Charging problem help please!

Katherine Holland

Katherine Holland

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Location
Wallington
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MG ZS EV
I have had my 2021 ZSEV from new and have got into a bit of a routine as I guess most people have also done. I don't do many long journeys so consequently virtually all my charging happens at home with a Zappi charger. I generally charge about every 5 days for 4 hours at night time using Octopus Go cheap night time tariff just topping up nearly 28 kWh, so not a full charge. So far all fine until this weekend when I had a long journey planned. Using the cheap 4 hr night time slot I figured that if I charged 2 consecutive nights I would get a full charge for my long journey. Whilst the first night I achieved 27 kWh the next night I only got 2.2 kWh and then it said charge complete. When I turned on the car in the morning it said 100% charge but range 123 miles, very concerning. I managed my weekend journey using various rapid chargers then repeated the 2 night charging experiment when I returned home to my Zappi charger. The same thing has happened despite the battery being almost empty. I don't understand why this is happening. I have not experienced this before, any ideas?
 
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What's the problem the low miles?
Did you reset your trip meters?
When was your last equalisation/ balance charge?
 
Katherine Holland said:
Im not sure if I have been doing a balance charge properly. Do I have to use the granny charger for that to happen?
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You can use your home charger when at 100% keep car on charge overnight that will give you a good balance it don't cost much to leave on as it don't use much electricity
 
Katherine Holland said:
I'm feeling really thick now, as I'm not sure what you mean by resetting the trip meters. (I am very keen to learn!!)
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There are 2 trip meters one for your journey and one for your accumulated journeys from last reset I can't show you how to reset as I have a gen2 car but I am sure someone will post how to
@Lovemyev can you help?
 
If you are reading the GOM as your range then it looks at your driving habits. As the weather is poor the mi/kWh has probably gone down so the gom will see this on your long range trip counter (try resetting it)
Once the car has reached 100% it will start the battery balance, this could take anything from 20 minutes to a few hours just leave it plugged in on the 7 kW EVSE.
 
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Katherine Holland said:
Resetting the meters wouldn't affect the range though would it?
Click to expand...
Reset BOTH of your trips, by using the buttons on the right hand side of the steering wheel.
On start up, your dash board will show your latest journey trip, if you have any mileage recorded, then a long press the square reset button in the centre, will zero the trip meter.
Then use the up or down arrow ⬇️ button, to bring up your accumulative trip.
This is likely to have a LOT of miles stored, if you have not reset it recently.
Press and hold the square centre button again, until it zero’s the stored mileage.
Important !.
Make sure you have completely turned off the HVAC ( heater / cooling ) before powering down the car.
Try to do this before placing the car on charge.
Now put the car charge and forget about it !.
It’s important to remember, that the balance cycle will NOT commence until the HV battery has hit 100% fully charged !.
The balance cycle can take anything from 2 hours to 10 hours, believe it or not !.
At ten hours, it will give up until the next time you attempt to try out a balance cycle.
Without getting too complicated, the total time to complete a balance, depends on a number of things.
What software package your car is running on for one.
Just let it do it’s thing over night.
It will automatically turn off the chosen method of unit providing power, when it completes the balance cycle.
When the balance commences, the car will only be pulling about 500 Watts, then will slowly reduce the demand down to 300 Watts and then finally down to about 175 Watts just before it had finished.
MG recommend that you should carry out a balance cycle about once a month, but I doubt many people 100% strictly adhere to this protocol, if I am being totally honest.
Usage patterns are ever going to be the same, for any two people / cars.
If you have a home energy meter, you can plot its progress via this device ( if you can be even bothered to do so ) ask me how I know 🤣.
You can balance via any A/C supply, either your wall box or a Granny lead.
I would use your wall box.
You can not balance from a CCS D/C rapid charger.
Try this and please report back on your findings 👍.
 
The temperature is dropping so you should expect a lower "actual" range. That's all the car is telling you with it's guesstimate of a range. Know that resetting the meter will not increase your actual range just the cars guess.
 
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