Can I limit charging to 80% and if so how?

[Jomarkh]

Extremely useful thread, although the antagonism is disheartening.

I've just upgraded my Gen 1 Leaf to an ex-demonstration MG 5 and was astonished to find the ability to control the total charge was absent, especially given it was available on the Nissan back in 2015. I assumed this would be a feature on all-electric cars.

The inability to connect the app to the MG 5 is also an issue.

The app currently works on the MK2 ZS and the face-lift MG5 due soon plus the MG4.

 

[smokie]

After having to have some stress counselling I've found it doesn't really matter that much.

 

[Scott J]

Can I limit charging to 80% and if so how? I have a MG5 LR exclusive. This is my second EV after a 40kw Leaf. There is much talk about charging regularly only up to 80%. I seldom do very long journeys so I could easily manage on this. I am with Octopus Go and my smart charger automatically charges during the low tariff period. But there seems to be no way either on the charger or the car to limit the amount of charge to 80%. I have looked through the car hand book and can not find a way to do this - have I missed it? On a personal note I have found that charging up to 100% regularly with home charger (around 6.5KW) makes little or no difference to battery performance. I tend to charge up every other day when car gets down to around 50%.

This is the only thing I dislike about the mg5 is that there is no app and no way for my ohme charger to talk to the car. That's a shame my 6 year old leaf had an app and could talk to the charger.

 

[jackois]

This is the only thing I dislike about the mg5 is that there is no app and no way for my ohme charger to talk to the car. That's a shame my 6 year old leaf had an app and could talk to the charger.

I've found that for general every day motoring, if I let my LR get down to 35% battery before charging with Octopus Go, the full four hours on the Ohme charger ends up with the charge around 80%.

 

[Geo68]

I could be wrong, but I thought the issue was more related to keeping the battery fully charged (or discharged) for a period of time. I didn’t think charging to 100% (using AC supply) had a negative effect if then using the charge shortly afterwards?

I think the batteries dont like being fully charged for a longish period. If your using it the next day don't think there is a problem.

 

[Scott J]

Thanks for input. I'm using a LR MG5 courtesy car from the dealership, I am sill waiting for them to fix my brake like issue on my SR MG5

 

[BugEyed]

So in summary it's not your problem - it's only an issue for us LR owners and not for your SR.

 

[Scott J]

Lol, nope I think I will still have the same issue if I ever get my SR Car

 

[Grumpy]

I have a zs ev. If the MG5 uses the MG App you can set it to charge up to 80%. Go to the home screen and tap on the battery bar and you will see this screen. Use the slider to select your max charge level.

 

[Scott J]

Unfortunately the current mg5 doesn't have the app, the new one will though. Thanks anyway

 

[BugEyed]

Unfortunately the current mg5 doesn't have the app, the new one will though. Thanks anyway

Beware, the new version doesn't have the same version of iSmart so you can't be sure that it will even be available in that.

 

[Gomev]

Beware, the new version doesn't have the same version of iSmart so you can't be sure that it will even be available in that.

Hopefully it will. Each change/update that MG does across the range seems to progress a little further each time.

 

[jpvdheijn]

Beware, the new version doesn't have the same version of iSmart so you can't be sure that it will even be available in that.

It has this function available!

 

[DK1083]

Hello again everyone. Thank you for all your replies. Pretty much as I thought - there is no way to make any setting to make charge go only to 80%. Once again bit of a fail for MG - having made recommendation and then giving no way of compliance other than best guess and experienced judgement. As I said I am not exactly a novice in the EV ownership stakes, I will carry on as before. Every once in a while let the battery run down to around 30% and then charge up - but of course this will take longer than my low tariff period! It would be nice to be able to limit charging to this! I have a ChargevEV smart charger. But smart is not the words I would use to describe it - surely something like this should be on the smart list of things to do! Once again thanks to all.

I had exactly the same issue and spoke to my home charger company Indra about it. The only way to do it, and it might not be exactly 80% as it depends where you start from, is to reduce the hours of your Octopus Go overnight rate. So instead of charging for 4 hours, charge for 2 or 3. Otherwise, there’s no way of doing it on the MG5 apparently.

 

[smokie]

The only way to do it, and it might not be exactly 80% as it depends where you start from, is to reduce the hours of your Octopus Go overnight rate. So instead of charging for 4 hours, charge for 2 or 3.

I must be missing the point. The end of your cheap rate on Octopus would not stop it charging, it'll just carry on till it's full (and balanced if you leave it long enough).

My charger circuit is switched - I have a Sonoff mini (as it happens controlled by my Home Assistant, not that any control is required with Go, though it was with Agile) which turns on and off the contactor on the line so that it only charges during cheap rate (or I manually change it).

That doesn't resolve the 80% question though, but my rule of thumb would be that it charges at about 10% an hour on my home charger, so I could easily work out roughly how long it will take from current SoC to 80% and just turn the charger on for that period.

 

[DK1083]

I must be missing the point. The end of your cheap rate on Octopus would not stop it charging, it'll just carry on till it's full (and balanced if you leave it long enough).

My charger circuit is switched - I have a Sonoff mini (as it happens controlled by my Home Assistant, not that any control is required with Go, though it was with Agile) which turns on and off the contactor on the line so that it only charges during cheap rate (or I manually change it).

That doesn't resolve the 80% question though, but my rule of thumb would be that it charges at about 10% an hour on my home charger, so I could easily work out roughly how long it will take from current SoC to 80% and just turn the charger on for that period.

Indra have an addition to their charger which they call Pause. It ensures that charging stops at the end of the charge period. Doesn’t resolve the 80% issue though which remains guesswork…

 

[tonydc]

Regarding the 80% limit on charging. Yes it can be done. In fact you can set it to any value very easy. I have a new edition MG5 (one week old) and I tested this last night by setting the max value to 90%, and bingo, the charge stopped at 90%. According to the dealer it may not be exactly 90%, but in my case it was. So how did I do it?
On the Home page tap the "charging" section. This take you to the details page. On this page there is a bar graph that show the current charge with a green bar. If you look towards the right end of the bar you will see a dashed line. To set the max charge use your finger and slide the line to the value you want set. Also this stays set until you physically change it again.

 

[Daffyd]

Regarding the 80% limit on charging. Yes it can be done. In fact you can set it to any value very easy. I have a new edition MG5 (one week old) and I tested this last night by setting the max value to 90%, and bingo, the charge stopped at 90%. According to the dealer it may not be exactly 90%, but in my case it was. So how did I do it?
On the Home page tap the "charging" section. This take you to the details page. On this page there is a bar graph that show the current charge with a green bar. If you look towards the right end of the bar you will see a dashed line. To set the max charge use your finger and slide the line to the value you want set. Also this stays set until you physically change it again.

I suspect it's because you have a new edition vehicle. I'm pleased to see MG have sorted out what should have been available on all electric MG vehicles.

 

[DK1083]

As far as I can see this is it possible on a pre-facelift MG5 which, although I am happy with it, is about as basic as they come; poor headlights, rubbish satnav et al…

 

[EVsince2016]

As far as I can see this is it possible on a pre-facelift MG5 which, although I am happy with it, is about as basic as they come; poor headlights, rubbish satnav et al…

Set charging on charger, maths is simple to reach a 80%, its 10% per hour

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