Making the Switch
A month
ago, my wife and I traded in our aging gasmobile for the newly introduced 2014 Mercedes
B-Class Electric Drive EV. I considered myself to be an educated EV consumer
but still had quite a few learnings - some good, some bad - in the first month
with our EV. Though the majority of our learnings were not related to the car
itself, but more generically to the transition from a gasmobile to an EV,
that’s where I’ll start.
Home
Charging
Charging
up your EV at home is one of the great benefits of EVs as it means that there
is no need to stop at a gas station anymore!
The Level 2 “charger” most EV buyers think they need for their garage is
not actually a charger (The actual charger is onboard the EV itself), but
rather an EVSE or “Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment” which is just a fancy
term for the hardware that 1) Provides the right connection from your local
power source to your EV and 2) Talks back and forth with your EV through the
charging process. In our case, as with most EVs in the US, our charger has the
J1772 plug on it which plugs directly into the charging port of our
B-Class.
Level 2
residential chargers range from $600-$1000+ and after a bit of research, we
went with the Schneider
Electric EV230WS for $599 (it has since dropped to $488) from Amazon
because it was rated very highly and allowed us to mount the charging end
separately from the actual EVSE unit.
This unit also allowed us to put a standard 30amp plug on it vs.
hardwiring it which allowed us to use our existing 220 volt dryer outlet.
It is not necessary to install a Level 2 EVSE in your home to charge your
EV - you can use the 110 adapter that is included with the EV but we wanted the
extra flexibility to more quickly charge up and to have the option to keep the
110 charger in the car at all times, just in case.
Remote Charging
In the first few weeks of getting our EV, we wanted to charge every
opportunity we had. Range anxiety is all
the rage in mainstream media so plugging in everywhere we possibly could just
felt good. We soon realized that this
was counterproductive as there’s simply no need to charge when popping out for
dinner or to grab some groceries. It
also blocks a spot for other EV drivers who might be farther away from home and
need the spot to charge. On top of that, most public charging stations require
payment whereas home charging is powered by our solar panels (free! with our
California net metering).
To offset our increased electrical usage, we will be adding several more
solar panels to our current installation to fully offset our increased
usage. The B-Class is one of the least
efficient EVs on the market in terms of miles per kWh with its rating of 2.5.
mi/kwh In our first 750 miles, our
actual average is 2.9 mi/kwh and based on that, we will need another 7.6 panels
to power our EV for the estimated 8900 miles/year we drive. We are already
producing more than we need, so we will be adding 5 panels next month to put us
back in the green.
One unique challenge EV owners have is the large variety of charging
networks out there. After test driving a
few charging network apps, we have found that the crowdsourced PlugShare app (Web, iOS, Android) has the best overview
of the entire public charging network and includes chargers from many of the
big networks like Charge Point, Blink, EV Connect and NRG’s eVgo as well as personal charging locations! Wanting to build capability and
make the most of our EV, we have signed up for several different charging
networks - each of which has it’s own unique way to charge - some with set
monthly fees, others with a price per kWh or per hour, etc. It’s been an
interesting process but the net takeaway is that here in Southern California,
there are lots of chargers in lots of areas we frequent.
To date, we have only charged at Level 2 chargers but plan to give Level
3 / DC Fast Charging a go in the next few weeks. Plug-In
America has a great overview of EV charging here that I found especially helpful.
Exterior
Digging in to our specific EV - the Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive
- it looks and feels a lot like a normal car. In fact, this is the same B-Class
that has been sold overseas as a gas mobile for many years, with the same
exterior and interior with the exception of the minuscule “Electric Drive”
badge. As an EV/Solar/Sustainability fanatic, this is one of the things I was not
a fan of as I want our EV to roam the streets screaming “No gas needed, thanks”
or “Suckers…I’m running on sunshine”…but alas, it was not to be. Some drivers
(my wife included) just want a nice looking “normal” looking car which just
happens to be an EV and the B-Class is a perfect fit.
Interior
In our search for the right EV, we found the B-Class seating to be the
most balanced for our needs. The front
seats felt a bit less roomy when compared to the BMW i3 whereas the rear seats
had MUCH more room than the i3. The B-Class seats 5 while the i3 opted for in
seat cupholders, reducing it’s capacity to 4.
Finally, the rear seats in the i3 are accessed through the split door
which requires the front door to open before the rear passengers can
enter/exit. As we have two little boys
(3 and 5), I was not thrilled at the prospect of their nagging at me to open my
door before they get in or out each and every time. Check out a more thorough
comparison of the two in Ted Kidd’s review here.
Under the Hood
While the B-Class looks and feels like a normal car, when you pop the
hood, things change. The B-Class’ electric motor, batteries, charger and
supporting EV systems are all made by Tesla, shipped from the US to Germany for
assembly. While I’m not a car fanatic (at least not the gas powered ones), I
feel a sense of pride that Mercedes came to a US company for their first
EV. This was a feature on the plus side
for me as Tesla is making waves in the EV world and I’m happy to be a part of
that revolution.
Driving the B-Class
With the normal looking exterior, the accelerator of the B-Class houses a
fun secret - instant torque! This is difficult to put into words for non-EV
drivers but suffice it to say that the accelerator on this (and most other) EVs
is responsive. When you step on the pedal,
it jumps. Continued pressure results in a very smooth acceleration up to
whatever speed you desire. I
occasionally treat my kids to a ride on the roller coaster and pound the pedal
down to the ground on the way to pre-school resulting in what feels like a
quick boost on a roller coaster. Granted, they’re too young for coasters at
this point, but the sentiment is spot on.
The B-Class has 3 driving modes - Sport, Economy and Economy Plus. Sport offers the most responsive accelerator
with a corresponding reduction in range as a penalty for the fun had when
driving. In Sport, the B-Class has no
problem chirping the tires off the line or even from 15 mph if that’s your
thing. I personally try to put it in Economy Plus right off the bat which
maximizes mileage and minimizes my risk of extra traffic tickets. It’s fun to
drive in all 3 driving modes and it’s great to have the option for a different
driving experience at the click of a button.
Range
As I mentioned, this particular configuration results in the least
efficient EV when compared to others available today with an MPGe rating of
85/83 with most others coming in at 100+.
This is largely due to the fact that the B-Class was not built from the
ground up as an EV but rather a converted gas mobile. This is most evident in the weight - at 3935
lbs, the B-Class is no featherweight.
For comparison, the BMW i3 which was purpose built as an EV comes in at
2853 lbs (without the Range Extender). The B-Class pays a further penalty for
being a former gasmobile as extra battery capacity was required to haul around
the extra mass. The B-Class’ battery is
rated at
One neat thing about EVs is the Regen…short for regeneration - where the
car uses the car’s momentum to generate electricity when braking. This is old hat for Prius owners as this
technology has been the bread and butter of hybrid battery charging for years
now but this EV takes it to a new level.
When you’re driving along and accelerating, the car drives as you’d
expect, pulling power from the battery to the motor…but the second you take
your release pressure, the regen kicks in and begins charging the battery,
slowing the vehicle. It’s an odd feeling
at first but after a short time driving, feels natural. It gives a new degree of control over
acceleration and deceleration with a single pedal. The regen is so strong that it will slow the
vehicle down almost to a stop without the need for brakes, putting all that
kinetic energy back into your battery.
What’s great about regen is that it extends the real-time range of the
B-Class beyond it’s battery-only range of 87 miles. Just how much of an
extension depends on personal driving style and terrain (hills vs flat, freeway
speeds vs stop and go driving, etc). We
live up on a hill and regularly make it to the freeway onramp 3 miles away with
an extra mile of range. Conversely, we have a ~1000’ climb on the freeway that
across 2 miles, zaps 5-6 miles from our range.
Cost Savings
One of the big selling points for us was the monthly cost savings and
being a bit of a data nut, I was eager to track our savings – both financially
and in the sheer reduction in dinosaur goo (aka gasoline) usage. My
calculations showed that we would save approximately $100 / month of our $130
gasmobile fuel bill. Having solar panels on the roof, I was excited to see how
much of our driving would be offset by our current overproduction and how many
more panels we would need to fully offset our EV usage.
For my calculations, I used the actual production averages from our
existing 12 panels over the last 12 months and used that to estimate the number
of panels needed to cover 8,000 miles of driving per year (Low) and 12,000
miles per year (High). The chart below shows that in Southern California, the
annual output from 1 panel on the roof is roughly equivalent to 1,000
miles/year in the Mercedes B-Class ED.
Estimated Usage and Savings
I have split the “savings” into EV savings which represents the savings in moving from a gasmobile to electricity at retail rates and the savings from the solar panels which get to claim savings from not having to pay the retail rate for electricity, as part of their own return on investment.
Savings in the last 3.5 weeks of November:
Summary
Overall, we are thrilled with the B-Class. We went into our EV purchase with our eyes
open about the pros and cons of EVs and couldn’t be more pleased. We filed for the $2,500 California state
rebate which will show up in 6-8 weeks and will be including the $7,500 federal
tax credit in our 2014 tax return. The
Mercedes B-Class felt like a great value for a Mercedes when compared to other
the after-rebate prices of the other EVs on the market.
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