Mercedes CLA 250e charging question
Discussion
This is the one with the 15kWh battery, yes? Unless it has a ‘charge’ mode like my C350e where the ICE both drives the car along the road and puts energy into the battery, then I doubt you’d ever manage to get more than a few % of charge in it by energy recovery.
It’s a PHEV I believe, so, well, plug it in to get the best from it.
Wish my C350e had that battery capacity, it would make it a very different and IMO better car TBH. Even better for me at least would be if it was a pure EV
It’s a PHEV I believe, so, well, plug it in to get the best from it.
Wish my C350e had that battery capacity, it would make it a very different and IMO better car TBH. Even better for me at least would be if it was a pure EV
I had the C350e and just changed to the C300de, now got 13.5Kwh, makes a big difference.
As far as I know all the Merc PHEV's have a similar mode selection, with Hybrid, E-Mode, E-Save & Charge, all of which makes differing use of energy recovery.
If you can always charge at home, not much benefit to using charge mode when driving unless you do have a burning design to be fully charged at your destination.
I spend the majority of my time in Electric mode, and charge both at home and work.
However for long motorway distances I drop into E-Save, which does energy recovery and some charging without impacting the fuel efficiency too much.
As far as I know all the Merc PHEV's have a similar mode selection, with Hybrid, E-Mode, E-Save & Charge, all of which makes differing use of energy recovery.
If you can always charge at home, not much benefit to using charge mode when driving unless you do have a burning design to be fully charged at your destination.
I spend the majority of my time in Electric mode, and charge both at home and work.
However for long motorway distances I drop into E-Save, which does energy recovery and some charging without impacting the fuel efficiency too much.
GPF85 said:
The main reason for asking is I live in a flat so cannot charge the car overnight and I drive between 200-300 miles daily so just wondered if I’d gain some charge along the way to save on fuel?
I believe what you will be doing is dragging around some expensive dead weight most of the time. If you didn’t charge it from the mains then it would act like a non plug in hybrid. When you brake the regen will put power into the battery, then when you accelerate this power will be used to reduce the petrol consumption.
You will get some benefit but it will not charge up the battery to any meaningful level, instead it will reduce your fuel use. This does mean that you are carrying around a big weight of batteries that you will never use the full capacity of.
You will get some benefit but it will not charge up the battery to any meaningful level, instead it will reduce your fuel use. This does mean that you are carrying around a big weight of batteries that you will never use the full capacity of.
I’m not too worried about the extra weight I’ll be carrying to be honest, I have a boot full of tools and I have a fuel card I’m only choosing this car due to the low benefit in kind tax but was just curious if it could ever fully recharge just through driving as daily it’s minimum 200-300 miles but quite often could be up to 400 miles per day
GPF85 said:
I’m not too worried about the extra weight I’ll be carrying to be honest, I have a boot full of tools and I have a fuel card I’m only choosing this car due to the low benefit in kind tax but was just curious if it could ever fully recharge just through driving as daily it’s minimum 200-300 miles but quite often could be up to 400 miles per day
And this is the problem with giving tax benefits to company car users who have no intention of charging the car. Increases emissions and no deterrent.manracer said:
And this is the problem with giving tax benefits to company car users who have no intention of charging the car. Increases emissions and no deterrent.
I know people who had the Mitsubishi plug in hybrid for 80k miles and never once plugged it in. Purely for the CC tax break. You could use charge mode if you want to see a full battery...but it’s pretty pointless TBH as it punishes MPG.
I guess as a company car user, you are just going to do what works best for you. Shame the rules are so messed up it pays you to buy a PHEV when you can't even plug it in, but that’s not your fault.
Stick it in COMFORT or SPORT and HYBRID, and just drive it.
Unless you can get a decent charge in it, you won’t get full performance by the way, the EV power drops off as charge level drops, but they don’t advertise that ‘feature’.
I guess as a company car user, you are just going to do what works best for you. Shame the rules are so messed up it pays you to buy a PHEV when you can't even plug it in, but that’s not your fault.
Stick it in COMFORT or SPORT and HYBRID, and just drive it.
Unless you can get a decent charge in it, you won’t get full performance by the way, the EV power drops off as charge level drops, but they don’t advertise that ‘feature’.
To force us to use PHEV's properly, our company takes away the fuel card from us. To be fair, ive had my 330e for 6 weeks and the economy has been excellent, i did a run to france in dec and i started with a full charge and the car returned 48mpg. On the way back with no charge it still did 44ish mpg.
Driving in Hybrid pro mode it seems to use what ever it regens whilst you are driving rather than generating and storing it.
Driving in Hybrid pro mode it seems to use what ever it regens whilst you are driving rather than generating and storing it.
The plug in hybrid system in the new A class cars (including the CLA25oe) is technologically way ahead of the system in the C class etc
It does offer the ability to alter recouperation energy in a way that wasn't possible with earlier MB PHEVs.
"The paddles on the steering wheel enable the selection of five different recuperation levels ('DAUTO', 'D+', 'D', 'D-' and 'D--'). The usual additional 'Comfort', 'Sport' and 'Individual' mode settings are also available."
You can read (and watch) more in this A250e owners thread. It's also impressive to hear that one owner in Finland seems to be getting 45 miles out of the battery on 80km/h roads.
https://mbworld.org/forums/class-w177-v177/780110-...
It's not clear from any of the internet reviews exactly how many miles of energy one could recouperate in these A250e/CLA250e cars using the steering wheel paddles when driving.
The only way to know for sure is to get one for a long test drive and see what you can achieve when experimenting with the paddles.
It does offer the ability to alter recouperation energy in a way that wasn't possible with earlier MB PHEVs.
"The paddles on the steering wheel enable the selection of five different recuperation levels ('DAUTO', 'D+', 'D', 'D-' and 'D--'). The usual additional 'Comfort', 'Sport' and 'Individual' mode settings are also available."
You can read (and watch) more in this A250e owners thread. It's also impressive to hear that one owner in Finland seems to be getting 45 miles out of the battery on 80km/h roads.
https://mbworld.org/forums/class-w177-v177/780110-...
It's not clear from any of the internet reviews exactly how many miles of energy one could recouperate in these A250e/CLA250e cars using the steering wheel paddles when driving.
The only way to know for sure is to get one for a long test drive and see what you can achieve when experimenting with the paddles.
If you are not going to charge, run mainly on ICE and doing higher mileage you might be best off looking at the PHEV Diesel options from Mercedes.
I know that the C300de is the same BIK percentage as the C300e but does significantly higher MPG.
not sure which other models have the diesel varient.
I know that the C300de is the same BIK percentage as the C300e but does significantly higher MPG.
not sure which other models have the diesel varient.
Hi,
I have an A250E since sept 20, and before that the C350E.
The driving modes do not (well I can’t find it) have a charge mode like on the C350E. There is ‘BL’ battery lock which I presume is more like the ‘save’ mode on the C350E, it it’s supposed to save the charge.
Due to lockdown I’ve only done short journeys, so 25 or 30 miles max, and when using BL I manged to store 1 or 2 miles batter range.
I have an A250E since sept 20, and before that the C350E.
The driving modes do not (well I can’t find it) have a charge mode like on the C350E. There is ‘BL’ battery lock which I presume is more like the ‘save’ mode on the C350E, it it’s supposed to save the charge.
Due to lockdown I’ve only done short journeys, so 25 or 30 miles max, and when using BL I manged to store 1 or 2 miles batter range.
Harvested energy from decelerating is used up again when you accelerate. It's much more efficient than throwing the energy away as heat in the brakes and replacing it via a lot more wasted heat from the engine. That bit is a win.
But charging a car's battery from the car's engine is pretty hopeless in efficiency terms. You buy the expensive fuel, throw >60% away as heat and noise. Of the useful fraction left, you lose another 10% or more in conversion losses.
But charging a car's battery from the car's engine is pretty hopeless in efficiency terms. You buy the expensive fuel, throw >60% away as heat and noise. Of the useful fraction left, you lose another 10% or more in conversion losses.
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