[scratch113]

Just placed an order through the NHS leasing / salary sacrifice scheme for an EQA 250+ AMG Line in Denim Blue - seems a good deal!

In reality the car will be my wife's main transport to/from work (she is after all the one who works in the NHS!), as well as some business miles between hospitals. That said, it will probably become my main transport for weekends as my wife often travels to see her elderly mum in Cornwall and looking at things, the charging network that far down the country is still a little patchy, so she's planning on taking my car, which will at least make the return journey on one tank of fuel, which the EQA won't manage on a single charge (176 miles each way, plus some miles whilst down there).

We've been quoted 9 months for delivery - does that tie in with others' experience for how long you have to wait for delivery?

Also, whilst I'm sure there will be lots of options, what's the best home charging wall box for fitting outside in a drive (no garage), that ideally will allow scheduled charging etc. Do I need a tethered one or un-tethered? Which is easier to use or live with?

We did look at going for the Premium pack, but just it pushed the budget a little too much - my wife really has a thing for Mercedes and was amazed that a fully electric Merc was within reach through the NHS leasing scheme as she had initially been looking at more budget options, so she's delighted. She'll be coming from a 2015 C220d Bluetec Estate Sport that she's had from new.

There is one question I haven't found an answer to as yet - are the Adaptive LED headlights the type that can adjust the beam to avoid dazzling oncoming cars whilst still maintaining a degree of high beam, or are they the more simple on/off high beam when it detects oncoming cars? The only option we paid for on my wife's 2015 C Class were the Intelligent LED headlights and they're fantastic, whereas I had auto high-beam on my previous LR Disco Sport that were simple on/off high beam, and they were rubbish (but then many things on that car were!). Any pointers as to whether they are the type that will move the high beam around would be appreciated.

Anyway, looking forward to learning more about the car!

 

[Mike H]

Lots of wall chargers about , I went with the Hypervolt 2.0 with solar output at 1.4kw at 6 amps for my solar array and battery system 11.6kw works on schedule via the hypervolt app..( Come on Mercedes add bloody Schedule Charging in the car) still not implemented. EQA Prem Plus ordered in May for July2021, first cars, but turned up late August, missing Augmented Reality system (AR) plus declined the free mercedes wall box on offer at the time, so many issues glad I did that in hindsight. All works fine.

Adaptive headlights work fine, if in the package... change so much after i ordered....

 

[scratch113]

Thanks for the reply Mike, useful info! Looking forward to getting the car, even though it will be used by my wife more. Hopefully I'll get to enjoy it at the weekends though!

 

[diederik]

are the Adaptive LED headlights the type that can adjust the beam to avoid dazzling oncoming cars whilst still maintaining a degree of high beam, or are they the more simple on/off high beam when it detects oncoming cars?

Yes, they'll automatically enable/disable high beam when oncoming traffic is detected or when you're appoaching a car from behind.

 

[scratch113]

Yes, they'll automatically enable/disable high beam when oncoming traffic is detected or when you're appoaching a car from behind.

Sorry, not sure I'm asking the right question - what I'm really wanting to know is whether they can 'shape' the high beam at all? VW/Audi call them "Matrix LED Headlights" and my wife's 2015 C Class calls them "Intelligent LED Headlights", but they're essentially the same thing (although the older Mercedes system was a little more simplistic, but achieved the same result).

If you're following another car on a dark road and there's no oncoming traffic, then they maintain high beam apart from the area where the car in front of you is, and the system will 'track' the tail lights of that car. It essentially creates a dark, square 'box' of light that the other car is within such that the other car isn't dazzled, but it maintains high beam for you - and it's brilliant! If another car then comes the other way it can dip just the area of the high beam where that car is and will again 'track' that car, returning that area to high beam as soon as it can whilst still maintaining the square dark box around the car you're following. Unsure what "Adaptive High Beam" actually means and I just can't find any info about it.

I"m thinking it may be the more simple on/off high beam system rather than having the ability to shape the high beam. There doesn't seem to be an option to upgrade the headlights on the EQA, even on the top Premium Plus model, which seems something of an oversight on what is potentially a £60k+ car (but it's standard on my £40k Skoda Kodiaq). There's a good video of the newer Mercedes system working on a 2019 E Class here (from 2.40 into the video):

This is exactly how my Kodiaq's headlights work. My question is whether the EQA has this system, but suspect not.

 

[Pacman-BNE-NL]

Sorry, not sure I'm asking the right question - what I'm really wanting to know is whether they can 'shape' the high beam at all? VW/Audi call them "Matrix LED Headlights" and my wife's 2015 C Class calls them "Intelligent LED Headlights", but they're essentially the same thing (although the older Mercedes system was a little more simplistic, but achieved the same result).

If you're following another car on a dark road and there's no oncoming traffic, then they maintain high beam apart from the area where the car in front of you is, and the system will 'track' the tail lights of that car. It essentially creates a dark, square 'box' of light that the other car is within such that the other car isn't dazzled, but it maintains high beam for you - and it's brilliant! If another car then comes the other way it can dip just the area of the high beam where that car is and will again 'track' that car, returning that area to high beam as soon as it can whilst still maintaining the square dark box around the car you're following. Unsure what "Adaptive High Beam" actually means and I just can't find any info about it.

I"m thinking it may be the more simple on/off high beam system rather than having the ability to shape the high beam. There doesn't seem to be an option to upgrade the headlights on the EQA, even on the top Premium Plus model, which seems something of an oversight on what is potentially a £60k+ car (but it's standard on my £40k Skoda Kodiaq). There's a good video of the newer Mercedes system working on a 2019 E Class here (from 2.40 into the video):

This is exactly how my Kodiaq's headlights work. My question is whether the EQA has this system, but suspect not.

I think I know what you are asking as my A200 Sedan Mercedes from 2019 has Multi Beam LED's and does exactly that High Beam is on always and the LED's adjust for Cars , Bikes and People even signs that reflect back to much.

Now I dont have my EQA300 yet as it wont be delivered until June but its my understanding as you can see from the picture the EQA the high beam has the traditional reflect mirrors inside its housing so it uses reflection technology rather than the projection technology like the Low Beam Lights if the car comes with the Adaptive Highbeam Assist (SA-608) its just an on/off high beam rather than a Multi Beam Like my A200 or even the GLA

Both the EQA and EQB dont give the options to upgrade the lights like in the EQC or even the GLA its the only option I wanted that I couldn't order on the EQA and the EQC is too big and outside what I am willing to spend on a car. But since I dont really do a lot of night driving it was only a nice to have option rather than a must have. I will miss the A200 lights it did look impressive at night especially if you driving in a really dark area and you can see the multi beams change to suit the environment

 

[scratch113]

Yes, that's as I suspected as I would think that Mercedes would still describe them as "Intelligent LED" if they were the type that could shape the beam. Interestingly, the system Mercedes used in 2015 looked much like the picture you posted above of the front of the EQA though - it has two reflector housings inside each headlight, but they're both used for the high beam. Each has the ability to physically move both horizontally and vertically and they both have fairly sharp edges to the light pattern that they throw such that it can have the two outer ones on high beam and the two inner ones not, thereby creating a U-shaped dark area in the middle which it can move around to track other cars.

What's different to my Kodiaq is that on the VAG system (newer), you can see the individual LED elements and they will turn on to high beam with a sweep from the centre outwards, whereas my wife's 2015 C Class, the entire light appears to sweep up from below (provided there isn't an oncoming car). With the 2015 Merc, you can see the 4 individual elements of the headlights physically moving around as it tracks either oncoming cars or the tail lights of cars you're following, however with only 4 elements, it can only create a single U-shaped black box to put other cars within, whereas with the Matrix LED ones it can create multiple boxes, so will in effect maintain more high beam areas lit ahead of you, which certainly makes driving at night on a dark road much more pleasurable.

There's a short video about the system my wife has on her car here (and you can see that there are 2 reflector-type elements, which look much like the EQA's):

And before people start moaning about these system causing dazzle, in my wife's Mercedes, I never get flashed by oncoming cars, whereas in my Kodiaq I occasionally do because it's just a little slower to react sometimes.

That said, neither were as bad as the headlights I had on my LR Disco Sport - they were Xenon lights rather than LEDs, but they did have an auto high beam system, but just a simple on/off (which is what I think the EQA has). The problem with the LR system was that it would 'see' oncoming cars, but then lose them, even when they were driving straight towards you from a distance away. There were numerous times when I'd be driving at night and the car would be going on-off-on-off-on-off with the high beam as cars came towards me and other drivers would (quite rightly) then start flashing me back! It would also often not 'see' cars that you were coming up behind and just leave the high beam on. The only way to turn the system off was to select the headlight switch by the driver's knee from Auto to On, but that then disabled the auto headlights entirely and also meant you had to remember to turn the lights off when you turned the car off, which kind of defeats the purpose of having an auto setting at all. Absolute rubbish! (Although it wasn't the only thing on that car that was rubbish - don't get me started!!!)

 

[EQA-S.oz]

An interesting thread.

I own a May 2021 build EQA250 and as far as I know it has the standard fitment headlamps. Most of my motoring is in built-up urban areas and I tend to leave the lights set on Auto. However, a few months ago we took our first night-time trip to the near country. I received one or two angry flashes from approaching motorists and wondered what the problem was. Before the penny dropped, I also noticed the lamps switching between high and low beam for seemingly inexplicable reasons. In most cases, I decided, the system was detecting reflective roadside warning signs and responding as if it were an approaching car.

Next day, I contacted my dealer and learnt that the solution to irregular high/low beam switching is to switch to the Headlamp position on the lights switch, rather than Auto. I still leave the switch set to Auto for urban driving, but when out of urban areas, I switch to the Headlamp position and select high or low beam manually, according to my judgement of appropriate high/low beam thresholds.

Hopefully, the more sophisticated system you're discussing is more reliable!

 

[scratch113]

Well I think I've found the answer to my own question - they're not the "Intelligent LED" lights (or Matrix LED in VAG-speak), they're just a simple on/off for the high beams: