Charging from a granny lead, dangers?🔥🤔

[Dwigt]

Brilliant !.
You can’t get cheaper than free I guess ( for now anyway ).
You know of course that the onboard charger in the car will only permit 7 Kw’s to be extracted from the 22Kw unit at the Gym.

11kW for the Trophy edition, no?

 

[siteguru]

Correct - as long as you use a 3-phase cable.

 

[Dwigt]

Correct - as long as you use a 3-phase cable.

My car is coming via a Tusker lease and I believe they are providing the official MG cable, which from what I remember is a 3-phase cable?

 

[pharrison84]

Fair play to anyone even considering an EV purchase without the ability to charge conveniently at home. There's no chance I'd have gone for one if I had to rely purely on the public charging network (even a Tesla with the supercharger network).

I'd have gone for a cheaper ICE with reasonable running costs and relatively low emissions until the network/charging tech improves, or my own circumstances changed and I could charge from my residence.

 

[Lovemyev]

Sorry folks, we started the thread talking about charging a ZS EV via a Granny unit via an extension cable through the front door and then ( as normal ) we have drifted onto other charging procedures and processes on other models ( as you do of course ).
What can be confusing sometimes is that we have the higher spec’d ZS EV ( Gen 2 ) that is called the Trophy model here and that the MG5 has a Trophy spec’d model also ???.

 

[Jomarkh]

My car is coming via a Tusker lease and I believe they are providing the official MG cable, which from what I remember is a 3-phase cable?

If you do get a 32A type2 cable I would imagine it would be single phase, do you get the Granny EVSE too?

 

[Dwigt]

Fair play to anyone even considering an EV purchase without the ability to charge conveniently at home. There's no chance I'd have gone for one if I had to rely purely on the public charging network (even a Tesla with the supercharger network).

I'd have gone for a cheaper ICE with reasonable running costs and relatively low emissions until the network/charging tech improves, or my own circumstances changed and I could charge from my residence.

I got a pretty good deal on it in comparison to ICE vehicles as it's through my company, this includes insurance, servicing, tyres and pretty much anything else.

The good thing about the contract is I'm able to leave 3 months after delivery if my situation changes, also I went in kind of knowing the pain of using public chargers, I drove a Mazda in Spain for a week and it wasn't fun as the range was about 100 miles.

 

[Dwigt]

If you do get a 32A type2 cable I would imagine it would be single phase, do you get the Granny EVSE too?

Yes, both granny and type2. The MGs cable is a single phase one?

 

[siteguru]

Yes it is ... 7kW 32A single phase, so that's the maximum you'll get - even from a 22kW charge point.

 

[Lovemyev]

Am I correct in thinking that not ALL MG4’s were delivered with 22 Kw charging capabilities?.
I seem to remember some story of some cars getting delivered in error ?.
So, if that is indeed true you could have a car with only 7 Kw capabilities??.
Please educate me on this subject please folks- Thanks !.

 

[Dwigt]

Yes it is ... 7kW 32A single phase, so that's the maximum you'll get - even from a 22kW charge point.

That's a bit weird, I thought they installed 11kW charging on the LR and above so why sell a cable that only does, 7kW charging.

Am I correct in thinking that not ALL MG4’s were delivered with 22 Kw charging capabilities?.
I seem to remember some story of some cars getting delivered in error ?.
So, if that is indeed true you could have a car with only 7 Kw capabilities??.
Please educate me on this subject please folks- Thanks !.

Apparently the LR and above are supposed to have 11kW charging as stated in the manual.

 

[siteguru]

The LR models do have 11kW chargers built in. But even so, the majority of domestic properties in the UK can only support single phase charge points, at a maximum of 32A (so 7kW), hence why a single phase cable is supplied. (It's also cheaper to make, and lighter).

 

[IanMK]

£300-£350 will get you up and running no problem using a used charger.

Golly. My electrician is charging £400 and I'm supplying the charger.

 

[Lovemyev]

That's a bit weird, I thought they installed 11kW charging on the LR and above so why sell a cable that only does, 7kW charging.

Apparently the LR and above are supposed to have 11kW charging as stated in the manual.

Aaarrrhhh …. If it’s only top spec MG4’s Trophy models that had 11Kw charging, does that mean that the standard SE spec model only charge at 7 Kw’s then ?.
Did some of the standard range models get 22 Kw capabilities totally in error then ?.
I do recall some lucky owners having 22 Kw capabilities in error from the factory, but I am unable to remember the whole story here.
It was one of the subjects covered on one of the pod casts a while back.

 

[IanMK]

Back on the (OP's) subject of the granny chargers supplied with the MG4 by the manufacturer, I note that they are not listed as an exclusion on the warranty

 

[Dwigt]

Aaarrrhhh …. If it’s only top spec MG4’s Trophy models that had 22 Kw charging, does that mean that the standard SE spec model only charge at 7 Kw’s then ?.
Did some of the standard range models get 22 Kw capabilities totally in error then ?.
I do recall some lucky owners having 22 Kw capabilities in error from the factory, but I am unable to remember the whole story here.
It was one of the subjects covered on one of the pod casts a while back.

SE LR and Trophy get 11kW charging not 22kW

 

[pharrison84]

Golly. My electrician is charging £400 and I'm supplying the charger.

I'm assuming it's not a straight forward install? Had an electrician friend install mine on the outside of a new build about 2 metres (if that) from the circuit breaker box and it only took him about 90 minutes with £30 worth of components.

 

[Lovemyev]

SE LR and Trophy get 11kW charging not 22kW

Thank you of course they do, sorry a "typo".
I had 22 Kw charging post stuck in my head a the time - Dooh !.

 

[tsedge]

I'm assuming it's not a straight forward install? Had an electrician friend install mine on the outside of a new build about 2 metres (if that) from the circuit breaker box and it only took him about 90 minutes with £30 worth of components.

There's also a difference between an electrician that will just install a charger and one that will also test the system thoroughly. If it is literally just the install, can be pretty cheap. Many of the bundled deals involve survey, updates to the home wiring, then circuit install and testing. You can argue it is overkill but it all depends on the state of your wiring.

Our electrician rewired our house with an EV charger in mind, so the actual install was only £90 and took 25 mins.

 

[Davn]

My very kind neighbour would probably be OK about this, particularly at the point where I offered to pay for the electricity (this has never been mentioned). I don't know how long the free box five miles away is likely to stay free for, but it's next to a nice café and that could be a cheap solution to a temporary outage too.

All sorts of things to consider. I think it's likely that I will get a wall box eventually, but I want to be sure it's the right decision before I order one.

I've been using the granny since January when I got the car + the odd trip to a public charger and I do 80 miles a day. I have had a recent quote for a wall box @ £1200 - 1600 depending on which box I pick, which is a chunk of change in anyone's pocket! I don't know if I can justify that just for the speed of charging