This feels like the best electric car for the money right now as a city car. And when it came out, it felt like the worst possible. But the price for one of these are so good now.
I am considering buying one of these now, as an affordable electric car option. I found one on Ebay, so I watched this video, as I will be buying mine before driving it. This was very helpful, thank you! This will feel like an exotic car here in Austin, TX. We have a charging point walking distance from my house so that's what I plan on using. I just need to clear up what the warranty is on the battery as the car I'm buying has 44,000 miles.
Getting a fully loaded 2016 one with only 36k miles here in the US for 23k total price with tax. I would say it’s a steal considering the Tesla drivetrain/battery and the fact it has one of the best interiors of any ev, especially in this price range. Sure, no fast charging (can possibly modify chademo though through third party) and low range but in general as a city car it’s one of the best values I think. Just such a good value for a very premium car with good options even by todays standards. Unlike some other Mercedes, it’s very reliable too with its Tesla drive system and battery. These are very hard to find in the North America too, so it’s kind of cool owning one as we don’t have B classes here. Even though it’s rare, Mercedes doesn’t seem to have a problem with fixing it either if need be, at least at my local dealership here in the US Finally, nice review. This is an old review by now obviously but still pretty relevant. All of your reviews seem great!
Did you end up getting this car? How are you liking it? I am in Austin, Texas, and considering buying one from Seattle to be shipped. It is a 2015 with 44k miles. We have a charging port near my house. How is the public charging time for you?
200km range with 3h recharge time is a real compromise if someone ever wants to leave the city or his regular commute area. I like Teslas, but not as much as Mercedes cars and I can't wait to see their upcoming product line, I hope there will be a GLE sized SUV with at least 400km range and max 30mins charging time.
Mercedes removed the side stickers and the RHS bootlid "Electric Drive" in 2016 and put "250e" on the LHS of the bootlid. Some nasty stories in forums about the slow charging of the 250e in UK motorway service stations, apparently it took one guy 3 days to get to Brussels.
Good car. Hard to tell from the video but so many Mercedes cars in the UK have offset steering wheels. Very bad for "premium" cars. I always wondered if Mercedes did a poor job converting to Right hand drive. Or the same problem exists in left hand drive cars too?
pipcannon Very interesting point. Havent realized that with left hand models here, but I will pay attention to the next ones. We also have a GLK at the moment, gonna check that there.
This was a really great and thorough review. Is the charging socket a standard SAE J1772 for the US and will it remain on the left rear side? Do you get an adapter for the charge cable shown in the video to allow for connection to SAE J1772, NEMA 14-50 and standard 110V outlets? Also can you get it without the big E Drive stickers. I would hate those. They are an option on my LEAF, I don't have them.
BigAl60504 Thank you very much! About the adapters, sorry, no clue - you will have to file a question to MB USA via the customer support or ask your next dealer
i refer. to other statement on HVAV meaning using a heat pump because it uses less power to run ,when in use and mainly when using heating in cold weather. some use heating element to heat interior which uses lots of power when on and heat pump uses far less doing the same thing and much better experience .Almost all EV's can use heating and cooling event when plugged in for charging on 220 volt system or better. Conditioning the vehicle . better to condition before driving than to use battery . thus saving range.
Number one priority for this car is to get rid of that Electric Drive sticker on the side. The competition for this car will be the Tesla X SUV in 2016.
Hehehe, Thanks Thomas, for letting us know that B-Class is coming to the USA. I browsed the website, only Electric model, but it is not available right, now... maybe later, also the price is not that attractive. I suppose the reason B will be selling in the USA is to compete with BMW, which has started to sell i3, I have seen someone drive it one the road. very cool.
Joyface D Yeah should be fighting against BMW i3, although I think that these are two totally different target groups as the BMW i3 is extraordinary and the B-Class is like the e-Golf a "normal" car. Actually the B-Class should be available in all the US, Mercedes says it's already available since summer?
Ciao. Thomas. Thanks for answering. B is a forceful competitor to i3, which price is from $41,000-$45,000. Two models in USA. But B's price is start at 41,000$, also, I do think B is more practical than i3. Just like Tasla is pretty more practical than i8, which is also more expensive than Tesla.
Does the heater run off the battery pack? It's fine that you can heat while connected to the 220V, but you need the heater while driving as well in winter time, this will reduce the range.
Good review. Too bad that the Mercedes b class electric drive doesn’t support fast charging.. Why not even offer it as a option.. Only max 11kw onboard charging. No heating pump..(big deal in winter ) That’s 2 big drawbacks especially in that price range. Kia soul ev, Renault zoe, e-golf has it standard or in option.. Least efficient ev on the market and don’t offer more range than a Kia soul ev in reality. But is the most powerful ev car beside tesla yet, the most roomy, with the biggest cargo space and possibility the best interior quality.
Great review..very informative. I like the idea of a family "electric" car in the US. If you guys can hit the so called "Soccer Mom" customers, I think you will be successful with the electric B-Class. Here, we look for Safety, Room, and Efficiency...in that order of importance.
Zachary Ong hehe =) They can, they also offer the B-Class Electric in any other normal colour. The 2 special combinations are only avaible for the Electric Drive, but you do not have to take them.
I agree. Here in the US, I think it de-values the Mercedes brand when you do that. Make it look exactly like your other cars...just put EV in the back next to the model label.
You should also keep your eye out for the Jaguar I Pace - now they will produce a car that performs - they say 0 to 60 in 4 secs and real range. I think it is better to wait and produce a car that can compete with Tesla like what Jag seem to be doing.
I think the B-Class would sell well here in the US, if the price was competitive. The Electric ver. should do well, if they don't fall in the trap of only selling in certain markets such as California. They should just release it as a whole. The Vehicle in the review is a Great looking vehicle ,and i agree remove the stickers. I was wondering does it come with an heat pump HVAC system ? Does it come with Quick charging ? I wish they would make a deal with Tesla for quick charging direct to pack using supercharging network in doing so becomes way more accessible to charging across the entire US. Like all electric EV's to Date here Price is a major incentive to get the vehicle sold.beyond the 1st wave of enthusiasts as well as infrastructure for charging , as with above statement charging using tesla supercharging network would allow faster adoption. I think there regenerative Braking system being able to select will be a plus in comparison to the BMW i3 where is not ! Coasting is a great benefit that hyper milers use to get greater range , but i'm not sure your thought on not using the max setting is correct , a 1 to 2 % recovery rate is usually standard on regenerative braking systems unless its aggressive similar to the BMW i3. where you might achieve a 3 % recovery rate , might mean the difference between walking and not when pushing range to the max. My average daily commute of 63 miles in mix driving might be challenge on winter days but doable if no other charging other than at home available. Great Review ,enjoyed it. I'm a big Fan of EV's in general, i do not drive one yet, mainly because of having to use one vehicle for long distance driving. I think Mercedes should come out with a plan to allow a loaner vehicle in such cases maybe for EX. ) 3 to 4 times a year. Thanks Joe .
TechExplorer I think the function that you can heat or cool down the interior without turning on the car should refer to a HVAC, doenst it? About quick charging, I dont think anyone else besides Tesla offers that atm. About recuperation, all experts tend to use the least recuperation because it makes more sense to let the car roll. Plus, you get the recuperation automatically when you use the brakes. So it helps you when going downhill that you dont have to press the brake all the time. 63 miles could already be a challange, but i think that should be possible. Most of the day, a car just stands still so there is always time to charge - you just need the power supply at home or at work. Thank you very much!
Entoris19 Hallo! Unsere Website für ausführliche Hintergrundinformationen machen wir auf Deutsch.Die Videos laufen über UA-cam und erreichen ein internationales Publikum, sehr viele Zuschauer aus USA, Deutschland, Großbritannien, Japan, Russland und weitere aus über 100 Ländern der Welt. Darum sind die meisten unserer Videos auf Englisch.Die meisten deutschen Videozuschauer verstehen auch Englisch, aber fast alle anderen verstehen kein Deutsch. Insofern ist es nur logisch, die Videos auf Englisch anzubieten, was auch sehr gut ankommt.Wir würden uns freuen, wenn Sie weiter hier auf Deutsch unsere Text-Berichterstattung verfolgen und auch unsere englischen Videos. Herzliche Grüße, Thomas
I just priced up one of these on the UK website - 37,000 GBP to get it with a few of the extra tech packages. I love electric cars but right not they are just rich mans toy who probably keeps his other gas guzzling car in the garage for normal use. Seriously why would you buy one of these when you can get a new Ford Fiesta or something similar for 10K at a quarter of the price?? There has to be more incentive to get electric cars on the road than this
There is a UK plug in car grant of 4500 pounds but I am not sure how that works. The problem I see however is that Tesla offered something real and something special. It was an incredibly fast sports car that outperformed petrol cars. It also gave great range and the technology was amazing. Now it made sense to pay the extra for that. What I don''t get are these European attempts that offer absolutely nothing. They want you to pay 3 times more than a petrol equivalent for less performance, less range and basically nothing more.
Mercedes need to stop basing their lower model's interiors on the A-Class design. It looks and feels cheap and old, so I think they should have made it more like the new C-Class, which is much better.
This feels like the best electric car for the money right now as a city car.
And when it came out, it felt like the worst possible. But the price for one of these are so good now.
I am considering buying one of these now, as an affordable electric car option. I found one on Ebay, so I watched this video, as I will be buying mine before driving it. This was very helpful, thank you! This will feel like an exotic car here in Austin, TX. We have a charging point walking distance from my house so that's what I plan on using. I just need to clear up what the warranty is on the battery as the car I'm buying has 44,000 miles.
As a Houstonian, let us know how it goes. Im considering a purchase soon.
Getting a fully loaded 2016 one with only 36k miles here in the US for 23k total price with tax. I would say it’s a steal considering the Tesla drivetrain/battery and the fact it has one of the best interiors of any ev, especially in this price range. Sure, no fast charging (can possibly modify chademo though through third party) and low range but in general as a city car it’s one of the best values I think. Just such a good value for a very premium car with good options even by todays standards. Unlike some other Mercedes, it’s very reliable too with its Tesla drive system and battery.
These are very hard to find in the North America too, so it’s kind of cool owning one as we don’t have B classes here. Even though it’s rare, Mercedes doesn’t seem to have a problem with fixing it either if need be, at least at my local dealership here in the US
Finally, nice review. This is an old review by now obviously but still pretty relevant. All of your reviews seem great!
highly appreciated keep tuning in !
Did you end up getting this car? How are you liking it? I am in Austin, Texas, and considering buying one from Seattle to be shipped. It is a 2015 with 44k miles. We have a charging port near my house. How is the public charging time for you?
200km range with 3h recharge time is a real compromise if someone ever wants to leave the city or his regular commute area.
I like Teslas, but not as much as Mercedes cars and I can't wait to see their upcoming product line, I hope there will be a GLE sized SUV with at least 400km range and max 30mins charging time.
Thinking about a 2nd hand one of these instead of a new Smart 4-4 this was really useful, thank you.
:)
I have that car! Perfect for Vegas city driving.
Nice review, I love the quality of your camera. The idea of the car is good, but I don't see B-class as a successful model, especially in the uk.
Lukasz Rutecki Thank you! I am not sure about B-Class sales figures in the UK, we should look into that.
Mercedes removed the side stickers and the RHS bootlid "Electric Drive" in 2016 and put "250e" on the LHS of the bootlid. Some nasty stories in forums about the slow charging of the 250e in UK motorway service stations, apparently it took one guy 3 days to get to Brussels.
great, thanks for the info :)
Great review, as always.
Anwar Afhim Thanks buddy!
Good car. Hard to tell from the video but so many Mercedes cars in the UK have offset steering wheels. Very bad for "premium" cars. I always wondered if Mercedes did a poor job converting to Right hand drive. Or the same problem exists in left hand drive cars too?
pipcannon Very interesting point. Havent realized that with left hand models here, but I will pay attention to the next ones. We also have a GLK at the moment, gonna check that there.
Thomas!! Have you done a comparison between this B250e and the BMW i3?
no sorry
BMW i3 videos here:
ua-cam.com/video/2-JYFpokNQs/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/3XiiVUQhvdg/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/6epDTr2Kacs/v-deo.html
No worries, thanks for the links.
you re welcome!
Why does Mercedes Benz US say that range is 87 miles and in Europe all journalists say up to 200 km.
Same question.
This was a really great and thorough review. Is the charging socket a standard SAE J1772 for the US and will it remain on the left rear side? Do you get an adapter for the charge cable shown in the video to allow for connection to SAE J1772, NEMA 14-50 and standard 110V outlets? Also can you get it without the big E Drive stickers. I would hate those. They are an option on my LEAF, I don't have them.
BigAl60504 Thank you very much! About the adapters, sorry, no clue - you will have to file a question to MB USA via the customer support or ask your next dealer
Would you please tell me where is this place? looks so amazing!!!
Joyface D Sure, that was Port Adriano in Majorca, west coast.
***** Mallorce? Or Majorca? Same thing?!
Joyface D Majorca should be the spelling in English. Island in the mediterranean
i refer. to other statement on HVAV meaning using a heat pump because it uses less power to run ,when in use and mainly when using heating in cold weather. some use heating element to heat interior which uses lots of power when on and heat pump uses far less doing the same thing and much better experience .Almost all EV's can use heating and cooling event when plugged in for charging on 220 volt system or better. Conditioning the vehicle . better to condition before driving than to use battery . thus saving range.
Number one priority for this car is to get rid of that Electric Drive sticker on the side. The competition for this car will be the Tesla X SUV in 2016.
arrow251 =)
i like this guy..he seems like a kool dude.
Hehehe, Thanks Thomas, for letting us know that B-Class is coming to the USA. I browsed the website, only Electric model, but it is not available right, now... maybe later, also the price is not that attractive. I suppose the reason B will be selling in the USA is to compete with BMW, which has started to sell i3, I have seen someone drive it one the road. very cool.
Joyface D Yeah should be fighting against BMW i3, although I think that these are two totally different target groups as the BMW i3 is extraordinary and the B-Class is like the e-Golf a "normal" car. Actually the B-Class should be available in all the US, Mercedes says it's already available since summer?
Ciao. Thomas. Thanks for answering. B is a forceful competitor to i3, which price is from $41,000-$45,000. Two models in USA. But B's price is start at 41,000$, also, I do think B is more practical than i3. Just like Tasla is pretty more practical than i8, which is also more expensive than Tesla.
Joyface D I think so too, very complicated to open the back doors at the i3.
Have you ever talked to the designers of i series? why did they design the cars like that?
Joyface D Well they wanted to do something stand alone. Its another strategy than Volkswagen where they put a normal car as the electric version.
Does the heater run off the battery pack? It's fine that you can heat while connected to the 220V, but you need the heater while driving as well in winter time, this will reduce the range.
Susinthiran Sithamparanathan Indeed it does
Susinthiran Sithamparanathan No way.....are you an engineer?
Great review! What camera was this filmed with? I assume some dslr, with what lense? Please I need to know! Amazing quality!
+Archi Geist thanks! Pana GH4 :)
+Autogefühl Thanks so much! Vielen Dank! Subscribed
+Archi Geist lovely! :)
Good review. Too bad that the Mercedes b class electric drive doesn’t support fast charging.. Why not even offer it as a option.. Only max 11kw onboard charging. No heating pump..(big deal in winter ) That’s 2 big drawbacks especially in that price range. Kia soul ev, Renault zoe, e-golf has it standard or in option.. Least efficient ev on the market and don’t offer more range than a Kia soul ev in reality. But is the most powerful ev car beside tesla yet, the most roomy, with the biggest cargo space and possibility the best interior quality.
jk0129 Well analysed!
Thank you for the good analysis..was planning to own one in Finland..now..2 rethink
Great review..very informative. I like the idea of a family "electric" car in the US. If you guys can hit the so called "Soccer Mom" customers, I think you will be successful with the electric B-Class. Here, we look for Safety, Room, and Efficiency...in that order of importance.
it will be awsome that the car get a solar panel as an update i live in a tropical island that will be great
Why can't hybird/electric cars look normal without the blue/green accents!?!?!
Zachary Ong hehe =) They can, they also offer the B-Class Electric in any other normal colour. The 2 special combinations are only avaible for the Electric Drive, but you do not have to take them.
***** Ah, that's cool!
I agree. Here in the US, I think it de-values the Mercedes brand when you do that. Make it look exactly like your other cars...just put EV in the back next to the model label.
You should also keep your eye out for the Jaguar I Pace - now they will produce a car that performs - they say 0 to 60 in 4 secs and real range. I think it is better to wait and produce a car that can compete with Tesla like what Jag seem to be doing.
yeah looking forward to that becoming reality!
Port adriano?
Si :)
Thank you...
I think the B-Class would sell well here in the US, if the price was competitive. The Electric ver. should do well, if they don't fall in the trap of only selling in certain markets such as California. They should just release it as a whole. The Vehicle in the review is a Great looking vehicle ,and i agree remove the stickers.
I was wondering does it come with an heat pump HVAC system ?
Does it come with Quick charging ? I wish they would make a deal with Tesla for quick charging direct to pack using supercharging network in doing so becomes way more accessible to charging across the entire US.
Like all electric EV's to Date here Price is a major incentive to get the vehicle sold.beyond the 1st wave of enthusiasts as well as infrastructure for charging , as with above statement charging using tesla supercharging network would allow faster adoption.
I think there regenerative Braking system being able to select will be a plus in comparison to the BMW i3 where is not ! Coasting is a great benefit that hyper milers use to get greater range , but i'm not sure your thought on not using the max setting
is correct , a 1 to 2 % recovery rate is usually standard on regenerative braking systems unless its aggressive similar to the BMW i3. where you might achieve a 3 % recovery rate , might mean the difference between walking and not when pushing range to the max.
My average daily commute of 63 miles in mix driving might be challenge on winter days but doable if no other charging other than at home available.
Great Review ,enjoyed it. I'm a big Fan of EV's in general, i do not drive one yet, mainly because of having to use one vehicle for long distance driving. I think Mercedes should come out with a plan to allow a loaner vehicle in such cases maybe for EX. ) 3 to 4 times a year.
Thanks
Joe
.
TechExplorer I think the function that you can heat or cool down the interior without turning on the car should refer to a HVAC, doenst it?
About quick charging, I dont think anyone else besides Tesla offers that atm.
About recuperation, all experts tend to use the least recuperation because it makes more sense to let the car roll. Plus, you get the recuperation automatically when you use the brakes. So it helps you when going downhill that you dont have to press the brake all the time.
63 miles could already be a challange, but i think that should be possible. Most of the day, a car just stands still so there is always time to charge - you just need the power supply at home or at work.
Thank you very much!
*****
What do you think about buying a used one with 59k miles??
In 2023
Sure np if u can live with the short range?
Warum nicht auf Deutsch ?
Entoris19 Hallo! Unsere Website für ausführliche Hintergrundinformationen machen wir auf Deutsch.Die Videos laufen über UA-cam und erreichen ein internationales Publikum, sehr viele Zuschauer aus USA, Deutschland, Großbritannien, Japan, Russland und weitere aus über 100 Ländern der Welt. Darum sind die meisten unserer Videos auf Englisch.Die meisten deutschen Videozuschauer verstehen auch Englisch, aber fast alle anderen verstehen kein Deutsch. Insofern ist es nur logisch, die Videos auf Englisch anzubieten, was auch sehr gut ankommt.Wir würden uns freuen, wenn Sie weiter hier auf Deutsch unsere Text-Berichterstattung verfolgen und auch unsere englischen Videos. Herzliche Grüße, Thomas
Ah ! Ok
Entoris19 Gerne. Schau doch einfach mal auf autogefuehl de wenn du mehr auf Deutsch lesen willst!
YOU ARE DAMN HANDSOME!!!!!!!!
Thx :)
What do u do on the highway during the 3 hour recharge stop.....😂
I just priced up one of these on the UK website - 37,000 GBP to get it with a few of the extra tech packages. I love electric cars but right not they are just rich mans toy who probably keeps his other gas guzzling car in the garage for normal use. Seriously why would you buy one of these when you can get a new Ford Fiesta or something similar for 10K at a quarter of the price?? There has to be more incentive to get electric cars on the road than this
+russellhkuk any tax benefits in the uk?
There is a UK plug in car grant of 4500 pounds but I am not sure how that works. The problem I see however is that Tesla offered something real and something special. It was an incredibly fast sports car that outperformed petrol cars. It also gave great range and the technology was amazing. Now it made sense to pay the extra for that. What I don''t get are these European attempts that offer absolutely nothing. They want you to pay 3 times more than a petrol equivalent for less performance, less range and basically nothing more.
no fast charge.. thx no then
Mercedes need to stop basing their lower model's interiors on the A-Class design. It looks and feels cheap and old, so I think they should have made it more like the new C-Class, which is much better.
Anwar Afhim New C-Class interior is stunning, indeed. I found the electric package quite pleasing, though
***** The contrast stitching is amazing, I agree. I would be happy to see that telephone console in the dashboard disappear, though.
Anwar Afhim True, that is still kept from the older models. Is already better now, but still, you hardly need it at all...
So you cannot have it without the sticker... -_-
+Weasel4Fun gotta remove that ...
OK.nice electric car, but electricity is generated from fossil fuel , right? then what's the benefit
+Siddhartha Ray not all electricity. And electric motors are more efficient