Run-in period?

[cheshiredj7]

Hi. I’ve recently taken delivery of a new Mercedes EQC. It arrived a few days ago with a total of 15 miles on it. My brother has the same model with higher miles and his seems a lot quicker. It’s got me curious, do Mercedes restrict performance until ‘x’ mile threshold has been met?

[TheDeuce]

cheshiredj7 said:

Hi. I’ve recently taken delivery of a new Mercedes EQC. It arrived a few days ago with a total of 15 miles on it. My brother has the same model with higher miles and his seems a lot quicker. It’s got me curious, do Mercedes restrict performance until ‘x’ mile threshold has been met?

I can't imagine why they would - unless some obscure reason such as run in of the motor gearing etc which might be EQC specific. I've never heard of or experienced an EV requiring any sort of running in though!

Performance will drop off a little as charge level decreases but almost imperceptibly so.

I assume you've checked you're in the same drive mode as your brothers car?

[cheshiredj7]

Yea me neither, you wouldn’t run in a mobile phone or fridge so I’d assume it’ll be good to go out of the box

Yes same modes. Certainly feels like the torque is restricted as 30-40mph full throttle throws you back yet repeat a little quicker and it feels flat.

[Nicks90]

I'm not familiar with the Merc, or how many EV versions there are.
But you sure you have the same model?

Or alternatively it's the BMS 'learning' and conditioning during its first few cycles of the battery

[Kawasicki]

Maybe they have restricted the torque due to a durability issue?

[annodomini2]

Are you in some form of eco mode?

[mikeyr]

Might be worth doing some time tests with both cars if it feels noticeably slower. Guessing both have been 'warmed up', know that cold weather hits range a lot but not aware of it affecting acceleration though???

[JonnyVTEC]

Still has brakes to bed in and tyres to take the release agent off and flatten the the geometry. I try not to rag my EV straight away to allow the gearbox oil to get a little warm and the cells to warm a little.

Battery temp and state of charge has a marked effect on power too.

[cheshiredj7]

Yep there’s only one engine in the range. Strangely it feels quicker in comfort, certainly not as quick as my brothers by a margin. I’m seeing him next week so we can get run some tests. Perhaps there’s a restriction on power or it might need a software update

[charltjr]

I had a brand new EV as a short term hire and it noticeably loosened up after a few hundred miles.

I think some of it was the tyres scrubbing in as there was a lot of wheel spin at the start but whatever the reason it definitely got quicker.

It was only a Corsa-e though

[TheDeuce]

Whilst it will be very interesting to get to the bottom of why this particular car is held back in some way..

I think it's important to keep to reality in general - EV's definitely don't need running in! They also aren't 'power limited' to break in the tyres or brakes, their power figures are published at point of sale. I've driven endless new and nearly new EV's (I used to work the motor show circuit in Europe), and they all perform as expected from day one in my experience.

Suspect there is a fault here, perhaps a BMS issue that limits how much power the battery is able to deliver due to a battery fault..? The other possibility is that Merc are playing with something at a software level for some obscure reason. Whatever is going on, at a mechanical level I'm sure the car is capable of delivering the intended performance.