A250e and thoughts on range in cold weather

[AngieBei]

I purchased my A250e last February wanting a PHEV with enough range to get me to work each day. Mercedes promote the A250e as having a range on a full charge of 44 miles. Between March and November my average charged maximum was 34. As soon as the cold weather hit I found a maximum charge of between 24 and 27 miles. With little charging taking place whilst driving having such a drop in the amount of miles I can drive on a full electric charge has been horrendous. I’ve queried it with Mercedes who tell me it’s within the range they would expect. I wasn’t made aware of any winter drops in charge at the time of purchase so I’m disappointed. Anyone else having these issues?

 

[Blobcat]

Hello and welcome,

You've come across the difference between ideal test conditions and real world unfortunately. None of the duracel cars get close to the manufactures figures when the temp drops.

 

[MBDevotee]

My Soul EV does 4.3m per KW in the summer (air con on) but only about 3.5m per KW now (heated seats, heater and so on) it’s generating heat that drinks the power. Make sure you pre-condition as much as possible to save the range.

 

[John Laidlaw]

Very much temperature driven and as above if you are able precondition before setting off then you’ll achieve a better range ( but never the claimed )

 

[MBDevotee]

No, the range is based on an ambient temp that suits ev’s (not deliberate, they just chose a middling temperature that happens to suit the batteries) so no cooling or heating of battery or car needed.

Do you have an app that allows preconditioning whilst still attached to the wall?

 

[Blobcat]

K&N will probably make a preconditioner...

 

[AngieBei]

No, the range is based on an ambient temp that suits ev’s (not deliberate, they just chose a middling temperature that happens to suit the batteries) so no cooling or heating of battery or car needed.

Do you have an app that allows preconditioning whilst still attached to the wall?

Yes I do. I’ll try that. the last couple of days have been a lot warmer and I’ve achieved 37 miles when the battery is fully charged so clearly a massive difference when the temperature drops.

 

[MBDevotee]

Yes, do you know if yours uses a scavenger heat pump or an electric heater?

 

[AngieBei]

I don’t and can’t find anything to confirm.

 

[MBDevotee]

Either uses a lot of power, but the heat pump should be more efficient

 

[Naughty]

I purchased my A250e last February wanting a PHEV with enough range to get me to work each day. Mercedes promote the A250e as having a range on a full charge of 44 miles. Between March and November my average charged maximum was 34. As soon as the cold weather hit I found a maximum charge of between 24 and 27 miles. With little charging taking place whilst driving having such a drop in the amount of miles I can drive on a full electric charge has been horrendous. I’ve queried it with Mercedes who tell me it’s within the range they would expect. I wasn’t made aware of any winter drops in charge at the time of purchase so I’m disappointed. Anyone else having these issues?

Hi Angie
I purchased in December and have not got more than 27 miles on full charge , I was never informed that there would be a massive drop due to the temperature so i am taking it further with Mercedes as i believe i have been mis sold the product

 

[Naughty]

Hi Angie
I purchased in December and have not got more than 27 miles on full charge , I was never informed that there would be a massive drop due to the temperature so i am taking it further with Mercedes as i believe i have been mis sold the product

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[AngieBei]

Hi Angie
I purchased in December and have not got more than 27 miles on full charge , I was never informed that there would be a massive drop due to the temperature so i am taking it further with Mercedes as i believe i have been mis sold the product

Good luck with that! I complained to customer services and the CEO directly and have been told that 24 miles is within the normal range expected for this vehicle. I also feel misled but it’s clear I’m not going to get anywhere with Mercedes.

 

[MBDevotee]

How did you get on with pre-conditioning? Did it add much?

 

[AngieBei]

It gets me typically a 3-4 extra miles so thanks.

 

[00slk]

And until there are no service stations in existence to sell petrol or diesel I will continue to drive my non EV or PHEV around because those types of EV's are absolutely of no use to me what so ever, and to think just over 11 years ago I nearly bought an electric Smart, but we were taken off MB's list because I asked all the right questions about range! Once winter came and all the other stuff that was associated with winter, like night driving and using the heater, headlights, wipers, heated rear screen and MB then weren't interested in my custom. This car was supposed to do 80miles on a charge, yes it might well do in the ideal condition from where they test these, but in reality we use things like indicators, brake lights, radio, heater and so on which all use the battery in turn give little over 40miles on a full charge, and when you drive 52 miles to work and back makes for a pointless EV
I can see this all backfiring on the Government when the ban of new petrol/diesels car come in another 8 odd years......Yer right.
My mates brother in law has a Tesler and it is a 2 day journey if they need to up North, all their journey's have to be pre planned, can't go any scenic routes.
We just jump into our car and go, worse thing that can happen is we'll have to get fuel first 10 minute's if that. Or lets go for a drive dear, oh okay yes.....Oh hang on did you plug in the EV....No I forgot, oh well lets go tomorrow on the spur of the moment
It might be a different story for us if we lived in the city and spent most of our time reading or watching soaps and only popping out to the grocery store 1/2 mile down the road, as long as our EV is charged up we would use it.....But then if we lived in the city where most things are on the doorstep we would most likely not even own a car, we'd use public transport

 

[MBDevotee]

Other trick i’ve learned is to over-heat - so if you like the car interior at 20deg I preheat to about 26 or so.

Then as I drive off, I turn off the heater altogether. The plastics etc are all lovely and warm, and leech heat out into the cabin - and even when it’s cold, I can drive about 5 miles with no heater. As soon as I feel cool, heater on 19 or 20 and auto....

 

[MBDevotee]

And until there are no service stations in existence to sell petrol or diesel I will continue to drive my non EV or PHEV around because those types of EV's are absolutely of no use to me what so ever, and to think just over 11 years ago I nearly bought an electric Smart, but we were taken off MB's list because I asked all the right questions about range! Once winter came and all the other stuff that was associated with winter, like night driving and using the heater, headlights, wipers, heated rear screen and MB then weren't interested in my custom. This car was supposed to do 80miles on a charge, yes it might well do in the ideal condition from where they test these, but in reality we use things like indicators, brake lights, radio, heater and so on which all use the battery in turn give little over 40miles on a full charge, and when you drive 52 miles to work and back makes for a pointless EV
I can see this all backfiring on the Government when the ban of new petrol/diesels car come in another 8 odd years......Yer right.
My mates brother in law has a Tesler and it is a 2 day journey if they need to up North, all their journey's have to be pre planned, can't go any scenic routes.
We just jump into our car and go, worse thing that can happen is we'll have to get fuel first 10 minute's if that. Or lets go for a drive dear, oh okay yes.....Oh hang on did you plug in the EV....No I forgot, oh well lets go tomorrow on the spur of the moment
It might be a different story for us if we lived in the city and spent most of our time reading or watching soaps and only popping out to the grocery store 1/2 mile down the road, as long as our EV is charged up we would use it.....But then if we lived in the city where most things are on the doorstep we would most likely not even own a car, we'd use public transport

BEV owners keep their car charged pretty much all the time - so longer trips aren’t usually a problem.

I agree the Smart EV’s are a waste of time completely other than as shopping cars!

Odd that your Tesla owning friends have problems - I drove Bristol to Edinburgh and the up around Scotland, then back to Bristol.

Bristol to Edinburgh took me about 7 1/2 hours. 2 stops of 40 mins each (which I would have done in an ICE powered car anyhow - I don’t have a bladder any stronger). 380 miles in total roughly, and done in complete comfort, costing £15 in electric.

After that, we toured round using the hotel free chargers, and then drove back in a similar way.

Total was 1000m and cost of £60 in Electricity.

There is no problem doing long trips in an EV these days, it’s easy.

In the last 9months I’ve also done 9000m using less than £20 of fuel.....

Unless I need to tow a big trailer in the future I’ll never go back to a ICE car.