galileopan

C350e owners: what highway mileage are you getting on long trips, and what average speed do you drive?

I'll need a new car within 6 months; trying to figure out whether I should wait for the C350e to appear in the US or make my choice among currently available models (in which case probably a C300 rather than a Q50 Hybrid or 328i).

My driving's split between short local trips (which would be mostly E-mode) and 600-mile round-trip journeys to another city. I understand the uncertainties in figuring local mileage. But sustained highway mileage ought to be more predictable (and more generalizable: most people driving long distances at similar speeds ought to see similar numbers).

I've read the C350e general experience thread and have only seen one or maybe two relevant posts; hence the separate thread. Unless stated otherwise, I'll assume imperial gallons.

Thanks very much,
GP

Anapopei

Yes, it is difficult to get useful info on this.

The best I've come a cross is a test by the Swedish version of Auto Motor & Sport. They ran a C350e in parallel with its equivalents from VW and Volvo (Passat GTE and V60) plus a diesel Passat for 270 km. The C350e did 7l/100km, the diesel Passat 6l/100km and the others somewhere in between. (That would be 33mpg(us) or 40mpg (imp), I think. It was mixture of roads starting with electric city driving and then A-roads and motorways. Not to bad compared to the diesel, I would say. The battery went flat after 17 km so we are mostly talking about petrol driving.

I will pick mine up tomorrow, a report will follow in due course.

Quonker

I'm in the UK so units are slightly different but I've averaged 38 mpg during the 1300 miles I've driven since I've had my C350e.

If you only have to drive short distances and can charge then obviously you will use very little fuel but once the battery is discharged you are ostensibly driving a over laden 2.0 l petrol due to the weight of the battery.

It's awesomely fast and smooth which doesn't help, switching to Sport + mode is something I do too often, the torque from the electric motor makes it mightily quick off the mark!

Kiwibrit

Hi
I just posted my main observations on the main 'has anybody got a c350e?' page. In essence, quite poor MPG on motorway, probably mid30's but as soon as you touch the accelerator it will drop below 20 on the read-out. The key issue with the vehicle is the true electric range (6-9miles from 100% to zero). Again, charging the battery on the run produces much lower MPG (not proven).

Until reading this forum, I presumed there was a major fault and so the vehicle has been back with an utterly hopeless dealer ('we've never seen one of these before' etc) for the past few weeks without any action being taken. I will keep the forum updated (I am UK based)

xgman

My impression is that this car should be compared more to a typical hybrid. Mileage in the 30's for most people I suppose. Maybe good pep for a hybrid, but a hybrid none the less. Plugin in name only. Having to go to extreme measures for figuring out how to keep this car charged and getting good mileage is sort of ridiculous. I've already lost interest in that even before taking delivery. Now all that said, if I want a decent mileage car that is somewhat of a hybrid and preforms well and looks good in a somewhat luxury class, then the choices are very limited in this price range and most of the competition will be in the same mpg range.

As far as comparable plugin/hybrids, we have this car, the new BMW, http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...e-drive-review , the Audi which is really a hatchback, and then mostly everything else is in a lower class or much higher class. Really not much choice. I'm more comparing the C350e to the regular C300 and also to the BMW 3 series plugin/hybrid. Apparently none of these lower cost plugins get really good range although the C350e seems to be on the lowest end of that. sigh . . .