Advice on the lowest percentage to drive MG ZS EV Trophy

[preeya]

Hi there I’m a novice to MG and electric and automatic vehicles so when I finally got my brand new MG I felt like I had won the lottery . I need some advice on charging and what percentage is safe to drive to? Currently I am on 45% I need to use the car later to drive into Birmingham Town will be around 10 miles there and 10 back. I’m sure it will be fine but just wanted to check if
his is risky? Also what is the lowest percentage you should allow your car to get to before you charge again?

 

[Gadget Geek]

Hi there and welcome to the forum and to the world of EV's.

The way I charge my long range ZS is to charge it up to 80% normally, and 100% once a month to balance the cells or if I am doing a long journey, and run it down to around 20% which gives you enough miles to find a charger.

Just driving locally, I go between 40% and 80%, keeping enough in reserve for those unexpected journeys. I always say don't have range anxiety, have range awareness. Make sure you've got some apps like Zap-Map, Plugshare, A Better Route Planner etc so that you can find a charger if you need one.

So, in answer to your question, take it as low as you feel confident to. If you know you will get home to your charger with 5 - 10 miles remaining, then go for it.

 

[Lovemyev]

Similar here, we have a Trophy LR and tend to charge to 80% for about 99% of our usage patterns.
80% SOC will return an estimated range of 211 miles on the LR.
Charging to 100% when taking on a long trips of course.
After I have charged, I very rarely bother checking the remaining range anymore.
The remaining range will display in green and when it changes to amber, I will give it a very quick glance.
At this point I still around 150 ish miles remaining.
I start to take an interest when the display turns red in status.
The lowest I have reached n the GOM is about 30 miles.
I have never stretched the range down into single figures TBH.
The GOM is pretty good at estimating your remaining range.
You will grow in confidence on what you can get away with as time passes by.
Don’t forget, that if you are low(ish) on range and you set off thinking you will be fine, then start using your HVAC system for heat or cooling, it will eat through that remaining range real fast !.

 

[preeya]

Thank you I think like you said it will come with time and experience. I don’t have have the long range so it less range. Sorry what does GOM mean? And HVAC?

 

[Susanna]

GOM is ‘guessometer’ - a rough idea of your remaining miles of range.
HVAC is ‘Heating, Ventilation & Air Con’ - you will see this on your MG app, and using it a lot will affect your remaining range (the same as any car).

(Edited, to correct my misinformation, with thanks to @Robf)

 

[Robf]

GOM is ‘guessometer’ - a rough idea of your remaining miles of range.
HVAC is ‘High Voltage Air Con’ - you will see this on your MG app, and using it a lot will affect your remaining range (the same as any car).

Actually Heating, ventilation and air conditioning

 

[Nicko]

Thank you I think like you said it will come with time and experience. I don’t have have the long range so it less range. Sorry what does GOM mean? And HVAC?

Hi, if you have the standard range you can charge to 100%? the 80% rule applies to the long range as they are a different type of battery.

 

[Lovemyev]

Hi, if you have the standard range you can charge to 100%? the 80% rule applies to the long range as they are a different type of battery.

In the standard range you can only charge to 100% ( unless you manually stop the charge yourself ) as there is no provision to set a charge percentage level in the head unit or the App.
Long range however, does have this facility.
Different battery chemistry fitted to each model.

 

[Nicko]

Hi lovemyev, I know that, the person is a newbie and I was just advising him as the comments below theirs were referring to the 80% rule?

 

[Bodgerx]

Hi there I’m a novice to MG and electric and automatic vehicles so when I finally got my brand new MG I felt like I had won the lottery . I need some advice on charging and what percentage is safe to drive to? Currently I am on 45% I need to use the car later to drive into Birmingham Town will be around 10 miles there and 10 back. I’m sure it will be fine but just wanted to check if
his is risky? Also what is the lowest percentage you should allow your car to get to before you charge again?

There's a buffer at the bottom (past 0%) if your concern is around battery health.

If getting stranded is your concern 10% is my bottom line for a longer trip.

The good thing about EVs is they are pretty good about letting you down gently with a turtle mode kicking in before stopping.

Have a look at TeslaBjorn's 'stranded' series of videos to get an idea of the process. I think he may have done one for the ZS specifically.

 

[Susanna]

@Robf - thanks, and apologies for getting it wrong…….

 

[Exdro]

Similar here, we have a Trophy LR and tend to charge to 80% for about 99% of our usage patterns.
80% SOC will return an estimated range of 211 miles on the LR.
Charging to 100% when taking on a long trips of course.
After I have charged, I very rarely bother checking the remaining range anymore.
The remaining range will display in green and when it changes to amber, I will give it a very quick glance.
At this point I still around 150 ish miles remaining.
I start to take an interest when the display turns red in status.
The lowest I have reached n the GOM is about 30 miles.
I have never stretched the range down into single figures TBH.
The GOM is pretty good at estimating your remaining range.
You will grow in confidence on what you can get away with as time passes by.
Don’t forget, that if you are low(ish) on range and you set off thinking you will be fine, then start using your HVAC system for heat or cooling, it will eat through that remaining range real fast !.

I’ve been down to 12 miles left and the screen went blank but still made the remaining four miles home without going in to limp mode. This on an early exclusive.

 

[preeya]

In the standard range you can only charge to 100% ( unless you manually stop the charge yourself ) as there is no provision to set a charge percentage level in the head unit or the App.
Long range however, does have this facility.
Different battery chemistry fitted to each model.

So you can’t set the percentage you want to charge the car to on the app unless you have the trophy long range?

 

[Nicko]

So you can’t set the percentage you want to charge the car to on the app unless you have the trophy long range?

Correct. Only the long range needs to be charged to 80%. The standard range uses LFP batteries which can be charged to 100% with no problems.

 

[Jomarkh]

Hi there I’m a novice to MG and electric and automatic vehicles so when I finally got my brand new MG I felt like I had won the lottery . I need some advice on charging and what percentage is safe to drive to? Currently I am on 45% I need to use the car later to drive into Birmingham Town will be around 10 miles there and 10 back. I’m sure it will be fine but just wanted to check if
his is risky? Also what is the lowest percentage you should allow your car to get to before you charge again?

Hi, have you got a home 7kW EVSE (Electric vehicle supply equipment) wall box or are you using the 'granny' that came with the car?
I keep my battery between 50-80% but as others have said the LFP can go to 100% daily if you need it just don't leave it at that SOC for days.

 

[Bodgerx]

I thought the question was “how low do you go”? Not what do you charge it to ?

 

[Mick G]

I treat mine like an ICE car, when the petrol/diesel warning light comes on you start thinking of adding fuel. When I reach 20% charge left (ignoring mileage left in GOM) I know it is time to consider topping up the charge.

 

[Gadget Geek]

I thought the question was “how low do you go”? Not what do you charge it to ?

I agree, but it never hurts to mention battery care.

 

[Ruislip Resident]

How low do you go also depends on your journey. On a recent trip back from the IOW I arrived home on about 7 percent battery state of charge (SOC). I am perfect fine doing that when necessary as I have a guaranteed charge point when arriving home. On route somewhere probably about 20 percent is the lowest I would want to go. Arriving somewhere other than home where there is going to be a charger eg a holiday cottage I'd probably be no lower than 15 percent. I'd keep it higher than arriving home just in case it's not working and I may need to go out and look for juice. At home even if my chargepoint suddenly stopped working I can granny charge, use a local rapid chargepoint or even get free at Costco ot local ASDA. They are my emergency local back up plans.