Long drive in the MB b250

[arthurmartineau]

Well I did it!

I just made a deal on a 2015 with under 16k miles. One problem, I'm in Washington and it's in California. I'm planning my 1100 mile drive right now. The Plugshare app seems amazing so far!

I'll take all the advice you all have to offer. This forum has been so helpful so far.


Thanks

Arthur

 

[hallcp]

How long a trip is that? Wouldn't you be better off just having it delivered? Some dealers only seem to tack on $350 or $600 to transport a car.

So make sure your plane ticket and hotel bills don't exceed the cost of having it delivered.

On the other hand, this sounds like an EPIC JOURNEY! You need to blog it somewhere.

 

[arthurmartineau]

It's way cheaper to drive it back. I can fly there for $70 mid-week, and shipping is $850.
I will do write up for sure.

 

[JeffRay]

Arthur,

You are the man! Let me see if I understand your upcoming journey.

1. Fly down to LA area to pick up car, assume fully charged.

2. Drive 80 miles over 90 minutes

3. Charge for 4 hours, hit the road repeating #2 and #3

4. Drive a third 80 miles, charge overnight. So Day 1, you have driven 240+ miles over 13.5 hours.

5. Day 2, repeat #2-#4. Now almost halfway back to Seattle, somewhere south of Medford.

6. Day 3, repeat #2-#4. Now near Corvallis, OR

7. Day 4, repeat #2-#4. Back safely to Seattle.

ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO HAVE THIS MUCH FUN! IF IT WERE ME, FEDEX ME!

MY ONLY ADVICE IS TO IDENTIFY A MB DEALER IN SEATTLE THAT WILL HELP YOU WITH YOUR NEW B250E.

SAFE DRIVE SIR.

 

[rrattie]

Maybe get the JdeMO installed while it's in SoCal so at least you will only take about 30 minutes to charge...

 

[JeffRay]

RR,

Capital idea ($3K). That would cut the drive home time almost in half allowing one to go 80 miles or so in 90 minutes with say 45 minutes charge time. To do 550 miles that would require about 6 legs. Starting with a full charge and ending the day empty, that calcs to 7 hours of driving and 3 hours of charging.

I also found Quick Charge Power is south of LA near Carlsbad. They make the charger and will probably install it for you.

Then you have an upgraded fast charge which is really convenient for the life of your new B250e,

 

[rrattie]

I read that using the JdeMO also lets you charge up to 90%, similar to using the Range Extender if you have it. Those extra miles could be useful.

 

[GlennD]

I read that using the JdeMO also lets you charge up to 90%, similar to using the Range Extender if you have it. Those extra miles could be useful.

Yes but it is 3K plus install. That would pay for a lot of miles.

Check EBay for cheap transport companies. It cost me 900 dollars from Miami to Anaheim.

 

[arthurmartineau]

I made it home without running out of juice. I learned a ton about the car except how to delete the previous owner's radio stations.
I was really worried about the passes, I-5 tops out at 4300ft. I had it on cruize at 60mph and the eco-meter was at 50%.


If I did it again, I would have had the fast charger installed... although most of the northern California dc chargers are down.

My favorite new bit of knowledge is that I don't have to hit the range ext. button before I start charging!

Arthur

 

[JeffRay]

AM,

Outstanding sir! I think you get the prize so far as I recall for longest road trip in a B250e. When you get a chance, tell us more stories from the road.

Sounds like our B250e did not disappoint.

 

[arthurmartineau]

I learned I don't need to push the range-extend button before I start charging. In the E-cell menu, you can see the extra battery show up and the time until full extends considerably.
My fastest charge was from a Telsa charger and a borrowed "duosida" adapter in Dunsmuir.

My first stop was at an office park, both chargers were full and there was no way I could find them, it was a big place.
My next stop was at a prison, it was slow but free. Most of my charging in California was free.
I love that there are solar panels in random places just to charge cars.

 

[willtwilson]

Just picked up a low mileage 2017 from the UK. I had planned my route out perfectly without much issue until the day/night before when dealer noted that there wasn’t a high voltage cable included and I simultaneously discovered that most UK chargers are untethered. Route replotted across many small back roads via mostly Shell garages. It was a long but also short journey covering 230 miles throughout the night in order to catch a 9am ferry.

Miles covered: 230
Stops: 5 (6 if you include the second garage which had removed their Type 2 charger)
Average charge and snooze time: 1hr or just over
Average price per kWh: £0.70
Total time: 13+ hours (slow ferry the next day was 11 hours)
Gross average travel speed: 18mph