Range decrease due to cold weather [merged thread]

My ZS is not as efficient as MG4. My 3300miles average is 3.9 miles/kWh since March 2023. I can still reach 4.0 on commuting at 1°C to 5°C with minimum heater usage in London in winter.

I got 3.1 miles/kWh for motorway + heater at 1°C. It took one hour to drive 50 miles include getting into Cambridge city centre.

Short travel (2 miles) in winter is only about 2.1 miles/kWh. It would only cost 7 pence with Intelligent Octopus Go.
 
Coulomb said:
Not for the MG4 as yet. I created one for the ZS. As with other merged posts like the app merged thread, I think that the best compromise is one merged thread for each of MG4, MG5, ZS and possibly general discussion, because users tend to stay in the forum relevant to their vehicle(s).

Reduced range in winter (merged)

[ Moderator edit: Half a dozen posts have been merged into this one thread. Please use this thread if you feel that you really have something to add to this subject, after having read this thread. I suspect it's been fully covered many times over by now. ] MG ZS Ev estimated mileage on full...
www.mgevs.com www.mgevs.com
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That certainly sounds like a plan.
 
I've merged four recent threads about the winter drop in range, and hopefully we can keep future discussion to this one thread. I have tried to avoid the couple of threads where members were reporting a range issue that seemed not to be related to the ambient temperature.
 
Mg4 long range total milage
We home charged the car to 100% and the total available milage is 220. Should this not be higher?
 
mark n said:
Mg4 long range total milage
We home charged the car to 100% and the total available milage is 220. Should this not be higher?
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Depends a lot how you drive and which driving mode / regen you have set.

However, in winter EVs lose about 25-30% range, so a LR will typically get 200 miles in winter, 250 miles in summer.

Your numbers sound normal.

Dealers don't typically explain this to first time EV buyers, which they should.

The good news is, if you can charge at home, 220 is more than enough for most people who would stop anyway before they'd drive more than that.
 
I've merged this in with the recently created thread about the topic, to try to keep all the discussion in one place.

Mark, if you read up-thread, you'll find information that will explain this for you.
 
GaryMG4 said:
I think the ionoiq is a particularly efficient EV, in part due to the small battery sizes that encouraged efficiency. Personally I see 4.5-4.8 in the summer at normal speeds, 3.2-3.8 in winter, about 3 when the temp is around 0 and its a short journey, so more energy spent heating the car.
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Yes I agree with those figures.
 
Has this happened to any of you guys. The reading for miles per kilowatt HR, it just seems stuck on 2kph. No matter how I drive. From a 80% charge I'm lucky to get 140 miles. It's the long range SE. I called the dealer they told me to do a full charge to 100%, reset all trips. It worked for about 2 days, I was back to high 3wpk. But it didn't last.
It's booked in for a check on Monday, but I was wondering if it's happened to any of you and if so how was it fixed
 
2 miles / kWh is the minimum that it displays. It will often show this at the beginning of any drive as very short journeys are quite inefficient. It is trying to predict the range based on your recent driving but it is quite inaccurate.

Resetting the trips just resets this to the default range (which will be much higher than the actual) and it takes a few journeys for it to adjust back down again. It's a false prediction: what matters is the actual range you get.

Did you charge to 100% and wait for it for finish (to balance the battery)? It can take a long time to balance once at 100% in order to calibrate the battery. Obviously this needs to be on AC.

If you are only getting 140 miles on 80%, then you are using about 49kWh out of the available 61kWh, giving an average of about 2.8 miles / kWh - this is a normal winter figure that obviously depends on journey type and driving style. You are getting 175 miles out of a full battery, typical is 180-220, so it is on the low side but not particularly unusual.

To get more range, usual recommendations are:
  • Use ECO mode with energy saving mode on.
  • Ensure ECO mode is on the AC settings.
  • Keep speeds down, eg 65mph or less on motorways.
  • Avoid lots of short journeys.
  • Gentle acceleration and braking to maintain momentum.
 
Mark, could you update your details to show the correct car? Your profile is reading "not an MG" although you say in the post that you have an SE LR.

The worst I've ever seen from the GOM on my SR is 145 miles at 100% charge, and that was after a series of three-mile journeys in freezing conditions with a lot of pre-heating and the heater on at max while driving. I think that went down to about 132 miles when the heater was switched on in the car.

I tend to think that the 100% range for the SR and the 80% range for the LR are fairly similar, so maybe you're not far out for the winter range, as @tsedge says? I gather that the LR battery can take as much as a couple of hours to balance if it hasn't been balanced for a while, so I would let the car sit at 100% on an AC charger for as long as it wants. You can tell it's balancing because the app shows the finish time as the current time and the car is still drawing power (may show as 0.0 Kw but it's still doing it). When the app no longer shows anything for finish time or charging power, it says "not charging" at the top, but you have a figure displayed for "remaining range", then it's done.
 
tsedge said:
To get more range, usual recommendations are:
  • Use ECO mode with energy saving mode on.
  • Ensure ECO mode is on the AC settings.
  • Keep speeds down, eg 65mph or less on motorways.
  • Avoid lots of short journeys.
  • Gentle acceleration and braking to maintain momentum.
Click to expand...
* and turn battery heating off - that can eat a lot
 
Your profile says SE SR. ;)

2.1 mpkwh could be perfectly normal ... depending on how you drive, what mode is selected, and the types of journeys being undertaken (location, distance and elevation)
 
Hi Stephen. I moved your post to the ongoing thread about this - it's a query many people have at this time of year due to the cold weather. If you read up-thread a bit you'll find some answers.

The SR and the LR have different battery chemistries, so as @siteguru says, can you make sure your profile has the right car in it?

I've had journeys where the car didn't report anything more than the minimum 2 miles/KWh, although these were short ones. I did 100 miles on Tuesday and was getting 3.1 miles/Kwh despite it being fairly chilly (though not freezing), probably because the battery had a chance to warm up. But 2.1 miles/KWh may well be quite normal if you're doing short trips in the cold. It will all come good in the spring!

I remember when I got my car last April I wondered when I would ever see over 3 miles/KWh, but then the weather warmed up and it was all go.
 

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