E350e Charging Issues

[shankar]

Hi There,

I have been driving my E350e for the past 5 days and noticed that the battery charge gets depleted very quickly when I drive on the ECO and Comfort modes. Eg. I charged the battery to 100% and then switched on the ignition on the ECO mode and within 30 mins the charge dropped to 80% whilst the car is stationary. Then I drove the car on ECO mode to a location 16 miles away. By the time I reached the charge dropped to 10%. The battery did not get charged by the engine during this time. The same happened during on the comfort mode as well.

Is the above performance of the battery normal? Or there may a potential issue with the battery which needs looking into? Does the self charging work when driving in ECO and comfort modes? Even if it doesnt increase the charge percentage but maintain around the same level of charge, that will help and give me to confidence to take the car long distance.

On my way back on the same journey of 16 miles, I drove the car in sports mode and the car got charged to 25%. Same happened with the sport plus mode on another trip.

 

[Rotorhead500]

I'm not that clued up on the EVs, but does ECO mode mean it'll try and use the electric motor as much as possible to improve mpg, hence deplete charge quickly?

Also, in Sport, does it ramp up regen braking at all? (As well as calling on the ICE more).

 

[shankar]

I'm not that clued up on the EVs, but does ECO mode mean it'll try and use the electric motor as much as possible to improve mpg, hence deplete charge quickly?

Also, in Sport, does it ramp up regen braking at all? (As well as calling on the ICE more).

I am new to the EVs as well and still learning. I learnt that the the ECO mode Start/Stop system saves fuel and reduces the vehicle's emissions by shutting off the engine in situations where the vehicle is not in motion.

The problem is battery charge is getting depleted during driving/stationery in ECO and Comfort modes.

 

[Rotorhead500]

Sounds right. The problem is the ECO bit simply aims to save fuel, and uses the battery & electric motor to do that.

Hybrids aren't really aiming to cover "EV miles", just plug gaps in performance and boost mpg figures. Not sure what you're handbook says, but suspect it'll claim something like "up to 30 miles electric-only range"... which would be steady state, low-load conditions, so 16-20 miles real world is probably not too far from the mark.