full charge still shows I can go only 65 miles

[nuggetev]

I have a 2014 model and have been using for over 2 weeks now.

I have been charging it very regularly but have never seen it showing anywhere close to 80 miles range.

The charge shows that it's 100%, but the range only shows around 65 miles.

I called the dealer and he said, 85 miles is for an ideal driver and ideal condition, which I agree, but 25% lower than what is advertised is what I'm having hard to digest.

What does your car show the range on a full charge? Is there a problem with the battery or something?

 

[Lukeetal]

I have had mine for 6 days. Range changes a lot based on driving. The dealer told me to expect 60 mile range. I usually see 75 mile at 100%. Some times as high as 81 miles. The range can drop very quickly based on acceleration, speed, ac use, and probably other factors.

I am getting best range after driving around town in heavy traffic. I have been using the odometer and when I average 20-25 miles per hour according to the odometer I get the best range.

We drove on the highway about 30 miles at highway speeds... And noticed the biggest drop between 100% range and total range (mile driven plus remaining).

Also I noticed sport and economy mode makes a huge difference in range. I haven't driven in sport mode yet to see how it effects the range long term.

If you use the odometer set to "from reset" I would love to know what numbers you are seeing. I am averaging 2.5-3mpkw or miles per kilowatt.

 

[GlennD]

THE GUESS o meter is better than the Leaf's but it is still a guess. If you go to the GOM display you can press the OK button and accept the value. It will then reset to the defaults and the range will increase.

Having owned 2 Leafs before my B Class I consider the range display a bad joke! Yes, if you duplicate yesterday's trip it is accurate but who retraces their steps? It is a guess based on the recent past.

 

[cossie1600]

Use %, not the mileage. Charge it to 100%, reset the trip meter and mark down how many miles you do for every 10%. Multiple it by 10 and you can roughly get what your range is.

 

[tom]

Many on this forum are getting range of 90 to 100 miles and that's been my experience as well (even on the highways, with A/C always on). Ignore the GOM, basically this car is 1% = 1 mile. That's without range extender. With range extender you should get 12-18 more miles.

 

[nuggetev]

Thank you everyone for your prompt reply.

I will try out a few different routes and come back with an update. Also I'll reply with the "from reset" to see what does it show for miles per kilowatt.

 

[Lukeetal]

That 90-100 miles, is that using the e-cell???

 

[Stretch2727]

Completely ignore the Guess o meter. It seems to run between 30-50% low in estimating range. I never look at it.

I agree with the others use the percent battery with your trip meter and calculate the range. I have never seen worse than 1% per mile in mild weather which is better than 100 miles range. Cold weather will be worse....

I don't understand why MB would give a range meter that is totally inaccurate. There seems to be some derating factor that protects you for potentially worst case conditions. (i.e you drive from an 75 degree climate into a 0 degree climate on the same drive.) My ford focus was spot on based on my recent 10-15 miles of driving.

 

[pharmama]

I agree that the Range reading is useless. I noticed within the first week of driving that the range would only drop like 6 miles on my 18 mile commute. Like others, I look at % charge and my mpkWh to get a better idea where I'm really at.

 

[JeffRay]

As others posted previously, range is also a function of average mph and your driving habits. Newbies usually suffer sub standard range until they stop feeling the urge to be fast off the block. If you keep the meter on the right within the economy area, you will get better mileage. Also, I drive primarily in an urban stop and go environment averaging 10 mph. Guess what range I get, 65 miles. In the winter, this drops to 35 miles. When I get to cruise on the highway averaging 40 mph, the range extends to 90+ miles.

Hope this helps you all understand other factors involved. Enjoy the car, you will get better range over time.

 

[wtzouris]

Ignore the range meter. Numbers below are for regular charge/extended range charge:

Summer range is 100 - 115 miles (3.2 mpkWh on the display = 3.8 mpkWh actual) Correction factor of 1.2x.

Winter range is up to 30% worse, so 75 - 87 miles. (2.3 mpkWh on the display = 2.75 mpkWh actual)

Drive at least 20 miles before looking at the mpkWh number -- also reset all From Start and From Reset screens of course.

Use the AC compressor as much as you want, but watch the heating system -- that kills efficiency. Cooling is "free". Using windshield wipers and driving in snow/rain hurts rolling resistance and efficiency quite a bit.

I commute 60 miles round trip and I have never arrived home with less than 20% charge left.

 

[zipzapzoom]

The print, online and media car advertisements state about 87 miles on a "FULL" charge range and UP TO about 111 miles on the super-duper-extra-special-push the little button blue light dealio...well...

On the evening I bought the car new, the dealer sales rep said (I've been charging the car "all day for you" so it's fully charged), and by the time the 4-5 hour (seemingly requisite time it takes to buy a friggin car every-time I buy one!!) it was 9pm and I just wanted dinner and bed.

I noticed the guess-o-meter reported 71 miles range and the charge was at what appeared to be 100% of charge. I figured they didn't actually fully charge it and I figured they for sure didn't do the "overcharge/boost" thingy and I figured it's based on some factory default driving behavior/range with some figured buffer in there to avoid a bunch of B-classes being towed all over...

So, tired, hungry and sick of haggling & sitting around the MB dealer I drove off. (Do they count on exhausting us to the brink of just saying YES, I'll take anything you put in front of me

Drove the 2 miles home the car had a grand total of 9 miles since birth: Plugged the car in on 110 at home and expected to see at least 80 miles by morning...

10 hours later, it said 74 miles!!! That was WITH the E+ mode!

OK, so, I figured, 110 volts is barely more than I can get with a couple D batteries and some aluminum foil so that afternoon I went across the street to an (at the time FREE!!! new charge point charger) supposedly Level II, (later learned that the advertised rate of 6.9 is split between the TWO power cords)....but did I mention it was FREE, so who cares, right?

So, PRESSED THE SUPER DUPER OVERCHARGE button (blue light ON), then plugged it in, walked home and was just SURE the next morning I would have like 110.7 miles to drive to the Panama Canal and back...

Well, nope.

The next morning, even though the "fuel gauge" was at the max but I only had 67 miles, with E+ enabled!!!

Mind you, I'm driving like an EV freak...using as MUCH REGEN as possible and the D- mode 100% of the time and minimal AC use, no jack rabbit starts, coasting (charging) as much as possible, keeping the needle in the economy mode, and STILL under 70 miles!!!!!!

OK, so I figured the new chargepoint charger might not be calibrated or speaking with the hive correctly or the borg queen was charging her cube or something and that's maybe why I was being short changed so I tried SEVERAL other (mostly pay) Level II chargers....

SAME THING, I stated to think the estimated miles didn't even have a 3rd digit since it had never gone past about 80.

So, on the 4th day I took it into the dealer and said, LOOK, I need to average about 100 miles a day or the car is useless, I have to use my BMW 7 series gas guzzler and use the B class as a lawn ornament on my newly installed plastic lawn.

They said nothing is wrong with the car you idiot (ok, I think they skipped the idiot part). I said, tell you what, charge the car to 90 miles range and call me when that happens -at that point I will return your loaner car and get mine.

Magically, after 20 hours+ on their level II chargers - Somehow - they got it up to 91 miles, (not using the overcharge feature) and I was thrilled thinking I must be the idiot.

Since then, I've used a number of chargers, some even expensive PAY charge point chargers for HOURS and even 10-12 hours a couple times on these allegedly level II chargers, NEVER got the car above 80, even under E+ mode... (I read someone said the E+ might be going away in a firmware update??? Is this true? OMG, that would be terrible since I can't even use the car as it is much less with fewer miles range!

I don't know what to do!!

60-70 miles avg per day on a 7-10 hour charge will not work for me....

HELP!!!!

PS: I am (of course!!) now ready to get higher level charging at home...I've got a dryer plug never in use that is 3 pole/3 wire, 10-30R that's about 20-35 feet from where I park the car. Can I be a cheapo and skip the $ 1000, $ 2000 or $ 3000 option (i'm just renting) and get some gizmo that magically turns those electrons in the dryer plug into excited little dudes that jump into my car's battery and give me some juice.

PSS: Has anyone figured out a way to tow a nice 220 vlt gas generator (I have one, that runs for about 5 hours on a full tank of gas), that could somehow charge the car in motion and allow long range trips to go a few hundred miles (with a number of 5-10 gallon gas fill ups on the way

PSSS: How about one of the nifty new Tesla home batteries that could easily fit the in the oversized rear storage bay of the B class and run a cord to the port to charge for those times you just MUST go skiing or to Palm Springs or gasp! Las Vegas!!?

(I guess I can just take the 7 series, but I really do LOVE the benz!)

 

[GlennD]

Also the supplied charger (EVSE) defaults to 8A to make it universal. You need to manually set it to 12A @120V. You should investigate a L2 EVSE at 40A or a 25% slower 30A. I consider the supplied charger for emergency use only.

There are a lot of 30A units out there since that is the maximum for non Tesla car chargers. Clipper creek makes a 40A EVSE (HCS50). They have the required circuit as part of the model number.

The "B" is fully J1772 compliant so any L2 EVSE will work if you have the required time. Some are slower than others but a true 40A unit is expensive. Really, most can get by fine with a much cheaper 30A unit.

The EVSE at the dealer is a L2 unit.

You can reset the range meter by pressing the OK button and the range will increase.

 

[JeffRay]

Range is a function of your actual driving history unless you press the reset button. The most reliable indicator is your actual observed miles driven divided by percent charge used, in my opinion. Miles achieved is a function of your driving style, characteristics of your route, temperature, etc. The rest is just computer guesses which most of us feel is useless. We call it the Guess O Meter for a reason.

For newbies, there is the normal break in period of the driver. The car has excellent response off a standing start. This like in gas cars hurts range. When you begin to drive casually (keeping the right side meter under one bar in economy, you will get better range. If you get into shifting from Auto to minus and plus when driving and coasting in minus to a stop, this maximizes the regeneration capture and minimizes the use of the battery. Good for an extra 5+ miles of range.

Enjoy the ride, read the past posts as you will encounter a little bit of what we all have.

 

[zipzapzoom]

Thanks for all the info and replies...

a little background....

I'm very familiar with the general concepts of maximizing range.

Within minutes of driving the car we've learned how to add 5-20 miles to the range by being hyper-effecient, using minimal A/C, the E+ mode and D- for better REGEN.

We always start off with a gentle roll and have only moved the needle near the BOOST range a couple times playing around, for the most part we focus on keeping the needle in the green as much as possible, and as close to the green when it's not.

We live in OC where the high temps in the summer avg 73 and we've been avoiding routes that could impair range.

PS: Did the RESET thing a few times recently with no real apparent improvement in estimated/stated range

------------------------

2015 MB B200 Mountain Grey on Black MBTex (Leased July 2015)
2013 BMW 740i Grey on Black
---------------------------
Long Term Test Drives of:
Fiat 500e
Toyota Rav4 EV
Kia Sol EV
BMW i3 (several days)
Tesla S
Nissan Leaf
Toyota (Plug in/Hybrid) Prius & Avalon (Hybrid)
Ford Fusion Energi
Chevy Volt

Former cars:
Have always had a 7 series BMW since 18 of one model or another (about 6 of them)

Recent Gas Drinkers:
Range Rover/Land Rover
Porsche Cayanne
LRII
Escalade
Monterro
GL550
Town Car
X5
SRX

 

[phototrek]

PSS: Has anyone figured out a way to tow a nice 220 vlt gas generator (I have one, that runs for about 5 hours on a full tank of gas), that could somehow charge the car in motion and allow long range trips to go a few hundred miles (with a number of 5-10 gallon gas fill ups on the way

That sounds like a rather odd way of transportation, albeit makes for a humorous visual. In any case the car won't let you to do that: try putting it in Drive with the cord still attached. While you can see people driving with gasoline hoses still attached to the car (without the gas pump following on a trailer, usually), you can't do that with any EV that I know of. It's safer that way.

If you need the range for a trip, why not take the Bimmer? Yes it's a gas guzzler but that didn't seem to be an issue when you bought it. I have a gas guzzler in the garage, too, because he has his place in my life (and because the B just doesn't do all that well on the track).

 

[zipzapzoom]

phototrek, it was mostly a joke, but it might not be the most outlandish idea someday...

I know the car won't drive while charging, but maybe somehow there's a safe way to disable that interlock...

The i3 does this exact same thing, rather nicely and nearly doubles the effective range with their REX - a MUCH smaller generator than what I'm talking about.

And yeah, I can take the Beemer or a couple other options, but I am becoming rather anti-petrol lately and the Southern California $ 4.00 a gal prices drive me crazy!

Ironically, my mostly satyrical suggestion requires gas to work

 

[TonyWilliams]

i suspect that you're not resetting the correct screen... not the one that says "since start", but the other screen that looks just like it.

The GOM is not actual range autonomy of the vehicle in any logical future looking manner. It's data is ALL derived from past driving, usually quite poorly.

For the GOM to mean anything, you must reset all the consumption rate data on the center dash. Use the up and down buttons on the steering wheel.

When you reset everything, the GOM will read (plus or minus a mile or two):

31.5kWh "extended" charge - 94 miles
28.0kWh "normal" charge - 87 miles

NOTE: YOU MUST RESET THE METER TO GET THESE VALUES. The reset is done with the left steering wheel buttons. Scroll to the reset page with the up and down arrows, and follow the instructions to reset. Press the center button in the left hand side of the steering wheel when on the reset page and it will prompt you to reset, Yes or No.

Make sure you reset the correct page, because two of them look similar... one is for reset and the other is limited to reset since start. It is only necessary to reset if you want the GOM to show 86/88 miles for a normal charge, or 93/95 miles for an extended charge. The battery % will show 100% at BOTH charge levels.

THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE ONLY WAY TO TELL IF THE VEHCILE FULLY EXTENDED CHARGED!!!

When the battery is cold, the GOM will be significantly less. Also, in the future when battery degradation becomes noticeable, the values should be somewhat less. Sorry, I can only guess at those values.

The Mercedes dash consumption meter (miles per kWh) is calibrated so that 3.6 miles per kWh will show 3.0 on the dash. The correction factor is 83.7%, or 1.2.

The B-Class ED has a usable battery capacity of 28kWh in normal charge and 31.5kWh in extended charge.

To estimate ACTUAL range (not the GOM) you only need to charge it up and estimate the consumption rate. At 65mph on flat, dry roads without a headwind and no heater use, the car will consume 3.0 FROM START as indicated on the dash REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE GOM SAYS. Again, the only viable purpose of the GOM after a consumption meter reset is to indicate whether you have 28kWh or 31.5kWh with a full charge when the battery percent shows "100%".

3.0 miles/kWh dash value x 1.2 correction x 28 kWh = 100 mile real RANGE on a standard charge (GOM will show 86-88 miles after reset to indicate 28kWh).

3.0 miles/kWh dash value x 1.2 correction x 31.5 kWh = 113 mile range on an extended charge (GOM will show 93-95 miles after reset to indicate 31.5kWh (some 2014 model year cars do not have this extended charge feature)

If your weather conditions are worse than dry / warm / no wind / no elevation climb, or you're running the heater, or driving faster, the consumption rate that you experience will be lower, maybe 2.5 miles/kWh? You will have to determine this through careful experience of the "miles/kWh since start" and a simple math exercise outlined above.

Because the battery will also show in %, you can multiply that percent by 28kWh to estimate available kWh. Let's say it say 50%, which would be 14kWh. Therefore:

3.0 miles/kWh dash value x 1.2 correction x 14kWh = 50 mile range at 50% and 65mph down a flat, dry road without a heater.

Unfortunately, this trick doesn't add the additional miles for "extended" charge, since the meter will just show 100% from 28kWh stored to 31.5kWh. Yes, that seems dumb, except that as the battery ages and degrades, somewhere around 70% to 85% capacity (we don't know yet), the extended and normal charge will have the same kWh.

That's how they will attempt to hide the degradation over time. Not something to worry about with new-ish cars.

This GOM issue pops up OVER AND OVER, so I will just keep posting this same response. We had it with the LEAF and the Toyota RAV4 EV. Thankfully, Tesla uses "rated range", instead of a GOM, like everybody else.