Charging Indicator

[Frank]

Hi Guys/Gals,

Found this out by accident when charging the car from my home charger and wanted to collect some stuff from the boot. Now we all know that when charging the MG badge breathes, albeit a bit hard to see in daylight but at least you know the car is charging, but what breathing!! does not tell you at what SOC the battery is at. According to the manual the official way to check is to open the door, which if you are AC charging stops it, lock the door to commence AC charging and then without touching the brake pedal press the start button to amber if I remember correctly and I think we all agree that is a bit of a nuisance.

Well another way. not in the book I don't think (and I tried this twice and worked both times) is to approach the car making sure you have your keys in your pockets, open and close the boot manually by hand not using the key and go to the front of the drivers door, and lo and behold the charging state is there to check what charge you are at and for those of you worried about security I can confirm that the boot locks itself on moving away from the car. I checked this by going back to the car without the keys and the boot was locked, note if you try this with the keys it will open again making you think maybe that the boot did not lock, but it does.

I am not sure if this works with DC charging but I will try it next time I am using a RAPID charger which does not have to have the doors locked to work, which I find strange as most times you be having a break etc etc whilst charging and you wouldn't want to leave the car unlocked.

If it works with the RAPID charging then I think you all might agree this is a far easier way to check the SOC whilst charging when out and about.

Regards

Frank

 

[Frank]

footnote to my last post, the other good thing with checking this way is that (will confirm when RAPID Charging, but AC charging ok) communication with the charger is not lost or the charging interrupted.

 

[Mgkev]

Thanks for this info. Exactly what this forum is all about.

 

[Frank]

Mgkev, do us a favour and try this out when next charging your car on AC just I case it's only relative to my car. I will try the RAPID charger scenario tomorrow and report back to all

 

[Mgkev]

Will do, although it will be a few days yet because we don’t do many miles.

 

[justme]

Another way to see the charging status when home charging is to leave your keys in the house then press the door button twice. This won't open the car as the keys are out of range but will display the charge status in the dash panel.

 

[Mgkev]

I love this sort of info, how do people find this stuff out?

 

[proudZSowner]

I love this sort of info, how do people find this stuff out?

by accident

 

[justme]

When you are charging on a rapid you can press the start/stop button 3 times to display the charge info. This is particularly useful for chargers that don't always display the status. I think I found this out on the MG Electric Vehicle Owners Club page on facebook.

 

[DangerousDoug]

When you are charging on a rapid you can press the start/stop button 3 times to display the charge info. This is particularly useful for chargers that don't always display the status. I think I found this out on the MG Electric Vehicle Owners Club page on facebook.

That's really interesting - presumably that's when sitting in the car with it unlocked. Does it matter what the power state of the car is before the triple-press (off, acc or on)? I noticed the (only) time I've used a rapid charger, that I could keep the car in the "on" position (by pressing the start button twice without the brake pedal being pressed) during charging, which meant I could run the heater, aircon (I got soaked plugging it in during heavy rain, so was trying to dry myself out ) and other accessories, with the 12v battery being charged as well - the power was being supplied by the charger as the battery was also being charged - useful!

 

[justme]

When I tried it I was sitting in the car with it off.

 

[DangerousDoug]

When I tried it I was sitting in the car with it off.

OK, so presumably when you pressed the start button three times, first time it came to state "acc" (for accessories) - orange light on the start button. Second press took you to "on" (green light on the start button) and the car started booting up (bongs and all). Then the third press usually turns the car off again. Did you press the button three times in quick succession?

 

[justme]

I didn't have my foot on the brake. I'll try it again when I'm next at a rapid and take better note of the exact response. I don't think the third press turned the car off but the more I think about it the less certain I am.

 

[Frank]

Hi,

Just Me, DON'T put your foot on the brake when you are charging (AC or DC) to check the SOC as according to the manual it will damage the electric system. I was checking out the way of checking the AC charging without opening the door and pressing the start button (without the foot on the brake) and it works opening the boot manually. Tried the same method with RAPID charging today and did not work and I had to check it using the start button and yes on pressing it three times after showing the charge the car did turn itself off. Did not know about pressing the door button twice for AC charging I will try that tonight when connected to my home charger and I think I will also try that method (without my keys in my pockets) with a RAPID charge next time I do it.

Thanks

 

[DangerousDoug]

One of the advantages of the MG is that the charging point is in the front. So I was sitting in the car (in the pouring rain) looking at the screen of the rapid charger in front of me. So I had the state of charge right there without needing to ask the car . If I remember, the car dashboard was also giving me info on the charging status, but I can't remember how I got to it. I'd pressed the start button twice (no brake) to bring it to "on" mode - I may then have navigated down the dashboard display pages to see the charging status - will check properly next time.

 

[Mgkev]

I can confirm that both double pressing the door button or opening the tailgate displays the charging status

 

[Frank]

Cheers, thanks for confirming that, makes you wonder why these methods are not in the owners manual

 

[justme]

Cheers, thanks for confirming that, makes you wonder why these methods are not in the owners manual

I had read the whole manual more than once before I got the car but I'm still finging out stuff. Probably the manual was being written before the UK software was finalised.

 

[Mgkev]

Like why is there a voice activation button on the steering wheel but it is inactive. Thia models do have this function. ?

 

[DangerousDoug]

Does the voice button not work with Android Auto or Apple car play? I haven't tried it myself, but I'm sure I saw a forum post from someone who uses that feature....