Official Mercedes B-class EV thread

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I must say as a fairly new Leaf owner, there is nothing I regret about the purchase of my Leaf... I had considered an I3 and even waiting for the "B".... But really, what does one gain from either an I3 or a B other than a much larger monthly lease or purchase payment? Sure I love to punch the throttle down to impress my non EV friends that are on the road... The I3 does it much better than the LEAF... But when it really gets down to it my true daily objective is conserving electrons and maxing my range... In my early days it was all about bragging how fast I got my GTO to 60.... Now as I sit with friends over a cup of coffee its bragging how I got my range up to 110 miles... Does the B or the I3 do it any better? I think not.... Are the German seats more comfortable? ... On a 500 mile drive perhaps.... But on a 16 mile drive to work I don't think I could tell the difference... In fact I truly enjoy the comfort of the seats in the LEAF...Are there a lot more bells and whistles on the I3 and B? For sure there are over the Leaf..... The question becomes can you live without the added bells and whistles? Do they really add to the every day use of your EV? And then there is the $10,000+ cost differential... If its $10,000 that's well spent I am all for it.... But is it???

And then there is the firmware issues with both the I3 and B... I have owned more than one German BMW.... From my perspective it takes the Germans several years to get rid of the gremlins... I am sure the LEAF had issues early on as well... It's nice to buy a car, especially and EV that has been road tested for 5 plus years....
 
I gave a lift to a couple of German backpackers last week. When they realized I was driving an electric car, one of them told me he had been able to test drive a prototype of the B-Class EV in Germany a while back but was disappointed that Mercedes had apparently delayed or shelved the project.

He was dumbfounded to learn that the car was already on sale in California, but will not be released in Germany until next year.
 
A review from a Tesla fanboy...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/08/20/what-happens-when-a-tesla-fanboy-meets-mercedes-benzs-electric-car/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Recycledoug said:
... But when it really gets down to it my true daily objective is conserving electrons and maxing my range... In my early days it was all about bragging how fast I got my GTO to 60.... Now as I sit with friends over a cup of coffee its bragging how I got my range up to 110 miles... Does the B or the I3 do it any better? I think not....
Click to expand...
Well if you can get 110mi in a LEAF then you can easily get 130 in a B-Class, probably 140.
Recycledoug said:
Are the German seats more comfortable? ... On a 500 mile drive perhaps.... But on a 16 mile drive to work I don't think I could tell the difference... In fact I truly enjoy the comfort of the seats in the LEAF...
Click to expand...
Comfort is the same but the faux-leather seats are MUCH BETTER than the cloth crap in the LEAF. Mine are covered in stains even though I clean the car regularly. People seem to love to spill things in my car and dirt just appears from everywhere. Also the seat/mirror position memory will make it easy for my wife and I to swap the car.
Recycledoug said:
Are there a lot more bells and whistles on the I3 and B? For sure there are over the Leaf..... The question becomes can you live without the added bells and whistles? Do they really add to the every day use of your EV? And then there is the $10,000+ cost differential... If its $10,000 that's well spent I am all for it.... But is it???
Click to expand...
Here's where it comes down to personal values. For me these are worth it:
- 15-20 extra miles thanx to range extender & variable recharge. I always seem to be 10mi short so this is big for me.
- much better seat material
- more space for extra people and equipment (I coach a sport)
- improved winter performance (friend in Canada tells me B-Class ICE does well in snow, our LEAF has to stay parked at my house when it snows as it can't get out of the driveway even after I upgraded to all-weather Michelins)
- Normal looking car. Some people like the looks of the LEAF...I can't say that I do but I like look of the B-Class.

Of course there is no QC, but I rarely use it in my LEAF and the 6.6kW on-board charger is twice what my LEAF has so should be fine. Worth $10k? Hmm, probably not on paper but the above features make the car more usable for me, so I'm making the leap.
Recycledoug said:
And then there is the firmware issues with both the i3 and B...
Click to expand...
Well none of my friends have had problems with German firmware...but this problem with the B-Class EV is troubling as it seems more prevalent than one would expect (4 reported on the B-Class forum which means there are many more) and Mercedes admitted they won't be able to fix it for 2 months. Maybe I need to reconsider a new LEAF or a KIA Soul EV.
 
TomT said:
A review from a Tesla fanboy...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/08/20/what-happens-when-a-tesla-fanboy-meets-mercedes-benzs-electric-car/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Click to expand...

This "fanboy" is rather naive in his knowledge/evaluations of BEVs, e.g. the Leaf;

"The Mercedes is certainly better than the three other electric cars I have driven: the Nissan Leaf, the Toyota Prius, and the Chevrolet Volt. It’s also about $10,000 more expensive. But it’s much better than any Mercedes I have driven. It accelerates without hesitation, doesn’t have the deafening engine noise, and gives you excellent control of the car with its regenerative braking system. It surely helps that Tesla makes the Mercedes B-class motor, as well as its battery technology."

1. The Leaf accelerates smoothly without hesitation.
2. The Leaf obviously has no engine noise.
3. The Leaf has excellent control with or without its regenerative braking system.

And the 'jury-is-still-out' as to whether; "It surely helps that Tesla makes the Mercedes B-Class motor".
Maybe the guy has yet to hear drivetrain noise on his Tesla.

Mercedes Benz needs to better qualify their Tesla "fanboys" or are they that desperate to get 'press'
on the B-Class?
 
And perhaps you are not up to date on what Tesla has done about it... It is no longer an issue for the consumer...

I've driven the MB at length and while I am not certain that I would actually buy one, it definitely IS a much nicer car than the Leaf (as well it should be for the extra dollars), and has considerably more real-world range...

lorenfb said:
Maybe the guy has yet to hear drivetrain noise on his Tesla.
Click to expand...
 
TomT said:
And perhaps you are not up to date on what Tesla has done about it... It is no longer an issue for the consumer...

I've driven the MB at length and while I am not certain that I would actually buy one, it definitely IS a much nicer car than the Leaf (as well it should be for the extra dollars), and has considerably more real-world range...
Click to expand...
the MB B class electric has CONSIDERABLY MORE range than a Leaf?
please enlighten me.
I am under the impression that the MB and the Leaf have about the same range give or take 10 miles
 
apvbguy said:
the MB B class electric has CONSIDERABLY MORE range than a Leaf?
please enlighten me.
I am under the impression that the MB and the Leaf have about the same range give or take 10 miles
Click to expand...
Without the range extender the B-Class only gets 2-5more miles (depending on your driving habits), according to a couple of folks on the B-Class forum they are beating the EPA estimate soundly. With the range extender the B-Class has 15-20 more miles (again depending on you driving habits). The goofy thing is the range extender is just SW (that allows one to use more of the battery) and a heated windshield, no battery modifications, so the car could get those 'extra' miles with some firmware hacking. However with the heated windshield I expect not to have to use the defroster everyday in the winter like I do now in my LEAF (Pacific NW cold moisture), so even without changing how I charge the battery, I should get more range.

We'll see what happens when mine shows up...
 
Not sure if this was posted but I heard this car has no charge timer at all. Can anyone validate this, seems crazy.
 
padamson1 said:
However with the heated windshield I expect not to have to use the defroster everyday in the winter like I do now in my LEAF (Pacific NW cold moisture), so even without changing how I charge the battery, I should get more range.

We'll see what happens when mine shows up...
Click to expand...

I agree the heated windshield would be SOO nice in the Pacific NW. I get a ton of fog on my windows in the winter, but I don't really need the heat. Any idea what sort of heater the B-Class has (heat pump or something else)?
 
EVDRIVER said:
Not sure if this was posted but I heard this car has no charge timer at all. Can anyone validate this, seems crazy.
Click to expand...
Yes no timer, you plug it in and it starts charging. Since I have to buy a new EVSE anyway (only have a 3.3kW for my LEAF), when my B-Class shows up I plan to use the timer on the Siemens VersiCharge.
 
EVDRIVER said:
Not sure if this was posted but I heard this car has no charge timer at all. Can anyone validate this, seems crazy.
Click to expand...


It does state this in the online brochure ...

My Mercedes Electric:
A dedicated vehicle homepage lets you view the battery charge, see
your driving range on a map, find charging stations, and more -- all from the Chrome ™
or Safari ® Web browser on your laptop or smartphone. You can even preheat or cool the cabin while it’s plugged in — helping preserve range.
Three years of the Mercedes-Benz mbrace ® Package, including the homepage and mobile app, come with the car.

So if it's anything like the LEAF CARWINGS app you could I suppose set it to NOT charge once plugged in and then turn the charger back on at a specific time --- haven't seen the app so would not know. My home EVSE also has its own timer (which I've never used as the LEAF has its own) so perhaps this isn't such a big deal but an interesting omission if it is.
 
padamson1 said:
EVDRIVER said:
Not sure if this was posted but I heard this car has no charge timer at all. Can anyone validate this, seems crazy.
Click to expand...
Yes no timer, you plug it in and it starts charging. Since I have to buy a new EVSE anyway (only have a 3.3kW for my LEAF), when my B-Class shows up I plan to use the timer on the Siemens VersiCharge.
Click to expand...
Did not know that. Crazy indeed.

FWIW, IIRC, the Model S didn't ship w/any timers initially either. They were added eventually in a software update. And, there's the complaint of the Rav4 EV having buggy timers. I believe it had timers before the Model S got its timers.

For Mercedes to miss the boat on this at this point means either they completely missed the needs of some of their key customer markets (e.g. California) or they were under schedule pressure to get the car out, so they left it out, for now possibly due to unresolved bugs, insufficient testing or insufficient time to get the feature done. For now, it makes the B-Class ED pretty silly for many California buyers/lessees.
 
A charge timer is a fundamental EV feature. This is a huge fail on their part, who was in charge of product development on this?
 

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