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GREEN CHOICE
If there are two things many electric-car buyers wish for, it's more range and more space. And that's just what Mercedes-Benz offers with its new B-Class Electric Drive. Based on a small minivanlike hatchback sold in overseas markets, the B-Class is coming to the United States only as an electric car. (Some of the previous-generation B-Class models were sold in Southern California as fuel-cell vehicles, as well.)
The B is upright, with a commanding view of the road. And it's pretty roomy for a small car. The backseat even has airplane-style dinner trays with cup holders. The B-Class electric is available with Mercedes' latest suite of active safety aids, such as radar-based Collision Prevention Assist. While the B-Class electric normally has about the same 80-mile nominal range (with an EPA rating of 87 miles) as other electric cars claim, the Tesla developed electric drive gives the B an extended Range Plus mode that you can select before you plug it in. That charges the lithium-ion drive battery to its full 36-kWh capacity, instead of its normal 28 kWh. Maximizing the charge will take some toll on battery life, but Mercedes says it will have no effect on the battery warranty. The company says this trick is good for about an additional 20 miles, or a little over 100 miles in the real world. It takes about 3.5 hours to charge on a 240-volt electric-car charger. It has no DC fast-charge port.
We recently rented a B-Class ED from Mercedes to evaluate but we didn't have a chance to test that claim. Bases on our experience it appears that the B is one of the least-efficient electric cars on the market, delivering about 2.9 miles per kWh, or about the equivalent of about 98 mpg. (By comparison, the Nissan Leaf gets 108 MPGe in our testing.) Fortunately, efficiency is balanced by battery size, enabling a respectable range.
With no transmission, paddles behind the steering wheel switch modes for regenerative brakes: Drive Minus mode boosts regenerative braking so you can drive almost entirely with only the accelerator pedal. Lifting off the accelerator brings it to a quick stop. Coasting requires a fine art of balancing the accelerator between go and stop. Drive Plus mode allows it to coast an extra distance, but it diminishes the range-stretching benefits of regenerative brakes. Auto mode uses the Collision Prevention Assist radar to automatically slow down with regenerative brakes.
