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Fully Charged Finds Some of the Mercedes C350e's Features Better Than a Tesla's

If you're into electric vehicles and all the eco-friendly stuff, then the Fully Charged YouTube show needs no further introduction. If you're not, then you might be more familiar with its host, a man called Robert Llewellyn.
Mercedes-Benz C350e 5 photos
Photo: Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz C350e plug-in hybridMercedes-Benz C350e plug-in hybridMercedes-Benz C350e plug-in hybridMercedes-Benz C350e plug-in hybrid
No, still doesn't ring a bell? Well, you'll definitely hear a "ding" once you see his face since he's been the host of popular TV shows such as Scrapheap Challenge. Still nothing? Alright, I give up, so let's just say he's a man with a lot of TV experience, but not so much in automotive journalism. In fact, he says it himself in the video description: "A very swish car, amazing technology plus an amateur driver and car reviewer in one neat package."

You might also recall a stunt he pulled in May 2015 when he traveled from Oslo (the capital of Norway for all you Geography buffs) to London (we all know where that is, right?) with a cost of just five euros. He did it in a Tesla Model S, obviously, and the only reason he had to pay those five euros is that Europe's Supercharger network isn't as dense as the one in the USA.

He was so impressed by the Tesla that he went out and bought one two months later, which would suggest that he's very frank about his opinions when testing a car. And this clip of him driving the Mercedes-Benz C350e hybrid for the first time would support that. It takes a lot of courage to admit that Tesla's touch screen-based commands aren't always the best choice.

Robert isn't such an experienced driver, and you can see that from the way he gets overly-excited when the Benz starts coasting. He also doesn't seem to have been aware of the fact that Tesla uses Mercedes-Benz stalks, which is weird for a Tesla owner. His driving posture isn't exactly what you would expect from a professional test driver either, but it does give the whole video a more relaxed vibe.

Having said that, Robert does make a few interesting remarks about the 350e. The car itself isn't a test drive vehicle, but belongs to a man named Phil. And by browsing through the onboard computer, Robert found out that Phil drove this plug-in hybrid on pure electric power for a third of the total driven miles. That's actually quite excellent for a car that only offers "around 25 miles" or pure electric cruising (19-mile official rating).

Robert's main criticism of the 350e is that it's not a 100 percent electric car, because "it's just a brilliant electric car when it is one." That's quite a compliment, if you ask us, and one that Mercedes-Benz is actually working on right now, as this year's Paris Motor Show clearly showed. So you might say the C350e, like the rest of the hybrids in Mercedes-Benz's range, was just a stepping stone, and a very good one at that.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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