had warranty battery replacements due to water ingress

 

[Dodgy]

Actually - I’ve done some digging and the poll (which appears to have been deleted) was about the charging cables within the car, not the battery itself.

 

[C350ezoom]

What to replace a C350e estate with?

My car will soon be 3 1/2 years old and, apart from a suspension pump failure it's been totally reliable ... but I'm starting to wonder "what next?". I like the performance and comfort of the 350e but would prefer a bit more luggage space and a bit more electric range, even at the expense of a little less performance. I live in a rural area so all-electric doesn't make sense. The replacement is likely to be a PHEV and it would be useful to hear other the thoughts of others. At the moment I'm slightly drawn towards (on paper, I haven't sat in one yet) a Volvo V60 T8 or XC60 T8.

 

[Dodgy]

What to replace a C350e estate with?

My car will soon be 3 1/2 years old and, apart from a suspension pump failure it's been totally reliable ... but I'm starting to wonder "what next?". I like the performance and comfort of the 350e but would prefer a bit more luggage space and a bit more electric range, even at the expense of a little less performance. I live in a rural area so all-electric doesn't make sense. The replacement is likely to be a PHEV and it would be useful to hear other the thoughts of others. At the moment I'm slightly drawn towards (on paper, I haven't sat in one yet) a Volvo V60 T8 or XC60 T8.

Do you have a place you could charge at home? And do you need to tow? If the answers are yes and no, there’s no reason to rule out an EV because you’re rural.

Is the C350e about the right size?

 

[C350ezoom]

Home charging isn't a problem. Being able to tow would be useful, as would a bit more luggage space.
The lack of rural charge points seems to be a very good reason to rule-out an EV until the charged range and recharge time get closer to a petrol car., which probably means a fuel cell. Until then a PHEV seems to be the way to go, but it's surprising that manufacturers seem to be using diesel engines in PHEVs - economy isn't everything.

 

[CaptainChaos]

I think the Volvos look very nice. I'd like one in Cross Country trim, but they don't do the PHEV in that format. The Polestar tuned version looks very nice, but I think the ride might cheese me off after a while.

 

[raspy]

Home charging isn't a problem. Being able to tow would be useful, as would a bit more luggage space.
The lack of rural charge points seems to be a very good reason to rule-out an EV until the charged range and recharge time get closer to a petrol car., which probably means a fuel cell. Until then a PHEV seems to be the way to go, but it's surprising that manufacturers seem to be using diesel engines in PHEVs - economy isn't everything.

@C350ezoom Do you frequently drive more than 200 miles in one day before returning home? If not, I would have thought the MB EQC would be an option, given you can charge at home overnight. It would be faster and quieter than your C350e too. I think the ECQ can tow 1,500kg

 

[dmirog]

Any advice on how to open a stuck charge port door on c350e? Haven't had much joy with the search results apart from going to the dealer.

 

[Mikep2]

Any advice on how to open a stuck charge port door on c350e? Haven't had much joy with the search results apart from going to the dealer.

On the odd occasion that mine doesn’t easily open I have just locked and unlocked the car, then a firm push in the left hand side with 2 fingers usually opens.
Spray some WD40 into the lock to keep things lubricated.

 

[dmirog]

On the odd occasion that mine doesn’t easily open I have just locked and unlocked the car, then a firm push in the left hand side with 2 fingers usually opens.
Spray some WD40 into the lock to keep things lubricated.

No joy. I can hear the actuator but nothing happens. Is there an emergency release pull somewhere, I wonder?

 

[C350ezoom]

Hmmm, EQC: "from £64,925", "249 miles range" (on a good or very good day, perhaps) and 11 hours to fully charge ... not a combination that will win me over.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I wouldn’t touch a MB EV at any price after my experience with MB.

 

[Mikep2]

Haven’t posted any fuel consumption figures on my car for a while. So an update may be of some interest to someone thinking about a purchase who may have some reservations.
Owned my car for 9 months now and covered 2126 miles. During that time I have generally used the car locally for journeys up to 30 miles.
During this time I have usually driven the car in Eco and changed driving mode during a journey to try and get the best MPG.

Since last November I have filled up the car four times and from the screenshot you can see that I had the understandable learning curve with regards to how to get the best economy out of the car, culminating in my last tank giving me 821 miles with 2 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.


My overall average over the 2126 mile was 68.9 mpg with 1468 miles driven in electric.



After 9 months of obsessively changing modes during journeys to try and get the best economy I had decided that after this recent refuelling I am going to leave the car in hybrid mode for the next tank and compare results.
Also recently set the steering and suspension to sport along with eco mode in the individual drive mode as I found this gives the car a much tighter feel when driving rather than the more bouncy/floaty feel of the standard air suspension.
I have a journey of Approx 31 miles every couple of weeks and the best economy I have achieved for this is 80 mpg. For the same journey last week I decided to do the whole journey in Hybrid mode with the above settings just to prove that my method of manually managing the use of battery power was the best. How wrong was I, at the end I had 85 mpg showing on the car with 20% battery remaining, which really surprised me.

That’s what prompted me to try the next tank of fuel on hybrid all of the time charging the car 3 or 4 times a week.
Something else that was surprising that after refuelling last week I charged the car (it took 5.26 kWh) and it showed the usual 14 mile range (shown in above screenshot).
I then decided to reset my trip so I could start from scratch. Along with resetting to zero the range figure changed from 14 to 18 again surprising me (see attached screenshot). This I guess is the estimated range based on my recent driving.


This was a big surprise even though I have learned to monitor the battery level rather than the range figure.

With regards to the reliability I have had no issues other than an instance a few months back where Emode became unavailable for a couple of journeys even though battery was at 100%, this resolved itself after a day or so. The car has done 13800 miles and I can see that the back tires are approaching the tread limit so will need to be renewed shortly. I am assuming/ hoping these have been on since new.
Would be grateful for any recommendation for tyres when I renew them ?

Hope this has been of interest and will post how my next tank goes purely on hybrid.
Following tank will be on Hybrid with no charging !!!!

 

[raspy]

Haven’t posted any fuel consumption figures on my car for a while. So an update may be of some interest to someone thinking about a purchase who may have some reservations.
Owned my car for 9 months now and covered 2126 miles. During that time I have generally used the car locally for journeys up to 30 miles.
During this time I have usually driven the car in Eco and changed driving mode during a journey to try and get the best MPG.

Since last November I have filled up the car four times and from the screenshot you can see that I had the understandable learning curve with regards to how to get the best economy out of the car, culminating in my last tank giving me 821 miles with 2 bars remaining on the fuel gauge.
View attachment 100348

My overall average over the 2126 mile was 68.9 mpg with 1468 miles driven in electric.

View attachment 100349

Would be grateful for any recommendation for tyres when I renew them ?

Hope this has been of interest and will post how my next tank goes purely on hybrid.
Following tank will be on Hybrid with no charging !!!!

@Mikep2 Good result!

The dashboard display shows 1,468 miles driven with the engine off (which would include coasting for example) - it doesn't necessarily equate to all of the 1,468 miles driven on battery

Regarding tyres, I have gone with Continental ContiSportContact 5. I got almost 20k out of them before I replaced them. I am happy with them.

I was also surprised with fuel economy today in hybrid mode (may be due to the warm weather) but I left home with 25% of battery, did a 40 mile journey (mix of 40, 50 and 70mph zones) - kept it on distronic plus the entire time, and got 40.8mpg (arrived with 23% of battery left) - had the AC on too the entire time

 

[Dodgy]

Hmmm, EQC: "from £64,925", "249 miles range" (on a good or very good day, perhaps) and 11 hours to fully charge ... not a combination that will win me over.

I think (like most EV manufacturers), they’re relying on incentives to make it competitive. In the UK, that means company car tax. If it’s “competing“ With the GLC, there’s no way the extra £15k above the price of the 300e is going to be clawed back in lower ongoing costs, but I’d be surprised if it’s not at least £300 per month cheaper on a company car salary sacrifice scheme.