Australian prices released.

[wiz043]

The MG4 is arriving in Australia in 2 to 3 months and prices have now been released. They have named the models differently to the UK but appear to be the same.

1. Entry level model 51kwh. battery, 128kw., 250nm., range 350km. A$40,700 (21,500 british pounds).
2. Mid spec. 64kwh. battery, 150kw, 250nm., range 430km. A$46,700 (24,600 BP).
3. High spec. (Trophy) 64kwh. battery, 150 kw, 250nm., range 427 km. A$49,700 (26,200 BP).
4. Long range 77kwh. battery, 350nm., range 530km. A$57,700 (30,400 BP).

All models include on road costs and various government rebates apply depending on State. My State NSW has a rebate of A$3,000 (1,600 BP).

I am certainly interested in the entry model as it is the only one with the blade (LFP) battery but less range than the mid spec but not really an issue for me as I only cover around 150km. average weekly.

The only cheaper comparable EV will be the BYD Dolphin coming here around the same time and the 70kw base model will be around A$100 cheaper than the base MG4. It has more bells and whistles but there is no comparison with the MG4 powertrain.

 

[Rolfe]

I have the entry model and I'm extremely pleased with it. At your weekly mileage I'd say it's a no-brainer. (Frankly it would still be a no-brainer if that was your daily mileage.) That goes double if you don't mind having to make an extra stop or two if you do make a long journey at some point. The 51 KWh battery doesn't charge as fast as the larger one, but it's still pretty brisk. I can get 60% battery fill in less than an hour on a 50 Kw charger, and it's capable of twice that speed if you find a more powerful charger. You just won't get the 140 Kw the larger battery is capable of, more like 85.

The car drives like a dream. It has a few software niggles, but in fact it seems to be mostly Trophy owners who do most of the complaining about the software - it has a lot more capabilities, but that's more to go wrong. The SE software seems generally more stable.

I'm personally not especially enchanted with the extra bells and whistle on the Trophy and I actively dislike the spoiler. It has some nice things, heated leather seats, but on the other hand do you need these if you have a pre-heating facility? In Australia? Go for it.

 

[wiz043]

Thanks...I would pre order one now but as my wife and I are now in our err....maturing years I would like to check out the access and exit capability and seat height etc. as we have got used to our current SUV which is obviously much higher.
If I end up with the car as far as charging goes, initially I am just going to try topping up the battery once or twice weekly with a granny charger and normal household socket in the garage as I will only be averaging 150km. (94 miles) weekly as mentioned and I also have solar panels.

 

[Captain]

Thanks...I would pre order one now but as my wife and I are now in our err....maturing years I would like to check out the access and exit capability and seat height etc. as we have got used to our current SUV which is obviously much higher.
If I end up with the car as far as charging goes, initially I am just going to try topping up the battery once or twice weekly with a granny charger and normal household socket in the garage as I will only be averaging 150km. (94 miles) weekly as mentioned and I also have solar panels.

My 90 year old dad finds it easier to get in and out of the MG than he does my Range Rover..

 

[PeterK]

I have the entry model and I'm extremely pleased with it. At your weekly mileage I'd say it's a no-brainer. (Frankly it would still be a no-brainer if that was your daily mileage.) That goes double if you don't mind having to make an extra stop or two if you do make a long journey at some point. The 51 KWh battery doesn't charge as fast as the larger one, but it's still pretty brisk. I can get 60% battery fill in less than an hour on a 50 Kw charger, and it's capable of twice that speed if you find a more powerful charger. You just won't get the 140 Kw the larger battery is capable of, more like 85.

The car drives like a dream. It has a few software niggles, but in fact it seems to be mostly Trophy owners who do most of the complaining about the software - it has a lot more capabilities, but that's more to go wrong. The SE software seems generally more stable.

I'm personally not especially enchanted with the extra bells and whistle on the Trophy and I actively dislike the spoiler. It has some nice things, heated leather seats, but on the other hand do you need these if you have a pre-heating facility? In Australia? Go for it.

" It has some nice things, heated leather seats, but on the other hand do you need these if you have a pre-heating facility? In Australia? "

Aus versions don't

I have ordered the 77kw version. I regularly do round trips in excess of 1000km and like to have half hour breaks about every 4 hours. 530km range makes this workable.
Also I have 9.4kw of solar panels sufficient to supply free energy for the car, so the further I can go on a charge the cheaper it gets. The 77kw is also the quickest.

Horses for courses.

 

[Rolfe]

Thanks...I would pre order one now but as my wife and I are now in our err....maturing years I would like to check out the access and exit capability and seat height etc. as we have got used to our current SUV which is obviously much higher.
If I end up with the car as far as charging goes, initially I am just going to try topping up the battery once or twice weekly with a granny charger and normal household socket in the garage as I will only be averaging 150km. (94 miles) weekly as mentioned and I also have solar panels.

I'll be turning 70 later this year and I have friends ten years and more older than me, and nobody seems to be having any trouble. I take a lady who is in her 90s (and has an artificial hip) to church sometimes, and she manages quite well with me just holding her stick for her, and holding the door steady while she uses the door handle to help her rise.

I have a normal household socket in the garage (metal casing on the power point and on a separate circuit with a circuit breaker) and use the granny lead on that. I reckon that I could get by with that almost all the time, as you say maybe twice a week. In fact I also have a 50 Kw rapid charger five minutes walk from the house and I've formed a habit of charging once a week by taking the car up to about 90% on that, then going the rest of the way and letting the battery balance on the granny charger for a few hours. But I could easily do it just on the granny charger and probably will when the weather makes the five-minute walk seem less attractive.

Like you, I probably only do 100-120 miles in an ordinary week. Sometimes I go to Glasgow to the theatre or the cinema which is a 100-mile round trip, or similar distances for other purposes, and when I do that I charge before I go and after I come back. But most of my journeys are around 30 miles round trip and I tend only to charge after three or four of these. In winter though, if I'm relying exclusively on the granny charger, I'll probably charge a bit more often. (And if they put up the price of the rapid charger, that can go raffle itself unless I'm really in a hurry.)

 

[wiz043]

" It has some nice things, heated leather seats, but on the other hand do you need these if you have a pre-heating facility? In Australia? "

Aus versions don't

I have ordered the 77kw version. I regularly do round trips in excess of 1000km and like to have half hour breaks about every 4 hours. 530km range makes this workable.
Also I have 9.4kw of solar panels sufficient to supply free energy for the car, so the further I can go on a charge the cheaper it gets. The 77kw is also the quickest.

Horses for courses.

I know absolutely nothing about how electricity works but I have just checked my meter box and it contains 3 fuse service boxes so I am assuming it is 3 phase power?

From what I understand the MG4 comes with a 3 phase granny charger so do you know whether my 3 phase power would charge the car quicker than the normal 1 phase 240v power source?

From what I understand a normal 1 phase outlet will charge at the rate of around 10km per hour with a granny charger which would be fine for me anyway as it would only involve around 7 hours or so twice weekly with my low mileage but I was hoping a 3 phase setup may be even quicker?

 

[DBedford]

Three phase will chase faster by a factor of 1.73 if I recall correctly. Granny chargers are 230v single phase. It’s the type two cables with the extra pin in the middle row that are 3phase.

 

[PeterK]

I know absolutely nothing about how electricity works but I have just checked my meter box and it contains 3 fuse service boxes so I am assuming it is 3 phase power?

From what I understand the MG4 comes with a 3 phase granny charger so do you know whether my 3 phase power would charge the car quicker than the normal 1 phase 240v power source?

From what I understand a normal 1 phase outlet will charge at the rate of around 10km per hour with a granny charger which would be fine for me anyway as it would only involve around 7 hours or so twice weekly with my low mileage but I was hoping a 3 phase setup may be even quicker?

I'm not an electrician either.
My understanding is that single phase 240v will charge at 7kw/h and 3 phase 240v will charge at 22kw/h

 

[Captain]

I'm currently making a video about if it's feasible to have the MG4 with the granny charger alone which I'll finish in a few weeks. But so far the main variables are the time you have access to cheap rate or even solar electric and the number of miles driven daily. I'm finding that for my usual commute I'm using 8-10 kWh depending on the use of air-conditioning and right foot at the traffic light Grand Prix ?
I'm "topping up" to 80% daily and with a standard 240v granny charger it's been easy but I'm going to do a deep dive into actual costs depending or energy prices...

 

[Rolfe]

I don't think having access to a cheap rate is absolutely essential. If it's going to bump up the price of your daytime use and you're not doing a lot of mileage it might not really be worth it. I don't have a variable rate and just charge when I feel like it with the granny charger. I'm probably covering the cost of charging the car by being more aware of what I'm using in general and in particular not being stupid with fan heaters.

 

[Captain]

I don't think having access to a cheap rate is absolutely essential. If it's going to bump up the price of your daytime use and you're not doing a lot of mileage it might not really be worth it. I don't have a variable rate and just charge when I feel like it with the granny charger. I'm probably covering the cost of charging the car by being more aware of what I'm using in general and in particular not being stupid with fan heaters.

Between 19:00 and 07:00 and all weekends my electric is less than a 3rd of the daytime weekday price....It's worth the effort to me..

 

[Rolfe]

Maybe I should investigate what's available here in more detail. That does sound like a good deal.

 

[Ian Key]

Maybe I should investigate what's available here in more detail. That does sound like a good deal.

To give you some idea I've just fixed my tariff for 12 months. I get 7 hours at night for 9.5p/kWh and the rest of the day is 32.4p/kWh.

And before others say Octopus are cheaper there wasn't much difference as their gas was a little dearer and I'd only save possibly £36 a year.

 

[Rolfe]

I don't have mains gas.

 

[wiz043]

Three phase will chase faster by a factor of 1.73 if I recall correctly. Granny chargers are 230v single phase. It’s the type two cables with the extra pin in the middle row that are 3phase.

What type of granny charger was supplied with your ZS please?

 

[siteguru]

I don't think a 3-phase granny charge cable even exists - at least not on general sale.

 

[Captain]

To give you some idea I've just fixed my tariff for 12 months. I get 7 hours at night for 9.5p/kWh and the rest of the day is 32.4p/kWh.

And before others say Octopus are cheaper there wasn't much difference as their gas was a little dearer and I'd only save possibly £36 a year.

I’m one of octopus’s first customers here in Italy…they gave me a great deal on a heat pump and are trying to arrange EV tariffs here in italy which is way behind the uk with competition legislation

 

[wiz043]

I don't think a 3-phase granny charge cable even exists - at least not on general sale.

Ok...as I said I am a novice as far as electricity is concerned.
Do you know if a single phase granny charger plugged into a 3 phase domestic power source charges any faster than perhaps 1.5 to 2.0 kw per hour?

 

[PeterK]

Ok...as I said I am a novice as far as electricity is concerned.
Do you know if a single phase granny charger plugged into a 3 phase domestic power source charges any faster than perhaps 1.5 to 2.0 kw per hour?

Missed the bit about using granny charger. My understanding is that your looking at more than a day to fully charge off a 10 amp domestic socket. You need to have a 22amp plug wired in to your power board with a power supply (Zappi, Fronius, etc) connected to car with type 2 cable. This will give you 7kw/h single phase or 22kw/h 3 phase. Both would fully charge overnight. Will cost you a couple of grand. Perhaps not viable unless your the home owner