Content by Bam Bam in February, 2026

Indeed. Thanks for getting involved! Didn't want to @ you but you found it anyway.

Yes I did, sorry everyone. US aren't so keen on the Chinese cars are they!

There seems to be a strange fascination with BYD, perhaps because it has some western investors, unlike SAIC, Chery, etc. They are a very prominent brand that are advertising at major sports events and expanding into many countries (unlike MG, which is quite US [sic - UK]/Aus/Thailand focused)...

Looks a bit like a Cupra-MG mashup at the front. Presumably this would be front wheel drive, though the image has the charging port at the back and usually this matches the main drive axle. For people with limited parking space (trying to fit two cars on a drive, or parking on an urban...

It is these kinds of discussions that are going to really put Rolfe and me off tinkering with things that are way beyond our expertise! It may or may not be possible to do this with Givenergy equipment but I am not the person who is going to prove this.

Thanks for clarifying. So something like this? LiFePO4 Charger (Fogstar Energy) - 48V 35ADefault Title My worry would be that a lot of time, money and effort could be spent setting all this up and the Givenergy system will just say 'no, I don't know what that connection is so I will just shut...

A different perspective is that it isn't a good idea to have 'loopholes.' If you can make money from solar tax free but not from other sources then this will give people an incentive to invest in solar and not in other things. Hmmmm, doesn't sound so bad actually. Could be a 'good distortion.'...

Had a potential incident today thankfully averted by the automatic door lock feature. Not an attempted car-jacking, mind you. Parked up at the local shops and a young woman skipped up to the car and tugged on the back handle. Luckily for her it did not open because our dog does not like...

I should be clear I haven't tried doing anything like this. Here is the Givenergy cable. https://coolenergyshop.com/products/givenergy-battery-cable-for-gen-1-to-gen-2-or-gen-3?srsltid=AfmBOorpqWEt0FRl8F0ziYsVuW-hC_ar5VHA2B9hKInyfP6vkgB_qYDz I guess you could get one of these and connect it up...

I think the mini and metro that I used to drive got very low ratings even then, let alone now. I'm genuinely lucky to be alive given how stupidly I used to drive as a reckless teenager.

I think Givenergy use proprietary cables. So you'd have to bodge their cable and convince the system that it had another official Givenergy battery. My guess would be that Givenergy will only work with their own batteries and if you tried to plug anything else in it just wouldn't do anything...

Perfect example of the value of this forum/site! Thanks for sharing. 😊

Tim and Kat have been musing on this question after suffering a power cut. We have pretty much exactly the same set up as them, except they already bought an extra battery (so they have 14kWh to our 9.5). They might get a cheap second hand battery off a fellow you tuber.

Ours from AliExpress is still working.

I guess the thinking is that the resident should pay something towards it because they get the benefit, and spending scarce council resources on EV owners isn't a priority That use of public funds is the issue, even if increasing EV ownership in general is an important priority to improve air...

Soon enough MG will pay you to take it off their hands!

Is it because they will continue to 'maintain' it as long as you pay? Also - if you don't pay the license fee do they fill it in so you/future residents can't use it any more? That would be crazy.

There weren't many of those sold. 2nd hand examples might be hard to find. One in Scotland for under £16k but otherwise cheapest are £17.5k...

The next Dave "Just have a think" Borlace video will be about some recent findings about sodium batteries that suggest that more developments are possible. It will be out on Sunday.

Just economically. It is a push in terms of the closeness to the edge of the roof but just about do-able. In terms of voltage, 10 would work on a string, but it sounds like they would need to match the existing panels. They didn't even consider doing that number. I had to force the installers...

Yes, that was my first thought and that was the first quote I got. A bit of extra generation would save the battery from getting depleted during the day and it would last a bit longer. Roof option Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to add panels to our roof now (we've got 2 arrays of 8...

Very useful, thanks. Absolutely. If it is once a year it isn't worth it. Yeah, people who have a bit more nous might be able to go for cheaper systems that are less 'plug and play' consumer friendly. Good point - what will last longer, the inverter or the battery? Both are unknowns...

Exactly. The main thing is that the car will continue to work. That means it needs to charge and the charging ports seems to be pretty well defined by now. And even then people with Chademo connectors can get adapters so that they can charge with CCS.

Absolutely, but that is using up some power that wouldn't be necessary for the sodium chemistry, meaning that there will be much less of an efficiency drop in winter.

Even if it is just credit on the account that you use at another time? My understanding is that if you withdraw money from your energy provider then that is taxable income, though I haven't checked lately. As things stand, we've just had our first bill in 11 months. £15.15. Maybe with the...

I've not gone for it with the service plan despite it seeming to save money. One worry I have is that the car gets written off or something, then I've paid for a service plan for a car that no longer exists. Is that how it would work? Or can you claim some of it back if the car is no more?

We've got 9.5kwh of battery storage with our Givenergy system. That has been fine until we've got our heat pump installed. On cold winter days the battery seems to run out before getting round to the next cheap period. I've obtained a quote from our installer as follows... Extra battery...

Oh I see - there is a charge if you don't have an MCS certificate. How much would an MCS approved installer charge you to check over your system and provide a certificate? Or are they not allowed to do that if they didn't do the work themselves?

Apologies, I've edited to make that clearer. You have to pay now? Whaaaaa!!!???!?

I guess it was inevitable... Octopus have just emailed to say they are reducing our solar export rates from 15p to 12p per kWh on the 1st of March. Makes sense really. As more solar is connected to the grid the value of generation during the middle of the day will drop. Already the wholesale...

If it is better or the same in every way as LFP (and better in all but weight over NMC) I would go for sodium. Better cold weather performance Better for the environment Longer lasting Cheaper (presumably) But will it achieve all those things? Let's hope so!

Oh yes! Maybe those are for China only and they give us the old tech. Good question. I wonder if dealers wouldn't be keen on this because it is one thing that only they can do at present.

I tell you what is very cheap second hand - those GMW Ora Cat things. They don't rapid charge quickly but that isn't an issue for a local run-around.

Further evidence for my theory that RRPs are there for valuation/tax reasons (to calculate salary sacrifice or similar) and aren't really what manufacturers intend to charge for the cars.

They are quite big aren't they? The Hyundai Kona is the same battery etc. but smaller size overall. Could be worth considering if really avoiding an MG.

I think it is more that they have higher fire standards, not that they are banning on the basis of chemistry directly. Chemistry wouldn't matter if it met the standards.

Yeah, but it doesn't matter much because our human activities don't generally impact the total amount of water vapour in the atmosphere. Water is just cycling and moving around all the time. Increasing CO2 and methane, though, is making a major difference to the atmosphere.

Well make them aware! Giant MGEV poster on full view

Don't you present an MG podcast? I don't think that you need to worry!

He might be alright, but they don't do well in hot (especially) and cold. The battery just cooks itself if it is undergoing a lot of activity (fast charging or continuous driving) If he just drives around locally in UK weather he might be ok.

How small is 'small' It sounds like you want a 2nd hand MG4 SE to me!

With You Tube you can get a link that starts at the second you want. If you right click on the window it gives you the option for a url "at the current time" or something like that. Handy for pointing people towards particular points in long videos.

All these threads, its getting confusing what is in what! Such is the way of things I suppose, with human conversation.

This is the thread for the Urban, which does have a heat pump. However, the UK brochure does not say anything about a heat pump for the "new old" MG4

Might be more of an issue for you in Scotland but I wouldn't worry about it down here.

How do you tow an EV? Does it have to go on a trailer? Or with only the non-drive wheels on the road?

Actually it gets better, looking at the brochure the LFP pack charges very slightly quicker than the NMC packs. 154kw max vs 144kw max. Saves one minute on the 10-80% time so not a huge difference, but still, better than the old SR which has a much slower DC charging rate than the NMC models.

Now that it is confirmed that the most basic version of the new MG4 has LFP battery and good tech inside that pushes it to the favourite for me if I had to replace our current one. Not bothered by crazy power or anything like that. That definitively settles that hypothetical question "What new...

Are you staying somewhere you could fill up overnight? I now look for places to stay that have a charger - it is often a filter option.

Nice one! Glad the forum has helped you make your decision. Nice to have all that knowledge and experience in the brand on hand isn't it! 😊

Nige's results confirm that it was a terrible January in East Angular.

Someone is getting a bargain there!

Sounds like the opening lines of a 1970s rock song. "We're on the way to Vahalla, on the M55...."

Nice solution. Our boot is mostly taken up with the spacesaver wheel I bought which is in its cardboard box.

New MG burial scheme? Put a brick on the accelerator to get the car driving down a slipway with the deceased strapped in. Problem is what if the previous person's MG4 is down there in the way?

Thanks for sharing with so much detail. We have a dog on the back seat who is always moving around and is not shaped like a human so triggers the sensors unless they are plugged in. Our solution is just to leave them plugged in and that works great.

Our Givenergy Unit hasn't been through that scenario, but I'm fairly confident it would come back on. Downside is that Giv and Octopus never got it working with Intelligent GO so can't get the best tariff.

I think Sleeper trains are the answer. Go to sleep on one side of the continent and wake up on the other. Went from Brussels to Wien that way. The bottlenecks are: 1. There aren't enough of the trains as they are quite specialist carriages. 2. Often track work is done overnight so they can't...

Nice try!

Plus digging it out of the ground gets harder and harder each year as the easier stuff gets used up. Then there is the huge amount of energy and emissions involved in the oil refining process. And the petrol/gas stations. These are all massive installations but they get rendered invisible...

In general, not having a car is by far the more environmentally friendly option. Two wheelers (or public transport) is much better. But if it is EV vs. ICE car there is no comparison. The environmental benefits of EVs over ICE cars are very substantial, though perhaps you are pointing to the...

Or a longer-range EV? I guess those might not be cheap to hire, though!

Nice one! Have a dog helps getting you walking. Ours gets a 2 mile walk twice a day. Often I do both, but sometimes Pebbles does them both if I'm out.

Yes its disappointing that the MG4 looks like it would be aerodynamic but doesn't perform any better than rivals and in many cases seems to be worse. Same drag as the MGS5. The Kia EV3, Skoda Enyaq and Cupra Tavascan are lower drag coefficient despite being SUVs.

I think Nicola from Electrifying is the best reviewer. She is mad as a box of frogs and twice as fun. Miles is good fun too - looking forward to watching this. After seeing the first few seconds he seems to be freezing cold!

I once saw a video of a guy in the states who added a DIY replacement battery pack to a Prius. The cells were better quality so it ended up having more electric range than the original batteries, which had got heavily degraded through heavy cycling. I know you are very capable of these...

Sounds like chaos! OK, I'll allow up to three.

I've set up a poll as mentioned! https://www.mgevs.com/threads/poll-why-did-you-go-ev.25026/ A few more options than the last time, so more potential for nuance. Hopefully it won't go downhill in the comments like the last one did!

More about the terrible use of space I should think, as Salty noes.

Inspired by the recent thread from @aardvark5 https://www.mgevs.com/threads/did-you-buy-your-ev-to-save-the-planet.25025/ I thought I would re-run an earlier poll we had 18 months later, now that we have a lot of new members. People are encouraged to participate even if they participated in...

Knew it was a genius-level idea! :ROFLMAO:

Did we have a poll on this once? Should we have another one? Happy to set up. Just don't let T1 Terry set the thing up because it will be a total mess!

I think "Save the planet" is a strong way to put it. I don't think switching from petrol to EV 'saves the planet' but it is part of the switch from a very damaging to a less damaging way of doing things. Nevertheless, for me the carbon saving and role in the energy transition was probably...

The most confusing one for me is Rushmoor (NE Hampshire). They decided on green wheelie bins for general waste. When they later introduced recycling green was not available so they used blue. Everywhere else uses green for recycling so I just automatically put recycling in the wrong bin...

Strange. Sounds like someone proved to MG that they had taken ownership of the vehicle so MG have unbound it. Were you previously bound to the car? If you go in the car, can you just re-bind it?

Big fan of Simon Clark and he has a video about waste...

They must have a big sorting place with a conveyor belt. Presumably full of broken glass - ouch!

No wonder Oxfordshire has such great recycling rates. There is just one big recycling wheelie bin which has glass as well. Plus the food caddy and black bin for non-recyclables.

Oxfordshire has done this for a very long time. Strange that they aren't providing caddies like other places. Hopefully the bags are biodegradable. Your local shops will start selling them soon enough. Food waste is very bad for the environment. It breaks down underground into methane which...

Got a wave/acknowledgment this morning. 😊 Tango/Pumpkin in Long Wittenham. A fellow forum member perhaps?!?

Good idea, I think the South Coast gets much more sun than the rest of the country, so you should do well if you haven't got too much shade from tall trees or other buildings. Loads of companies do solar these days, Octopus and Wickes for instance but you can probably find a good local firm...

Relevant to the title of the thread: Another thing about fascism is that it is a death cult. Fascists valorise the fallen hero warrior and keep finding more and more enemies to fight. If America is going down that route they will kill their golden goose and plunge the world in darkness and...

Not so much "affirming," in the same way, but just judging things according to a gender lens. Fossil fuels, warmongering and red meat are "manly" (not themselves men) and thus good. "Windmills," international co-operation and veganism are weak and bad/wrong. Why are they all climate science...

Scandalous! This forum is my social life.

I seem to recall a comment about Norfolk, but it would be useful to have had it in the thread. Nigel "EV Puzzle" will do his update with January stats from Norfolk at some point which will be a much more detailed point of comparison.

Yes, it is probably a small minority of MAGA weirdos that I'm talking about. But they seem to have all the power over there these days.

Following up on this as I have now got the January figures. COP of 4.65. Essentially for every unit of electricity we put in we get 4.65 units of heat. Our 1992 gas boiler was presumably something like 0.75 COP so it is over 6x the efficiency. Yet to get a bill but last month our average...

Did you go for it in the end? Neighbour has just had a quote from Octopus for £3k. Ours installed last year was £5,400 from Heat Geeks. I trust Heat Geeks a bit more to get the optimal efficiency.

A paltry 74.50 kWh for us in Oxfordshire. However, looking at reports from Givenergy (if these are reliable, which I'm wondering about) we got: 57.06 kWh in 2025 141.39 kWh in 2024 I wonder if January has been particularly wet and mild. Our heat pump has been getting great efficiency...

Vauxhalls? Or Leapmotors's's?

I guess you won't get to say 'one careful owner' in the ad in the local newsagent. With the rise of leasing etc. I imagine most people would expect a second hand car to have had multiple owners these days.

RRP certainly. But not the prices for the ones posted above!

Boring "oven meal" for us tonight. Pizza, chips and coleslaw. Easy one at least.

Indeed! I checked/noticed these things and decided to ask a constructive follow-up question rather than dismiss the post. Members in good standing should get a bit more leeway than the more obvious trolls!

The award that counts is the one for 'poll-making skill.'

Leapmotor is a Stellantis co-venture so they have full dealership support. It will help them a lot compared to other Chinese brands I expect. Though on the other hand I'm seeing quite a few Jaecoos and Omodas around (Chery export brands).

In terms of how stupid some Americans are being right now, some go on about "bringing back coal" when it makes no sense whatsoever. I think it is because coal is 'manly' (because it involves dirt, unnecessary risk and horrible death from lung diseases) whereas solar power and electric...

For your low milage it might not be worth switching and so it might have worked out ok, depending on your home consumption levels. I do recommend solar and battery but it isn't possible for everyone (especially those renting or in flats) I like putting our dishwasher on overnight on the...

We have a winner! 🎉🎉🎉