MG Europe Battery Heater Update (released to Norwegian ZS EV owners on 30th Dec 20)

[BigEVuser]

P.S ..do not give up on the car NIck ..in my opinion it is a great car

 

[JMX]

Mine is going in on Friday will let you know how it goes.

 

[nickhudson]

Mines just been taken for a test drive by Toomey MG, he covered 54 miles and there is 2 bar left on the battery, so I'm looking at around 70-75miles total range going by those figures, he hopes to take it out again this afternoon to run down to empty or there abouts, then they'll report back to the Engineers at MG head office for the next step to take. It really does look like a bms issue, 437v fully charged & fully balanced, but only taking approx 26kw of electric from empty, I believe the new bms software has been written to leave a much bigger safety net for the battery (stop it charging one it reaches 75-80%) to lengthen the life of it, but in doing so has massively restricted its range?

 

[nickhudson]

Mine is going in on Friday will let you know how it goes.

Yes please do

 

[nickhudson]

P.S ..do not give up on the car NIck ..in my opinion it is a great car

I really do like the car but 70 miles is no good to me, I need at least that to get to work and back. Hopefully they will come up with a fix asap

 

[JMX]

I really do like the car but 70 miles is no good to me, I need at least that to get to work and back. Hopefully they will come up with a fix asap

I am getting around 100miles with everything turned off and in Eco mode.

 

[Mark Holmes]

None of these accounts are what I appear to be getting, which concerns me as I haven’t had the latest BMS updates yet only the Comfort 2 update.

 

[Mike]

I have a long work day planned for tomorrow which could be around 100 miles or so. I’ll have 5-6 stops within that, so could be interesting and might need to rapid charge at some point!

 

[Mike]

None of these accounts are what I appear to be getting, which concerns me as I haven’t had the latest BMS updates yet only the Comfort 2 update.

It shouldn’t concern you at all Mark. If you haven’t had the update, your car is unaffected, so wait until the ‘revised’ update is released, wait for others to test and make sure it works, then think about having the update!

 

[Gomev]

Hi all, can we just clarify which updates we are discussing regarding this problem. I started off thinking this was about the 'Norwegian' battery heater update but it seems to have morphed into the BMS update. I picked my car up mid November with all updates done, should I be concerned ?

 

[nickhudson]

None of these accounts are what I appear to be getting, which concerns me as I haven’t had the latest BMS updates yet only the Comfort 2 update.

I'd strongly advise you not to until they get to the bottom of the problem, it doesn't sound like much but 30-40 miles range less than the majority are getting is really inconvenient at best and unusable in my situation

 

[Mark Holmes]

Personally I think so many people are experiencing different situations with range that the whole thing is getting blown out of all proportion.
The main advise at present is that all the updates are okay with the exception of the battery heating update; do not request to have this installed all other updates are recommended and fine from what I have seen and read on this forum.

 

[nickhudson]

Hi all, can we just clarify which updates we are discussing regarding this problem. I started off thinking this was about the 'Norwegian' battery heater update but it seems to have morphed into the BMS update. I picked my car up mid November with all updates done, should I be concerned ?

I would say you've likely had all the updates (barring the battery heater). Mine is 6 weeks old and im suffering with really poor range and it is looking more and more like a bms software issue, you would likely of had the same update so you should just keep an eye on it, check the voltage once fully charged, it appears those affected are displaying around 435v-439v, those that are ok seem to display over 450v, this isn't a sure thing but it seems to be a common thing amongst those of us that have the problem. I will just say that the car is lovely so there's no question about that and im sure our issues will be rectified as soon as MG get to the bottom of the issue, its just very inconvenient for myself and a few others that need that extra few miles that were not able to eek out of the car at the moment. Lots of owners tend to lean on the fact its colder so the range will be affected and its how we drive them etc, I can only speak for myself and I always have the car in eco, with very low heating on, no aircon, and drive very gently between 56 & 65 on the motorway and imgetting 70-80 mile range, this is more than just the cold and the driving style as some suggest, as I say I cant speak for everyone but there is a problem for sure.

 

[nickhudson]

Personally I think so many people are experiencing different situations with range that the whole thing is getting blown out of all proportion.
The main advise at present is that all the updates are okay with the exception of the battery heating update; do not request to have this installed all other updates are recommended and fine from what I have seen and read on this forum.

Mark id welcome you to drive my car and see for yourself, I am certainly not blowing anything out of proportion and im guessing you are getting 100 miles plus from your car? Its very easy to judge and make assumptions but you have to experience it to make an honest judgement, thats not a dig at you but its quite frustrating for myself when your hear lots of people saying similar things to what you did when we do have a genuine issue, there are more and more people claiming the same with several owners including myself that have had to take the car to MG to look into it. Trust me its no exaggeration

 

[Mark Holmes]

I would

I would say you've likely had all the updates (barring the battery heater). Mine is 6 weeks old and im suffering with really poor range and it is looking more and more like a bms software issue, you would likely of had the same update so you should just keep an eye on it, check the voltage once fully charged, it appears those affected are displaying around 435v-439v, those that are ok seem to display over 450v, this isn't a sure thing but it seems to be a common thing amongst those of us that have the problem. I will just say that the car is lovely so there's no question about that and im sure our issues will be rectified as soon as MG get to the bottom of the issue, its just very inconvenient for myself and a few others that need that extra few miles that were not able to eek out of the car at the moment. Lots of owners tend to lean on the fact its colder so the range will be affected and its how we drive them etc, I can only speak for myself and I always have the car in eco, with very low heating on, no aircon, and drive very gently between 56 & 65 on the motorway and imgetting 70-80 mile range, this is more than just the cold and the driving style as some suggest, as I say I cant speak for everyone but there is a problem for sure.

I fully agree and support your concerns please note that the software updates may need to be reinstalled if your experiencing issues, my comfort 2 updates was fine apart from one aspect the auto high beam turn off. The option is in the menu, but the functionality isn’t there and they still come on. In the grand scale of things this is a minor issue which I will ask them to look at on my first service, which is due soon. Everything else works fine...and therefore the point I’m trying to make is that not all issues are across the board, but do discuss individual issues with your dealer and highlight them on the forum as it does help others understand if they have isolated issues, whether they are doing something wrong or supports the wider group with information to feedback to MG.

 

[Mark Holmes]

Mark id welcome you to drive my car and see for yourself, I am certainly not blowing anything out of proportion and im guessing you are getting 100 miles plus from your car? Its very easy to judge and make assumptions but you have to experience it to make an honest judgement, thats not a dig at you but its quite frustrating for myself when your hear lots of people saying similar things to what you did when we do have a genuine issue, there are more and more people claiming the same with several owners including myself that have had to take the car to MG to look into it. Trust me its no exaggeration

I’m sorry as I wasn’t trying to say that your experiences aren’t happening, what I’m saying is that we are all experiencing things differently. I had the same issue and messages of disbelief when after my Comfort 2 update my estimated range went from my normal 173 - 178 to 216 miles of range...and therefore I fully understand what your saying, therefore perhaps like mine went up other could have gone down. I think it’s like I said with my auto main beam the software maybe corrupted and needs reinstalling to see if that changes anything. I really didn’t mean to offend you in anyway.

 

[nickhudson]

I would
I fully agree and support your concerns please note that the software updates may need to be reinstalled if your experiencing issues, my comfort 2 updates was fine apart from one aspect the auto high beam turn off. The option is in the menu, but the functionality isn’t there and they still come on. In the grand scale of things this is a minor issue which I will ask them to look at on my first service, which is due soon. Everything else works fine...and therefore the point I’m trying to make is that not all issues are across the board, but do discuss individual issues with your dealer and highlight them on the forum as it does help others understand if they have isolated issues, whether they are doing something wrong or supports the wider group with information to feedback to MG.

Thanks for your support Mark, it is a damn shame because its such a nice car otherwise, unfortunately MG have pulled the update at present which would suggest they are aware of an issue, the techs at Toomey MG said that they could try re uploading the BMS software incase there was a problem with the original upload, but when they looked into doing it the option their laptops to upload has been removed, hopefully I'll know more later once they call me, ill keep the site updated for those that are having problems

 

[Jake]

I got my car new in September 2020 and it does not AC charge unlocked so I presume it is not the latest BMS? With all the concerns above I have just checked my figures and at 4 degrees ambient the SOC is 75%, GOM is showing 110 in ECO but the HV battery is showing only 421v. Should I be concerned?

 

[nickhudson]

I’m sorry as I wasn’t trying to say that your experiences aren’t happening, what I’m saying is that we are all experiencing things differently. I had the same issue and messages of disbelief when after my Comfort 2 update my estimated range went from my normal 173 - 178 to 216 miles of range...and therefore I fully understand what your saying, therefore perhaps like mine went up other could have gone down. I think it’s like I said with my auto main beam the software maybe corrupted and needs reinstalling to see if that changes anything. I really didn’t mean to offend you in anyway.

Thanks for the apology Mark, there is no need mate No offence was taken . unfortunately there are people out there that do exaggerate (not MG Owners lol), and along with all the other owners that are getting good range its easy for us to think its just the odd few making a big deal out of nothing so I can see how it could look, its just unfortunate that it is a real issue and a fault that needs to be fixed.

 

[nickhudson]

I got my car new in September 2020 and it does not AC charge unlocked so I presume it is not the latest BMS? With all the concerns above I have just checked my figures and at 4 degrees ambient the SOC is 75%, GOM is showing 110 in ECO but the HV battery is showing only 421v. Should I be concerned?

Its when fully charged you need to check it Jake, you should hopefully have 450-455v when fully charged, if you could update us all when you next fully charge it that could be helpful, it seems its the pre updated bms cars that have the better range and higher voltage displays