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......

[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.

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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.

[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 -

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PBCD said:

You have a kitchenette in your garage?

Well its a very small room with some kitchen units and sink and it then leads through to another door with a toilet behind it. The garage is also fully plasterboarded as well.

Once I can find somewhere to store / throw away some of the junk I'd like to try and turn it into my home office.

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I didn't mean to start up an argument about tethered/untethered guys, I never realised it was such a divisive topic.

I mentioned it to the other half and she firmly came down on the side of tethered. Given our car boots are usually full of pushchair, footballs, tennis racquets etc. she wants the convenience of tethered. For the record I was completely undecided.

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ajap1979 said:

It’s yet another one of those things where people think there is a right answer, and really there isn’t. Given the EQB has no frunk to store the cables, I think tethered is probably better for you.

Thanks for that info, we actually haven't seen one in the flesh and the reviews don't tend to cover the practical details. Hence why I thought I'd start this thread to help others down the line.

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Well the car arrived this morning and the ownership experience so far is disappointing and the cars not even been driven yet.

The car is covered in thick dust all over and any attempt to check for marks results in the paper thin black paint becoming scratched. I can see where some bird muck hasn't been cleaned off quickly enough resulting in the paint being marked and its near the front of the bonnet.

The number plates are fixed on with bright shiny screws which frankly looks naff!

All 4 alloy wheels have small scratches in the black paint where the tyre valves are.

I'm torn how much I complain as its the better half's car and her first "brand new" car so she's pretty excited and I don't want to dampen her enthusiasm with my pedantry.

It's a 3 year lease through her NHS Salary sacrifice scheme so I feel it may be better to just keep my mouth shut, Obviously if I owned it outright I'd probably be feeling differently.

It was marked on the checklist as being heavily covered in dust meaning we were unable to thoroughly inspect the vehicle.

[Help78]

5s Alive]I'd be as 'pleased' as you are [and also voice my displeasure with supporting images said:

but would sort it myself both to avoid the hassle and prevent those who couldn't care less causing unnecessary damage.

Visible number plate screws! I see lots of Mercedes like this but hopefully they have not drilled through metalwork. I'd probably fit new plates with 3M adhesive tape or tidy them up with plastic screw covers.

Really spoils the moment though...

Popped to Halfords at lunchtime and picked up screw covers, hadn't thought about the new plates but as we don't have a V5 wouldn't be able to get them made up anyway.

Have spoken to the Mrs and she wants to be pedantic and log the damage with the supplier purely so we don't get charged in 3 years time. Other than that I'll just try and give it a good clean later in the week.

Took it out for a quick run though and I have to admit with being impressed with the performance, went from 40-60 pretty much instantaneuosly. Looking forward to a proper run out in it.