AMA about owning Modern Mercedes EVs

[cbdream99]

Probably heard about Magic Dock. The non-V4 sc's are kinda slow though, aren't they? 250kw at 400V, I think? They're made for older EV's that don't use the newer system.V

There are too few of them in the States for now, only 1 in the entire state of Texas as far as I know, no where close to that one though. Tesla SC are common in the metroplex here. Once we have more manufacturers using NACS standard and as the charging network expands, then we will have more choice of EVs. Today, travel long distance with other EVs will require more plannings. I like to see more options.

 

[cbdream99]

“Yes, you can. Give it a shot. Awww, you don’t have the adapter? You might want to go shop for that…” couldn’t resist….

Once he looked at the Tesla wand, he knows it won’t fit and asked me ….at first I thought he has some kind of magic and able to use it ….

 

[holeydonut]

The difference here is that despite having had an MB with a V8 that failed in a slightly scary way, I do not assume that it's "dangerous" to put my family in a v8 mercedes. In fact they're excellent cars - not as reliable as a Lexus but worthy. Just like Teslas.

If that stalling you experienced was on a new-ish car (under warranty or recently past the warranty period), you definitely need to submit the occurrence into the NHTSA database regardless if there was injury or not. And of course you should report the even to Mercedes through the service network.

I had a Dodge Charger that shut down back in 2007 when I was going down I-80 in Iowa with 5k miles on the odometer. Dodge towed it to the nearest dealer and replaced the vehicle with a collateral exchange.

ICE engines keep some boost in the lines when the engine cuts. But the EV doesn't (at least, it didn't seem like it did). It's like the steering wheel just kind of locks up and it's hard to muscle over. Anyway, as we've seen with the GM ignition recall, some automakers do take in-motion stalling kind of seriously (thanks to immense pressure and law suits of course).

 

[Unobtanium]

If that stalling you experienced was on a new-ish car (under warranty or recently past the warranty period), you definitely need to submit the occurrence into the NHTSA database regardless if there was injury or not. And of course you should report the even to Mercedes through the service network.

I had a Dodge Charger that shut down back in 2007 when I was going down I-80 in Iowa with 5k miles on the odometer. Dodge towed it to the nearest dealer and replaced the vehicle with a collateral exchange.

ICE engines keep some boost in the lines when the engine cuts. But the EV doesn't (at least, it didn't seem like it did). It's like the steering wheel just kind of locks up and it's hard to muscle over. Anyway, as we've seen with the GM ignition recall, some automakers do take in-motion stalling kind of seriously (thanks to immense pressure and law suits of course).

I had an LS1 Trans Am that would randomly die on the freeway. The ground for the fuel pump was stripped out. The car was 100% stock, so it was factory assembly error. GM couldn't find it at the dealership, but the girl I was dating, her dad was a savant. He found it. The car was originally traded in because the fuel pump was bad. The dealer gave me $300 "in case it went out". It did, and we replaced it. The second time it "went bad", he went to looking. Found the ground wire screw stripped. Intermittent contact with the ground/body. ICE cars are certainly far from perfect. Oh, and my 370Z that would fuel-starve in corners...

 

[ZenRockGarden]

I had an LS1 Trans Am that would randomly die on the freeway. The ground for the fuel pump was stripped out. The car was 100% stock, so it was factory assembly error. GM couldn't find it at the dealership, but the girl I was dating, her dad was a savant. He found it. The car was originally traded in because the fuel pump was bad. The dealer gave me $300 "in case it went out". It did, and we replaced it. The second time it "went bad", he went to looking. Found the ground wire screw stripped. Intermittent contact with the ground/body. ICE cars are certainly far from perfect. Oh, and my 370Z that would fuel-starve in corners...

I am fascinated at the people who will point to the incredibly rare EV failures and somehow not know about the literally millions of ICE cars that have died, exploded, burned, seized up, etc.

If you actually want to look at risk, do the math. EV's are an order of magnitude less likely to catch fire in an accident. Yes, battery fires are harder to put out. But they're RARE.

Terrified of the rain and water? Hydro-locking an ICE engine literally seizes the entire drivetrain. In contrast, an EV pack is sealed - it'll run fully submerged if you like

 

[holeydonut]

I am fascinated at the people who will point to the incredibly rare EV failures and somehow not know about the literally millions of ICE cars that have died, exploded, burned, seized up, etc.

If you actually want to look at risk, do the math. EV's are an order of magnitude less likely to catch fire in an accident. Yes, battery fires are harder to put out. But they're RARE.

Terrified of the rain and water? Hydro-locking an ICE engine literally seizes the entire drivetrain. In contrast, an EV pack is sealed - it'll run fully submerged if you like

I sent you a PM to explain, and you seem to have decent reading comprehension. But you don't seem to draw the connections properly in your head.

You keep saying FUD and my concern about what could happen with your risk assessments.

I sent you detailed information about what did happen with our brand new Tesla. Tesla further told us that the behavior of their vehicles shutting down happened all the time. And, if we got another Tesla, the same shut-down occurrence would likely happen. Basically saying we the parents were the ones knowingly putting our families in cars that would shut down at a much higher rate than ICE. They said if we wanted cars to not shut down with firmware glitches while driving, we should get ICE.

The question you should be asking is why Tesla believes this so strongly that they would tell us to avoid their products if we wanted them to operate well.

Personally, I don't think BEV is ready for prime time long haul driving. Between Tesla reps (Service advisor, service manager, and site GM) all telling us to avoid BEV if we care about vehicles not stalling and actually experiencing the issue first hand. And looking at the MB forums, Mercedes BEVs aren't much better; where they often leave people stranded and frustrated.

@jjrandorin may want to just clean this direction of the thread up.

 

[jjrandorin]

I dont have mod powers in this subforum, so I cant take any moderator actions (so tagging me to do wont be effective). Same as any other subforum, if there is something that you feel needs to be reported, use the report function and a mod with rights to that subforum can take a look and make a decision.

I am not commenting on the need in this case (as since I dont have rights here, I am not evaluating that), just the process.

 

[bmah]

This thread has gone way past the "AMA anything about Mercedes EVs" topic, and probably its usefulness, given the last few pages (which I will not comment further on).

Bruce.