Charging problem help please!

Katherine if nobody has got back to you by the morning I will sit in the car and write it down and post it here for you.

Vic

Katherine Holland said:

When I start the car it tells me how many miles left in the battery and also the total number of miles my car has done since new

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It's sounds like your on the wrong page you need to use the arrow keys left or right

Katherine Holland said:

When I start the car it tells me how many miles left in the battery and also the total number of miles my car has done since new

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Okay - No problem.
As @N2STY has said, the centre square button with "OKAY" is the reset button, you have to keep it depressed for a couple of seconds until it resets the trip, then use the up / down buttons ( I think ) to bring up your LONG term average.
This is one that has been clocking up since you got the car, long press the OKAY button again until it reads zero !.
I am going to try and send you a picture taken from the facelift manual, it is very similar and clearly displays what you should be pressing.

I reset both of my trips on a regular basis, this not every bodies choice, but this is both mine and a few other owners preference.
I did this on my Gen 1 ZS EV ( like yours ) and I have chosen to continue this practice on our Gen 2 facelift model.
Your predicted range on the GOM ( Guess-O-Meter ) will offer a closer indication of what the car predicts should be achievable given the right conditions.
The long term trip ( if left to build ) can be a little misleading in it's reporting.
As said before, there are a few other things that can see the car report lower than you think, predicted range reports, but that is for another day.

Katherine, I think that main problem is that your EVSE is wired to provide only 4 hours of charge per night. So you rarely if ever get your equalisation charge.

So from now on, once a month or so, give it a charge that brings it up to full and it stays on after it gets full. Maybe charging on Sundays and Wednesdays might be easier to remember and work for your driving pattern, so that's a 4 day charge on Sundays, and a 3 day charge on Wednesdays. Most Wednesdays it would then get the equalisation charge.

If your usage is more irregular, just charge as you do now but once a month do a charge two nights in a row. The second night should do the equalise charge.

Without the regular equalisation charge, your battery becomes unbalanced, meaning that one or two cells have less charge than the others, and they will limit the energy that the whole battery can deliver. The estimated range remaining (GOM) knows about this, and will report a lower than normal estimate. On top of this, the range will be lower in winter, and after about 1-2 years, degradation will start to reduce the range slightly. MG hides the range loss (which is higher when the battery is new) for that first 1-2 years, to avoid alarming owners.

Edit: I'm actually not a fan of constantly resetting the trip meters. My usage is fairly regular, and I find it best to leave them alone. But I realise that others that do a mix of short and long drives may disagree. Yes, the GOM bases its estimation on your recent driving, but I see that as a good thing, not a problem. I get the impression that resetting throws away some valuable information about the battery's actual performance, as well as short term things like how much regeneration you had in the last 15 km (10 mi).

Sorry if that makes things confusing, but I think it's best to know that there is some disagreement about the value of frequent resetting.

Thank you everyone for your replies, I will have another go at trying to reset the meters tomorrow and I will do an equalisation charge. I hope I haven't inadvertently ruined my battery in the meantime!

Katherine Holland said:

I hope I haven't inadvertently ruined my battery in the meantime!

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Fortunately, unbalance is not a damaging thing long term.

The water looks deeper, the longer and harder you tend to look into it.
The information @Coulomb is 100% correct of course, the subject of resetting the trips is a personal choice thing, like I stated above.
Some people like it, some people don't, there you go !.
Also there are other factors that can influence what you receive as an predicted range.
Again, I did make this point above.
Sorry, I did fail to pick up on your point of using your 4 hours of cheaper off peak charging.
As @Coulomb has correctly pointed out, if you are charging from a low SOC in your HV battery, then it is unlikely that you are carrying out any balance cycles at all, if you charging schedule is finishing before the balance cycle can commence !.
As stated above, you need to hit 100% fully charged BEFORE the balance cycle can start.
Of course TMI ( To Much Info ) can be absolutely mind blowing, to take on board.
Sometimes the more you ( think ) you know, the more confused and the less you really understand.
Hunger for knowledge is healthy, but can open a can of worms.
One foot at a time and keep it easy to follow and understand.
We ( myself totally included here ) are all learning from each other input on this forum.
Sharing information is how it works !.
I bet you are starting to wish that you never should have asked the question in the first place now .
Only joking - I think you have enough to be trying for the time being !.

Lovemyev said:

The water looks deeper, the longer and harder you tend to look into it.
The information @Coulomb is 100% correct of course, the subject of resetting the trips is a personal choice thing, like I stated above.
Some people like it, some people don't, there you go !.
Also there are other factors that can influence what you receive as an predicted range.
Again, I did make this point above.
Sorry, I did fail to pick up on your point of using your 4 hours of cheaper off peak charging.
As @Coulomb has correctly pointed out, if you are charging from a low SOC in your HV battery, then it is unlikely that you are carrying out any balance cycles at all, if you charging schedule is finishing before the balance cycle can commence !.
As stated above, you need to hit 100% fully charged BEFORE the balance cycle can start.
Of course TMI ( To Much Info ) can be absolutely mind blowing, to take on board.
Sometimes the more you ( think ) you know, the more confused and the less you really understand.
Hunger for knowledge is healthy, but can open a can of worms.
One foot at a time and keep it easy to follow and understand.
We ( myself totally included here ) are all learning from each other input on this forum.
Sharing information is how it works !.
I bet you are starting to wish that you never should have asked the question in the first place now .
Only joking - I think you have enough to be trying for the time being !.

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I am truly grateful for your input. I love my car but acutely aware that I don't know enough about it! You guys are very helpful and patient and I hope that I don't annoy you too much! I will carry on asking questions!

Ask away. There will always be someone on here who has been there, done it, and got a merchandise T shirt.

As for trip meters, as Lovemyev has said, it's a personal thing. I have had 3 EV's now and never once reset a trip meter. I tend to drive to the % remaining indicator rather than the guesses the car makes. I get to 20% and start looking on Zap-Map for a charger nearby if I haven't already planned my journey with a few alternative chargers just in case.

Thank you, for some reason the only time I can see a percentage display is whilst charging. All the other times it just tells me miles remaining. I tried fiddling around last night but didn't make much progress as an alert came up turning off the battery so I gave up!

Katherine Holland said:

Thank you, for some reason the only time I can see a percentage display is whilst charging. All the other times it just tells me miles remaining. I tried fiddling around last night but didn't make much progress as an alert came up turning off the battery so I gave up!

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Top tip :- When you are “fiddling” make sure you have the car in the fully booted READY mode, this will keep the 12 volt battery fully charged !.
In STANDBY mode the 12 volt battery is not receiving a charge and you can run the risk of flattening your 12 volt battery whilst “fiddling”.
I am very curious to know, why you would be playing a violin in your car though Katherine ? .

Katherine Holland said:

for some reason the only time I can see a percentage display is whilst charging.

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That's because you have a Mark 1, and they don't have a percentage display, except when charging. And even that is disguised with terrible colour choices, and goes blank after ten seconds or so.

You used to have to press the battery button even to see the estimated range remaining! It's now always visible (albeit somewhat small) after a firmware update. Somehow, the original designers didn't seem to think we'd be interested in the state of charge of the battery . Early Leafs are the same. I have two EVs, and not a percent remaining between them.

The Mark 2 models do have an actual State of Charge in percent.

Ah thankyou for that information. I am not in a position to be able to upgrade, much as I would love to but I still totally love my car, just need to learn a bit more about it clearly!!

Katherine Holland said:

When I start the car it tells me how many miles left in the battery and also the total number of miles my car has done since new

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Hi Katherine,

From the Main screen where it shows the Car Range and Total Mileage from new of the car at the bottom and the Large Speedo Digits at the top (see photos) you then use the Upward Arrow which is located on the right side of the steering wheel face (see photo) to move onto the next screen 2 which is the Energy screen (see photo).

Then another press of the upward arrow moves to screen 3 that shows the Tyre Pressures.

Another press of the upward arrow moves to screen 4 (see photo) showing Electrical Information

Another press of the upward arrow shows Screen 5 (see photo) which is your Accumulated Total screen.

On this screen, if you want to reset everything to zero, press the OK Button just below the Upward Arrow for 3 seconds or more and this will zero the figures.

Pressing the Upward arrow once more time will give you Screen 6 (see photo) which is Current Journey, again pressing and holding the OK button for 3 seconds or more will reset all totals.

To get back to the main screen, simply keep pressing the upward arrow until it appears.

Resetting the Totals before a charge will stop the system from showing your estimated range based on your previous driving or journey, it will start as an expected range but we all know this can vary depending on how we drive, driving mode, temperature etc.

Hope this helps,

Andy

(Blackpool UK)

Katherine Holland said:

I have had my 2021 ZSEV from new and have got into a bit of a routine as I guess most people have also done. I don't do many long journeys so consequently virtually all my charging happens at home with a Zappi charger. I generally charge about every 5 days for 4 hours at night time using Octopus Go cheap night time tariff just topping up nearly 28 kWh, so not a full charge. So far all fine until this weekend when I had a long journey planned. Using the cheap 4 hr night time slot I figured that if I charged 2 consecutive nights I would get a full charge for my long journey. Whilst the first night I achieved 27 kWh the next night I only got 2.2 kWh and then it said charge complete. When I turned on the car in the morning it said 100% charge but range 123 miles, very concerning. I managed my weekend journey using various rapid chargers then repeated the 2 night charging experiment when I returned home to my Zappi charger. The same thing has happened despite the battery being almost empty. I don't understand why this is happening. I have not experienced this before, any ideas?

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If you have the new ZS EV I'm guessing you might inadvertently set the charge in the App to less than 100% in which case it will have stopped the charge. Worth a check?

AndyNWuk said:

Hi Katherine,

From the Main screen where it shows the Car Range and Total Mileage from new of the car at the bottom and the Large Speedo Digits at the top (see photos) you then use the Upward Arrow which is located on the right side of the steering wheel face (see photo) to move onto the next screen 2 which is the Energy screen (see photo).

Then another press of the upward arrow moves to screen 3 that shows the Tyre Pressures.

Another press of the upward arrow moves to screen 4 (see photo) showing Electrical Information

Another press of the upward arrow shows Screen 5 (see photo) which is your Accumulated Total screen.

On this screen, if you want to reset everything to zero, press the OK Button just below the Upward Arrow for 3 seconds or more and this will zero the figures.

Pressing the Upward arrow once more time will give you Screen 6 (see photo) which is Current Journey, again pressing and holding the OK button for 3 seconds or more will reset all totals.

To get back to the main screen, simply keep pressing the upward arrow until it appears.

Resetting the Totals before a charge will stop the system from showing your estimated range based on your previous driving or journey, it will start as an expected range but we all know this can vary depending on how we drive, driving mode, temperature etc.

Hope this helps,

Andy

(Blackpool UK)

Click to expand...

AndyNWuk said:

Hi Katherine,

From the Main screen where it shows the Car Range and Total Mileage from new of the car at the bottom and the Large Speedo Digits at the top (see photos) you then use the Upward Arrow which is located on the right side of the steering wheel face (see photo) to move onto the next screen 2 which is the Energy screen (see photo).

Then another press of the upward arrow moves to screen 3 that shows the Tyre Pressures.

Another press of the upward arrow moves to screen 4 (see photo) showing Electrical Information

Another press of the upward arrow shows Screen 5 (see photo) which is your Accumulated Total screen.

On this screen, if you want to reset everything to zero, press the OK Button just below the Upward Arrow for 3 seconds or more and this will zero the figures.

Pressing the Upward arrow once more time will give you Screen 6 (see photo) which is Current Journey, again pressing and holding the OK button for 3 seconds or more will reset all totals.

To get back to the main screen, simply keep pressing the upward arrow until it appears.

Resetting the Totals before a charge will stop the system from showing your estimated range based on your previous driving or journey, it will start as an expected range but we all know this can vary depending on how we drive, driving mode, temperature etc.

Hope this helps,

Andy

(Blackpool UK)

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Wow thanks so much for spelling it out like that guess what..... I've done it!! Time for a loooooong charge, heres hoping it makes a difference!! Thanks again!

Stuart Fray said:

If you have the new ZS EV I'm guessing you might inadvertently set the charge in the App to less than 100% in which case it will have stopped the charge. Worth a check?

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Thank you for your reply. I haven't seen a battery display like this. I have a mark 1 model from 2021 so maybe I don't have that on my car....

Katherine Holland said:

Resetting the meters wouldn't affect the range though would it?

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Hi Kathrine. It's maybe important to understand that the range shown after a charge is merely an estimation based on a variety of parameters, one of them being previous driving style as recorded in previous trips.

Just as an example my average actual consumption is always lower than predicated range; 13 kWh per 100 km versus 15 kWh per 100km. After I've driven a few km the predicated range increases.

So if you zero the trips your estimation calculation will no longer have any driving history consumption to take into account. This however has nothing whatever to do with actual consumption of energy and zeroing the trips WILL NOT affect the actual range achieved from your new charge.