[MrJax]

Hi - I am new to this forum, mercedes-benz cars, and electric cars also !

I had a question that I can't seem to find much information online about. I am considering an EQC but I am concerned about a £70K Mercedes badged EV sat on my drive and whether this will appeal to car thieves or is there an accepted view that EVs are not targeted in the same way other petrol or diesel cars are? I have picked up on comments on other sites that refer to there being still a lack of a spare parts market, issues around the technology not being well understood by those in the game of stealing cars, there being better technology to prevent theft, also difficulty getting it charged once acquired..... some of these comments are from quite old threads and so I was just interested in any data or recent experiences from any owners or those in the know? I note the EQC is in insurance group 50. What is pushing this - is it more because of theft risk/value or is it more because of cost to repair it if it was crashed?

Appreciate any thoughts.

 

[Dar]

"Engine power" and cost to replace the lighter cars it might hit are likely a large part of the insurance group rating. Digitalization is making some online theft easier but car theft harder for example chargers like Ionity in Europe exchange vehicle data so could potentially be used to track the car when plugged. Also the car contacts Mercedes automatically all the time and it's features depend on this. Private sales are almost negligible.

 

[MrJax]

"Engine power" and cost to replace the lighter cars it might hit are likely a large part of the insurance group rating. Digitalization is making some online theft easier but car theft harder for example chargers like Ionity in Europe exchange vehicle data so could potentially be used to track the car when plugged. Also the car contacts Mercedes automatically all the time and it's features depend on this. Private sales are almost negligible.

Thanks for the response. I had not considered that and interesting that you say the car is always effectively giving a signal back to Mercedes which I guess is over and above any tracker and geofencing provided

 

[Dar]

The car is always listening so in the Mercedes Me app you can send a signal to the car to, as examples, turn on the heater or reply back with it's location anywhere in the world. More digital services are due to follow such as location history (useful for recording business mileage). You could also get a second independent tracker (with remote ignition lock if available) and insurance with protected no claims bonus

 

[MrJax]

Thanks - I was basically keen to try and understand whether there is significant market demand that would motivate someone to try and get the keys and drive it off my driveway, and then what deterrents exist in the model/tech (which you’ve mentioned) in the event they did. I was surprised how little discussion there was about theft/security online, generally with EV, which I guess is a positive reflection in itself.

 

[Parkwood]

The LTE modules ( these connect the car to the internet and mercedes) are in essence a car tracker but no doubt the first thing thieves do is rip them out🙄. I doubt the EQC theft risk is high too few on the market to be good for spares and too difficult to make useable as already pointed out the car has an identity for the chargers etc. If the thieves wanted to go electric am sure the cheaper less sophisticated models that have been around longer would be more of a target. But thieves are always one step ahead but in general the mercedes are pretty good re key intercept problems. No need for farraday bags etc you can just switch the key off or it switches itself off if it is not moving. In the longer term for all battery vehicles we can probably anticipate something like the catalytic converter theft plague hitting us re the batteries themselves. It is hard enough to believe they could take cats out of cars but they do so I have no doubt they will find ways to get the batteries assuming the values are high enough. Does seem quite a UK problem though so maybe if the gov put in decent controls of scrap metal merchants etc it might squeeze the thieves enough to stop it being attractive enough🙄

 

[Thedeanetjes]

Mercedes in the UK, do offer a service where if the car is stolen, they will notify the police and work with them to get it back. It's about £100 per year. How effective? I hope I never have to find out!😁

 

[Parkwood]

Mercedes in the UK, do offer a service where if the car is stolen, they will notify the police and work with them to get it back. It's about £100 per year. How effective? I hope I never have to find out!😁

Ah yes i forgot about that same here in france. I decided against as in my part of the world the theft risk is pretty low if I lived in Paris or another big townI might review the matter. But the Mercedes’ scheme must be LTE based and unlike an unknown tracker unit must be the first things thieves rip out unless there is an inbuilt unit somewhere Mercedes’ can remotely activate/deactivate. They will not tell us though will they sure they would not want to advertise the fact😆