Thanks for this review! Living in LA and selling Real Estate here, this car is perfect for me! I bought a 2017 that had just been returned to the dealership after a 3 year lease, and got it for $17,000! Super price, and the slow charge issue is not a problem for me because I rarely go over 60 miles in a day; I just come home at the end of the day, and plug it in. Next morning, drive away in electric bliss! If I want to do a road trip, I just rent something fun and sexy. Can't say enough about this car, I love it! It does make some strange groaning noises unlike a gas powered vehicle. Have had it checked out at the dealership twice, and they say nothing is wrong with it. A beautiful thing about the EV is that there is much less to go wrong than in a gas vehicle which has so many more moving parts. I guess they aren't advertising it because they cut their teeth on this one, and now are rolling out their much more expensive EV line. Just think: if they advertised this slow-charging model as their first all EV, the Mercedes reputation would suffer. It's like a prototype they made while learning the EV technology from Tesla. I'm happy with it!

I do love your regular content and your enthusiasm, first subscribed ages ago because I knew and liked you from scrapheap but stayed subscribed and watch every video you make because they are all engaging, well produced and well thought out. Keep it up!

A superlative car, sir. With just two minor flaws. One, it doesn't have a rapid charger. And two, it doesn't have a rapid charger. Now I realise that technically speaking that's only one flaw but I thought that it was such a big one that it was worth mentioning twice.

You are probably the most qualified electric car journo out there and MB should listen. Keep up the good work.

Robert I test drove the same car last year. I loved it! But just like you I thought "why is there no rapid charge option?" Obviously when MERCEDES first designed this car. The thought to themselves, let's not put a rapid charge option on there so nobody buys one. Because deep down they thought electric cars would never work. Oh by the way. The flappy paddle regen braking on this car is simply genius. All EV's should have this. Keep up the great work Robert. Best channel on KZfaq by a country mile!!! 👍

I have one of these and I love it. Its ideal for me. I travel 15 miles to and from work daily in london, no congestion charge, no road tax and low insurance. Its has a very comfortable ride and is quite responsive. It has multi regen modes including auto which detects you're driving status activates reg based on distance between you and cars in front, using radar and ultrasonics. You can also tell it yo warm up via a smart phone ap. Rapid charging is an issue however I have a 7KW charge point at home which charges the batteries fairly quickly. The system only uses the 28KW capacity in normal mode, in extended rage you get access to 36KW which increases the rage by about 17 kilometres.

I came across these a few months ago and here in the states they can be had for $15k USD. I'm finally able to buy an EV and am looking at anything that has 100+ miles of range, in town only (as most cities are 100+ miles apart and usually separated by mountains). The Chevy Spark EV has CCS fast charge, same range or a little better and costs $10k USD. But the B class electric drive is so nice and around town it's perfect. Thanks for the vid!

It’s a commuter car. Horses for courses Plenty of rage for commuting or the school run. Which is 95% what most people do

Mercedes didn't install DCQC (Rapid Charger) because that would make this 100% Electric variant more economical and sensible to buy than the petrol and diesel variants. God forbid, if the general public found out about a 100% Electric Mercedes with DCQC (Rapid Charging) that would allow it to go anywhere on the continent. Mercedes is still a Fossil Fuel car maker and they want to keep it that way for as long as possible, until they are forced to go 100% Electric by governments and by public demand.

Hey Kryten, I just checked out the new Red Dwarf. It's really funny! And sombre in places too. Great job guys, you're on form once more. I'm also very happy that this channel is succeeding, the content is top notch. All right, rock on.

I own this car (lease) in California and it's wonderful for my local needs. The demo car was missing the keyless option which is available. Very surprised that car didn't have because it had the premium display and wheels. My dealer almost forgot to give me the button that goes in the "Ignition" to make it keyless. One NEVER buys this car you lease it. It's a piece of technology and as such wait till we get closer to peak EV before buying. BTW I suspect MB HATES this car and probably loses $15,000 USD on each one. When I picked up my car at the dealership I got a 3 minute demo since no one knew anything about the vehicle. I have had it a year and just learned about adjusting the regen from the video. Ha!

I would totally consider this as my first electric car over, say, a Tesla M3 but the lack of fast charging is a dealbreaker. There's really two things that can't be negotiated with EVs - either have a long range when you don't need to charge during a trip or have very fast charging so i don't waste time at a station (even if i have to charge multiple times during a trip).

e-Golf (and presumably other VW/Audi/Porsche EVs and hybrids) has multiple levels of adjustable regen via the tiptronic (left-right movement) control on the shift lever. It's very convenient and intuitive to use. However the best regen control is integrating regen with the initial travel of the brake pedal. That way, all the braking is on the brake pedal, where it ergonomically is preferred and expected.

By the way, does this car have a fast charger? (Kidding) I bought my Mercedes B250e in June, and have put over 9000km on it since. Given the car's range maxes out at around 160km, not having fast charging wasn't deal breaker for me - especially since fast charging is nearly non-existent where I live anyway, except for one Tesla Supercharger that's only compatible with Tesla cars. Because Mercedes essentially sole-sourced Tesla to build and supply the powertrain, battery, and on-board 10kW charger for the car (again, all Tesla components) any sort of Chademo or SAE combo DCFC charger would have been incompatible. With that said, I can charge my 28kWh battery in about 3 hours at home using a 50amp, 240v EVSE. I've never had a problem with range since only an hour on my charger puts nearly 10kWh back into the battery - or around 53 km depending how often you choose to murder electrons with "sport" mode. There are several 9.6kW public chargers I can use, like the one at Ikea that allows me to grab a quick inexpensive lunch while the car charges. Yes, this is still one great EV and there are certainly deals to be had on this car especially on the used market. It's also one of the larger EV offerings on the market with lots of space in the trunk. The trunk floor has an adjustable height so that when you fold the seats forward, the cargo floor is relatively flat with the back of the seats. The car also fits four adults comfortably, and since the battery is under the floor of the car, it doesn't reduce cargo space at all. After test driving a lot of EV's before buying one, I still believe the B250e is one of the best values on the road. It's solid & luxurious, as a Mercedes should be. Highly recommended.

I have just bought this Car (2017 B250 E Sport is the exact model with lot of options came with it :) )..Its a stunning high spec Luxury Car, Mercedes build quality is great that can be seen in this Car both interior & exterior. Whosoever out there thinking to go electric & if your 80-90% journeys are in Town / commute wise go for this Car you will be surprised with its abilities.

A friend of mine got Mercedes to build an AC fast charger into the car. Then again, he ordered a whole fleet.So Mercedes CAN do it. They just don't want to for the average customer.

Just to clarify things: The B250e is not available with a DC charging port. Neither CCS nor Chademo but it does come with a 11kW onboard charger standard which is quite remarkable.

really like the color grading on this one!

It does have adaptive regen. You have to pull the +pedal for more than 3 sec and then it is in D(auto). It is adapting the Regen depending steepness of the slope and the distance of the car in front of you.

AHi Robert, I did offer you the option to test drive my B250e. If you had I would of informed you that it for one it can be charged at a higher rate than you stated! In fact in can take a 11kw charge off 3 phase, so form 0-100% takes roughly 2.5hours. It also comes with the range extender button which opens up the hidden part of the battery about 4kwh which gives about an extra 8-12 miles. For some reason Mercedes decide to limit single phase charging too 16a so if you charge your car on a 7kw charger it splits the charge to 3.6kwh but on 3phase your ok? I'm am unsure why they did this. People will of course give there own reasons.

The e-Golf and e-Up! can also adjust the level of regen. and turn it off

Great info again Robert thankyou I agree entirely on this car such a shame no rapid charge and truthfully the range needs to be further like 200 miles as that's what is really needed .i have a Zoe 90 miles is not enough in wales very few chargers the further west you go so for me range is a problem and rapid charge a must .great show cheers.

A great review, but then, you know that that's to be expected! I shall look forward to your review of the Chevy Bolt / Vauxhall Ampera, as I plan to buy one over here, across the pond.

Thanks Robert. Well Mercedes truly did manage to nobble what could have been a nice ev. Still they may catch up and have rapid charging by 2050. On the question of cost I saw somewhere an ex demo for sale for £10000.

Entertaining and informative. As a city car, it probably does n't need rapid charging, I have an i3 with no rapid charger.......but I have the range extender in case I want go anywhere serious. But I hardly use it on my 45 miles round trip.

Like you say Robert, even the Zoe has rapid charging. We mainly just drive locally but occasionally go a long way and it is really handy. We've driven from the New Forest, UK to Oberstdorf in the German Alps in our Zoe. Yes, we had to charge a few times but it was possible because it can handle rapid charging. :-) And like this Merc, you can get really cheap deals on the Zoe as ex-display because Renault are rubbish at promoting it. Thanks for another good review.

It's a great car. We've had ours for 2 years and have driven it over 40000 km. Trunk space is simply superb. It would really be perfect if it had fast charging. There is a mod made by an american that actually can be fitted to the battery (jDemo) that will give you Chademo fast charging but it costs 3000-4000 dollars so might be a bit steep for most people.

Test drove one in the summer. Very well built car as mentioned. The deal breaker for me was no rapid charge which even I couldn't understand. The adjustable regen was very nice to use, and it had a nice bit of kit on it. Other points to make, the dealer I used in Norwich didn't know what they were selling, I had to do all my own research! Servicing costs were horrific for an EV also! I believe from memory the car will support 10kw charging, so as mentioned about 4 hours on a 7.7kw public charger should see you fully charged, but no good on a long journey.

I bought one of these in Nov 2016 from a reseller company. Mine was just over 14 months old with 5k miles. It had started life as a Mercedes group car, so it had every extra going. I got it for half the new list price. I get the "no rapid charge" bit, but that's not a great issue for me. I got a 6kw home charging point from Polar and do almost all my charging at home (pay the extra and get a tethered charger, it's well worth it) I can charge up to 80% capacity in about 4-6 hours and that gives me an indicated 65-80 mile range depending on weather etc, although I've found that indicated range often translates into more miles when driving, e.g. start with 80 miles, drive 20 miles, end with 70 miles. Weird! Charge to 100% capacity is possible and will give extra range, but it's not recommended if you want to keep your battery happy. I test drove the Mercedes and Nissan Leaf. Mercedes won it for me with the sheer quality of the drive and interior space. I can fit golf clubs and a trolley into the Mercedes boot, impossible with the Leaf. For my style of motoring the Mercedes was a good choice and I have no regrets so far. If you can live with the range and slower charge it's well worth a place on your shortlist. I got the blue colour and had the rather silly "electric drive" decal removed from the side. Love the 'Fully Charged" KZfaq reviews. Lots of relevant information uncluttered by pretentious presentation. Keep it going!

The regen mode is the same as the Outlander, you can adjust it up or down via the paddles

The on board charger is also 3ph, so on public ac it will charge at 11kw. according to original comments from Mercedes they said Tesla could not fit the second charger to bring it up to 22Kw on 3ph similar to the model S

My guess why it's missing a rapid charger: they want it to fail so they can say "EVs are not wanted" and keep on selling their old ICE models. Soon the "old" car manufacturers will take the backseat to chinese manufacturers, who are developing electric vehicles (currently mostly for the chinese market, but I don't think they'll stay just there for long).

I love the Regen paddles too.

Was behind one of these on the way to work and had to look it up, had no idea they made these.

Lexus IS300H has regen control using the Paddle Shift also (CVT) in addition to brake pedal pressure.

e-golf has that regen setting option by moving the gearstick sideways.

I'm sure someone mentioned this, but the B series was built as a regulatory car for the California market. They shoved an electric drive train into the B series to meet California's requirements. Maybe you don't understand this in England, but there it is. And the car is great. We just returned one on lease and replaced it with an X, and missed this little gem.

Love it! But like you said can't find this model ANYWHERE. Considering buying a used diesel version though. Thanks for sharing :)

It is a car for the school run. Waiting 4-5 hours for a recharge is fine in that scenario. For many, 90-100 miles would cover the whole week's travel. Also, the batteries will last far longer by not being fried by rapid chargers. The car may actually be worth a lot more than the 12 year-old Prius that only runs on the petrol engine as the batteries died a long time ago. I have bought the diesel version as the range of the EV is not enough for my needs. To be honest, none of the current (more affordable) EV's have a sensible range at present. Edit: I have since learnt that an 11 Kw/hr Tesla AC charger will work with this car. It runs at about 2 min per 1% of charge. So around 3 hrs for a full top-up.

Great & informative video 👍👍

Got used to not having a rapid charge option. The range is good enough for all my trips. It is not a long range car, but when I had my Leaf it wasn't long range either and it had a rapid charger option.

11:00 "It sounds like a mommy whale that has lost her baby whale in the sea" Couldn't have described it better, hahaha!

I like the key. I hired a car with the proximity key thing and lost the key thing in one of my pockets. If only they'd put like a little holder for the key thing in an easily accessible place right next to my hand that you could put the thing in when in the car and take out when you leave.

3:06 here in Germany you get an 11kW charger - it's 400 V 16A - so I guess this is the same for the U.K.

Not only Mitsubishi Outlander - also my VW e-Up! has a 4 step control regenerative braking. Not with paddles on the steering wheel of course, but at the gear shifter. That was one of the main points for me to buy it! (btw. e-Golf has it too...)

the VW e-Golf has multiple regen level controls, including full off, so you can coast. You can do the same regen control via the stick, although the prototype Golf e-motion had the controls on the paddles.... which I hope they add back to the next e-Golf.

great video! it puzzles me too that Mercedes did such a seemingly dumb move with the B250e! the same "regen-only-drive" feature lies with the new Bolt too btw, can't wait for you to test drive that one tbh! Could you do a video for the new Suzuki Swift please?? it has some VERY interesting rumored features, electric motor on the rear for its electric mode, electric on the rear and combustion engine on the front for its combined mode and ofc the extender mode that uses the engine to charge the battery! if that works as should, add a decent range plus the VERY clever gearbox of Suzuki, it would be the best city car on the market!

I wanted to test drive this car but the sales guy who contacted me basically wouldn't let me have a go until I was sure I was interested in buying it. To which I later realized a comeback could have been on the lines of, "I can't be sure I want to buy it unless I try it and compare it with other cars I've test driven." [And I do have a sizeable list to go by because other brands were far less stringent. Although I'm still wondering if BMW will ever let me test their i8...] Anyway--he won't be hearing from me any time soon...

dude , your are the man.. one of the top eco journo's on the planet ... great review ..... keeping it comming , you are important in swinging middle class land towards eco change ... keeping fightening keeping raising awareness .... your a first class presenter and journo ande deserve for more exposure .... linking up with guardian would be nice to see , as your both leader the fight ro raise climate change awareness and show the population esplically the middle glass ,that being "green" doesnt envolve massive negative change to their lifes

It is exactly as diesel B class Mercedes, great small car with loads of space, I love it! Diesels have the same key, same everything... So its just the same car with small battery back instead of diesel/petrol engine.

Lack rapid charge is a serious showstopper! I am happy with 'B' mode regen braking on the Leaf which is quite harsh foot off the accelerator but the regen amount/braking is easily balanced with the accelerator when going downhill...

Thanks. Nice build quality. What about space under the bonnet?

I have a car like this in Norway (the most selling country for B 250 e) and it has a 11 kW onboard charger.

Test drove a B250e and was strongly considering buying but there were quite a few glaring flaws: - Really cheap feeling pleather seats. Real leather was an option but not available on any car the dealer could locate. - Radar recuperation but no radar based adaptive cruise control - whaaat? - That electronic key that you still have to plug in and turn - is this 1990? - Soft, heavy ride. A cushy car is nice but for a car this small to have little to no road feel is a crime. - Ehhh acceleration. Better than a Leaf but that's not much to brag about. - Cluttered dashboard with many similar buttons. You almost need a copilot. - No DC charging, as Robert mentioned... Walked next door to the BMW dealer and test drove an i3. What a completely different vehicle!

The Ioniq Electric has paddles to adjust regen. Would be nice to see a video on the Ioniq range!

(4:40) *I have the B200 CDi AMG and have only used **_'Sport Mode'_** a few times, and on each occasion I do it frightens the pants of me, and my Passengers !*

I was seriously considering buying this car. Everything seemed just fine. I had assumed it had rapid charging, and of course, no Mercedes dealership corrected me. I am very thankful for your video. That is an absolute deal-breaker. No having a rapid charger would be ok if it had a 400-mile range, but a pedestrian 84-mile range AND no rapid charger? I sure hope this isn't their best attempt at an electric car.

What's the point of making electric cars in 2016 with a 120 mile range?

I believe the Chevy volt has a similar feature as far as the braking goes you should test drive one of those also the old Cadillac that was built on the same platform as the volt has that feature also

Use the cruise control to hold the speed down hill. It will recharge Key button is about $15 from MB

probably made it to tick a certificate box somewhere.

Robert is right on this one. The B250e has a 11 kW Tesla *AC* charger that's faster than the 3.3 or 6.6 kW AC chargers on the Leaf, provided you have three phase service at home. What it doesn't have is a *DC* fast charger, the likes of which are popping up everywhere nowadays. The Leaf has this, so you can charge it overnight slowly on AC or do a 50 kW DC fast charge when you're out and about. It's a stupid omission because the B-class diesel is a comfortable vehicle for long drives, whereas the electric B gets relegated to being a plush golf cart.

at the end of the day, Fully charged couldn't get the manufacturer to supply a Demo vehicle so a kind viewer let there own car, so the review was done on a British Spec B Class , maybe it didn't have all the options you can get in other countries, but it was a review at face value...... if your don't like the video or don't agree with it make your own review and post it...

I did a test drive with this car. The local Mercedes dealer's employee actively tried to dissuade me from the very concept of electric cars and actually made fun of me for wanting to test drive this "crippled car" that nobody wants. So yeah, Mercedes isn't doing much to market this car to an interested buyer. That said, I was underwhelmed by it.

Rapid charging or not, this, the Bolt, the e-Golf, and the Leaf are great options for older couples that are like empty nesters, but still do family things. My mom would probably think this is too rich for her, but then again, she doesn't drive but 60 miles a day (and that's on a BAD day), and when she's done driving, she's done driving. No late night/early morning emergency runs, no runs to the next town or anything. Normally 30 minutes round trip between work and two houses to pick up her grandkids and that's it.

The limiting factor for fast charging is not the charging plug. It is most likely that the charge-time is defined by the cells used in the batterypack..

The good thing about it having a horrible range and no fast charge is that it has an insanely quick depreciation. And that’s a great thing, because I am actually able to have a chance of owning this car!

Just a reminder; I had one on display at ElectrAA 2016. You were there. ;)

I test drove one last year. Besides the salesperson not have a clue that it was even electric, the price was way too high for what you get. EVs made from an existing gas model don't take into consideration for weight. I ended up getting the i3 for half the lease payment. BTW, the i3 weighs about 1,000 lbs less than the B-class.

To meet compliance the rules should state that fast charging is required. And probably a bunch of other things to make produced models actually useful.

Nice car, nice video.

Doesn't the e-Golf have shiftable regeneration in the "gearstick" as well? I think i used to play around with that all the time when I drove one across Germany :)

At just under 10 minutes, were you holding in the left hand flappy paddle on the steering wheel in order to maintain the regenerative braking? Does the Outlander Plug in hybrid do the same? I have a mountain range where in my diesel I use the gearbox to control my decent...I always get think about the wasted energy that a regen system would utilise....of course some regen systems would be more efficient than others...I wish there was a simple way to compare different vehicles. Love your shows...keep up the great work! :)

Very good review. Very british. Thank you. Actually you can buy a 2017 Version with approx. 20000km for 19000 Euro.

I'm sure if this car had rapid charging it would be one of the best selling EV's like the Nissan Leaf. I like the fact it's a normal car with the advantages of being pure electric.

No Rapid because they want it to fail. A CCS will fit in the Gas port turned 90 degrees counter clockwise

I think the idea is you'd have it as a second car for the school run etc with an E class for the long distance stuff. If I had the money and garage space, that is how I'd go. The E being a E63S of course.

Designed and advertised to fail by Mercedes. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

Perhaps an advantage of a slow charge is that the battery will last almost forever.

Loved the review, loved the car, heartbroken about the lack of fast charge. This could have been a Nissan leaf killer.

I have noticed the bulbs in Street/road lights are being changed to low wattage LED bulbs.So I was thinking this leaves the electrical wiring that supplies all these lights with a massive potential to supply something else.So you could install charges in layby's using the redundant potential of the streetlight power supply, it was just an idea or am I on the wrong track?

good video, thanks. I'd like to know more about frequency and cost of maintenance? Battery life or issues if anyone has experienced it. thanks

Hi Rob. Any chance you could do a review of the Audi A3 E-Tron?

From personal experience of Mercedes-Benz. This is how they are with customers. They want you to buy the car they want you to have, and not what you want to buy. I did try to purchase the C350e. Got promises of deals to get me in the show room, then the deal went but could do a deal of a diesel. So yes you can buy a smaller electric Mercedes-Benz bit we actually want you to buy the diesel or petrol. Saying that is the possibility of a low price is available it might be ok for people doing short journeys only.

Seems to me the lack of rapid charge is a flaw by design, so as to not compete too well with the petrol/diesel variants?.

Drove 95 Miles on a single charge today ( not range extended ). I had to use E+ all the way and the outside temperature was between 16.5ºC and 23ºC. I've kept the car for another year, and this year I've started taking 150 mile journeys and accepting the 2hr recharge ( 11kw chargers are very common now ). Having used it for sub 50 mile journeys for 2 years, I'd forgotten what a great car it is on the motorway. However, all the comments about Rapid DC charge are spot on. I honestly think that if Mercedes had fitted Rapid DC charge, Tesla would have been very unhappy. A lot of people would be entirely happy with the comfort and performance of this car and wouldn't have ordered a Tesla. Just my opinion.

With the Zoe, you can control regen with the foot accelerator =) on the way down keep it pressed lightly

No DC fast charge? That's like my 2016 e-Golf SE: it only has a 3.6 kW L2 charging*; we charge on 110v at home with no problems. I do think that VW and Mercedes ought to make DC fast charging standard though -- even the iMiev has it. Btw, that's not correct about this Merc and the Outlander being the only EVs with adjustable regen: e-Golf has it too (on the gear shifter; moves left-right). *2016 e-Golf SE can have the standard e-Golf 7.2 kW + DC fast charge installed... for a cool $1300 or so.

I LOVE this car ..I have one !!!!!

So the regen is the same as the Chevy Bolt is supposed to have. Question for the conversion bods out there - Can you "retrofit" a fast charging ability? A couple of Scotch locks :-)!

We met Robert by chance up Clent whilst he filmed this. Charming man and very friendly.

In The USA it charges up to 10+ kW level 2. You didn't mention the Range extender.

As the whole drivetrain is from Tesla, they could have all the good stuff. Supercharging, CHAdeMO adapter, a second 11kW Charger (yes, its the exact same unit as in the Model S). There is a lot of space left in the sandwich construction for all of that. But Daimler strangly didn't offer anything from that. Oh and batterywise, it's a 36kWh battery with 28 daily useable or 33,5 if you opt for "Range Mode" (charging to 100% like in a Tesla). Its made of 3696 cells, 18650 but a slightly lower capacity than the cells used in Model S.

Kryten shows his feelings about the ridiculous Pedestrian Warning Sound (11:15). A real statement of intent by Mercedes, not to give this model the feature required overcome many people's range anxiety!

No rapid charge because its meant for city driving to get local food. Theres the E-class in the garage for weekend journeys.

Chevy is about to release the Bolt in the USA and a quick charger is not standard, you will have to drop an extra 800. In Canada on the other hand the base version will have quick charging... I wouldn't consider a car without this option, even if I only used it the odd time.

Saw one the other day, didnt notice it wasn't a regular B until I didnt hear it.

Possibly at the build quality of batteries Right now MB decided that the rapid charger would shorten the battery's usable life span. My smart phone has rapid charge and battery issues are starting to crop up. Just a thought. You have got me thinking of an electric vehicle for my next commuter. One thing car manufacturers need to do is make a kit. You buy the vehicle and it comes with everything you need to charge it including a home adapter.

For plenty of people short commutes a slow overnight charge is fine so no rapid charge necessary. The deal breaker for me is no AWD option.

Such a pity about the lack of rapid charging. It would not be too difficult to source and fit a higher powered charger. They are under 1K but of course have a bit of wiring.