C350e owners club

[fields5069]

Range....

Last night I charged the car and as I was still awake at 1am had a look at the app. Range was showing as 16 miles.

Pre heated the car to be ready at 7.05 this morning. At 7.00 it said range 14 miles, 98% battery, full charge at 7.12.

Went out to the car at 7.10, app showing 100%, CAR showing 15 miles.

Actual mileage I got this morning 9.

WHY !!!!!!

9's not bad. I charged the car to 80% this morning, the car said I had 12 miles range. This was without pre-heating. I went on a round trip of 3 miles and had 1 mile range left at the end.

It's back on charge now, and I'll be taking my daughter out somewhere at 4-ish by which time it'll be 100% charged and pre-heated. I'll struggle to stay on battery for the 6-mile round trip.

 

[paulhx]

My estate arrived yesterday. Due to work commitments I've not had time for an extended play, but will post soon. It is wonderful, refined place to be and roll on the weekend!

 

[brindek]

Hi all. I have similar experiences to you all here. Fully charged overnight and pre-heated states 14mile range. A/c off but lights on auto and heating on circa 4C outside temp (not that the car will tell me as there is no outside temp reading!!!).
Work is exactly 5 miles and pretty flat. When I get to work I have 4 miles range remaining.

I thought a daily 10 mile commute should have been quite easily possible on the 19 mile range figures, but it seems I am mistaken!!!

 

[NewtoMercedes]

Hi all. I have similar experiences to you all here. Fully charged overnight and pre-heated states 14mile range. A/c off but lights on auto and heating on circa 4C outside temp (not that the car will tell me as there is no outside temp reading!!!).
Work is exactly 5 miles and pretty flat. When I get to work I have 4 miles range remaining.

I thought a daily 10 mile commute should have been quite easily possible on the 19 mile range figures, but it seems I am mistaken!!!

I commute 16 miles into work. Starting with a full charge and preheat in the morning the trip display shows 13 miles on electric and 99.9 mpg. Eco-mode, A/c off, lights auto, temp 20C internal. In the cold this morning it dropped to 12 of 16 miles on electric.

How? Very light right foot for both acceleration and braking. Lots of anticipation and resisting the urge to always close the gap with the car in front. Coming from a Lexus CT200h I think it's a lot easier to live with steadier acceleration but as time goes on and the intoxication of the C350e acceleration kicks in it's more and more difficult to drive slowly! If you have a lot of stop-start, up and down hill or a heavier right foot then the range will drop substantially. A short moment of ill-discipline annihilates the range and mpg. Not preheating steals about 2 miles of range for me it seems and A/C another 1 or 2.

1 month in and 1200 miles on the clock.

 

[NewtoMercedes]

Oh - forgot to mention that the electric range tends to hit zero about 11 miles into the journey at which point I have done 10 on electric. The last 3 petrol-free miles are done within the last 5 miles of the journey with the ICE cutting in and out on various stretches of uphill road or stronger acceleration.

 

[wrighty senior]

It is fairly obvious that the range was calculated by engineers that were trained at VW! In fairness acceleration takes more out of the battery than steady state conditions. I have played with the electric range a few times now. The best result yet was about 15miles in ECO mode. The journey was mostly flat but has more downhill sections than up so I definitely saw some over-run charging along the way. However, the biggest factor is that I did most of the journey at steady speeds (slow traffic averaging about 35mph). On other trips I noticed that regular changes of speed and lots of acceleration (all in electric mode) made the range drop really quickly.

 

[mardeman]

Whenever I hit auto, I always switch the air con off straight away.
Today when I got to the end of my electric range (after 10 miles) I used e-save to build up for my journey home.(14%) total MPG on my 12 miles was 94.2

 

[MUGGY]

I gotta say this thread is hilarious.

You're driving around in £40k+ Mercedes with the AC switched off to get a few more yards of 'free' motoring.

It takes all sorts I suppose

 

[mardeman]

I agree, but when I have the heating on, I don't need the aircon on.
I also have the premium pack and like having the roof open (with heating on high).

 

[brindek]

I gotta say this thread is hilarious.

You're driving around in £40k+ Mercedes with the AC switched off to get a few more yards of 'free' motoring.

It takes all sorts I suppose

I guess if you put it like that :bannana:

10 miles range does make a bit of a mockery of the whole concept though doesn't it?

 

[350eWaiting]

I guess if you put it like that :bannana:

10 miles range does make a bit of a mockery of the whole concept though doesn't it?

Not really, the purpose of the car is to be a hybrid so reduce overall petrol consumption. If you want to have a better electric range then maybe a fully electric car is best. The hybrid for me is all about getting that mpg as high as possible, I'm not bothered how many miles I will do on full electric... apart from for competition with other users / myself!

 

[brindek]

Not really, the purpose of the car is to be a hybrid so reduce overall petrol consumption. If you want to have a better electric range then maybe a fully electric car is best. The hybrid for me is all about getting that mpg as high as possible, I'm not bothered how many miles I will do on full electric... apart from for competition with other users / myself!

I agree with that as I too would like to get the best mpg however as you have probably read already you can get far better mpg elsewhere and not even in a hybrid.
My main argument was that I have only a 5 mile trip to work and thought I would easily do that on the electric there and back (given the claimed 19 mile electric range). If I was doing a lot of motorway miles a Diesel would yield much better results.

I am being greedy/picky as I love the power, bik tax and flexibility the car offers but the EU testing of 130mpg is misleading at best and a mockery at worst.

 

[NewtoMercedes]

I gotta say this thread is hilarious.

You're driving around in £40k+ Mercedes with the AC switched off to get a few more yards of 'free' motoring.

It takes all sorts I suppose

£39k for me . Only got it because of 1. Company leasing approach put it in my bracket 2.Silly testing cycle hence low CO2 hence low BIK. 3.even 13 miles of electric range covers a lot of my annual mileage as I'm not up and down motorways every day. I would not dream of spending that much on a car otherwise (my wife drives a 13 year old mini one!).

For me it's a case of why use any more energy / fuel than is necessary. Flooring it to catch up with the car in front doesn't get me to work appreciably quicker and on many days A/C just isn't required. If the car starts to get a bit misty then it goes on. The beauty is, however, that if I want to have a bit more fun when the roads are clear I can. If I can save £2 a day in fuel/electricity for no real effort why not.

 

[NewtoMercedes]

I agree with that as I too would like to get the best mpg however as you have probably read already you can get far better mpg elsewhere and not even in a hybrid.
My main argument was that I have only a 5 mile trip to work and thought I would easily do that on the electric there and back (given the claimed 19 mile electric range). If I was doing a lot of motorway miles a Diesel would yield much better results.

I am being greedy/picky as I love the power, bik tax and flexibility the car offers but the EU testing of 130mpg is misleading at best and a mockery at worst.

If you are not getting in your 10 mile round trip on electric only I would have thought you either have an issue with the car or it's a driving style / route / stop start traffic problem.

Also remember that things should improve come warmer weather. My Lexus mpg improved by about 10 to 15% in the summer

 

[Hicksy]

Hi All, another new post-er here. Ordered Sept, build week 1st Feb so hope to see my Obs. Black Prem Estate with beige Artico and most of the gadgets before the end Feb.

I'm of the opinion that the point of the C350E is luxurious but swift transportation without the consumption of a proper sports car. Thanks to whoever described it as a "reasonably economical missile" in one of the threads, that made me laugh. Add that you can do the commute to the station or drop kids to school/club/sports pitch just on electric and its a near perfect car for me.

I see the endless complexity of so many gadgets, modes and new-tech quirks as a bonus. I've wasted days reading these forums. I do like my technology but I'm bored reading iPhone manuals. This is much more exciting! ...and, er, expensive.

 

[pawkins]

Not sure if this has been covered in one of the threads, but is there some guidance on the most economical way to drive the car in electric mode - in terms of what speed is best etc? I would assume not stopping / starting etc as the obvious ones but is it happier at 20mph or 40mph ?
Mine arrives on Monday and am another who ordered as the BIK means I can afford a £40k car. If I put petrol in it that's fine, I don't do huge mileage and most runs are short so I should see pretty good economy from it. Sods law I have to go to Yorkshire the following week, but I'll be comfy!!

 

[derekthetree]

Not sure if this has been covered in one of the threads, but is there some guidance on the most economical way to drive the car in electric mode - in terms of what speed is best etc? I would assume not stopping / starting etc as the obvious ones but is it happier at 20mph or 40mph ?
Mine arrives on Monday and am another who ordered as the BIK means I can afford a £40k car. If I put petrol in it that's fine, I don't do huge mileage and most runs are short so I should see pretty good economy from it. Sods law I have to go to Yorkshire the following week, but I'll be comfy!!

Whatever the speed limit is surely!

Joking aside, as the e-mode drives through the gearbox, you can have the same throttle opening at 20/40/60 just in 3rd/5th/7th.
I've found that on the level, at speed you can maintain 60-65mph on pure electric. However a bit of a hill and the engine will kick back in.

 

[Hicksy]

Here's an experiment for someone to try, if its possible. Start with full charge then use petrol only to get to a reasonably flat section of motorway. In 7th gear drive on electric and see how far you get before the engine kicks back in. I'm guessing you might get close(r) to 18 miles.

 

[350eWaiting]

Hmm, maybe that's where they get the number from! When I get mine, hopefully only a week or so away I'm going to try all the modes to commute one at a time and see what the difference is.

 

[JP350e]

As I have understood it.
At range 0 miles, there is still 20% battery power left.
Those 20% is kept as a minimum, and it will always charge to this level all the time, even on long runs.

Correct me if I am wrong

You can go down to 10% or less and still get "full power" from the EV (battery). Basically the car will regen itself when you slow down so putting power back in ready to go again. I guess it's possible that if on a circuit you could be pulling more out than you can put in and hence deplete the battery but that would take some going!

You may actually find that the power delivery is smoother than the 335i as the EV full power is there from start