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EQC Range problem or is it me......

Until EVs became mainstream I hadn’t realised how many people have to tow their twin axle caravan from Glasgow to Morocco three times every week, with 6 passengers, 4 bikes and 2 dobermans, and they must only stop for a maximum of 5 minutes once to refuel.

I’d like to see an EV do that. And until they can - and do so for a purchase price of £5k and the emergy cost no more than 10% of the cost of petrol and diesel then EVs are doomed to fail. I almost forgot that must be 10% based upon the energy prices in 1993.

And don’t get me even started on charging infrastructure (there are only three working chargers in the whole of the UK and they’re all in Daventry, and the need to replace the battery packs every 6 weeks at a cost three times greater than the cost of the car is past a joke.

The batteries are made by children and raw materials are mined by corrupt governments. During manufacture those materials must circumnavigate the world six times. A diesel must travel 544k miles before it even equals the CO2 output of manufacturing one battery.

Then there’s using it. Wind turbines don’t work without storm force winds and solar panels only work in June, so the the so called green EV is using electricity produced from fossil fuels. Hello sheeple, when will you wake up and smell the diesel fumes, I mean coffee?

And let‘s not kid ourselves, when “they” eventually install enough public chargers, the national grid can’t cope with simultaneously charging 37 million EVs from stone dead to the 150% we must all insist upon in case we have to go to the airport early one morning.

Need i mention the fact that 99.2% of the population don’t have a driveway to charge their car on, and so pavements will be littered with charging cables? And 98.7% of people rent their home and there’s no way landlords will pay to install chargers.

I could go on, but I’ll leave you with these final thoughts.

I read on an anti EV forum that a member spoke to someone in the queue at the barbers, who had read in the letters page of Auto Express that a disappointed EV driver who was forced to have an EV as a company car by their employer found that:

1. The 200 mile range claimed by the manufacturer can fall to as low as 169 miles if you drive at 112 mph in the midday heat of the Sahara desert, or in temperatures below -42 degrees C. We get both extremes every day here in Luton.

2. They had to take their car back for a recall, and the dealer told them that there had been another one in for the same recall the week before, and that the senior master technician said that they had once done a warranty claim on an EV too. The headlamps misted up.

3. In 2022, at the main dealer it takes nine senior master technicians three days to make an EV safe enough to change the window wiper blades. In 1977 I changed the engine in my Ford Granada on the footpath, on my own, at night, in 20 minutes. And that’s progress?

4. The UOK is accountable for 0.7% of global CO2 emissions, and privately own cars make up 0.1% of that, so unless China stop building 92 coal powered power stations every week then there’s absolutely no point doing anything about it.

EVs aren’t the rsolution, but that won’t stop the Government forcing everyone to buy an EV just like they forced everyone to buy a diesel. We should definitely invest in hydrogen, hydrogen is definitely the future and the infrastructure could definitely be ready by next week.

Oooh, excellent summary, BD. I've saved that one for later: absolutely nails.... the nonsense.
 
I'm sorry Ted but the worlds supply of Taycans is currently on fire off the Azores- I believe the ship is called the Marie Celeste 2----

interesting factoid-- car transporter vessels dont have many interior cargo bulkheads to facilitate rapid vehicle loading-----in the event of fire breaking out this means isolating the source of ignition from the rest of the cargo is nigh impossible
 
And don’t get me even started on charging infrastructure (there are only three working chargers in the whole of the UK and they’re all in Daventry, and the need to replace the battery packs every 6 weeks at a cost three times greater than the cost of the car is past a joke.

Can you tell me where please? I work in Daventry and after the 38 mile EV journey from home I obviously need to recharge the terrible batteries in my EQC so that I can at least get half way home again :)
 
Can you tell me where please? I work in Daventry and after the 38 mile EV journey from home I obviously need to recharge the terrible batteries in my EQC so that I can at least get half way home again :)
They're all in DIRFT, in the middle of the rail tracks...... 🤣🤣
 
After two months in Cannes, I'm pleased to report that I found not one but TWO EV chargers yesterday in Cannes Marina.

The only ones I've seen so far on the Riviera, apart from on the Motorway service areas. (But I haven't checked a map to hunt them down).

There are EV's around, but not many in this world of small white diesel SUV's and hatchbacks. It's tough for the locals who live in flats and mainly park on the street.
 
Turning to the geopolitics of the Ukraine, there are several MB component suppliers based in Western Ukraine.

VW have already closed two production lines because of inability to get wiring looms from their Ukrainian supplier.

It won't be long before suppliers like Bader in Lviv stop supplying seats and wiring looms for Mercedes....

As if things aren't difficult enough.
 
After two months in Cannes, I'm pleased to report that I found not one but TWO EV chargers yesterday in Cannes Marina.

The only ones I've seen so far on the Riviera, apart from on the Motorway service areas. (But I haven't checked a map to hunt them down).

There are EV's around, but not many in this world of small white diesel SUV's and hatchbacks. It's tough for the locals who live in flats and mainly park on the street.
maybe you would care to look in the areas where they are marked on this map :cool: and there are many more in the wider area.
HTH
 

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Turning to the geopolitics of the Ukraine, there are several MB component suppliers based in Western Ukraine.

VW have already closed two production lines because of inability to get wiring looms from their Ukrainian supplier.

It won't be long before suppliers like Bader in Lviv stop supplying seats and wiring looms for Mercedes....
The MINI plant in Cowley are shutting down for at least 5 days due to lack of components normally manufactured in, and shipped from, Ukraine.

As the Covid pandemic proved, JIT manufacturing based on extended supply chains is very, very, vulnerable to disruption. But hey, it increases profitability when it does work :rolleyes:
 
Meanwhile, back to EV's and range constraints:

Yesterday I was chatting with a good friend of mine who provides specialist capabilities to the demolition industry throughout the country. He's about to take delivery of a Tesla Model 3 and joked that he's about to become a "power ponce", taking every opportunity to scrounge free (to him) electricity from wherever he can.

He also told me that one of the largest national demolition contractors who he subcontracts to is steadily replacing it's ICE van fleet with EV vans, in part driven by the fact that they often work in inner city areas that are introducing levies on non-zero emission vehicles. At every site he works on, the first thing the drivers of those vans do is plug in to the large on-site diesel generator to recharge them so they have enough battery charge to get home again. Genius :rolleyes:
 
The new EV only inner city areas such as Oxford mean that companies will have to switch over or certainly find alternatives to delivery.



Notts Road Policing have recently taken delivery of a Tesla Model 3:

FM3SumZXEAQsAm5.jpg
 
The new EV only inner city areas such as Oxford mean that companies will have to switch over or certainly find alternatives to delivery.



Notts Road Policing have recently taken delivery of a Tesla Model 3:

FM3SumZXEAQsAm5.jpg
Wonder what the range is on a high speed pursuit... be very interesting to know for next time I'm trying to outrun the traffic cops.
 
It's a gimmick isn't it? They'll tout it round the shows and do some minor road policing with it, you're not going to outrun it acceleration wise though are you!
 
It's a gimmick isn't it? They'll tout it round the shows and do some minor road policing with it, you're not going to outrun it acceleration wise though are you!
True. Was a flippant comment.... but no unlikely to outrun it acceleration wise, though it would be fairly close i think, depending on which version model 3 it is...
 
True. Was a flippant comment.... but no unlikely to outrun it acceleration wise, though it would be fairly close i think, depending on which version model 3 it is...

It's the Performance version - has the different wheels and Brembo red brake calipers.
 
maybe you would care to look in the areas where they are marked on this map :cool: and there are many more in the wider area.
HTH
Of course I knew this. My point was that they’re rare on the Riviera. Fully accept that there are about a dozen points in a large “Conference centre” city like Cannes and that one can drive out to the Burbs to find more, using different apps.

Although whether you can use the bloody things remains an issue due to multiple provider platforms, incompatible software, out of action outlets and chargers blocked by PHEVs slowly “topping up.” (See well documented rants about these issues when travelling through Europe by Robert Llewelyn, Harry Metcalf, Georg Kacher and Shmee)

A Brit in the South East can assume that chargeable commercial power points are all over the place. It’s not that simple. Yet.
 
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Hi all, fist time post here so here goes and please let me know if its in the wrong section......

Been lucky enough to have just picked up a new 2020 EQC in the last 2 weeks with 8 miles on the clock and as the instruction manual says, best to charge to 80% to try to maintain battery life. Bit crap i thought if we need to start down that road but thought ok lets see what we get at that level of charge. Driving is 10 miles on the school run with country roads and using the regeneration D minus, minus rather than brakes with no hard acceleration and i mean none as you simply cant with all the twists and narrow roads. So given we dont want to run the battery down anything less than 30 miles and the car starts moaning at you from under 40, we charge it from around the 30 ish level. This allows us 2 full school trips and so circa 40 miles in total over two days before another charge to 80%. On an 80% charge it says we have around 145 miles from the start. Bit naff i thought so the wife needed to go further today and so we charged it fully to see and also to give her some peace of mind. Well, fully charged showed 225 miles and yet by the time she got 2 miles down the road it was showing 160 miles. There is no AC being used or heated seats and or demist. Just heating on 22 degrees. So im thinking is the weather at plus 4 degrees really the issue here or do we have a problem. This car is supposed to do around 250 and i know it will never do that, but though we would at least get 200. At this rate and from what i have seen, we seem to be around 120 miles if we are lucky. Any thoughts or other EQC experiences out there and thanks........
You're lucky, I'm getting 240 to 270 KM on city drives. Never tried long runs on the highway, scarcity of chargers. I'm residing close to the equator so maybe the battery does not love the heat. AC is always on, I've left the regen brakes on default setting since braking is critical here, traffic laws aree very relaxed motorist overtake at will, motorcyclists and tuktuk are worst.
I was promised 350 KM, I'm no where close to that figure. In fact I charge when it's in between 40 to 50% battery until full.

My concern are other than what you have listed. This thing drives very strange, very wobbly in corners, and visibility is not the best. The ride is very similar to the W221 airmatic.

Now I'm regretting, why I avoided the A35 AMG sedan (not hatch). It was priced at 75K GPB after taxes, much more frugal than the eqc400 price wise.

My dealer has no service interval for the electric motors, I have taken an extra maintenance packages and additional warranty. Does you dealership have anything in regards to electric motors maintenance? I have the 8 year battery warranty by default.

All I was told was this car required, coolant, ac gas (when necessary), brake fluid, and brake pads. Is that all your UK dealer has as well?

There is a seperate EQ forum for mercedes by another group, try it out. I had some luck there in getting the tailgate issue looked in to. MBEQclub. It's strange how you don't have the tail gate issue listed here.
 
And obviously a pollen filter
 
He also told me that one of the largest national demolition contractors who he subcontracts to is steadily replacing it's ICE van fleet with EV vans, in part driven by the fact that they often work in inner city areas that are introducing levies on non-zero emission vehicles. At every site he works on, the first thing the drivers of those vans do is plug in to the large on-site diesel generator to recharge them so they have enough battery charge to get home again. Genius :rolleyes:

Classic! To be fair electric vans have been pretty dismal on range ... the E-Vito had a WLTP range of just 90 miles, although I see that's gone up to 162 miles with the latest 66kWh version.

We routinely tow a caravan 100+ miles to camp at venues with no recharging facilities whatsoever, so won't be replacing our Vito with an electric one any time soon. With 9 dogs in the back en-route charging isn't as simple as stopping for a coffee while it's plugged in either. Even if you can find a charging point that will take the combined length of van plus caravan.
 
Indeed. It gets better, though.

His firm has to use diesel-powered generators 24x7 on their sites to power pumping and filtering equipment as invariably there isn't grid power at the locations. In aggregate they burn around 3,000 litres of "red" diesel a week doing that, but as of 1st April they have to use "white" diesel due to changed government regulations, adding around £1,800 per week to their costs. Guess who's going to be paying for that (clue: it won't be his firm)?
 

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