I took my 2023 AMG E53 in to get the windshield replaced, 2 recalls taken care of and some warranty work done. They gave me an EQE 350+ as a loaner. I asked if they could provide me with a gas powered car. The service advisor said Mercedes only allowed them to give out EV's as loaners. So, off I went in my new EQE loaner. It had a 95% charge when I left the dealership. When I got home it was at 83% charge (I live 15 miles from the dealer). So 12% to go 15 miles, and I was using the High Recuperation mode thinking I want to allow for the best mileage/charge. The following day I had some running around to do (all local). By the time I got home several hours later the charge was down to 53%. I decided to plug the car in in my garage to keep it charged as much as possible. They hadn't given me the charging cable with the car. Ooops!!! I called the dealer to see if I could pick one up. The advisors were too busy to answer the phone so I left a voicemail. The pre-recorded message said they'd get back to me as soon as possible.2 hours later I called again and got the same pre-recorded message and I left another voicemail. I guess they were REALLY busy. The next day I had some more running around to do and when the charge % dropped to 34% I started looking for a charging station. I foolishly used the built in Mercedes charging station locator. The first 2 charging stations it took me too were in use with no one in site to see how long I'd have to wait so I could plug in. The next 4 charging stations it took me too did not exist. In 2 instances the GPS system said to follow the map when I got very close. The map had me turning left over a curb. It finally took me to a Chevy dealer. I pulled in there and the receptionist said the superchargers are reserved for Chevy customers. I was very flustered at this point. I had been driving around in circles for several hours trying to find a charging station at this point.. Fortunately for me, the sales manager happened to overhear the conversation and took pity on me. He had me drive around to the supercharger and he hooked me up. So I sat in my car for 2 hours and the car was charged to 80% at which point the dealership was closing. I unplugged and headed home. A service advisor from Mercedes (Tampa, FL) still had not returned my call. I called again and got a pre-recorded message that the service dept was closed for the day. So I called the sales dept. They patched through to the Service Manager who transferred me to my Service Advisor and that went straight to voicemail. I waited a little while and called sales again and, again, they transferred me to the Service Manager. I explained my problem, again, and he said my Service Advisor had left for the day but He'd leave them a message to get back to me ASAP the next day. The next day, nothing. So I called again in the afternoon to find out my Service advisor had 2 days day off. I explained my situation, AGAIN, and asked if I could come in and pick up a charging cable so I could at least charge the car overnight. They said they'd check to see if any cables were available and they'd call me back. Do you see where this is going? Right, nothing but crickets the rest of the day. I called the next day and went through the same routine!!! FInally, the following day, my service advisor was back to work. And, more importantly, I was able to speak with them (no, they didn't call me. I had to call them, TWICE). They said yes, we have a cable and you can pick it up. So I headed to the dealership (a 30 minute drive each way) and picked up the cable. At which time they said if I plug into a 115 volt outlet the car will only charge about 1% per hour. I figured that was better than nothing. At least I can get a 10% charge overnight. I plugged in the first night. When I went to go out the next day the car hadn't charged AT ALL. I figured I did something wrong so I went online and checked the instructions. Nothing special, just plug the cable into the car then plug it into the outlet and it should start charging. Well, no. That didn't work either. So here i go calling the dealer again. Leaving voice mails and getting no response. After the third voicemail that day I had a brainstorm. Use the Mercedes me connect for emergencies. I spoke to someone that way. He had me try hooking the cable to several different outlet to make sure it wasn't the outlet causing the problem. I tried 3 different outlets to no avail. So he tried to contact the dealer directly with no success. He told me he'd leave a detailed voicemail with the service dept and they'd get back to the next day. What do you think happened the next day? Crickets, yet again!!! So I drove to the dealer and asked them to hook it up to the supercharger. They agreed, as soon as the car being charged was done. From the time I left my house to the time I returned was 5 hours. Just to get the damn car charged!!! I spoke to the service advisor on duty to see what the status of my car was? He said the windshield was done and now I was 16th in the queue to get the recall and warranty work done. They've had my car for 11 days so far and I'm 16th in the Queue?

Oh, they also tested the cable to see if that was the issue with charging at home. Nope, the cable is fine. It must be a problem with the outlets in my garage. He said there might be too much resistance in the line. Really? I guess maybe I'll have to have the entire house rewired so I can charge my EV?

As this debacle drags on I can say one thing for certain . . . I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER buy an EV. This EQE has been THE MOST ANNOYING Vehicle I have ever driven. And I used to drive MGA's, MGB's, and Austin Healey's when I was younger. And these weren't new ones. I was buying $100 wrecks that I had to rebuild so I could drive them.

I can't imagine why Mercedes was only allowing dealers to use EV's as loaners. Unless they were hoping that people would wreck them just to get them off their lots. Or maybe they thought people would love them soooo much after driving them for a while that they'd go out and buy one. If that's the case whoever came up with the idea should be fired!!! Or executed?

That's it for my Ranting. For today. I wonder how long it will be before I get my car back?

 

Sorry for your experience. It's atypical for us. MB EQs also don't work well if they don't have a Mercedes Me account active. On the whole, it's an excellent experience. We drive two of them, and I'd venture to say most of the forum members here will not go back to combustion. Sounds like your dealer set it up to fail, which is unfortunate. I have had several E-class vehicles and other MB models, and the EQEs are the ones I'm happiest to own, for many reasons. Car is always ready to go, every morning, every day, and they are fantastic road tripping vehicles. Good luck getting your E53 vehicle back. If you had been given and were to give things an honest shot, your review and conclusions would be very different indeed.

 

For the last three service appointments I was given an EV loaner. An EQS 450+, then an EQS 580 and most recently an EQE 350+. Most of the loaner fleets got switched to EVs. They are sitting on a ton of EVs that don't sell, so they are using them as loaners for people to try out. I suppose it's a good strategy. My dealer still has gas loaners and they ask me every time if an EV is ok or if I prefer a gas loaner. Despite having been a vocal critic of EVs, I go in with an open mind and I happily take the EV loaners. I'm done with the gas loaners, because they are mostly 4-banger dogs. I hate them. The EVs at least have a proper throttle response so they drive properly, but I would not buy one, either. I'm bored of driving them already. There's zero engagement compared to my C63. Totally get the appeal for those who want a quiet luxury car and those who daily drive. For all I love my C63, creeping around in low speed city traffic is not its forte and if I had a commute I'd probably get an EV as a commuter, but since I work from home and my car is mostly for fun, EVs just don't do anything for me and I've even driven both the EQS AMG and EQE AMG.

Anyway, I particularly like the EV loaners because I don't have to fill them up before returning. They take them back at whatever charge level they are at that point, and because I'm not driving very much, I didn't have to charge them either while I had them. They do indeed not include a charging cable, though. I've asked the loaner person about it. Last time she offered to give me a cable, but I said I won't have to charge it anyway. I live within walking distance of a grocery store that has four 50kW chargers, so if I ever need to charge one of the loaners I can just go there.

I can understand your experience going in completely unprepared as you did. It sort of reminds me of one service appointment where I was watching an elderly gentlemen receiving an EQS loaner. Don't know what model he owned, but the nice lady walked him through how the car works. Then she walked away, he got in, but didn't start moving. He came back out and tried to flag somebody down. He grabbed my SA's attention who was walking over to me and he helped to get him on the way. My SA then told me the poor guy couldn't figure out how to start it and put it in Drive. I really wondered what model he's used to driving as the start button and gear selector are no different from any modern Mercedes, but it was amusing to watch.

 

https://www.plugshare.com/
Once I figured out where all the free chargers were my range anxiety went down considerably. I can get free two hours of charging in front of Target from Chargepoint and Volta has free chargers at the mall. Nobody is handing out free gas... just sayin'!

 

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Sorry for your experience.

 

... looks like Shell took over Volta's network but PlugShare says they're still free. Great locations, like this one in front of a movie theater. So just go out for a night of fun and come back fully charged. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

 

I don't think I would be in the market for an EV if my dealer didn't put me in some EQ loaners. I really enjoyed the EQE AMG loaner the most. It'll be a great daily driver for my needs.

 

Avis keeps trying to saddle renters with electric models when you get to the location later in the day. Here is the thing - we drive an EQS450+ and love it - but absent the ability to charge at home and absent having everything set up, it is a massive PITA to drive an electric on an occasional basis - especially one you will never drive again. Mercedes Me, ChargePoint, Electrify America, Plugshare... all those things are really simple once they are set up - but who bothers with a loaner or rental car? I can see how that EQE would drive you crazy - hopefully, next time there is a gas powered loaner for you.

 

McDonalds and Taco Bell have apps these days, that's not really an EV problem. Anyways, the fast chargers I use at Pilot Flying J take credit cards just like the gas pumps. There's absolutely no difference.

 

Yeah, I wonder how this is gonna pan out in the long run. Traveling is pretty much the worst use case for an EV. Can be done if as you say, you are set up and the car is yours, but as a rental car it's terrible. I don't even bother figuring out the infotainment system in rental cars these days and just connect my phone to use Apple CarPlay, so I have a familiar and personalized experience and when I'm driving a service loaner I can open/close my garage door from the CarPlay dashboard. Only thing I have to do is pair my phone with the car and I'm set.

Especially traveling internationally is gonna be a pain. Often you can't even sign up for an account with the charging companies unless you have a local phone number. At least the EU is now mandating credit card readers at charging stations, so you don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops first to charge your rental EV in a foreign country, however most US credit cards don't have a PIN like credit cards do in Europe, but you are required to enter a PIN at these self-service stations. Contactless payment via smartphone eliminates the need for a PIN, though. This all reminds me of when rental car companies in Europe started to add diesel cars to their fleet. In the early years, most gas stations didn't have diesel pumps, except along the highways. I still remember almost getting stranded in the middle of nowhere multiple times, because I couldn't fill up anywhere. I pushed back every time they tried to give me a diesel.

 

What does a Mercedes Me account have to do with charging an EQE or finding a charging station? And wouldn't the loaner have Mercedes Me set up? (I'll have to ask the dealer when they call me back, ROTFL). My E53 is always ready to go as was my CLS550 (except when I needed to take it in for scheduled maintenance/warranty work). And I can get a full tank of gss in about 5 minutes.

The car itself (EQE 350+) is OK. I enjoyed it when I drove it home from the dealer the first time. Very quiet, very quick, it handles ok, and I'm sure it would be comfortable if it had the Dynamic Seats (The main reason I buy Mercedes these days is the Dynamic seat). It is was enjoyable to drive . . . until I realized it would take several hours to charge it every other day, AFTER I found an available charging station.. I guess if I had a super charger in my garage it would alleviate the charging issue. But that would still relegate it to an around town car and that's not why I have a car. I can't imagine taking a car like this on a road trip having to locate an open charging station and wait several hours to get a decent charge. That turns a typical 4 hour drive into a 6 or 7 hour drive.

 

If your laundry room is near the garage then there's another option. I call it Level 1 and 1/2


https://splitvolt.com/products/cgb-nema-14-30-24-amp

 

The nearest Pilot Flying J for me is an hour away. And unfortunately it's in the opposite direction of where I do most of my local driving. Charging the car for free is great. But If I could find a charger close to me I don't care if I have to pay. I'd be happy to. Just like a real car.

 

That's a GREAT idea. I did think of it after the dealer told me that it was my outlet that was faulty. But moving the dryer out of the way each time to access the 220 outlet is just a bit too much. I might try to bribe (i'm sorry, tip) the local chevy dealer so I can use their charger every day. That way I'll only have to drive 20 minutes (each way) and sit in the car for 2 hours waiting for it to charge.

Thanks for the idea though.

 

Mercedes Me is required for the car to display any Level 3 charging stations, usage, traffic, or anything else. It's also required in order to precondition the battery before your charge. It's also required in order to have any route planning with automated charger stops added in. In short, it's a bad experience without the services enabled. And no, MB absolutely does not enable it. I've had plenty of EQ loaners when my cars are in for service, and they are not active. It changes the entire experience.

Road tripping on EQs is sublime. Charger stops automatically integrated into the route. We are a family of 5. By the time we get 3 hours into the road trip, one of the kiddos always needs to pee. By the time we all pile out of the car, go to the restroom, and finally get back to the car, it's always been sitting there, ready to go for at least 5-10 minutes. I can tell you from having done 45,000 miles with many thousands in road trips that they are absolutely fine. If you have battery preconditioning due to Mercedes Me connectivity, you are generally talking about a 15-20 minute charging stop at worst, but often shorter.

For around town, we can easily spend 4-6 hours in mixed driving, and let me tell you, it'd be extremely unusual for the battery to have dipped below 50%, starting at 80. So for around town, it's great as well.

I'd ask you to take another perspective. Prior to EQs, I'd been driving combustion cars for decades. I've had several E classes (W124 (my project car), W212, W213), several ML/GLE, and a GLK. Excellent cars, truly. Most of them diesels (US-market engines). But let's say we'd never driven either combustion or EV. Now think about the fact that you are presented with two options:

1. Every time you go on the road, you have to figure out if you have enough gas to go where you need to go. There's no clear indicator, because range varies wildly based on driving behavior. And the only place you can get gas is at a store that is not in your home. Rewind back in history, and the only place you could get gas was at a pharmacy in 1 gallon containers. No gas stations ubiquitously placed across from each other. That's all now subsidized infrastructure. And, if you want a good deal at Costco, you have to wait 10 minutes in line to get your turn pumping gas out in the cold or heat. Yes, it fills quickly, but the oil drips out at you down the side of the car and maybe on you. Every time. And the prices are completely unpredictable one week to the next because of geopolitical forces and oil company profits. I'm not even going to get into a discussion about environmental concerns, as I understand that some people have decided that simple physics needs to be politicized, but that's neither here nor there. The car loses range in the winter.

2. You have a vehicle that, literally every time you wake up in the morning, has all the range you could possibly need for commute or local travel. We're talking 6-8 hours of local driving and commute. You also have enough range to drive over 200 miles on any road trip, immediately, right out of the gate. No planning to hit a gas station before your trip the night before. If you do need to road trip, the car will handle all of the charge stop routing for you. The charging does take longer than a fillup. No oil drips or fumes. You can stay inside your car or in local amenities during the entire charge. You can shop or go to the bathroom if needed. 20 minutes gets you an additional 200+ miles. In top-performing cars, a 2500 mile road trip takes you an additional 3 hours over a combustion car - almost a rounding error. Making sure your car has enough range for the day by charging at home has generally cost you about $1 for the day. The prices are fixed, not variable. And, (in our case), you can choose to install PV equipment that means you didn't pay a dime for the energy that went into the car. The car also loses range in the winter.

After nearly 2 years of doing so, and taking family trips all over the Eastern side of the country, I know which option makes the most sense for me. Of course, nobody will mandate what you should do. But over time, I think people will realize that the benefits of EVs outweigh the disadvantages. Yes, you're right, EVs don't have the personality of a combustion car. Totally granted. That's why I keep my W124 project car and drive it a couple of times a year. But honestly, I don't miss the combustion cars at all. I bought my wife's EQE SUV knowing that it had to be a flawless experience for her. She would be very nervous if the experience were variable or caused her any sort of unexpected addition or changes to her commutes. It's been exactly flawless, a realization I made a few months after having purchased the sedan 7 months before.

Again, sorry you had a bad experience, the lack of cloud services really added to it, but driving an EV can really be a game changer in so many ways.

 

So what you're saying is that the only way to get a "sublime" experience with an EV is to pay for an annual subscription to Mercedes Me? Other than that the car is going to be an inconvenient mode of transportation?

I enjoyed your comparison of the 1920 experience of driving a gas vehicle to that of driving an EV in 2024. Apples to Apples comparison.

I'm also a widower so no wife to get nervous. Or kids that have to pee every 3 hours (at 70 yrs old though, I have to pee every hour or so. But that usually takes me about 5 minutes. Unless I have to wait for a bathroom stall to be available.) And, unfortunately, when I'm traveling it seems that most of the charging stations are on the Far side of the parking lot. That now requires me to unload my electric mobilty scooter (yes, I'm handicapped and have difficulty walking more than short distances) if I want to go into the restaurant/bathroom at the service area.

 

In 2024 at least, route planning and preconditioning are essential to the experience, just as having gas stations every 1/2 mile is essential to a gas car operating conveniently. In either scenario, infrastructure is needed. The EV can charge at home, albeit slowly, but it solves 99%+ of all needs. All gas cars must fuel at a fueling station. Hence the extreme numbers of them. And potential crowding of the stations, long lines, and stations being out of gas before hurricanes, ice storms, or blizzards.

I certainly can understand your concerns about mobility. My dad is 91 and drives an EQE SUV. He now also has challenges with mobility, but almost all of his driving is local. He has done some recent long-distance travel, but has always been able to find charging where needed, whether at his destination or at an EA station or similar along the way. But for almost all his daily needs, at-home charging is more than adequate.

 

Hmmm, I'm trying to remember the last time I had to wait on a long line at a gas station. Oh yeah, that was 1973 during the gas embargo.

Unfortunately fo EVs the infrastructure is not going to be in place for another 10 - 15 years. And the biggest issue is the length of time to charge a battery. I hear the new solid state batteries charge much faster and use fewer rare earth elements. Hopefully that'll become the new battery standard in the next 5 - 10 years or so. At that point I'll reconsider an EV. Till then, Nope.

 

Rare earth elements are used in the motors, not the batteries. And there are motor designs that already avoid rare earth elements.

ETA: That said, I actually do agree with a lot of what you've said. EVs really only work well if you have your own infrastructure that you can rely on. That means if you have a way to charge at home, you can do the vast majority of your charging easily at home. If you take trips to visit family or friends often and they also have charging available, that would probably account for the majority of your miles away from home.

But if you don't fall into that category, EVs start to become a real hassle. I'm two years into my non-Tesla EV experiment and having to rely on EA or EVGo or PlugShare is an absolute nightmare. Imagine telling gas car owners that if they want to travel 200 miles away from home, they should plan it out a few days in advance and read reviews of their planned stops so you know if that particular station has 4 stalls but most of the time, there are two that never work and there's usually a 30 minute wait. And oh, it's winter? You'll need to change all those stops to account for 60 miles less range. That charger you found on PlugShare? Oops, it's in a paid lot and only college faculty have access.

Way too many gotchas with EV charging right now.

 

There's a lot of misinformation and disinformation coming out of the mainstream media. The fast-charging future is here now:
https://www.greencarreports.com/news...ut-teslas-nacs

 

EV experiences are currently purely anecdotal. Those with positive anecdotal experiences like them, and those with negative experiences don't like them. Those who like them are a tiny percentage of the population. The adoption rate of EVs in the US is 0.86% of all registered vehicles. That's a miniscule part of the population that actually currently owns an EV. Ignore market share, that's just new car sales. Even California, which is the state with the highest adoption is only at 2.5%. People who like EVs are generally wealthy/affluent and live in a suburban single family home where they can charge. Most forget that there's a large portion of the population that lives in apartments w/o the ability to charge at home. You also see them justifying the charging stops in their head with things like we travel as a family and our kids need to pee very 2 hours for 30 minutes anyway, or similar justifications. These positive and justified experiences contrast what McKinsey & Co found in a recent survey, that almost half of the EV owners in the USA are very likely to switch back to a gas car, because EVs are not working for their use cases. It's largely driven by the shortcomings of the current infrastructure, significant drops in range during the cold winter months and other issues such as the charging stations being in the middle of nowhere often with no roof over them and nothing to do other than using the facilities. The point is, you've got to really want an EV and it has to work with your lifestyle and use cases. Giving somebody an EV loaner who doesn't currently own an EV is quite presumptuous, unless they are open to it.

 

EV shares in CA are now 4% of total registered vehicles and market sales are around 25%. The trend is still growing in CA. EVs being heavily discounted helps, plus the heavily depreciated resales. It'll be interesting to see what happens once the tax credits disappear.
https://www.veloz.org/california-sur...market-growth/

 

You can make fun of me if you like, but it's simply the truth for my family. We've never had to wait on any of our cars to charge during a road trip, as it has always beat us to the punch to being ready. My kids are 7, 5 and almost 4, and they just don't have an iron bladder that can take advantage of a fossil car's longer range. If you're a road warrior that likes to hold it for 8-10 hours, more power to you. I've certainly done that before in a fossil, but it's not an enjoyable experience. I always feel stressed and exhausted afterward.

Not everything echoes that. This article, which I will certainly grant has a high bias potential, says otherwise: https://www.carscoops.com/2024/12/99...ew-study-says/

A year ago, studies were gloomier. But EVs are far more mature platforms than they have been in the past, and many of the inconveniences have been mitigated.

If you don't have home or work charging, yes, driving an EV will be a challenge. But installing workplace charging is a double incentive to both employer and employee, so I see that increasing with minimal burden on infrastructure.

I'm not saying it's for everyone. Infrastructure here in Kentucky has exploded dramatically, so the feasibility of having an EV whether for daily use or road tripping has changed night and day in just a year. But in Southern California, or places unwilling to invest NEVI funds, yeah, it'll be tricky - for now. Still, adoption rates are continuously rising, if recent trends hold, which I think they will.

 

I'm not making fun of you at all and didn't mean to pick on you. Just took your justification as an example. I'm simply pointing out that projecting one's own anecdotal experience onto the rest of the population isn't gonna make EVs work any better for them, and is completely irrelevant to OP being an elderly widower. Gotta know your audience if you are trying to convince anyone.