Can you plug the charger of an E53 into a regular 110 outlet? I’m concerned about battery maintenance when I’m not using the car then actually driving in electric mode.

 

What brand / type of charger did you receive with your E 53?

 

Picking it up tomorrow. My SA mentioned it comes with 2 plugs, 110 and 220 but that doesn't sound right.

 

What doesn't sound right to you? For home charging: the 110v plug is for Level 1 charging and the 220v plug is for Level 2 charging.

 

My only other charger has a single 3 prong plug at the end

 

Congratulations. You should be receiving the Webasto. It is a level 1 and 2 charger by using either cord adapter. One is a standard 3 prong 110v, the other a 4 prong NEMA 14-50 plug for 220v. My last charge was via the Webasto supplied charger 110v level 1. Worked great and regardless of state of charge - it will work for overnight charges to 100%. That is the setup where the car is stored. At home, I have used my level 2 ChargePoint. Same procedure - just charges faster. A level 2 isn't necessary given the smaller kw hour battery and typical overnight charging.

Most electric cars come with just 110v / 3 prong Level 1. Nice of MB to supply both L1 and 2. Levels 2's are pricey, for example, the ChargePoint is ~$550.

Once charging completed, I disconnected the charger rather than leaving it plugged in. The car, for storage anyway, goes into a pretty deep sleep and after two weeks, I have not lost any charge. With the PHEV charger disconnected I then connect the 12v starter battery maintainer / trickle charger for longer term storage. When the PHEV charger is plugged in - the 12v starter battery is also charged. Possible, but I am not sure, if the 12v starter battery maintainer is active - it prevents discharge of the PHEV battery.

On another note, do not connect battery maintainer directly to starter battery terminals. You will receive an erroneous dead battery warning via the app. Connections are battery positive and chassis ground for hardwire or jumper terminals for clips.

 

The 3 prong 110v plug is NEMA 5-15 which is a standard 110v plug.
The 220v plug is NEMA 14-50 which is used for Level 2 charging. It is also commonly used for 220v appliances such as dryers, ovens, ...

 

Thank you for all the info. I was hoping that the plug in charger would also maintain the 12v starter battery as well without the need to keep a battery maintainer on.

There are instance's when I won’t be using the car for weeks at a time so I wanted to avoid using a 12v charger.

 

Dusting off an old thread to keep this in one tidy place. What is the consensus on charging to 100% versus 80%? The owner’s manual seems to suggest that charging beyond 80% will go more slowly, which it does. However, is there any harm in consistently charging to 100%? My understanding is that the battery has way more capacity than it accessible to us, so there should be no long-term harm in charging to 100%. Curious what others are doing. Thanks!

 

I am wondering the same thing. The response that I received on MBWorld is the 12v charger does get charged by the PHEV battery via a DC to DC voltage converter. The question is if the car will "wake up" to charge the 12v battery when the 12v battery gets low. At least some BMW EV's and/or PHEV's will do this, but I have not received an answer if the E53 will wake up to charge the 12v.

For your usage, it would be nice to just plug in the hybrid charger on 110v or 220v and have it periodically charge up the 12v battery even if the car isn't being driven.

 

I'm just doing the 100%. I do the same on my BEV as well although that's a lease. The range of the PHEV is not as critical as BEV.

As a point of reference, our 745e bought 4 years ago had a range of ~17 miles. After 4 years of 100% charging (I honesly am not sure if you can adjust charging level in the old 745e), the max range is now at around 13 - 14 miles.

 

This is my understanding.... The ~28 kWh battery has a usable capacity of about 21 kWh. When the State of Charge (SoC) reaches 0% there is still about 25% power left. The "more capacity than is accessible" which you reference comes into play when the reported charge level is at 0%. It does not prevent you from charging the battery to the full 28 kWh level.

In my opinion, if you are using the car daily, charging to 100% should not be an issue. Letting the fully charged car sit idle for extended periods of time is probably not a best practice. Any comparisons of estimated range with 100% SoC at two different times needs to be adjusted for the ambient temperature. In the Winter estimated range was around 40 miles. In the Summer estimated range reached as much 60 miles.

 

We charge my daughter's PHEV GLC 350e to 100% on most nights. Her regular school commute is under 10 miles so she won't charge after a regular school day if she knows her next day is also a regular school day. But most days she has extracurriculars which are much further so on those days she charges and depletes almost all of it. I'm planning on charging the E53 once we have it to 100% every day. My wife's commute is ~30 miles total so she can either start at 100% and run it down to ~20% or start at 80% and run it down to 0%. Neither 100% nor 0% is good for a battery. The E53 actually still has juice when it's at 0% as it can still be used as a regular hybrid that keeps hovering around the 0% mark.

My BEV Audi e-tron GT RS I only charge to 70% daily as it gives me ~160 miles of range and I seldom go over 100 miles in a day so it nicely hovers between 40% and 70% on most days.

 

This is the same charger my daughter's GLC 350e came with. We use a smart level 2 charger with TOU and solar automation at the house but I have used this charger from an RV plug when away from home. This charger will not charge at 9.6 kW, only about 7.2kW so it's a bit slower than our at home charger, but still plenty quick for a PHEV.

 

Maybe this service document provides some help.

 

What is a long time for a PHEV battery to sit? Optimally, I will only be driving the E53 wagon on weekends and sits during the week....

 

interesting but does not answer what maximum percentage should be used for ordinary usage.

 

mine is similar. Ride train during the week……

 

Keep in mind this is my Tesla knowledge, some of it may not translate, but the principles and basic chemistry issues are basically the same and these batteries are big enough to be the entire traction battery in some BEV's, so it's probably somewhat useful.

I'm finding information here and there that the E53 AMG battery is LFP, but I don't think that's right. 100% charge should be no issue and in some LFP applications, charging closer to 100% is preferable to dwelling down lower in the pack.

The manual says store it at 25-30% SoC indicated. That makes sense if it's the more power-dense, but more SoC-sensitive typical NMC chemistry that Merc has been using in the EQ cars - it's going to be happier near 50% SoC if sitting for long periods like all NMC cells. Doesn't really matter if it's pouch or cylinder or a dodecahedron-shaped cell, the chemistry drives whether the cell is going to have ill effects from sitting at its maximum (or low) voltage for long periods. Given we think we know they leave some buffer at the bottom end of the 28kwh gross, 21-ish kwh usable pack in the E53, that means a 25-30% dash reading is probably closer to the 50% "actual" SoC for this pack.

If it is really NCM, and you're worried about deg, for daily use I'd suggest setting the charge limit at 90% if you're using the battery a lot, closer to 50-70% if you're not, and using the departure time a lot. Expect about 10% deg in the first few years, less after that, even if you're being careful. There is no correct answer. It depends on your use case.

The recommendation from Mercedes-Benz on how to store it is somewhere around Page 395 of the owner's manual folks, it's available on your phone

As for slower charging from 80% to 100%; I'm sure that's true on a Level 2 or DC fast charger, on Level 1 it shouldn't be much different until you get up into the very top end of the pack. On the Tesla I had, with roughly 4x the usable capacity, you'd be above what your typical Level 2 charger can deliver until 99%, and you'd never charge at a rate lower than Level1 offers, it would keep charging at ~1.5kw until it was done charging, and then call it 100%. No idea on the Benz setup, but on the Tesla, just running the AC to DC inverter and the various electronics keeping tabs on the battery would eat about 1/3 of the total wattage available from level1 charging, so you're pretty much trickle-charging on a 110v outlet. Good for the cells, but keeps the car awake a lot longer and turns more energy into heat and noise and blinky lights

 

Mine will be in storage for the next 4 months. 63% charge, Mercedes branded, but C-Tek trickle charger, connected to 12v battery positive and chassis ground, hardwired so hood can be closed. Car is already in deep sleep as door handles no longer pop-out within proximity to key or digital key.

 

Once you decide the actual state of charge that you want to keep the battery at during the week when you are not using it, you can use this formula to calculate the state of charge indicated on the driver display. I am assuming that the driver display will indicate 0% SoC when the everyday use capacity is at zero percent.

Constants:
Total battery capacity: 28.6 kWh, source: mbusa.com E53 Wagon Specifications
Everyday usable capacity: 21.2 kWh, source: mbusa.com E53 Wagon Specifications
Performance reserve: 7.4 kWh, calculated as Total - Everyday

Formula for calculating indicated SOC from actual SOC
Indicated SOC = ((Actual SOC * Total Capacity) - Performance Reserve) / (Everyday Usable Capacity)

Let's say you want to keep the battery at 50% SOC, to find your target SOC that the car tells you, calculate ((50% * 28.6) - 7.4) / 21.2 = 33%.

Some sample values are:
80% SOC at 73% indicated
50% SOC at 33% indicated
26% SOC at 0% indicated

Formula for calculating Actual SOC from Indicated SOC
Actual SOC% = ((Indicated SOC * 21.2) + 7.4) / 28.6

 

If I tell my EV charger to charge the battery to 50%, will it charge to 50% of the total battery capacity or to 50% of the everyday usable capacity?

 

You can't tell your charger to charge to 50% of capacity. You can tell your car to charge to 50%. And if you do it it will be 50% of the usable capacity.

 

Thanks for the information. I was guessing that the SoC charging limit is everyday useable, not total. Since the car will charge to everyday useable capacity, folks can use my formulas above for the E53 to calculate the target actual SoC.

It looks like I can set a SoC limit in the Autel Charge app for the Autel charger. I don't have an EV yet so I can't confirm.

 

The owner's manual says that if the E53 is connected to the grid it will keep the hybrid battery charged. It doesn't say if a low 12v battery will trigger the car to wake up to charge the 12v battery from the PHEV battery.

It would be nice to get 12v battery maintenance and PHEV battery maintenance by plugging in the PHEV charger.