[KC:]

Hi, i have noticed that you need to ensure the heater is switched off to avoid losing approx. 40+ miles. Often you won’t notice it’s on (there is no light!) so you actively have to switch off. I had to use the heating to clear the windscreen momentarily. I noticed that the range reduced by 50miles. After 20seconds I switched it off expecting the range to recover. After 10mins I clicked the switch down to switch off again and the range topped up. I didn’t get the full 50miles back but it was something. I was not aware of this. And given it’s possible that you will need to clear the windscreen multiple times on a trip it is not viable to lose 50miles each time. Does anyone know why it was designed this way? Clearly it won’t take 50miles of battery to clear a windscreen. Keen to hear if anyone else has any tips like this. Thanks

 

[benzguy]

@KC:, its one of many things Mercedes did wrong on the EQC unfortunately. Have you spoke to your dealer/Mercedes corporate about it? Its possible this is not exactly normal and a fix is available.
How is the rest of your EQC?

 

[91Underwood]

Hi, i have noticed that you need to ensure the heater is switched off to avoid losing approx. 40+ miles. Often you won’t notice it’s on (there is no light!) so you actively have to switch off. I had to use the heating to clear the windscreen momentarily. I noticed that the range reduced by 50miles. After 20seconds I switched it off expecting the range to recover. After 10mins I clicked the switch down to switch off again and the range topped up. I didn’t get the full 50miles back but it was something. I was not aware of this. And given it’s possible that you will need to clear the windscreen multiple times on a trip it is not viable to lose 50miles each time. Does anyone know why it was designed this way? Clearly it won’t take 50miles of battery to clear a windscreen. Keen to hear if anyone else has any tips like this. Thanks

You're not the first one to point this out unfortunately. one way you might be able to save some range is to pre-programme it to heat prior to you leave your home while it's plugged in.

Mercedes EQC long-term test

The Mercedes EQC is the brand's first mainstream all-electric car. Can it eclipse the rival Audi e-tron, Jaguar I-Pace and Tesla Model X? We've had six months to find out

www.whatcar.com

The result is that you learn – consciously and unconsciously – a few tricks, always coasting to a halt when possible to maximise energy regeneration, but if that’s not possible then sometimes braking later and harder to produce a larger spike of energy creation. Likewise, you start to roll around corners, read the road ahead with more care and more. Dare I say an electric car makes you a better driver?

There are also choices you can make to maximise efficiency, starting from before you leave home. If the car is plugged in to charge, you can pre-programme it to heat prior to your departure (or set this function live via an app on your phone if you aren’t organised enough to plan). As a result, you can have demisted windows, a heated interior and toasty seats, with all the energy to do that topped up from the wall socket rather than the car’s battery.

 

[KC:]

@KC:, its one of many things Mercedes did wrong on the EQC unfortunately. Have you spoke to your dealer/Mercedes corporate about it? Its possible this is not exactly normal and a fix is available.
How is the rest of your EQC?

Thanks for your response. What do you mean by “it’s one of the many things Mercedes did wrong on the EQC”? The other issues are range related. I can’t get anywhere close to 259. I get around 160. The dealer reset the range and I’ve charged it once. Managed to get 225. I don’t understand exactly what the dealer has done here but I’ve noticed some changes to MBUX, lighting and the above heater item as a consequence.

 

[KC:]

You're not the first one to point this out unfortunately. one way you might be able to save some range is to pre-programme it to heat prior to you leave your home while it's plugged in.

Mercedes EQC long-term test

The Mercedes EQC is the brand's first mainstream all-electric car. Can it eclipse the rival Audi e-tron, Jaguar I-Pace and Tesla Model X? We've had six months to find out

www.whatcar.com

The result is that you learn – consciously and unconsciously – a few tricks, always coasting to a halt when possible to maximise energy regeneration, but if that’s not possible then sometimes braking later and harder to produce a larger spike of energy creation. Likewise, you start to roll around corners, read the road ahead with more care and more. Dare I say an electric car makes you a better driver?

There are also choices you can make to maximise efficiency, starting from before you leave home. If the car is plugged in to charge, you can pre-programme it to heat prior to your departure (or set this function live via an app on your phone if you aren’t organised enough to plan). As a result, you can have demisted windows, a heated interior and toasty seats, with all the energy to do that topped up from the wall socket rather than the car’s battery.

Hi. The issue is not warming the car. It’s demystifying the windscreen whilst driving. How are drivers getting around this in an EQC? Are they doing the process I described above to restore the range??

 

[91Underwood]

Hi. The issue is not warming the car. It’s demystifying the windscreen whilst driving. How are drivers getting around this in an EQC? Are they doing the process I described above to restore the range??

Using your heater only when necessary seems to be the best way to do it. It's annoying that Mercedes didn't focus more on giving the EQC a higher range.

 

[NMM]

I think a fair few of these things are not really to do with energy consumption, but about the quirks of the range algorithm. The windscreen heater won't use anywhere near 50 miles of driving energy! What sometimes happens though is that when you get in the car in the morning, you use the windscreen heating at the same time as the algorithm updates its range estimate for the fact that it's a much colder day than yesterday. The next time you use the windscreen heater in the journey, I'm not sure you'd notice the range estimate changing by 1 mile, never mind 50.

In general, I find the range algorithm is too conservative. It updates too much based on small city trips in cold weather. Once you take it out on a longer trip, your energy efficiency goes up a lot and the algorithm updates and increases your range. And unless you're penny pinching on electricity, range is only a relevant concept on longer trips (which have largely been illegal since Christmas!)

My main tip is don't take the algorithm too seriously. It's just an estimate. And usually a conservative one. When you need it, the range is easily there to drive two hours between coffee breaks. More than that is pushing it, but generally not a good idea anyway!

 

[KC:]

Hi. I want to be clear. I took the car out in the evening, after 30mins into the drive I needed to switch on the windscreen heater for 15seconds. This reduced range by 50miles. 24mins later I needed to use it again. This reduced the range by another 50miles. I could top it back up after 10mins if using it but i would only recover approx. 35/50 miles. Has anyone noticed this? First time I’d seen the range top up but in order to do this I needed to press off on the switch approx. 10mins after use. I’m learning and keen for others to share their experience. Clearing the windscreen is clearly something we will need to do from time to time. But why 50miles for a 15s use?

 

[NMM]

That is strange. But it's clearly an algorithm issue, rather than real energy consumption. There's no way a windscreen heater would use anything close to 20 kWh of energy. The power rating of a heated windscreen is usually about 150 Watts. Assuming you have a maximum driving range of 200 miles, that means it would need to be running full blast for 5 days continously to use 50 miles of range. You're obviously not using anything like that! The power output of the air conditioning system will be higher - maybe 10 times higher than the windscreen. So that might use 50 miles of range if it were running full blast for 12 hours.

So I wouldn't worry about how much energy these devices are using - the simple answer is always not very much compared to the energy needed to move a 2 and half ton vehicle. The issue is to do with the algorithm.