Mercedes EQB 350 arriving 3 months early

[Help78]

So we have just been advised our Mercedes EQB is arriving on 13th June, 3 months earlier than the original delivery date we were given. Exact car is a Mercedes EQB 350 215kW AMG Line Premium 66.5kWh.

So I'm completely unprepared and know nothing about EV ownership. I thought I had plenty of time to organise everything but now find myself woefully unprepared and uninformed.

We had a Skoda Kodiaq coming to then end of it's Lease that coincided with my partner discovering her employers Salary Sacrifice Scheme. With 4 kids between us we need to run 7 Seaters and unless we wanted to pay crazy money for a Tesla the EQB was our only option and as it was a great special offer price it seemed like a no brainer that we jumped on.

We also run a Diesel Volvo XC90 so have this available for longer journeys and when more space is required, but am hoping I can use the EQB for a 150 mile round trip I have to do once a week.

As I couldn't see any other threads about the EQB I thought I'd try and create one (if there's interest) for other potential users.

But right now I'm looking for some help around things I need to prepare for a BEV's arrival, I'm guessing first thing is the charger,

Do I go tethered / non tethered?
Which make do people recommend?
Any must have features I need to look out for?
Reliable installers?
How do I futureproof it?
I have a detached Double garage (cars live on the drive in front of it). The garage has it's own consumer unit as it originally the sales office for the housebuilder, is there a way for me to check if this is single phase or three phase?

Any help / advice would be gratefully received......

[pills]

I'm a relative newbie to this but I've done a bit of research as I have a Volvo arriving (probably next year).

Do I go tethered / non tethered? - I gather this is a matter of taste, non tethered - no cable so you'll have to plug / unplug both ends and keep cable in car - I'm going for tethered.
Which make do people recommend? - I've been recommended Podpoint as apparently it can connect to solar - see future proofing.
Any must have features I need to look out for? - From what I can gathered the car itself will control the charging.
Reliable installers? - Sorry no idea.
How do I futureproof it? - see above
I have a detached Double garage (cars live on the drive in front of it). The garage has it's own consumer unit as it originally the sales office for the housebuilder, is there a way for me to check if this is single phase or three phase? - I would very much doubt you would have a 3 phase supply however housebuilder sales office you never know.

[Maracus]

We have an untethered EO Mini Pro, it's the size of a small shoe box. All of the gubbins are in the garage.

You can control the charging either from the car, in my case a MINI and a Tesla M3, or using the app on the EO.

[plfrench]

I'd go tethered, it makes it so quick and easy to plug-in.

We went with a Podpoint Solo 3. Couldn't be easier to use, just plug and play (although we're on a flat tariff so haven't tried to set any specific charging schedules). The installation was organised by Podpoint - very good communication around when the technician would turn up etc. Very efficient and tidy work, couldn't fault it.

[CharlesElliott]

pills said:

I'm a relative newbie to this but I've done a bit of research as I have a Volvo arriving (probably next year).

Do I go tethered / non tethered? - I gather this is a matter of taste, non tethered - no cable so you'll have to plug / unplug both ends and keep cable in car - I'm going for tethered.
Which make do people recommend? - I've been recommended Podpoint as apparently it can connect to solar - see future proofing.
Any must have features I need to look out for? - From what I can gathered the car itself will control the charging.
Reliable installers? - Sorry no idea.
How do I futureproof it? - see above
I have a detached Double garage (cars live on the drive in front of it). The garage has it's own consumer unit as it originally the sales office for the housebuilder, is there a way for me to check if this is single phase or three phase? - I would very much doubt you would have a 3 phase supply however housebuilder sales office you never know.

A 3 phase RCD / isolator will have three switches on it, and the individual RCDs / RCBOs will likely have some colour coding to indicate which phase they are on. You will also have 4 tails going into the board for L1 / L2 / L3 and N. I doubt it very much. The more likely issue is that the feed to the CU in the garage won't be sufficient to have a 32A or 40A supply for the car charger to be run from it.

[georgeyboy12345]

Another vote for tethered. I got an untethered after reading crappy advice on a forum & regret it now.

[blank]

Tethered is more convenient but:
Much bigger / bulkier if that bothers you
Not compatible with Type 1 cars (mostly older Japanese stuff). Unlikely to be an issue but would be annoying if you decided to buy and old Leaf as a runaround and couldn't charge it.

I have an untethered EO Mini.
Cable doesn't bother me but I'm used to it as I charge more at work than at home, and the ones I use there are untethered.

[oop north]

I would generally recommend tethered. But if you want a long cable then you need untethered. I have had a tethered charger for six years - really convenient though when I changed car I had it moved within my garage.

But now have two cars with different locations for charging port and standard tethered cable wouldn’t reach one of them. So have untethered that’s 10m long so no matter what car I get in the future it will reach. All in my garage so the 10m cable stays plugged in all the time

[plfrench]

We've got a 7.5m cable on our Podpoint tethered. Long enough to serve two spaces without too much issue.

[Help78]

CharlesElliott said:

A 3 phase RCD / isolator will have three switches on it, and the individual RCDs / RCBOs will likely have some colour coding to indicate which phase they are on. You will also have 4 tails going into the board for L1 / L2 / L3 and N. I doubt it very much. The more likely issue is that the feed to the CU in the garage won't be sufficient to have a 32A or 40A supply for the car charger to be run from it.

You have me worried now, here's a picture of the CU in the garage. The garage has an electric water heater under the sink in the kitchenette, bathroom fan in the toilet and a wall mounted electric heater plus lights and lots of plug sockets. I freely admit to knowing nothing about electricity but had assumed some of these were quite high draw items therefore there'd be a decent supply coming in.

[Help78]

oop north said:

I would generally recommend tethered. But if you want a long cable then you need untethered. I have had a tethered charger for six years - really convenient though when I changed car I had it moved within my garage.

But now have two cars with different locations for charging port and standard tethered cable wouldn’t reach one of them. So have untethered that’s 10m long so no matter what car I get in the future it will reach. All in my garage so the 10m cable stays plugged in all the time

This is my concern about the tethered, if in the future our second car becomes a Hybrid or BEV will the cable reach both charging sockets on both cars or will I have to shuffle them round every time they need charging.

[mdk1]

Went tethered with a Hypervolt charger and a 10m cable.

[somouk]

That will be single phase. You would do well to find out where it is ran from and if it is direct from the meter what your main fuse size is before contacting people about installing a charger.

May be a nice simple install from that board though in a garage.

[tamore]

just run couple of bits of bare copper wire straight from the board. makes life interesting. you'll know they're powered up by putting them on the tip of your tongue.

[skilly1]

tamore said:

just run couple of bits of bare copper wire straight from the board. makes life interesting. you'll know they're powered up by putting them on the tip of your tongue.

This is the craziest advice I’ve ever heard. Someone will nick the cooper. Use bare steel wire, however it will need to be three times as thick to deal with the greater resistance.

[tamore]

why would nick the barrel maker be able to charge a car?

[Help78]

somouk said:

That will be single phase. You would do well to find out where it is ran from and if it is direct from the meter what your main fuse size is before contacting people about installing a charger.

May be a nice simple install from that board though in a garage.

So I looked closer at the CB in the house and found a fuse marked Garage, flipped it and that appears to have cut all power to the garage. It also set off the insanely loud Burglar Alarm the previous owners installed and that I have never used, cue me running round the house trying to find an alarm code we may or may not have been given by the grumpy old Battleaxe 18 months ago.

So it looks like it is a spur off the main CB.

I've opened the meter cabinet and taken a photo if that sheds any light on what the main fuse size is. It appears to state 100A and 415V if that's any help -

[Martyn76]

Help78 said:

somouk said:

That will be single phase. You would do well to find out where it is ran from and if it is direct from the meter what your main fuse size is before contacting people about installing a charger.

May be a nice simple install from that board though in a garage.

So I looked closer at the CB in the house and found a fuse marked Garage, flipped it and that appears to have cut all power to the garage. It also set off the insanely loud Burglar Alarm the previous owners installed and that I have never used, cue me running round the house trying to find an alarm code we may or may not have been given by the grumpy old Battleaxe 18 months ago.

So it looks like it is a spur off the main CB.

I've opened the meter cabinet and taken a photo if that sheds any light on what the main fuse size is. It appears to state 100A and 415V if that's any help -

I think that is the recommended size of fuse, saves a bit of fuss getting it changed.

[JonnyVTEC]

blank said:

Tethered is more convenient but:
Much bigger / bulkier if that bothers you
Not compatible with Type 1 cars (mostly older Japanese stuff). Unlikely to be an issue but would be annoying if you decided to buy and old Leaf as a runaround and couldn't charge it.

I have an untethered EO Mini.
Cable doesn't bother me but I'm used to it as I charge more at work than at home, and the ones I use there are untethered.

Justification syndrome above.

Untethered at your own home is daft.

[ajap1979]

JonnyVTEC said:

blank said:

Tethered is more convenient but:
Much bigger / bulkier if that bothers you
Not compatible with Type 1 cars (mostly older Japanese stuff). Unlikely to be an issue but would be annoying if you decided to buy and old Leaf as a runaround and couldn't charge it.

I have an untethered EO Mini.
Cable doesn't bother me but I'm used to it as I charge more at work than at home, and the ones I use there are untethered.

Justification syndrome above.

Untethered at your own home is daft.

Not quite as daft as people arguing over whether tethered or untethered chargers are best.