Battery degradation

[Mango]

Hi
My partner has had a ZS EV for a year and it has done nearly 20,000 km – a mix of urban and highway driving. The range was originally 263 km according to the dash display, but it has now gone down to 228 km fully charged. When it was due for a service she asked the mechanic to do a battery check. They told her that was a special job that she would have to make another appointment for! Anyway, losing about 10% in one year would be pretty bad. But we have learnt from experience that the ZS software is pretty basic and the range and battery status vary wildly from time to time.
Any advice please? We’re in Australia, on the NSW north coast, and the dealer appears to be largely ignorant and uninterested.

 

[glwday]

The range displayed on the dash is influenced by temperature and previous driving habits. Fully charge the car reset trip counters to zero and drive it around normally until down to say 20km. Fully charge it again and divide the kw's taken to fill it by the km's driven and you will have a better 'normal' range. Acknowledge the fact that a longer highway type trip with fewer regen opportunities will result in a reduced range.

 

[Tim Green]

If the software has been updated, the newer software registers whether the heater or air on are on and other factors such as past driving as recorded on the long term record. There fore get the best figure GOM you need to reset all the recorded stuff, turn everything off, put it on eco and you should get about 265 km as before. If not, take it back.

 

[Maciej]

If she puts her foot down every now and then a estimated range will reflect her driving style. Other questio is do you balance a battery? Once battery is full 100% keep it plugged in for few more hours to balance battery before you use it do that once a month.

 

[Coulomb]

It's also winter here in Australia, so the battery capacity will temporarily be lower. As the average temperature goes up over spring, some of the capacity lost in winter should return.

Whether that reflects in the estimated range on the dash with or without resetting the trip meters I don't know.

 

[ChrisR]

I think this, like with some previous posts, is more likely to be because the HVAC is on when you are taking the reading (it normally predicts a 15% reduction). Turn it off and see what range is shown.

 

[Mango]

Thanks for your replies. It's not related to aircon (she barely uses it ever) or winter (she had it last winter too). And yes she does balance the battery cells about once a month by trickle charging to 100% and leaving it on overnight at home.
The good news from my point of view use that no one said it's their experience too, or it's a known issue, so maybe it's not a hardware problem. As for the software, how can I check? The dealer said nothing about this. But this software is pretty useless as far as range goes – it's struggles to adapt between her weekday urban usage and our weekend highway driving. It's all over the place, so we have to deduct 25% when working out how far we can go on the open road.
Do others still have a range approaching the claimed initial 263 km after a year or more?
What's the normal amount of degradation after one year? It looks like the warranty is only relevant when it drops below 70% of capacity on a full charge, which I guess translates to about 184 km.
We were really hoping that MG would bring the long-range upgrade to Australia this year, but they're not going to. This battery is just too small when you live in the country unfortunately, especially with our sparse and unreliable network of fast chargers. Otherwise a good car.

 

[Cliff Mitchell]

Thanks for your replies. It's not related to aircon (she barely uses it ever) or winter (she had it last winter too). And yes she does balance the battery cells about once a month by trickle charging to 100% and leaving it on overnight at home.
The good news from my point of view use that no one said it's their experience too, or it's a known issue, so maybe it's not a hardware problem. As for the software, how can I check? The dealer said nothing about this. But this software is pretty useless as far as range goes – it's struggles to adapt between her weekday urban usage and our weekend highway driving. It's all over the place, so we have to deduct 25% when working out how far we can go on the open road.
Do others still have a range approaching the claimed initial 263 km after a year or more?
What's the normal amount of degradation after one year? It looks like the warranty is only relevant when it drops below 70% of capacity on a full charge, which I guess translates to about 184 km.
We were really hoping that MG would bring the long-range upgrade to Australia this year, but they're not going to. This battery is just too small when you live in the country unfortunately, especially with our sparse and unreliable network of fast chargers. Otherwise a good car.

I live on the Central Coast of NSW and I have owned my ZSEV since April 2021. Early in its life I was using it for casual short trips, but since the price of fuel has skyrocketed, my wife has taken a fancy to it and drives it daily. Currently it has 22000 km. She is a little more aggressive than me and she is averaging 15kWh per hundred kilometers.

When I bought the vehicle it registered the 263 km fully charged. Since that time there has been a gradual decrease in the range and is now about 251 fully charged in "N" mode. We mostly use the car in "E" mode and it registers about 261. I use the vehicle in regen 3 and as a result of the Central Coast not being particularly hilly I get about 8km per hundred in regen kilometers.

So from my perspective 228 km on a full charge seems very low.