Awaiting an EQC

[Cleck]

I've looked at a few EV tarrifs and they all seem to even out the overall cost. Whilst you get several hours overnight at (eg) 5p/kwh, they are 18-20p/kwh the rest of the time. Non EV tariffs tend to be more like 14-15p/kwh all the time. I suppose it depends how much electricity you use gernerally as to whether they are worth it or not.

As for RFL, I'm not sure, as it's included in the lease, mine is a company car.

The EQC come with 1 year free membership with IONITY, who have the superchargers (only around 10 sites in the UK, I believe), which brings the cost down from 70p/kwh to 25p/kwh. But they will give an 80% charge in 20 minutes.

I had to drive to Northampton on Monday, around 120 miles each way, so I needed to charge on the way back. I called at Leicester Forest where there are two Ecotricity chargers, but you have to download the App and register before you can use them. I did so, the App is useless and all the menus are blank (the one where you select your address from the postcode, so it's very difficult to get that right and you can't charge without it. Once I'd managed that, I found out one of the chargers was out of order and the other one, although the CCS cable was free, couldn't be used because another car was plugged into the other connecter (only one can be used).

So I called at Donnington Park, where all the chargers were in use and there were four or five other cars waiting to use them.

I ended up in a Novotel car park with a charger I could use with a contactless card, although it was full of signs warning of £100 fine for non-hotel patrons. the receptionist very kindly allowed me to register my car so I wouldn't be fined. It's not quite as smooth as I thought it would be!

 

[Blobcat]

I've looked at a few EV tarrifs and they all seem to even out the overall cost. Whilst you get several hours overnight at (eg) 5p/kwh, they are 18-20p/kwh the rest of the time. Non EV tariffs tend to be more like 14-15p/kwh all the time. I suppose it depends how much electricity you use gernerally as to whether they are worth it or not.

As for RFL, I'm not sure, as it's included in the lease, mine is a company car.

The EQC come with 1 year free membership with IONITY, who have the superchargers (only around 10 sites in the UK, I believe), which brings the cost down from 70p/kwh to 25p/kwh. But they will give an 80% charge in 20 minutes.

I had to drive to Northampton on Monday, around 120 miles each way, so I needed to charge on the way back. I called at Leicester Forest where there are two Ecotricity chargers, but you have to download the App and register before you can use them. I did so, the App is useless and all the menus are blank (the one where you select your address from the postcode, so it's very difficult to get that right and you can't charge without it. Once I'd managed that, I found out one of the chargers was out of order and the other one, although the CCS cable was free, couldn't be used because another car was plugged into the other connecter (only one can be used).

So I called at Donnington Park, where all the chargers were in use and there were four or five other cars waiting to use them.

I ended up in a Novotel car park with a charger I could use with a contactless card, although it was full of signs warning of £100 fine for non-hotel patrons. the receptionist very kindly allowed me to register my car so I wouldn't be fined. It's not quite as smooth as I thought it would be!

I think we’ll be seeing more of this
As a company car driver you’re financially pushed into hybrid or full electric, it’s the only reason anyone should get one…

 

[kotecki]

I think we’ll be seeing more of this
As a company car driver you’re financially pushed into hybrid or full electric, it’s the only reason anyone should get one…

You make a point but I guess folks tend to buy what they like within the limits of their budget.

My wife likes moderately powerful cars, hence our owning a straight six 320Cdi. An excellent car but it was seventeen years old and we felt it was time to replace it.

First choice would be the large straight six diesel, but on this forum alone there are countless posts about using diesels for short journeys. In seventeen years of ownership our old car had only done 60k miles. Most of which were short journeys without a single hiccup.

We decided against the diesel for these known issues. A 2ltr petrol would be too small, and it would be cruel to buy an AMG. We have ended up with the E300e petrol hybrid estate and so far it is averaging 97.4mpg. A beautiful car and definitely more than enough performance to satisfy the boss. Is the hybrid everyone's choice Nope but reading this thread of someone with the all electric car, boy am I glad we never went down that path.

 

[Blobcat]

You make a point but I guess folks tend to buy what they like within the limits of their budget.

My wife likes moderately powerful cars, hence our owning a straight six 320Cdi. An excellent car but it was seventeen years old and we felt it was time to replace it.

First choice would be the large straight six diesel, but on this forum alone there are countless posts about using diesels for short journeys. In seventeen years of ownership our old car had only done 60k miles. Most of which were short journeys without a single hiccup.

We decided against the diesel for these known issues. A 2ltr petrol would be too small, and it would be cruel to buy an AMG. We have ended up with the E300e petrol hybrid estate and so far it is averaging 97.4mpg. A beautiful car and definitely more than enough performance to satisfy the boss. Is the hybrid everyone's choice Nope but reading this thread of someone with the all electric car, boy am I glad we never went down that path.

Half the time you're carrying a battery pack around you don't need and the other half you're carrying an engine around you don't need...

 

[kotecki]

Half the time you're carrying a battery pack around you don't need and the other half you're carrying an engine around you don't need...

Yup, I do not disagree and we buy what we like and usually, what we like might not be the most practical. We wanted a new E-class estate and for us, we made what we think is a perfect choice. The battery is indeed in the rear compartment and if you want to carry a long load that has to lay completely flat on the floor, then that rules out the hybrid. This car takes off like a scalded cat and I would love to know the 0 - 30mph times as it must surely be impressive? 0 - 62mph in 5.7seconds might suggest the extra weight is not an issue. Likewise, the 97mpg is not to be sneezed at and I can only see that improving Knock it as much as we want...

I cannot and will never recommend any type of vehicle to anyone, I believe it is all about personal choice. Me personally, I would go for the AMG version of the E-class estate

 

[Parkwood]

Update had my car since the 15th and extremely pleased with it. Very fast and drives very well but it does suffer a bit from the joggly head syndrome typical of the SUV but not as bad as the GLK I used to have. It was delivered with the LTE module and the UN R79 amendments to the active parking ie it will not parallel park but will park in between parked cars in car parks front wards or backwards. Active lane change assist has also been disabled ie indicating in cruise control and the car changing lane if clear. These are probably permanent changes. However Augmented reality in MBUX is currently not working but will be switched on once the chip is available as yet the time scale is not known.
I moved from a 220d 4matic e class estate a top of the range one with airmatic a acoustic pack, driving assistance and whilst the interior of that was a bit more luxurious mainly due to me having specced a replacement for the black piano centre trim which self destructs before your eyes! there is no doubt the EQC is a more refined car. I am looking forward to test driving the EQE but at the moment I have no regrets in letting the e class go. Efficiency is better than I expected with an average so far over 600km of 21.5kwh/100km. This incs a couple of short journeys to my local village which is uphill and some stretched of motorway driving at 130km. For me ICE cars are dead old technology and PHEV are seem an absolute dead end neither fish nor fowl I can see a use perhaps to convince people electric works but I think they have a short lifespan.

 

[kotecki]

Yoiks
Just read the post by Parkwood. We took delivery of our hybrid several weeks ago, the delivery date being delayed by a shortage of the chips we are discussing. When our vehicle eventually arrived it has all the features we ordered, including those missing in the car Parkwood has.

Our E-class was obviously built where all the UK E-class are built but our vehicle came via a Belgium dealer (NEVER used or registered in that country) How strange and frustrating.

Parkwood
Will the dealer have to strip out bits of the car to add the module? I would hate for that to happen to our car

 

[Parkwood]

Yoiks
Just read the post by Parkwood. We took delivery of our hybrid several weeks ago, the delivery date being delayed by a shortage of the chips we are discussing. When our vehicle eventually arrived it has all the features we ordered, including those missing in the car Parkwood has.

Our E-class was obviously built where all the UK E-class are built but our vehicle came via a Belgium dealer (NEVER used or registered in that country) How strange and frustrating.

Parkwood
Will the dealer have to strip out bits of the car to add the module? I would hate for that to happen to our car

Not sure but the dealer indicated it is a quick job and yes I agree it is a pain to have a virgin car tampered with. Enjoy the e I loved mine whilst I had it and was very sorry to let it go but now living with the EQC I am pleased to have made the jump. The main downside of the e was not engine noise, that is incredibly subdued to be almost non existant in calm driving (though it is a bit unpleasant when you use kickdown), nor smoothness per se as the 9 speed is silky smooth but actually road noise. Even with the acoustic pack and air suspension which inc double glazing as in the EQC the car could thrum horribly over certain types of road surfaces notably those surfaced dressed with chippings and that let it down badly. Otherwise it was close to perfect. The EQC does not have the same resonance frequency(no doubt due to the battery) so although one can hear it is on a poor surface it does not generate a the same sort of thrum and is more comfortable as a result. The hybrid e we test drove also showed some improvement over the pure ICE e we had but not as much as the EQC. It has also just moved on to being even smoother and acceleration in kickdown is much more instant and silent.
I am aware of someone in the south of france who has been waiting for 2mths since his del date came and went so the chip shortage seems to be causing absolute havoc. Re your car coming via a dealer in belgium was it built to your order and spec via a mercedes delearship or did you choose an off the shelf model, if you did that might explain the situation with the car being listed in a pool. The belgians have been supplying rhd for years they may order them on spec for resale into the UK via lease companies etc. All the distribution channels are very complicated these days!

 

[kotecki]

Re your car coming via a dealer in belgium was it built to your order and spec via a mercedes delearship or did you choose an off the shelf model, if you did that might explain the situation with the car being listed in a pool. The belgians have been supplying rhd for years they may order them on spec for resale into the UK via lease companies etc. All the distribution channels are very complicated these days!

I hope you do not mind my editing your post but I just intend answering the points in the section I have copied

We wanted a very specific car with the options we wanted and this is not possible when buying a vehicle in the UK. Here we have extremely limited options and a restricted choice regarding models

Ever since the mid-seventies we have owned a large estate car, transferring our allegiance to Mercedes in the late 80's when I got badly injured. My wife loves the E-class estate with that brilliant straight six Cdi engine. We had that engine in both the 210 the 211 and were going to have it in the new 213, but...... Reading copious posts about the problems of only doing short journeys along with low mileage. We decided that sadly we would have to buy a petrol powered vehicle. Because the boss only does short journeys, the hybrid seemed to tick all the boxes but this is where we get to the nitty gritty. I was told we could have a petrol E-class hybrid saloon, but not the hybrid estate!! It's our money and we want what we want not what some spotty faced geek at Mercedes-Benz UK tells me we can have!! We simply wanted a petrol powered E-class hybrid estate but that spotty faced geek said, "Niet!!"

We could buy this configuration in Europe but not the UK and this applied to a whole multitude of other options, but that's another story.

I am not sure it would be feasible for a European dealer to have a RHD vehicle on display, would it tie up a lot of money whilst sat there? I accept the British military still have personnel based in Brussels but I would think it would be more convenient for a dealer to take an order, grab the deposit and then let the customer wait. Incidentally, it is a Mercedes £1200 option for RHD but that's another story. :}

 

[Ron240]

What is the costs for your road fund licence please? Our hybrid is in excess of £500!!!

Fully electric vehicles are zero rated on the road fund licence for both the first year rate and second year onwards.
They are also exempt from the additional rate applied to vehicles with a list price of more than £40k.
Make no mistake though, things will change in relation to electric vehicle taxation!

 

[Tony Dyson]

Fully electric vehicles are zero rated on the road fund licence for both the first year rate and second year onwards.
They are also exempt from the additional rate applied to vehicles with a list price of more than £40k.
Make no mistake though, things will change in relation to electric vehicle taxation!

Yes but I believe by which time the overall cost of EV ownership will have dropped to more realistic and affordable levels and battery performance and reliability will have significantly improved. Additionally, Hydrogen options are now developing fast for the bigger applications such as Agricultural and Construction Plant, Trains and Road Haulage, and as history has repeatedly demonstrated, engines are also likely to get smaller so will at least keep the EV industry on their toes?. I do wonder what the shipping industry is doing about all this?

 

[Ron240]

Yes but I believe by which time the overall cost of EV ownership will have dropped to more realistic and affordable levels and battery performance and reliability will have significantly improved.

Oh absolutely...just look how far the technology has advanced in the past few years.
All I meant was once EV ownership rises above a certain level our government will need to come up with something significantly different in the way they generate revenue from the motorist.
After the ban on the internal combustion engine I reckon we can expect a massive hike in the road fund licence for them, and/or road pricing for all.

 

[Cleck]

Right, the EQC is coming to the end of it's lease and goes back at the end of next month. So my thoughts on EVs in general and the EQC in particular.

The EQC is a beautiful car to drive, it's comfortable, smooth and powerful. It's a clear step above the W212 that it replaced in almost every way, but that could in part be that it was 6 years newer. The acceleration (0-60 in 5'ish seconds) is phenomenal for what is a relatively big car and is probably too much for an SUV, cornering at speed is 'entertaining'. The EQC does suffer from the GLC issue of the front wheels skipping when reversing on full lock, which isn't ideal on a car of this value. It feels very modern, but also you know you're sitting in a Mercedes.

EV's, in my opinion are ideal as a second car, i.e. used for short local journeys, shopping, visiting etc, but for longer journeys are less than ideal. Ove rthe two years I've had the EQC, I've probably had to use public chargers around twenty times or so. Charging at home & at work are easy and relatively inexpensive and this has been the way I've charged most of the time, overnight at home, but more regularly during the day when I'm at work (cause that was free to me). The range is stated at 265 mile on a full charge, but I've never seen that. I've had around 240 miles in the summer, when the batteries are working at their optimim temperature and 170 miles in winter when they're not. I'm not sure how much using the heater affects the range as I have the air con on all summer too. My impression is that it is the ambient temperature of the batteries which reduces their efficacity.

When I've used public chargers, I've encountered a number of problems. Despite the sat nav directing you to a working and available charger, I have on occasions found that the charger in question is either out of order, occupied, behind a locked gate (!) or even the wrong connector (assume the database hadn't been updated). Even when the chargers are working as they should, for me personally I've found it a chore having to wait an hour for the car to charge before I can continue my journey. I appreciate there are those who like a break and take the opportunity for a coffee etc, but I prefer to get on with my journey and get where I'm going. EVs are not conducive to this.

I'm now looking for a diesel E class because the only way a company car works tax-wise these days is if it's fully electric and I don't want another fully electric. I thought about buying a hybrid, but since it will be 4 years old, I don't want the risk of a hybrid issue costing me upwards of £10k, so diesel it is.

I've really enjoyed the EQC and don't regret it at all, but for me at least, EV is not the way to go. There may come a time when I have no choice but to go EV, but I'm guessing at my age, I will always have the option of ICE or at worst hybrid until I'm too old to drive and as it stands, I think that would be my preference.

For those who are happy to take a break while the car charges on longer journeys, I think an EV works. It's cheaper to run, loads of torque, quiet, smooth and a pleasure to drive. The only downside for me was the public charging, but that's not insurmountable, I just prefer not to! And a winter range of 170 miles is frankly useless to me.

 

[Larkone]

I do wonder that waiting for a car to charge on a public charger and getting raped by Costa/Starbucks whilst you wait must knock a big hole in the potential running costs EVs are supposed to have, especially if it is a family.

 

[ajlsl600]

If ur n City with decent charge facilities duracells may be an option (never 4 me) if outside the city hybrid is only practical job. I will wait for hydrogen, its commin for sure. And that will be practical!! Once storage sorted. After all we have managed gas tanks in cars 4 yrs!

 

[mioba]

Love it, going from fully electric to diesel

 

[Cleck]

Love it, going from fully electric to diesel

I appreciate the irony, but it makes absolute sense to me, having experimented with electric. As I said, I'd prefer petrol, but the E200 is underpowered and I can't afford the E43/63, so I'm hoping I can stretch to an E400, but I think E220 is more likely.

 

[Cleck]

I do wonder that waiting for a car to charge on a public charger and getting raped by Costa/Starbucks whilst you wait must knock a big hole in the potential running costs EVs are supposed to have, especially if it is a family.

When the family is with me and a full charge is necessary, it has been Dominos, so it cost me more than a tank of juice!

 

[harrye500]

A good write up there Cleck from a member who has tried and tested one (and with no expensive issues)! Interesting you're considering going back to Diesel, probably not what HM Gov wants to hear! I say that tongue in cheek of course. Indeed, great for shorter journeys or those with more time to charge, but I just feel it is a step back from ICE and surely can only ever realistically be a stop gap. We shall see! Can't deny the EQC is a handsome motor. I shall stick with the 213 Diesel and the 207 'weekend pleasure cruiser' FTB or until the 213 hurts me on the Adblue issues!!

 

[Cleck]

A good write up there Cleck from a member who has tried and tested one (and with no expensive issues)! Interesting you're considering going back to Diesel, probably not what HM Gov wants to hear! I say that tongue in cheek of course. Indeed, great for shorter journeys or those with more time to charge, but I just feel it is a step back from ICE and surely can only ever realistically be a stop gap. We shall see! Can't deny the EQC is a handsome motor. I shall stick with the 213 Diesel and the 207 'weekend pleasure cruiser' FTB or until the 213 hurts me on the Adblue issues!!

Before the EQC I ran a 2015 W212 with adblue for almost four years with no issues whatsoever. The adblue and dpf were fine and caused no problems at all. I was doing 10-15k a year.

I've just remembered, I had one problem with the EQC in the first year, which was sorted under warranty. One of the led driving lights stopped working and it went into Mercedes Leeds twice. The first timeI was told it needed two 'control units' replaced and the second time, I believe it was a new headlight unit. Needless to say. I'm glad it was warranty, I can't imagine what the cost would've been!