Driving MG4 to Zero%

[Kithmo]

I wouldn't purposely take it that low, it's not like you can carry a gallon of electricity in a can in the boot is it ?
I don't know for sure but I think MG assist will transport you to the next charger if you run out.
I have it covered with LV insurance anyway. ?

 

[bedsev]

I have it covered on my Admiral insurance too

 

[Rolfe]

When mine gets to 15 miles remaining (SE LR) it dings at me and restricts speed to 50mph and limits acceleration. If it goes below 5 miles it restricts speed to 25mph. I only let it go that low once!

Mine has never done that. Once I was overtaking at 5% charge and seemed to have full power available. I was only two miles from home so I wasn't concerned. Then driving into Aberdeen and getting pretty low I was occasionally tucking in behind someone I'd usually have overtaken, and I think I was on 7 miles or 7% or something like that when I pulled in to the charger. On that occasion I did say Yes to the suggestion of going into power saving mode, but it didn't seem to make any difference. Admittedly it was downhill all the way into the city, but the car was handling quite normally all the way.

Then I was making quite good progress, shall we say, on the M74, heading for Annandale Water. I could have eased off on the speed but I didn't really need to - I was trying to keep approximately 10 miles more range than the distance Android Auto was showing to the service station. It went like this.

I swear I didn't notice anything at all in the way of power or speed restriction. And I came straight off the motorway and on to the charger.

 

[Tight Git]

I think the LR and the SR may be different at low SOC - like @Rolfe I have had my SR down to 2 miles remaining range and no tail off in power but also on a cold day had power reduced going uphill at 1% remaining!

 

[Rolfe]

I felt something similar on a cold day, but it was quite subtle. I was driving home trying to run the car down to under 10% to do its long charge, in January. I was climbing the hills out of Edinburgh on the A702, and although I was in a string of traffic with no possibility of overtaking, I was trying to drive the car uneconomically. I held back a little so I could gun it up the hill, and that's when I noticed a slight lack of power, at about 15% charge. In the end I had to do an extra loop as I approached home to get to below 10%, but this was more or less on the flat and I wasn't pushing it, and I didn't notice anything at that stage.

But yes, I think low SoC plus pretty cold temperatures will strangle the car a bit.

I've never gone as low as 1% or 2 miles!

 

[TerryN]

Back in March I took mine down to 6%. All I got was a suggestion on the display that I might want to plug in to a a charger soon (which happened at 7%).

 

[Rolfe]

Same here. Oh wait though, there's also the screen that gives you the option to turn on power saving mode. Only done that once, no idea what difference it was supposed to make.

 

[gravity]

Stated usable capacity of the 64kWh battery is 61.7kWh ... so there's clearly a buffer. (For the 51kWh it is 50.8kWh, so not so much of a buffer).

Does anyone have actual real world buffer range figures for MG4 Standard. Something as convincing as Bjorn's figures? I think it is a big deal given my AI couldn't find anything in the general internet and recommended I ask here. I find it hard to believe that no one in the community accidentally forgot to charge and found themselves taking a leap of faith

 

[siteguru]

I've had mine down to 1% before.

 

[MG Clive]

I've been down to 2%, but I wouldn't recommend it > First case of Range Anxiety

 

[tsedge]

I have a LR but the 80% range, which is roughly the same capacity as the SR is reliably 200 miles in summer and 165 miles in winter.

 

[gravity]

I've had mine down to 1% before.

I have had mine down below 0% (--% displayed without a number) at least once, with either 1km to my solar-powered charge station, or an expensive public charging station 300meters away. No noticeable power drop up to 70km/h. But I was not sure I could risk 700meters of driving in that condition. It would have been less stressful to know if say after "--%" is displayed the car can drive for X more kilometres before it stops moving. This is LFP and there is battery management system (BMS)to auto-protect the battery from over discharge. Even below 0%, BMS still didn't immediately trigger a power cut.

 

[hojnikb]

I have had mine down below 0% (--% displayed without a number) at least once, with either 1km to my solar-powered charge station, or an expensive public charging station 300meters away. No noticeable power drop up to 70km/h. But I was not sure I could risk 700meters of driving in that condition. It would have been less stressful to know if say after "--%" is displayed the car can drive for X more kilometres before it stops moving. This is LFP and there is battery management system (BMS)to auto-protect the battery from over discharge. Even below 0%, BMS still didn't immediately trigger a power cut.

People report, that there is still 10-15kms left until full stop on LFPs. If i look at the carscanner, the display soc and bms soc differ about 3%. So right in line. I'd wager there's about 1.5-2kWh of bottom buffer below 0%. So unless you go crazy with accelaration below 0% display, you're probably safe for at least a few kms.

 

[Rom]

I took my car down to 3% lately so that I could do that 3-6 month less than 7 to 100% charge they recommend.
I got the verbal and visual warnings but the car drove normally all the way.

 

[Rolfe]

That's been my experience.

 

[Leebeejeebee]

Since the last update my range indicator only goes down to 12 miles, after which it then just says "---"

 

[Rolfe]

Really? I definitely saw 11 miles last week.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Haven't gotten below 8% (14 miles) yet.

 

[tsedge]

Since the last update my range indicator only goes down to 12 miles, after which it then just says "---"

Well dash dash dash is Morse code for "O", so maybe it is trying to tell you something!

 

[okohll]

I think it probably depends on many things, e.g. temperature, the age/health of the battery as well as how well calibrated it is by balance/full charges. It's not as simple as with a petrol tank where you physically have a certain amount of liquid left. So I wouldn't absolutely rely on having X miles left when it gets to zero! That said it would be interesting to try, I've not got it below about 10% yet.