[Mollymoo]

Hi
i have owned my EQC now for 4 months and generally very happy with the car.
I have a 7kw home charger which works fine for my daily commute into London.
However last week was the first time i ventured out on a longer trip and had to use
public charge points going from London to Bristol. We tried 5x different public chargers
on the M4 and could only find one that worked! which added 3 hours to my journey as was
only a 11kw public charger.[4x that did not work were 7kw, 2x 22kw and 50kw]
To be honest i would not consider now using the EQC now on longer journeys
where public charging required as the network is too fragmented and unreliable.
if i could ask the powers that be that are in charge of UK public chargers ....Why are not all public
chargers a minium of 50kw? and basic tap and go card payment rather than some poxy app to down load for different networks etc etc. Tesla have blown mercedes out of the water with there super charger
network and i can only see greater problems around the corner as merecedes and other car makers bring on more EQ models.
i would summarize....EQC is a great car working with a terrible UK Public charging network!

please let me know other peoples experiences with public charging.....

 

[Parkwood]

I thought that the Mercedes me charge card got around the problem of all the different charging companies or are there still many not covered?
Am still waiting delivery of my EQC but France seems much better sorted than the U.K. and many bornes are actually local government controlled and maintained and our local government works here. We might have to pay our taxes but we do see returns. I am aware however that some of the private company fast chargers seem to have issues but not Ionity. But who knows I might find out that real life is different to perceptions!
Did you use the car navigation system to plan the trip and were you looking just for smaller top ups on the way or a major top up after emptying the battery?

 

[Mollymoo]

Mercedes me charge card only works on some networks in the UK and to be honest I gave up trying to use the card previously as this was also unreliable due in part to the number of different charging
networks here and the card not recognizing the ones it should do[Very frustrating]. Even the main dealer could not make sense of the charge card.
On my long journey I only needed to top up 100 miles and used car planner to find me different service stations along the way, but 4 out of 5 chargers that should of been working were broken. I even waited for other drivers to attempt to charge but they also pulled away without charging.
Put it this way we went on another longer journey at the weekend and we took my partners 1.4 petrol golf as i have no faith in the UK public charging network at the moment..

When i discussed the above with my Mercedes main dealer a few days ago he mentioned Ionity public chargers but also said they have very few Rapid chargers installed in the UK at present! [lol]

I just thought a company of Merecedes standing would of thought through the public charging situation better and perhaps gone down the Tesla super charger
route which apparently is a much better experience.

 

[Parkwood]

Mercedes me charge card only works on some networks in the UK and to be honest I gave up trying to use the card previously as this was also unreliable due in part to the number of different charging
networks here and the card not recognizing the ones it should do[Very frustrating]. Even the main dealer could not make sense of the charge card.
On my long journey I only needed to top up 100 miles and used car planner to find me different service stations along the way, but 4 out of 5 chargers that should of been working were broken. I even waited for other drivers to attempt to charge but they also pulled away without charging.
Put it this way we went on another longer journey at the weekend and we took my partners 1.4 petrol golf as i have no faith in the UK public charging network at the moment..

When i discussed the above with my Mercedes main dealer a few days ago he mentioned Ionity public chargers but also said they have very few Rapid chargers installed in the UK at present! [lol]

I just thought a company of Merecedes standing would of thought through the public charging situation better and perhaps gone down the Tesla super charger
route which apparently is a much better experience.

That is very dispiriting to read. Yes I thought Mercedes me charge was pretty smart all the reviewers raved about how it simplified the system. Hey ho I might get a shock then but looking at the Mercedes me charge maps and assuming that the chargers shown are ones affiliated (maybe a fatally flawed assumption) it seems as if all the dept chargers are covered. I shall find out no doubt. It seems to me the Tesla approach is what is keeping them at the head of the game bit like Apple by controlling the ecosystem. I did not consider Tesla as the cars seem less well constructed and to be honest the model 3 is positively ugly to my eyes inside and out though the EQC is not my top choice as I am not an SUV lover. I am semi retired so myslef and my partner have no need of a second car so the EQC will be our only mode of transport. Like you day to day use will be fine but taking longer journeys sounds as if they may prove less enjoyable but France has been gearing up for some time albeit it is by no means completed yet.
From my exploration on the navigation it does seem that here the live state of the bornes are shown ie occupied working not working is it the same in the U.K.? I really share your frustration as someone about to jump with both feet into the world of electric. I am doing it because I feel I should for the future generations and I would like to convince my sceptical friends it works and they should also think of getting rid of their polluting cars if it proves as difficult as you are experiencing there is no chance I will convince them☹

 

[Mollymoo]

Not much response guys, thought this would
Of generated some interest? Lol

 

[Parkwood]

Sadly there does not seem to be a lot of traffic on this site. Have just posted under the Ionity post on a 250km (500km return) trip this week I passed 2 services with Ionity chargers 4 in each set up all working none occupied so I am hopeful France will prove more electric car friendly for motorway trips at least. There was also a local gov charger in the tourist town I stayed (a small place) but the hotel disapppunted with no proper type 2 wallbox.

 

[Mollymoo]

Yes I am sure France is better organised
Than the Uk for public charging.

 

[Sarge]

zapmap is probably a better resource for checking chargers, It shows info about speeds and network. I've used the MercedesMe Charge card a few times and also signed up to about 3 other networks on the spot, all simple and all worked seamlessly. Best to check and plan before travelling and it's quite easy.

 

[Mollymoo]

i have already signed up with zap map and they showed 50kw chargers were available when they were broken. Also its ok planning to use chargers on your route but if you stop on a motorway and the
chargers are now being used what do you do apart from wait? Also who wants to sign up to loads of different apps for different providers? When all you want to do is charge your car as fast as possible and leave. I cannot understand why they have 7, 11 and 22kw chargers at motorway service stations as these are far too slow. Surely should be minimum 50kw chargers and reliable!

 

[Sarge]

Maybe I've just been lucky so far then. I agree that the low rated chargers are pretty pointless other than at some where you might stop for a while or like the local Asda where you can top up for free while you shop probably covering your miles to and from the shop.

 

[Mike H]

Some input from my experience, MBux, Mercedes Me App and Mercedes Me Charge Card are all hit and miss, setting up settings for Mercedes Me Charge charging points only in the navigation screen and Mercedes Me App, travelling via MBux to charger, Mubux failed, Mercedes Me Charge failed,(did not use the Mercedes Me App, had iphone on me but was so frustrated that the previous to failed, so used my Debit Card Visa, which worked at that time I was slightly confused, bewildered why it was not working with the MBux and Mercedes Me Charge) at an Instavolt Charge Point, email to Mercedes Me Charge Support are responsible for your energy charging, not Mercedes Me support, as I found out, also my Ionity contract on Mercedes Me Charge states Cancelled until a year ahead (Go figure) after setting up Account for Mercedes Me Charge via the Mercedes Me Portal, after only having the EQA for less than 1 day!!! How does that happen lol, Previous 2 cars had Mercedes Me so I had to only make a new Mercedes Me Charge Account.. which they seem to have got wrong when they have all my details for past 8 years... lol How can the Mercedes Me Charge account be failing to work is beyond me, MBux will not work, Mercedes Me Charge will now work but different type of Visa card from Debit to Credit... there software has to be flaky at best for Mercedes Me Charge.


Mercedes Me Charge Support still have not rectified the Ionity contract to Active from Active but Cancelled until 17/8/2022 to be able to use it !!!!!ROTFLMAO, seems it is all very new to them lol then had to change my account card for billing as one CSA said, which i did from a Debit Visa to CC Visa, and low and behold it did work charging at the same Instavolt charge point @40p kw... only used for a 15% charge to verify it would work, but apparently the MBux which i used to travel to the charge point, (I know how to get there but was verifying that MBux navigation would work and start charge via screen..) but MBux Charge Start on screen failed to authenicate, on both chargers, but the Mercedes Me Charge Card worked... so the MBux in car might need a firmware update to communicate better lol to actually charge by its authenication method. So on a far longer journey it would be hell to find out that the car cannot receive a charge and very frustrating to say the least... next time I will try the Mercedes Me App... but that will be sometime as I have working solar charging at 1.4 kW, plug & charge, schedule charging, change the ampage, add daytime tariff, and night time tariff for session or sessions now aswell, via the Hypervolt 2.0 and Alexa enabled to check Status and start Scheduled Charging; only time will tell when i venture out of the Range of the MBux navigation screen indicated in Green...

 

[Mike H]

zapmap is probably a better resource for checking chargers, It shows info about speeds and network. I've used the MercedesMe Charge card a few times and also signed up to about 3 other networks on the spot, all simple and all worked seamlessly. Best to check and plan before travelling and it's quite easy.

MBux has all this info for availability, charging speed, for selecting the charge point destination or if out of range, and to start the charge via screen, that is another story for my EQA; MBux not working to start charge via authentication, Mercedes Me App does the same thing and you can send details to the car if in the office, walking about, or in an shop or restaurant... for that charge point destination or if you are out of its range.

 

[Parkwood]

ok got my car weds and mercedes me charge was simple to set up ONCE I found the correct route via the internet portal which was a tad confusing to get to. In my view it should be done via the mercedes me app, you do switich it on in the app but registering your bank details is done via the portal and until that is done is does not of course work. A few choice words used!
However have not yet tried it out I will do so next week on a longer trip. As yet I have only added 6.6kwh at home to see if the charger wallbox works. Car delivered with 99% charge and after 184km it is still at 56%. Have averaged 22,4kwh/100km over a mix of very short and medium journeys. Am pleased with the efficiency thus far. I have seen one trip at 19kwh/100km😉