Mercedes-Benz EV wallbox for $1850

Mercedes-Benz has today launched a plug-in hybrid product offensive in Australia with three vehicles, and will back them up with a faster charging wallbox battery pack priced from $1850 (not including installation fees).

Its plug-in hybrids can be charged from "any powerpoint, domestic or commercial," says Gordon Jones, Mercedes-Benz Australia's Product Manager for hybrid vehicles, but the wallbox battery pack is claimed to cut charge times in half.

The company envisages customers would install them in homes and office car parks and in the case of the new C-Class plug-in hybrid, the $75,300 C 350 e, which means a full battery charge (30km cruising range) takes 1.5 hours, down from 3.1 hours.

However, if you don't live in a metro area or you live in a very old dwelling, the installation costs will rise.

"The Mercedes-Benz wallboxes are about $1850 plus installation, because installation is a huge variable with electricity," explains Jones. "Everyone's situation is different, depending on the age of the house, the length of the cables and so forth."

Installation will be taken care of by insurer Allianz.

"Wallboxes are available now, coming through our service and parts via Germany. We bring the units in, the Allianz roadside assistance department installs it.

"The system is sold in such a way that, if you're interested as a customer, the first thing you'll do before committing to the installation of the unit, is have them [Allianz] come out, evaluate the site and give you a quote.

"Depending on the age of the building it could be quite astronomical. A 100-year-old house has old wiring, for example," stated Jones.

Launched in Europe in March 2016, Australians will now have the opportunity to speed up the battery charge time of their vehicles at lower prices, by storing energy during off-peak times.

The wallboxes have a two-year warranty, 10-year current value guarantee and 15-year spare parts availability warranty.

Mercedes isn't the only car company to offer wallbox electricity storage/battery charge pods.

It costs $9500 for Tesla's Powerwall setup, according to Choice.com.au, but the
Tesla unit has more than double the storage capacity of the Benz 2.5kWh offering, at 6.4kWh.

BMW's i Wallbox costs $1750 but doesn't have a battery – it simply plugs into a high-capacity wall socket.

The problem for many Australians who want to drive a truly zero-emission vehicle is, however, that many households derive electricity from coal-fired electricity plants.

Mercedes-Benz wallbox and battery supplier, ACCUmotive – which is wholly owned by Mercedes' parent company Daimler – says the 2.5kWh wallbox solution can be paired with solar panels.

It says it's working with an energy supplier to offer a 100 per cent green energy solution using solar panels by year's end.

Mercedes has installed four of the wallboxes at its Mulgrave headquarters near Melbourne, which are connected to solar panels.

"In terms of battery storage, solar and wallbox solutions, we're having discussions with power providers in Australia," said David McCarthy, Senior Manager of Public Relations, Product and Corporate Communications at Mercedes-Benz Australia.

"We hope to have that resolved by the end of the year."

Will it be competitive with Tesla's offerings in the space?

"We run all our businesses to be competitive," responded McCarthy. "We have a standard in terms of what we do: the best or nothing. What we're doing here is going to be the best."

The Mercedes-Benz 48-volt wallbox is stackable so customers can install a battery up to 20kWh, which McCarthy says will do more than just charge your plug-in hybrid.

"As we've done here with our solar panels and our charging stations, the logistics around it are pretty complex but for home use it depends on which capacity people want," he says.

"It steps up from just charging a car, to powering the house to feeding back into the grid."

Daimler subsidiary ACCUmotive has one of the largest battery development facilities in Europe and Benz plans to leverage this by spruiking high-power battery systems to commercial and industrial buyers. Instead of kilowatt hours think megawatt hours, says McCarthy.

"This is not just about powering this car," he says. "This is about industries that want to reduce power peaks. For us it's not just emission-free driving. We want to offer solutions across a couple of different areas and that's one of things that separates us [from our rivals]."

Andreas Rueckemann, head of Strategic Sales at ACCUmotive GmbH, said that hundreds of the home-installed wallboxes had already been installed in Europe and that the Australian market for photovoltaics, or solar panels, would grow – but not without some government support.

"In Germany, for example, photovoltaics has developed very well, but it took the fact that the German government introduced subsidies for that," he says. "That was a few years ago and the market then improved dramatically.

"I don't know how exactly it will be in Australia, but we believe that it's going well, it's a good market, there's a lot of sunshine and a good car connection."