This is my second time renting an EV. First time wasn’t too bad. We stayed local and only had to charge once.
This Thanksgiving we had to drive from Chicago to Omaha to Minneapolis and back to Chicago. It was approximately 1400 miles total. $289 in electric charges. (that feels a lot more expensive than gas). We had to stop every 2 hours to charge for an hour so it extended our trips by 50%. This was quite challenging when we were in a caravan of cars and the ICE ones beat us by several hours. A 6 hour drive turned into 10 hours. I shaved off a few hours by always running the car down to the last couple miles and charging it to 100%. One time was not by choice as we almost ran out due to a dead zone. We were then charged $50 to fill up 3/4 tank at an EA in the middle of Minnesota. That was kind of our breaking point.
Some positives are it was a smooth ride and felt great in the snow.
We wanted to buy an EV but wanted to see how they fair on road trips in the midwest. This experience may scare us away for a while as it was exhausting stressful and expensive. Wondering what we did wrong since so many enjoy EV.
I am blown away by people who want to buy a car by its NYC to LA performance numbers. If you’re gonna drive across the country you rent a Van. No sedan, SUV is a comfy as a fully loaded Odyssey or a loaded AWD Sienna. But do you really want to drive a van 24/7? I wouldn’t mind but many people don’t want minivans.
We have a Tesla M3P and a Sienna AWD. While the Tesla is much better at long distance than the subject of this thread, the Sienna is the ultimate cruiser in comfort, especially with kids. I enjoy driving it on trips!
I completely agree. It amazes me that regular sedan limos are still a thing. If you’re going to be driven in luxury it should be in party bus or a super decked out luxury sprinter van.
I thought the EQB had almost a flat charge curve till 90% SOC
I own an EQB and it is not a road tripping EV. Great car, and I love it, but no one should be renting this car to drive it 1400 miles.
Yeah it seems like a great car for local travel.
Thanks for the honest review. That is quite expensive for the mileage you traveled. Even at a modest 3mi/kw, you should have only used about 467kw. Tesla Supercharger rates in my midwestern area are typically 0.37/kw, which would have cost you $173 for the trip.
As others have mentioned, stopping your charging at 80-90% might have saved you considerable time vs going all the way to 100%. That’s the nature of EV charging curves. In the end, if you need to “cannonball” a lot of distance in a limited number of hours, ICE may still be your best bet at this point.
I think you’re being generous here with the mileage. 3 mi/kwh isn’t modest for the EQB, much less in the frigid Midwest. I’m assuming OP was using heat generally with the kids and probably got close to 2 mi/kwh .
Right, the EQB is a brick. Going by OP number, it was $289 and assuming $0.43 per KW, that’s 672kWh. For 1400 miles that’s 2.0 miles/kwh.
I use to have to road trip between offices in some of those cities. That would not be fun. Gas stations were even pretty far apart
You dc charged to 100%? lol. That’s your problem.
At least it was possible to do. Doesn’t sound ideal.
I’ll say that a 1400 mile road trip on a holiday weekend in the snow in an EV that isn’t known for its road tripping prowess is basically the worst case scenario.
I don’t know how frequently you make such trips but that’s like a once a year thing for me. So a bit of inconvenience there is offset by the other 363 days of the year when my car is charged each morning in my garage.
In a Model 3 in non-snowy weather my usual pace is a 10-15 minute stop every 2 hours or so of driving. With the Supercharger network on similar drives I have had lower costs as well.
As others have mentioned usually charging to 100% along the way is slower than charging to 50-60% and continuing on. The percentage at which charging slows down depends on your car. Some chargers charge per minute instead of per kWh so those longer charge sessions may have contributed to the cost.
basically the worst case scenario
He/She could have rented a Bolt or Nero.
A trip like that is once a year but we do frequently make 400 mile trips. That seems possible if we could find reliable fast chargers on the way.
FWIW, I got an Ionic 6 about a month ago. While waiting to get my home charger installed, I charge 12 hours overnight with the included L1 charger, at a rate of 0.6 kw per hour. Once a week, I go to the nearby Electrify America charging station to juice up. From 30% to 60%, it charges at about 125 kw/hr. From 60 to 80, it slows to about 80 kw/hr. The one time I tried to go to 90%, as soon as I hit 80%, it slowed to 5 kw/hr. I disconnected.
I shaved off a few hours by always running the car down to the last couple miles and charging it to 100%.
This actually increased the amount of time spent charging. 10-60%, maybe 70% is the sweet spot on the EQB 300.
Dc fast charging generally do not save you much if any money. The real savings comes from charging at home.
I will be honest on road trips ICE is just easier. I take my EV because it is the nicer car but road tripping it is generally more inconvenience.
Charging 80-100% takes forever and usually faster to just stop at 80% then start driving until you need to charge again
Tesla has many more chargers so easier with a Tesla than a non Tesla
Day to day EV charging is done by plugging in overnight at home which is much cheaper and easier than road trips
Personally think renting EV on road trip is a bad idea, you experience the worst of an EV
I guess I had range anxiety as well. I didn’t know where the next station would be. In car GPS was not good at calculating that.
I shaved off a few hours by always running the car down to the last couple miles and charging it to 100%
You may have made your trip longer. Most recommend not running battery to below 10% and not charging above 80% as your charges will be faster. Last 20% can take as long as first 80%.
With just 232 in range, figure 150 in winter cold so you are going to charge frequently on a long trip in that vehicle.
Did you try and use https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ It says your charging should have bee about two hours total and Chicago to Omaha a 10 your trip with no stop longer than 20 minutes.
That is why PHEV is the best of the two worlds
Depends on where you live. If it’s the Bible belt, then I agree. A Rex for the EV would also get the job done.
I can run a Bolt EV on a road trip in 40% more time than would take an ICE vehicle.
Your charging strategy was not optimal for the EQB.
The EQB is a short-range car with slow charging compared to something like a Tesla or the new Kia.
Chargers for the Mercedes are half as available as they are for a Tesla Model S and the range is barely half and it charges at half the speed. Overall, you’d have had a much more pleasant experience in a Tesla.
Then you chose to charge to 100% (which means almost 1 hour charging stops, yikes).
The “cannonball run” across the US is won by a Model S, which drives down to 5% and then charges up to about 60%. Above that, it slows down a lot.
That makes for 15-20 minute charging stops.
At least you didn’t end up in a Mazda or a Chevy Bolt, they’re far worse for road trips than the Mercedes, but the Mercedes is a decidedly bad road trip EV.
The EQB is a short-range car with slow charging compared to something like a Tesla or the new Kia.
Also compared to dedicated Mercedes BEVs like EQS and EQE. The EQB was always an afterthought.