C300h No Longer In Production

[Markee68]

A guy who works for me has just been in the process of ordering a new company car.

He has gone for the Mercedes C300h AMG Line (diesel hybrid). The order has been raised and signed off by the company and gone to the leasing company (Lex).

He has just had an email saying he can't now have the car as the dealer has advised this model is no longer in production.

However, it's still available to configure on the Mercedes website.

Has anyone else heard anything?

Also a heads up for anyone thinking of getting one of these as it appears you only find out if you try and place an order....

[Monkeylegend]

I know they discontinued the E300 hybrid some time ago. They had technical issues with the diesel/battery interface, and very few of the technicians were trained to work on them.

I think their new hybrids are all petrol engines ie the 350e in both the C and E class.

[Markee68]

Monkeylegend said:

I know they discontinued the E300 hybrid some time ago. They had technical issues with the diesel/battery interface, and very few of the technicians were trained to work on them.

I think their new hybrids are all petrol engines ie the 350e in both the C and E class.

ok, thanks, I've asked him to look at the 350e C Class.

Also, does anyone know why BMW, Mercedes and Audi don't make hybrid estate cars?

I believe it's to do with market demand with the global market not being big enough to sustain a hybrid estate (I read BMW sell 80% of European 5 Series Touring sales are to the UK).

Anyone know of any other reasons?

[va1o]

BMW seem to have got rid of most their hybrids recently because of the new WLTP tests, maybe Mercedes are suffering the same?

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/buying-and-selli...

[Markee68]

So, not being able to get the C300h we've tried to get him a C350e but it seems we can't get that either.

Can't get any sense out of the leasing company, and both cars are listed on the Mercedes website and can be configured.

Anyone have any ideas what's going on?

[Monkeylegend]

Have you spoken to a Merc dealer.

Maybe they are not selling them through brokers. I seem to remember BMW stopped Drive the deal selling their cars at big discounts a couple of years or so ago for a while.

[jkh112]

I think it is to do with the new emissions testing and whether these cars would pass in certain categories.

[OldSkoolRS]

I was hoping to be able to go for a C300H later this year when my company car (C220 estate) should be due for replacement. Any idea whether it's likely to come back or be replaced with a completely different model? We currently only have the option for diesels and this was about the only hybrid option, so if they change to a petrol hybrid then it likely won't be on our system.

[Monkeylegend]

The C/E350e are petrol hybrids. Mercedes stopped producing the diesel hybrid.

[Monkeylegend]

Just doing a bit more research and it appears that the demand for both the C and E350e is so high Mercedes cannot keep up so are not taking any new orders at the moment.

Also there is an issue with battery supply so lease companies have increased prices to a point where they are forcing people to go for an alternative hybrid, ie BMW. Most likely because they can't get them either.

Allegedly .

[Bright Halo]

The C300h is no longer on the Mercedes configurater, or any other c class hybrid for that matter.
I was lucky in that I just inherited one from a colleague who left the business.
Great way of getting to a nice car without suffering to much from the dreaded car tax.
Works out slightly worse than a 2.0d Octavia I had previously.

Edited by Bright Halo on Sunday 15th April 12:52

[Monkeylegend]

Bright Halo said:

The C300h is no longer on the Mercedes configurater, or any other c class for that matter.
I was lucky in that I just inherited one from a colleague who left the business.
Great way of getting to a nice car without suffering to much from the dreaded car tax.
Works out slightly worse than a 2.0d Octavia I had previously.

The C and E300 were diesel hybrids which Mercedes discontinued some time ago.

The current C and E350e are petrol hybrids which Mercedes do still make, but not quickly enough apparently, hence the shortage of supply.