[Sandancer04]

So completed some filming with Watchdog yesterday and coincidentally while this was happening BP rang and clearly someone higher up the food chain. They left a message and called again later in the afternoon before Watchdog returned to complete some more filming. I spoke with the chap who claimed that there had been an issue with a "firewall" which was not allowing the scheduled charging to take place, so this may be worth others looking at but before doing so log off the app and any other devices web browsers and delete the app. Put the key in put into the lock position then switch off at the distribution box for at least 2 minutes then switch it back on. Once the charger has gone through all its start ups check Chargevision | Login and login. The data fromyor device ie charging times history may take up to 48 hours to reappear but once it has done so then reinstall the app. I have tried this to do and whilst not 100% it is working differently and will need to carry out some more checks myself to find any further faults before speaking again with them.
They also said if it does not work then they can offer a manual timer that has 6 schedules you are able to set. He also said that the issue could be due to their 2G Vodafone sim card but I very much doubt, in my case that this was the problem because of the consistency in the 15 minutes cycle of off for 10 minutes and on for 5 minutes which really did not suggest it was mobile signals dropping in and out with such consistency

Hi.
Had same conversation over 2 months ago regarding deletion of Apps resetting Charger.
Had no effect whatsoever.
I asked for an electronic timer and told that they were only offered for units with Vodafone 2G simm.
Were supposed to change my charger yesterday as they (BP) said it was faulty.
No-one turned up. Now coming Fri 08.00

Will see what happens. NOT HOPEFUL

 

[Petronious]

Hi.
Had same conversation over 2 months ago regarding deletion of Apps resetting Charger.
Had no effect whatsoever.

Yes I too had that conversation but they have now established what the problem may have been and it was a "firewall" that was restricting access for the schedulers. I have tried it briefly today and it may be working. As I was doing that BP rang and I have said I want to try this for the weekend to see if it is actually working and if not then I will opt for the manual timer. One thing I noted that when the scheduler started I had it on for 1 hour between 1130 & 1230 and it adjusted the kWh so that it charged within that hour at times it was only charging at 4kwh and 6 and 7kwh so that the charge completed on the hour rather than say in 30 minutes it might take if you just did a straight charge. I have asked questions about its suitability and they have assured me a) it will still allow the same amount of charge and b) it allows 6 schedules across the week and 1 schedule could be for every day of the week or 1 day of the week.

I need to monitor the schedulers over the weekend and see exactly if it is now working because there was a short period of time when it was charging outside the scheduled period but not like the 15 minute repeat cycle

 

[Sandancer04]

Yes I too had that conversation but they have now established what the problem may have been and it was a "firewall" that was restricting access for the schedulers. I have tried it briefly today and it may be working. As I was doing that BP rang and I have said I want to try this for the weekend to see if it is actually working and if not then I will opt for the manual timer. One thing I noted that when the scheduler started I had it on for 1 hour between 1130 & 1230 and it adjusted the kWh so that it charged within that hour at times it was only charging at 4kwh and 6 and 7kwh so that the charge completed on the hour rather than say in 30 minutes it might take if you just did a straight charge. I have asked questions about its suitability and they have assured me a) it will still allow the same amount of charge and b) it allows 6 schedules across the week and 1 schedule could be for every day of the week or 1 day of the week.

I need to monitor the schedulers over the weekend and see exactly if it is now working because there was a short period of time when it was charging outside the scheduled period but not like the 15 minute repeat cycle

You'll have to keep us informed of your progress.
What Firewall are they referring to?

 

[Petronious]

You'll have to keep us informed of your progress.
What Firewall are they referring to?

Apparently there was some sort of firewall that prevented the scheduler working correctly and it seems that they have only just resolved it or discovered it as an issue because the chap said he would be interested to hear how it is going now they have changed it

 

[Sandancer04]

Apparently there was some sort of firewall that prevented the scheduler working correctly and it seems that they have only just resolved it or discovered it as an issue because the chap said he would be interested to hear how it is going now they have changed it

Gotcha.

If they change my unit on Fri it'll be a few weeks before it is entered into the system so will be a while for me.

 

[Petronious]

You'll have to keep us informed of your progress.
What Firewall are they referring to?

Well I have tried now over 3 days and still it is not working as it should. So it seems I will have to go back and get the manual timer, which is not ideal but to take advantage of the cheaper energy tariffs I will have to take the timer

 

[Sandancer04]

Well I have tried now over 3 days and still it is not working as it should. So it seems I will have to go back and get the manual timer, which is not ideal but to take advantage of the cheaper energy tariffs I will have to take the timer

Not surprised.
Level of Service by BP Pulse is diabolical.
Timer costs about £65 to buy and yet they are changing my charger unit this morning (cost unknown).

 

[Petronious]

Not surprised.
Level of Service by BP Pulse is diabolical.
Timer costs about £65 to buy and yet they are changing my charger unit this morning (cost unknown).

Are you hopeful this will help?

 

[Parkwood]

Not with BP pulse and my wallbox is a simple plug and play but am resigned to accepting that until Mercedes add software to control charging I will not be able to regulate start or stop times🙄Clearly my supplier does not provide manual timers and having looked into what it all involves I have decided to just accept the position as it is rather than try and get another electrician to install one. The power levels involved and the sensitivity and controls of the car and charger make me very cautious of doing something myself even though I do have some knowledge of electrical circuitry and can install new circuits to a certain level ie all post the consumer unit. Plus french regulations and installations are very different to UK ring main set ups. Such a shame mercedes did not think through their offering.

 

[Petronious]

Not with BP pulse and my wallbox is a simple plug and play but am resigned to accepting that until Mercedes add software to control charging I will not be able to regulate start or stop times🙄Clearly my supplier does not provide manual timers and having looked into what it all involves I have decided to just accept the position as it is rather than try and get another electrician to install one. The power levels involved and the sensitivity and controls of the car and charger make me very cautious of doing something myself even though I do have some knowledge of electrical circuitry and can install new circuits to a certain level ie all post the consumer unit. Plus french regulations and installations are very different to UK ring main set ups. Such a shame mercedes did not think through their offering.

I note that there is a departure schedule which can also be used to activate the pre warming/cooling before driving but can be just activated with pre cooling/warming. What does that do?

 

[Parkwood]

I note that there is a departure schedule which can also be used to activate the pre warming/cooling before driving but can be just activated with pre cooling/warming. What does that do?

Cannot answer the question as I can only rely on the online guides as yet. I have been researching my electricity tariff and have come to the conclusion the lack of ability to control the charge time may not be the issue for me I have thought it was. Our electriciy tariffs are quite a lot different here from what I was used to when I lived in the UK. We have a HC/HP system here available best description is what I remember being called economy 7 with cheap rate overnight electricity (started for the storage radiator heating I think) so I get a cheaper rate overnight for about 8hrs. However there are lots of tariffs inc ones that charge far less on low use days and lots more on high use days ideal for small users, ones where you pay the market price that day and of interest to me one that will give you cheap rate all day on weekends and 1 day in the week plus national holidays of which we have a few🤣 plus the 8hr cheap rate for the 4 days when a full tariff applies. The unit price is of course slightly more than the simple day/night rate but looking at my consumption which incls electric heating in some areas then there are savings to be made because of the amout of cheap rate available for all use. In terms of the car it means I can plug in anytime over the weekend and the 1 day of my choice which I would nominate Weds meaning it is only mons. tues and thurs and fridays when I would be worrying about only using the cheap rate when it kicked in at 10.40pm. Given the range of the EQC v my lifestyle I think this will work well for me. I am going to do some more number crunching and double check my initial investigation but it seems I no longer need to feel so concerned about this lack of facility. Might even explain why Mercedes have not bothered re the delay charge function a cultural issue not considered until customers start complaining🤔ie it exists in germany and no one thought it did not exist elsewhere.

 

[lel]

Hi, I have the pod-point charger and whilst it didn’t initially have the facility to schedule a charge, they did an update an a couple of months ago I got the functionality. It works well, the charger seems well made and my EQC is ready to go whenever I need it. However I don’t have the option to override the schedule so if I want to top the car up outside of the plan I have to go in and alter the schedule. I have asked for a charger now button on the app, let’s see how long it takes to come.

 

[RHD1975]

Got my Pod Point charger two days ago. Night 1 it scheduled a charge beautifully. Tonight it just charges when I plug it in, and I can’t seem to stop it. Any ideas?

 

[bgjestvang]

Very disappointed the car or Mercedes me do not control the charging times. As ever for every really high tech bit of kit mercedes has some really poor tech.I have been driving Mercedes since 2007 and was there when Mercedes me came out it has been a painful journey at times🙄my french supplier has been in contact and they will be doing an over the phone diagnostic this week and then the installation. I will incl on my list of questions how I programme the charge times. Will feed back the response but from what I can see of the boxes used mine will not have internet capability☹

I agree, this is one of the few things I am very frustrated with re. my EQC. I think it's ridiculous that this can only be controlled through a third party app (control of the charger itself, ie power supply). With the current energy "crisis" in northern Europe (I am in Norway) we are being requested to balance out power peaks, and overnight charging of EVs is an obvious major contribution to do so. I would challenge Mercedes-Benz to make an upgrade to provide a charge timer function, I believe this could be resolved by online upgrade.

 

[Parkwood]

I agree, this is one of the few things I am very frustrated with re. my EQC. I think it's ridiculous that this can only be controlled through a third party app (control of the charger itself, ie power supply). With the current energy "crisis" in northern Europe (I am in Norway) we are being requested to balance out power peaks, and overnight charging of EVs is an obvious major contribution to do so. I would challenge Mercedes-Benz to make an upgrade to provide a charge timer function, I believe this could be resolved by online upgrade.

In the end it has not caused me as much difficulty because of my plan with my supplier so I can charge all day weds and weekends at the cheap rate as well as the cheap overnight rate the other days. I now just charge in the day when I am on cheap rate. I still 5ink Mercedes need to address the issue though.

 

[Alman]

The charging cost at home issue is becoming more complex as more renewable energy comes into market. Due to increasing solar and wind generation, peak and off-peak loosing relation to the clock, and now often off-peak costs more than peak, if the day is sunny or windy. Energy prices may differ x50 times depending if the generation from renewables is active (there is enough sun or wind) or not. Everyone in NordPool electricity market area can see their real prices online for each hour, a day in advance. The task seems simple in our times of Artificial Intelligence: a) there is a charging target, and the car knows how many kWh are needed to reach the 80% target (or whatever level is set), b) there shall be a departure time set, that function is already here for climate control, c) there is a pricing table online from NordPool, d) the car knows its charging power - 11kW for now, 7,2kW on older models, and hopefully 22kW AC charging will be available in near future in most EQx cars. Then its simple calculation how many charging hours needed before departure, and the task is to use only bottom priced hours for charging. If there are more very low cost hours than needed before departure time, the car may reduce the charging power, to improve battery health, for example from 22kW to 11kW and further to 6kW (for 3phase cases). This will ensure, that oil/gas originated energy is not used for EV charging, only renewables. Interestingly, on Citroen e-C4, the one can setup charging schedules (manually, not market price based) already today. But I hope the Mercedes will do it in "BEST OR NOTHING" way, so when it will be here, I will simply turn on the selector "Automatically use lowest market price for charging when at home location", and then on a lot of days car will be charged for less than 5 cents for kWh, charging only during hours with cost bottom when at home, yet charging with full AC speed if AC charging is activated not at home. With manual setting to activate this market bottom cost mode outside the home if needed - for example, if visiting parents for weekend, then charging with AC at lowest market cost here will need to be activated too. NordPool serves many countries and MB may get data over automatic interfaces from the market cost DB. People who do not use smart meters (with hourly pricing) just pay monthly averages, that due to x50 price fluctuations have much higher cost than energy cost is on bottom cost hours with smart meter. Of course 22kW AC on board charger is the most deserved EQx improvement, to charge during bottom price hours only, also to charge faster on the go where only AC is available (often for free, in my area).

 

[Parkwood]

The charging cost at home issue is becoming more complex as more renewable energy comes into market. Due to increasing solar and wind generation, peak and off-peak loosing relation to the clock, and now often off-peak costs more than peak, if the day is sunny or windy. Energy prices may differ x50 times depending if the generation from renewables is active (there is enough sun or wind) or not. Everyone in NordPool electricity market area can see their real prices online for each hour, a day in advance. The task seems simple in our times of Artificial Intelligence: a) there is a charging target, and the car knows how many kWh are needed to reach the 80% target (or whatever level is set), b) there shall be a departure time set, that function is already here for climate control, c) there is a pricing table online from NordPool, d) the car knows its charging power - 11kW for now, 7,2kW on older models, and hopefully 22kW AC charging will be available in near future in most EQx cars. Then its simple calculation how many charging hours needed before departure, and the task is to use only bottom priced hours for charging. If there are more very low cost hours than needed before departure time, the car may reduce the charging power, to improve battery health, for example from 22kW to 11kW and further to 6kW (for 3phase cases). This will ensure, that oil/gas originated energy is not used for EV charging, only renewables. Interestingly, on Citroen e-C4, the one can setup charging schedules (manually, not market price based) already today. But I hope the Mercedes will do it in "BEST OR NOTHING" way, so when it will be here, I will simply turn on the indicator "Automatically use lowest market price for charging when at home location", and then on a lot of days car will be charged for less than 5 cents for kWh, charging only during hours with cost bottom when at home, yet charging with full AC speed if AC charging is activated not at home. With manual setting to activate this market bottom cost mode outside the home if needed - for example, if visiting parents for weekend, then charging with AC at lowest market cost here will need to be activated too. NordPool serves many countries and MB may get data over automatic interfaces from the market cost DB. People who do not use smart meters (with hourly pricing) just pay monthly averages, that due to x50 price fluctuations have much higher cost than energy cost is on bottom cost hours. Of course 22kW AC on board charger is the most deserved EQx improvement, to charge during bottom price hours only, also to charge faster on the go where only AC is available (often for free, in my area).

A very interesting point you are making. I had to look up Nordpool and I see they are in fact now trading here in France. We in France have more non fossil fuel energy than many other European countries due to our high dependency on nuclear. It is good in terms of CO2 output but is not ideal of course because of the waste problems so I hesitate to use the expression green for the majority of our power supply. The U.K. maybe somewhere where this more enlightened model would work as it is a highly deregulated market place in general (hence the regular and spectacular collapses they experience in all sorts of markets) but given the French states control of the power markets I would be surprised if we saw such an approach (they hold big stakes in EDF the main generating company and distributor). But having said that our current gov is very progressive and innovative and they could well adapt such a model of distribution and pricing to fit in with our structure. Cars really do need to be as adaptable and controllable as possible in terms of charging and the EQC fails this test abysmally but it is a first for the company and overall they have made a damn good job of it in terms of the car which is a joy to drive, they just need to complete the adaptation to the world of AI which I am sure they will. I think the current war in Ukraine is going to shake a lot of things up quickly as we in Europe scramble to secure our power supplies and needs and I think it may accelerate the move to more BEV etc more quickly than anyone previously anticipated with all the changes that will bring.

 

[Banjo]

Hi.
Had same conversation over 2 months ago regarding deletion of Apps resetting Charger.
Had no effect whatsoever.
I asked for an electronic timer and told that they were only offered for units with Vodafone 2G simm.
Were supposed to change my charger yesterday as they (BP) said it was faulty.
No-one turned up. Now coming Fri 08.00

Will see what happens. NOT HOPEFUL

just about to get first Merc electric. Out of interest is the SIM changeable? I’m wondering what happens after 2025 when Vida 2G is phased out?