Mercedes B-Class Electric Features and Q&A

Some B-Class experience notes that may be relevant to Tesla owners / prospect owners:

Note: These are for the 2014 model with premium package, range package, media, and some other options. No parktronic.

Lease and delivery
EchoDelta, Seattle Area

• MB of Portland, 2300 down + 350/mo, 12k mi/y. Got prepaid maintenance. Awesome crew to work with
• Delivered home in a flatbed with 80% charge.
• Local service centers sent me signed docs saying they'd service it and do repairs.

Size

• very comfortable front and back; I'm 6 ft.
• It is wide for the type of car. 2 car seats + adult passenger (not fat) fit in the back simultaneously. Not super comfy, but enough to take my parents or friends around. We are looking at thinner carseats to get extra space

Charging

• 36 kWh battery and Tesla built drivetrain.
• Comes with an ugly, huge, L1 charger that got stuffed in a closet and we got a Jesla instead. Between WA sales tax rebates and PSE $500 rebate it's a great deal.
• Charges at 40A @ 240V. Car has current draw limiter but seems just to provide '8A, 12A, MAX' options.
• The range package is an option (built in for 2015 models) to range charge. Yup, you pay extra for the privilege. W.out range charge I start the day with indicated 77 miles in the Guess-o-meter. I drove a 25 mile circuit and it had gone to 65. I have a sense Mercedes wants to go *underpromise* in all caps when it comes to range.
• There is a general lack of data about charging current, voltage, etc.
• Efficiency is indicated in miles/kWh which slaps your brain around when you are used to kWh/mile. Suburban driving with some agressive play puts it at 2.5..3 miles/kWh (HA see what it does)
• You can set times for charged-by and cabin-climate-adjusted-by.
• No CHAdeMO; but aftermarket mods for the brave may pop up later this year.
• Charge port in rear left behind a metal panel. J1772 receptacle has a weird extra mini-lid inside (reminds me of fuel tank design needing a second lid behind the cover panel)

Comfort & User Experience

1. Definitely a Mercedes Benz with quality feel, but also behind the times in details
2. Key is one of those retrograde fobs you have to insert in a slot and turn. No proximity opening of doors. Even my '12 Prius plug in had contactless keys that can stay in a coat. B-Class '15 I think fixes this.
3. No touch screen and just operates the console screen via the MB knob. The '12 Prius plug in had touchscreen too.
4. Dash seems outdated and has 'classical' details - maybe too many. A physical needle to indicate battery SOC? really? Another one to tell you battery readiness (eg for low temp)
5. Lots of mini apps for unrelated stuff. It shows MB is a large company with many departments. You have the road assist app, the MBrace app (which is the app to honk your horn and unlock your car and see where the car is on a map while stationary). Then you have the 'my Electric Benz' app which is really just a mobile website with a painful pairing process and I haven't got mine to work yet.
6. Has Valet mode where you can geofence and get alerts when exited. Haven't tried it.
7. Largish trunk for vehicle class. 2 large suitcases and some stuff on top.

Driving

• Has 'eco' and 'sport' modes; 'eco' seems to add 10% to the guess-o-meter.
• Zippy and fun for an EV. Not insane.
• No artificial pedestrian noise-hum-annoy-thing
• Steering wheel has the 'shifter paddles' used to change Regen behavior - "Regen -" is an agressive regen, "Regen +" is more of a coasting experience
• Regen default is 'auto' which adjusts its intensity based on sensed (radar) traffic ahead. It's nice to feel regen adjust itself based on a car in front as you approached stopped traffic or lights go red.
• Typical MB blind spot alerts.

Owner summaries:

Summary from EchoDelta
I'm very happy so far even given my nitpicky nature. The only issues I have are with the comfort thingies (keys, apps). Some of these get improved in '15 models.
Seems superior to the Leaf based on our testing, and had the interior space we wanted for the carseats which was the main differentiator besides the 'tesla inside'
We are very happy and seems a worthy sidekick to the Model X that is possibly in our future.
I hope MB increases availability and people start sharing the experience; seems a great EV to have in the ecosystem.


Pending Questions

• Mileage range with 'range charge' option?
• Does the app eventually work?

 

The app does eventually work just took a call to support and they sent me an email saying oops try again. And Ta-Da! Of course it has Model S app envy, but it's there and works.