Every Mercedes-Benz EQC sold in Britain is the EQC 400 4MATIC, it takes its AC charge through a Type 2 inlet, and on a domestic wall box it pulls 7.4 kW whatever year it was built. A 32A single phase Type 2 to Type 2 lead is therefore the Mercedes EQC charging cable to order for home use, across the 2019 to 2023 run. The build date changes the ceiling away from the house and nothing on your driveway. Cars made up to November 2020 carry a 7.4 kW single phase onboard charger, and Mercedes replaced it with an 11 kW three phase unit as standard equipment in November 2020, cutting its own quoted 10 to 100 percent AC figure from 11 hours to 7 hours 30 minutes. Neither car can exceed 7.4 kW from a British house, and 80 kWh of usable battery at 7.4 kW works out at 12 hours 15 minutes from flat. No off-peak tariff runs that long. That is what this page turns on: an EQC is topped up rather than filled overnight, so the rating worth paying for is the one that banks the most miles inside a seven hour window.

Which Mercedes EQC charging cable earns its price

Banks about 168 miles a window: the 32A single phase cable. Our menu lists it as 32amp (7.2kW). It moves 7.4 kW, which is what a domestic charge point puts out and the highest AC figure an EQC will take from one. That is roughly 24 miles of range for every hour connected, so seven hours on a night tariff returns about 168 miles, and empty to full lands at 12 hours 15 minutes. Halves it: the 16A cable. Sold as 16amp (3.6kW), it caps the EQC at 3.7 kW and about 12 miles an hour, so the same seven hours give back 84 miles rather than 168 and a fill from empty stretches to 24 hours 30 minutes. On an 80 kWh pack that difference decides whether you finish on the cheap rate or run into the day rate. Pays away from home, and only on a later car: the 32A three phase cable. Listed as 32amp - 3 Phase (22kW). A 22 kW rating counts on three live phases arriving at the socket, and a British house is wired for one, so the spare cores in this lead sit idle and an EQC takes 7.4 kW from it. On a real three phase feed, a workplace bay or a 22 kW post on the street, an EQC built from November 2020 draws its full 11 kW and finishes in 8 hours 15 minutes. An earlier EQC is held to 7.4 kW even there by its own onboard charger, so on those cars the three phase cable buys nothing anywhere.

Length is set by a large body with the socket at the back. The EQC is 4.76 metres long and the charge flap sits on the right hand rear wing, the offside on a UK car. Back onto a drive with the charge point on that side and 5 metres has slack. Arrive front first, or keep the unit near the house while the EQC stops at the far end of the drive, and the lead has to run almost the full length of the car before it starts to climb, which is the case for the 10 metre. The 15 metre and 20 metre lengths suit a charge point fitted inside a garage while the car sits on the apron outside it, a shared parking space a couple of bays along from the socket, or a post at the top of a long track. Unsure? A longer cable stows in the boot, a short one leaves the vehicle out of reach. Follow the route the cable actually takes, around the car and off the ground, not the straight line across the drive.

The Type 2 to 3-Pin Charging Cable has a narrow but real job on a car this size. From a 13 amp socket it draws 2.3 kW, about 7 miles of range an hour on an EQC, so a night on it is worth roughly 50 miles and a fill from empty would run to 39 hours 15 minutes. Nobody should plan an EQC's week around it. What it covers is a weekend at a house with only a socket in an outbuilding, a hotel with no post, or the weeks between collection and a wall box being signed off. On a used EQC that arrives with no leads it is what gets the car moving on day one. It is made to IEC 62752, sealed to IP67, rated from -30C to +60C, carries a Type B RCD in its control box, and its current can be dialled between 6 and 12 amps for older wiring.

Both EV cables here are covered by a 2 year manufacturer's warranty. UK delivery is free and next working day, and a length that does not suit goes back free inside 30 days. The Type 2 to Type 2 is built to IEC 62196-2, CE marked, holds an IP55 rating for a life spent outdoors on a driveway and works from -30C to +50C. Mercedes-Benz's smaller electric SUV is covered on the Mercedes EQA charging cable page, and the rest of the marque sits in our Mercedes charging cable range.

Mercedes EQC Charging Times by Build Date

EQC 400 4MATIC, November 2020 to 2023, 80 kWh usable, up to 255 miles WLTP

Maximum onboard AC charging speed: 11 kW three phase, 7.4 kW single phase

EQC 400 4MATIC, September 2019 to November 2020, 80 kWh usable, up to 259 miles WLTP

Maximum onboard AC charging speed: 7.4 kW, single phase

The capacity above is the EV Database measurement of 80 kWh usable from an 85 kWh pack, and the mileages are WLTP figures published as a band that shifted with wheel size, so the times and the miles per hour are best case. Mercedes announced the 11 kW charger in November 2020 without publishing a UK build cut-off, so on a used car close to that date ask for the specification rather than assuming. Expect less than these figures in cold weather and after a fast motorway stint.