Mercedes A250 PHEV charging cable

The Mercedes-Benz A 250 e is the plug-in hybrid version of the W177 A-Class, sold as a five-door hatchback and as the V177 four-door saloon. Both use the same drivetrain: a 1.33-litre turbocharged petrol engine working with an electric motor for a combined 218 PS and 450 Nm, driving the front wheels through an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. The 15.6 kWh lithium-ion battery sits beneath the rear seats and the Type 2 socket is set into the right rear wing, above the wheel arch. The hatchback runs to 235 km/h and the saloon to 240 km/h, and 0 to 100 km/h takes 6.6 seconds. Usable capacity depends on build: roughly 10.6 kWh on cars up to late 2022, 11.6 kWh on facelift cars, and 13.0 kWh from September 2024 production onwards.

Enough electric range to matter

The facelift changed the character of this car more than the styling suggests. Pre-facelift examples were rated at 60 to 68 km on the WLTP cycle. Facelift cars, with a better gross-to-usable ratio from the same 15.6 kWh pack and an electric motor raised from 75 kW to 80 kW, are rated at 70 to 82 km. The A 250 e will also hold 140 km/h on electricity alone, so the electric range is not confined to town driving. For a great many owners that covers the working week outright, and the car spends far more of its life running on the battery than a first-generation plug-in hybrid ever did.

That is what makes the charging side worth getting right. A car you plug in most evenings is a different proposition from one you charge occasionally. From near-empty, a full charge takes roughly three to three and a half hours at 3.7 kW, around one hour 45 minutes at 7.4 kW, and around one hour ten minutes at 11 kW. Cars with the optional CCS inlet can also take DC at up to 24 kW on early examples or 22 kW after the facelift, good for 10 to 80 per cent in about 25 minutes, though DC charging uses the charge point's own tethered lead and has no bearing on which cable you buy.

Which charger you have, and the cable that suits all three

Mercedes fitted three different onboard chargers over the model's life, and yours decides what a cable can do for you. Every car left the factory with a 3.7 kW single-phase charger as standard. Between 2019 and 2022 a 7.4 kW single-phase charger was available as a paid option. From 2023 that option became an 11 kW three-phase unit instead. If you bought the car new, the order sheet settles it. If you bought it used, watch the rate on the car's display at a public post: a pre-facelift car will settle at either 3.7 kW or 7.4 kW, and a 2023-onwards car at a three-phase post will settle at either 3.7 kW or 11 kW.

British homes are supplied on a single phase, and a typical wallbox delivers 7.4 kW at 32A. Reaching that 7.4 kW on one phase needs a cable rated to carry 32A per conductor, which is why we recommend our 22 kW Type 2 cable across the whole A 250 e range: it gives full speed to all three onboard chargers. A 7.4 kW car draws its full 7.4 kW at home, a facelift car with the 11 kW upgrade draws its full 11 kW from a three-phase public post, and a standard 3.7 kW car charges at its maximum with headroom to spare. An 11 kW cable remains a sound choice if you know your car has the 11 kW three-phase upgrade and mainly charge on three-phase posts, where it reaches the same rate in a lighter, more manageable cable. On length, the port sits on the right rear wing, so reversing in puts it close to the post: 6 metres suits most driveways and garages, 8 metres is the easier choice for public bays, and 10 and 15-metre cables cover shared driveways, on-street parking and multi-storey layouts.

Charging away from your own driveway

Plenty of A 250 e owners do not have a driveway at all, which is where a portable charger earns its place. Our 22 kW portable charger plugs into a 32A red commando socket, the connection found in workplace car parks, trade units, workshops and industrial estates. It carries the same 32A per conductor as the fixed cable, so a 7.4 kW car finishes in about one hour 45 minutes and a facelift car with the 11 kW upgrade in around one hour ten. That turns a parking space at work into a full charge over a morning. For campsites, marina berths and caravan pitches, the blue 16A commando charger runs at 3.7 kW and fills the battery in roughly three to three and a half hours.

For everything else there is the three-pin portable charger, adjustable from 8A to 13A and drawing up to 2.8 kW, within the limits of what the circuit can sustain. That is well ahead of the 10A brick supplied with many of these cars, which needs five and a half hours for the same job, and it brings a flat battery back to full in around four to four and a half hours. An overnight stop at a relative's house, a holiday rental or a hotel with an accessible socket in the car park all work at that rate. A built-in thermal sensor watches the temperature at the plug and eases the current back automatically if the socket runs warm, which matters most on older wiring where you cannot see what sits behind the faceplate.

Every cable to the same specification

Every Voldt® cable is CE, UKCA and TÜV certified and made to automotive industry quality standards. The connectors are single-piece moulded units with no glue and no mechanical fasteners, housed in IP67-rated bodies tested from −30°C to +50°C. Conductors are 100% copper with silver-plated contacts, and every cable is rated beyond 10,000 connection cycles. Three-year warranty, 100-day returns, free shipping across Europe.