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So I drove my first BEV this weekend. I went to Bradenton Florida to help a friend in a health crisis. It was the cheapest though still very expensive rental available due to spring break. I got a Mercedes EQB 300. I'm glad I did this to know what I like and what I hate. Renting a BEV is a one time thing if I can avoid it in the future.
First the physical act of driving I really liked it. It was fast and smooth and I was quickly getting used to 1 pedal driving. I loved how you could sit in an almost silent car with the HVAC running. Though I didn't like but didn't have time to figure out how to turn off the auto transmission creep mode.
Mercedes software and UI is absolutely unrepentant hot streaming dog crap. That's a whole separate long post not relevant to Scout.
But the charging experience is relevant to considering a BEV Scout, and just in general what to expect the first time you have to charge. When I searched for fast chargers on PlugShare the closest one was 13 minutes away from their house. The next one was 20 minutes. There are several gas stations 5 minutes away. I didn't trust that I wouldn't run out of time no matter how early I left for the airport so I did a separate 6am trip to charge even though it was on the way.
The Evolution charger forced me to sign up for an account, which is ok but sorta silly when it has a full display and could easily accept tap and pay. But maddingly it required email link validation. The first time I tried the email never came. So I had to sign up again with a different email service and this time I got the email. This was all happening in an unlit parking lot of an older strip mall with nothing open.
Having never used a charger there was no sign to press the button to release the handle from the charger. I struggled with it for a few minutes pretty aggressively until I felt around to the little black rubber button that was totally invisible. The cords were very heavy and stiff moreso than a gas hose. It takes some effort to insert it just right.
The app goes through a multi step process to talk to the charger and start the charge. The first two chargers would fail on the final step saying connet the charger to the car. I couldn't tell if I was doing something wrong or the whole charger set was broken or the Mercedes is picky. I was getting concerned I needed to move on but I decided to try the last two since I was getting more comfortable doing it quickly. Finally the 3rd charger workedish.
I didn't think to see how fast the Mercedes can charge but it's only 100 kwh, despite the 240 kwh capable charger I went to. However on a 19% to 80% charge, the charger was never able to get above 87 kwh for a short time and averaged a lackluster 44 kwh for a 44 minute charge. When I figured out it would take a while the closest open food place was a McD that I had to walk 10 minutes to along a busy road sidewalk.
The whole experience was moderately unpleasant when I was trying to help focus on my friend. I can't imagine dealing with this out in West Texas towing my RV.
First the physical act of driving I really liked it. It was fast and smooth and I was quickly getting used to 1 pedal driving. I loved how you could sit in an almost silent car with the HVAC running. Though I didn't like but didn't have time to figure out how to turn off the auto transmission creep mode.
Mercedes software and UI is absolutely unrepentant hot streaming dog crap. That's a whole separate long post not relevant to Scout.
But the charging experience is relevant to considering a BEV Scout, and just in general what to expect the first time you have to charge. When I searched for fast chargers on PlugShare the closest one was 13 minutes away from their house. The next one was 20 minutes. There are several gas stations 5 minutes away. I didn't trust that I wouldn't run out of time no matter how early I left for the airport so I did a separate 6am trip to charge even though it was on the way.
The Evolution charger forced me to sign up for an account, which is ok but sorta silly when it has a full display and could easily accept tap and pay. But maddingly it required email link validation. The first time I tried the email never came. So I had to sign up again with a different email service and this time I got the email. This was all happening in an unlit parking lot of an older strip mall with nothing open.
Having never used a charger there was no sign to press the button to release the handle from the charger. I struggled with it for a few minutes pretty aggressively until I felt around to the little black rubber button that was totally invisible. The cords were very heavy and stiff moreso than a gas hose. It takes some effort to insert it just right.
The app goes through a multi step process to talk to the charger and start the charge. The first two chargers would fail on the final step saying connet the charger to the car. I couldn't tell if I was doing something wrong or the whole charger set was broken or the Mercedes is picky. I was getting concerned I needed to move on but I decided to try the last two since I was getting more comfortable doing it quickly. Finally the 3rd charger workedish.
I didn't think to see how fast the Mercedes can charge but it's only 100 kwh, despite the 240 kwh capable charger I went to. However on a 19% to 80% charge, the charger was never able to get above 87 kwh for a short time and averaged a lackluster 44 kwh for a 44 minute charge. When I figured out it would take a while the closest open food place was a McD that I had to walk 10 minutes to along a busy road sidewalk.
The whole experience was moderately unpleasant when I was trying to help focus on my friend. I can't imagine dealing with this out in West Texas towing my RV.
