At the suggestion of a fellow member, I am adding here, my account of a recent long journey I undertook in a ZS which was originally posted in the MG Electric Vehicle Owners Club Facebook page earlier today.
Just got back from a 2000+mile trip from Tayside to the South of England for a combined family celebration and staycation staying in Maidstone and Bournemouth, and travelling around Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset. Very happy indeed with the comfort and performance of our ZS EV. Some things that any of you considering long trips might find useful. The car was heavily laden. The boot had two sets of golf clubs, balls, shoes etc, a large and VERY heavy case, and every nook and cranny filled with “essentials” of some sort. (We don’t travel light!) The golf clubs and assorted paraphernalia stayed in the car throughout the trip, even when parked at a hotel. The passenger compartment had 3 adults and the other backseat and associated floor space was filled with two large and heavy holdalls and various other items we bought during our trip. The weather was glorious, around 21-24 degrees almost all of the time. I have the Exclusive model with the faux leather seats and don’t have tints, but we didn’t suffer any concerns related to these features that some others have voiced. No sticky/burnt legs, despite wearing shorts, and no excessive glare. Just used sunglasses and suncream as I would even at home in such weather (We live just East of Dundee - officially the sunniest city in Scotland before the jokes start!!). I planned most of my stops in advance. I stuck exclusively to CPS, Instavolt and BP Pulse as planned except for one charge at a Geniepoint rapid and 3 nice overnight balancing charges at the free Rolec 7kw chargers courtesy of the Holiday Inn, Bournemouth. Starting states of charge ranged from 2% to 46% with the battery generally very warm. Most rapid charging rates started at 48kw/hr, and much to my surprise I never saw less than 42kw/hr initially even at the highest starting states of charge! I also got 69kw/h at 45% starting SOC on a 125kw Instavolt, but this quickly dropped the moment an Audi started using the chargepoint next to me. I am on the Feb 21 BMS. With one exception, on all longish legs of the journey, I used MG Pilot set to 65mph and achieved an average economy/range of 3.7miles/kw even though all too frequently I had to pump it up to 70mph to pass the people who seemed to have set their cruise control to 64.5mph! I expected much less economy than that achieved given the load I was carrying, even though all of it was inside the car. On one occasion I used MG Pilot at 60mph (last leg home and tired) from Abington Services on the M74 to the western edge of Dundee. This is just over 100 miles, all motorway or dual carriageway, and with light traffic, the speed was particularly consistent. At a slightly lower ambient temperature of 18 degrees on this leg the car returned 3.9miles/kw. In total I covered approx. 2090 miles in 12 days/11nights at an average of 3.83miles/kw. (The photo shows only 1430 of those miles at 3.9m/kwh. An inquisitive fellow EV driver reset the accumulated total at the rapid at Maidstone M&S when it showed approx. 660 miles at 3.7m/kw average) The car returned 4.8miles/kw driving through and on the A roads between Poole, Weymouth & Portland, keeping up with traffic, which led to the optimistic range shown on the GOM after a balancing charge! My wife was very unsure about us taking the MG on such a long trip. Initially, she wanted us to fly down and hire a car, but I persuaded her to give it a go. We planned in advance, stuck to rapids beside Costa/KFC outlets or other places where we could take a comfort break and it didn’t really add much time to our journey compared to our previous trips in an ICE. All in all as seamless an experience as it has been in the past in our ICE cars and we have no concerns about taking on any journey in future.
Just got back from a 2000+mile trip from Tayside to the South of England for a combined family celebration and staycation staying in Maidstone and Bournemouth, and travelling around Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset. Very happy indeed with the comfort and performance of our ZS EV. Some things that any of you considering long trips might find useful. The car was heavily laden. The boot had two sets of golf clubs, balls, shoes etc, a large and VERY heavy case, and every nook and cranny filled with “essentials” of some sort. (We don’t travel light!) The golf clubs and assorted paraphernalia stayed in the car throughout the trip, even when parked at a hotel. The passenger compartment had 3 adults and the other backseat and associated floor space was filled with two large and heavy holdalls and various other items we bought during our trip. The weather was glorious, around 21-24 degrees almost all of the time. I have the Exclusive model with the faux leather seats and don’t have tints, but we didn’t suffer any concerns related to these features that some others have voiced. No sticky/burnt legs, despite wearing shorts, and no excessive glare. Just used sunglasses and suncream as I would even at home in such weather (We live just East of Dundee - officially the sunniest city in Scotland before the jokes start!!). I planned most of my stops in advance. I stuck exclusively to CPS, Instavolt and BP Pulse as planned except for one charge at a Geniepoint rapid and 3 nice overnight balancing charges at the free Rolec 7kw chargers courtesy of the Holiday Inn, Bournemouth. Starting states of charge ranged from 2% to 46% with the battery generally very warm. Most rapid charging rates started at 48kw/hr, and much to my surprise I never saw less than 42kw/hr initially even at the highest starting states of charge! I also got 69kw/h at 45% starting SOC on a 125kw Instavolt, but this quickly dropped the moment an Audi started using the chargepoint next to me. I am on the Feb 21 BMS. With one exception, on all longish legs of the journey, I used MG Pilot set to 65mph and achieved an average economy/range of 3.7miles/kw even though all too frequently I had to pump it up to 70mph to pass the people who seemed to have set their cruise control to 64.5mph! I expected much less economy than that achieved given the load I was carrying, even though all of it was inside the car. On one occasion I used MG Pilot at 60mph (last leg home and tired) from Abington Services on the M74 to the western edge of Dundee. This is just over 100 miles, all motorway or dual carriageway, and with light traffic, the speed was particularly consistent. At a slightly lower ambient temperature of 18 degrees on this leg the car returned 3.9miles/kw. In total I covered approx. 2090 miles in 12 days/11nights at an average of 3.83miles/kw. (The photo shows only 1430 of those miles at 3.9m/kwh. An inquisitive fellow EV driver reset the accumulated total at the rapid at Maidstone M&S when it showed approx. 660 miles at 3.7m/kw average) The car returned 4.8miles/kw driving through and on the A roads between Poole, Weymouth & Portland, keeping up with traffic, which led to the optimistic range shown on the GOM after a balancing charge! My wife was very unsure about us taking the MG on such a long trip. Initially, she wanted us to fly down and hire a car, but I persuaded her to give it a go. We planned in advance, stuck to rapids beside Costa/KFC outlets or other places where we could take a comfort break and it didn’t really add much time to our journey compared to our previous trips in an ICE. All in all as seamless an experience as it has been in the past in our ICE cars and we have no concerns about taking on any journey in future.
