Decreasing Range of MG4

[mikgle]

Shame you didn't post your intentions on the forum before you bought the car. WLTP is an absolute maximum IF all the conditions are favourable in my opinion. I have the SE model, wltp says 218 miles but i know it will never achieve that in practice. More like 180-190, I'd be chuffed if I got 200 out of it. Theyre not that efficient, averages 2.6m/kWh. My wife's Zoe OTOH does 3.3..
Apart from that, they're decent cars..

 

[gary333]

Shame you didn't post your intentions on the forum before you bought the car. WLTP is an absolute maximum IF all the conditions are favourable in my opinion. I have the SE model, wltp says 218 miles but i know it will never achieve that in practice. More like 180-190, I'd be chuffed if I got 200 out of it. Theyre not that efficient, averages 2.6m/kWh. My wife's Zoe OTOH does 3.3..
Apart from that, they're decent cars..

If you’re only getting 2.6m/kwh at 60mph on the motorway then something is very wrong with yours.

 

[mikgle]

No, it would do more at 60mph.

 

[Singman]

Can I complain to MG about this abysmal range?
As trial run, complain to your local politician that they haven't kept their election campaign promises and you want them to either honour those promised or come up with a method of compensating you for your perceived loss .....
If you have a win on that one, then take on MG about their promises

T1 Terry

The politician complaint will be the easy part!! Before you get anywhere with MG....

 

[DYWLC]

Not sure i'd say it is abysmal - my first PHEV had an EV range of about 8 miles and my first EV had a maximum, summer, gentle driving range, of 73 miles.

Not sure if you are aware, but your MG4 is equipped with a rapid charging port, and there is likely to be a rapid charger between your daughters home and yours. Ten minutes of charging, when your battery is lower than 50% charge, is likely to give you about 50 miles of additional range. Yes, that ten minute session might cost you £10-15, but i've had a quick look and the cheapest MGZS hybrid I could find was £13,000 so it'll be at least 866 trips until you "break even". Although of course the MGZS will also drink quite a lot of petrol.

Rapid Charging in the depth of North Wales? What plant are you on?

 

[siteguru]

Rapid Charging in the depth of North Wales? What plant are you on?

Weed?

 

[ReintjeWA]

Looks a lot denser than what we get outside of the city, maybe it’s a matter of mentality.

 

[decrep]

Looks a lot denser than what we get outside of the city, maybe it’s a matter of mentality.


View attachment 44825

Wow, massive envy!!!

I agree, a change of mindset may not be easy, but it would help a lot.

 

[T1 Terry]

Looks a lot denser than what we get outside of the city, maybe it’s a matter of mentality.


View attachment 44825

Over this way, the only thing that gets denser outside the city is the mentality of councils. Our local council was given two chargers in some sort of charger roll out yrs back, they are still in a shed somewhere, never installed. Mannum is a major South Australian tourist attraction, the Mid Murray council head office is just down the road from us .... yet they couldn't see the value in installing EV chargers anywhere in the Mid Murray council area .....

T1 Terry

 

[fnegroni]

when i visited north wales in my SE maybe two years ago now, it was a lottery trying to get a rapid charger that worked and was free when i needed it.

Yes the WLTP range in the MG4 was optimistic, even if you had been driving economically without HVAC on.
the WLTP test assumes no HVAC, not even the fans! Lights off, everything off. Not necessarily set to ECO power though.

My SE had a combined average between winter and summer over one year of roughly 3.7 mi/kwh

 

[Griffian]

when i visited north wales in my SE maybe two years ago now, it was a lottery trying to get a rapid charger that worked and was free when i needed it.

Yes the WLTP range in the MG4 was optimistic, even if you had been driving economically without HVAC on.
the WLTP test assumes no HVAC, not even the fans! Lights off, everything off. Not necessarily set to ECO power though.

My SE had a combined average between winter and summer over one year of roughly 3.7 mi/kwh

We were lucky. In last year's holiday in Porthmadog I found Instavolt chargers just outside the town at Tremadog, LL49 9SN which were normally free.

 

[T1 Terry]

when i visited north wales in my SE maybe two years ago now, it was a lottery trying to get a rapid charger that worked and was free when i needed it.

Yes the WLTP range in the MG4 was optimistic, even if you had been driving economically without HVAC on.
the WLTP test assumes no HVAC, not even the fans! Lights off, everything off. Not necessarily set to ECO power though.

My SE had a combined average between winter and summer over one year of roughly 3.7 mi/kwh

Optimistic, I wonder if any pollie has thought of using that as a reason for not carrying out a campaign promise ..... I bet Trump would have loved to use that one regarding his fraudulent claims about property values to get a better loan and insurance deal

T1 Terry

 

[Rolfe]

Shame you didn't post your intentions on the forum before you bought the car. WLTP is an absolute maximum IF all the conditions are favourable in my opinion. I have the SE model, wltp says 218 miles but i know it will never achieve that in practice. More like 180-190, I'd be chuffed if I got 200 out of it. Theyre not that efficient, averages 2.6m/kWh. My wife's Zoe OTOH does 3.3..
Apart from that, they're decent cars..

I don't think I've ever actually driven more than 160-165 miles on a charge, although obviously I wasn't down to zero at the end of that. The reason is that if I'm covering distances like that, I'm really not hanging around. Or conversely, if we're talking about a series of shorter journeys, I wouldn't push the range anyway, I'd put the car on charge before it hit 30% at the lowest. And these will drag the average down a bit with the initial low miles/kwh repeated several times.

I have however twice seen over 230 miles on the GOM after a charge to 100%. Both times this was at the Tesla superchargers in Fort William, 146 miles from home, in warm summer weather. While there is a 40-mile stretch of motorway in the early stages of that, from Stirling on (almost 100 miles) it's relatively slow and steady on single-carriageway A roads. There is also a drop of about 800 feet from home to sea level. I don't know which part of the journey the GOM chose to estimate the range, but if it was Stirling to Fort William, well, there's the answer.

I think you genuinely could get the WLTP range on the car in warm dry still weather, going at a fairly steady pace on roads that seldom let you get above fifty. Which frankly is more than I can say for any of the petrol cars I have owned.

However, warm dry still weather isn't that common around here. Somehow I absorbed enough of this in my YouTube binge before I went to the dealer for the test drive to ask him if the SR would take me to Glasgow and back in freezing temperatures in the depths of winter, at motorway speeds and with the heating on full blast. (That is a round trip of about 95 miles.) He said it would (although he obviously wanted to sell me the LR), and he was right.

If you’re only getting 2.6m/kwh at 60mph on the motorway then something is very wrong with yours.

He didn't specify 60 mph, or even motorway.

That's about what I'll see if I'm tanking down the M74/M6 in the depths of winter, maybe it's raining, maybe the temperature is at zero, maybe there's a nasty head-wind. In fact if all of these happen at once it could be even worse. But if this is an overall figure, it's low, same if it's for moderate speeds in summer. Puttering around in summer will get me better than 3.6, and Devon is usually warmer than Scotland.

 

[mikgle]

I've also noticed the wind speed and direction plays a major role on range.. I live in the southwest and a recent trip down to St. Ives with a strong tailwind gave a marked increase compared to the journey back same day into a headwind..

 

[tsedge]

Pretty much all EVs will get their WLTP range if the conditions are right. The trouble is that includes driving in a maximally efficient way, which the average person just doesn't do.

EVs are much more sensitive to driving style, weather and terrain than ICE vehicles. That's due to their inherent higher efficiency, which is much more strongly affected by the conditions.

I work on the rule of thumb that:

• 80% of WLTP is my normal max range
• 65% of WLTP is my winter max range

 

[fnegroni]

Pretty much all EVs will get their WLTP range if the conditions are right. The trouble is that includes driving in a maximally efficient way, which the average person just doesn't do.

EVs are much more sensitive to driving style, weather and terrain than ICE vehicles. That's due to their inherent higher efficiency, which is much more strongly affected by the conditions.

I work on the rule of thumb that:

• 80% of WLTP is my normal max range
• 65% of WLTP is my winter max range

and the HVAC and any auxilliary draws must be off.

So far on the Urban it looks like 95% WLTP is achievable both summer and winter

 

[gary333]

He didn't specify 60 mph, or even motorway.

That's about what I'll see if I'm tanking down the M74/M6 in the depths of winter, maybe it's raining, maybe the temperature is at zero, maybe there's a nasty head-wind. In fact if all of these happen at once it could be even worse. But if this is an overall figure, it's low, same if it's for moderate speeds in summer. Puttering around in summer will get me better than 3.6, and Devon is usually warmer than Scotland.

No he said he drives even slower!! So should be getting better economy (hence why I chose 60mph as this would be worst case based on the information given), and at 60mph 2.6mi/kwh is lousy and out of the ordinary over such a long distance.

I have NEVER got 2.6m/kwh over such a long distance being quoted here (as of course it's there and back, so if one direction has wind the other way will likely have tail wind or no wind).

It was 2°C yesterday morning here. Massive on and off downpours, heavy wind and I easily got over this figure going much faster than 60mph for over 140 miles (there and back, not one way). The figure was low 3s, 3 people in car and with the heating on 22°C to boot for the full distance.

 

[decrep]

Pretty much all EVs will get their WLTP range if the conditions are right. The trouble is that includes driving in a maximally efficient way, which the average person just doesn't do.

EVs are much more sensitive to driving style, weather and terrain than ICE vehicles. That's due to their inherent higher efficiency, which is much more strongly affected by the conditions.

Interesting, I guess because, ICE engines need gearboxes and their cruising speed is fairly high, slowing down makes them less efficient. So there is quite a wide band for an ICE vehicles without much change in consumption. Whereas EVs are most efficient hardly moving with 0 wind resistance.

 

[tsedge]

and the HVAC and any auxilliary draws must be off.

Mine is left on, typically on ECO mode, but it doesn't get particularly cold down here.

So far on the Urban it looks like 95% WLTP is achievable both summer and winter

That is great, I was hoping the new platform would be much more efficient.

Interesting, I guess because, ICE engines need gearboxes and their cruising speed is fairly high, slowing down makes them less efficient. So there is quite a wide band for an ICE vehicles without much change in consumption. Whereas EVs are most efficient hardly moving with 0 wind resistance.

That may have something to do it - the basic difference though is because ICE is energy-inefficient in traction, the losses through wind and gradients and electrical load make up a small percentage of the overall economy. That plus low temperatures make less difference to ICE efficiency, although warming up the engine is a big loss, so for very short trips ICE is poor.

The second big factor is because ICE vehicles are filled up maybe half as often as EVs are charged, it is harder to notice changes in efficiency.

 

[mikgle]

No he said he drives even slower!! So should be getting better economy (hence why I chose 60mph as this would be worst case based on the information given), and at 60mph 2.6mi/kwh is lousy and out of the ordinary over such a long distance.

I have NEVER got 2.6m/kwh over such a long distance being quoted here (as of course it's there and back, so if one direction has wind the other way will likely have tail wind or no wind).

It was 2oC yesterday morning here. Massive on and off downpours, heavy wind and I easily got over this figure going much faster than 60mph for over 140 miles (there and back, not one way). The figure was low 3's, 3 people in car and with the heating on 22oC to boot for the full distance.

Could have been a bit misleading ref my 2.6 m/kwh remark.. that is definitely worst case and over a longish journey in winter, say 120 miles, in cold, windy weather and over 60mph on hilly dual carriage way, A30. A .return trip with wind behind and probably about 3.3.

My son is about to purchase a 6 year old Hyundai Ioniq which are renowned for battery efficiency, well into the 4.. it will be interesting to compare figures once he gets some miles on it. Its a 38kWh battery, 6 years old and done c34k miles. SoH battery check says 100% !