Failed Gridserv/ABB charging in MG4

[adiel]

Thought I would try the new Gridserve Hub at Wetherby Services on a recent trip. Sadly, the 350kW chargers there would not work for me and failed with an error message that the car had stopped communications or something similar. I then plugged into the original Gridserve 50kW chargers at the service station and they worked fine, albeit at a very slow speed (under 30kW). I also tried the new BP Pulse Ultra Rapids on the M6 Stafford Services a few weeks ago and couldn't get those to work either. Anyone else had a similar failure at all?

I'm now over 8,000 miles in with my MG4 and have done a fair bit of rapid and ultra rapid public charging due to the long trips I do frequently. In my experience, and with my MG4, I do find the MFG 150kW, Osprey 150kW, Instavolt 120kW, Ionity 350kW and Fastned Ultra rapids (300kW) to be exceptionally reliable, along with most 50kW chargers. It just seems that for my EV some of the Ultra rapid chargers (i.e. Gridserve and BP Pulse) just won't work. Maybe my car needs another software update?

 

[Rolfe]

Is your battery the SR or the LR?

I had a similar problem with my SR at the 350KW AppleGreen chargers at Gretna. Three times I failed to connect, incurring a £30 "pre-authorisation debit" every time, so that was £90 tied up in my bank account for close on a week.

I don't remember what the error message was the first time, but the second and third tries got me "the car did something unexpected" and kicked off the charger before the charge had started. Like you I went to one of the original Gridserve 50KW chargers and got connected no bother.

 

[adiel]

Mine is the Trophy LR. Sorry you had the same issue, hopefully there will be a software update to cure the problem.

 

[Rolfe]

The LR charges much faster on these chargers than the SR, or so I believe, but the SR should still charge! I'm going to avoid AppleGreen in future, if I can.

 

[adiel]

Fastest I've seen on my MG4 was 138kW, achieved at both an MFG 150kW charger and a Fastned 350kW.

 

[andrew99]

Fastest I've seen on my MG4 was 138kW, achieved at both an MFG 150kW charger and a Fastned 350kW.

Got the same on IONITY. Averaged 97kW on a 16 minute charge which gave me 42% of charge. 15 minutes for 100 miles is pretty good by me, if only there were reliable chargers with that speed at every service station.

 

[PeteC]

Thought I would try the new Gridserve Hub at Wetherby Services on a recent trip. Sadly, the 350kW chargers there would not work for me and failed with an error message that the car had stopped communications or something similar. I then plugged into the original Gridserve 50kW chargers at the service station and they worked fine, albeit at a very slow speed (under 30kW). I also tried the new BP Pulse Ultra Rapids on the M6 Stafford Services a few weeks ago and couldn't get those to work either. Anyone else had a similar failure at all?

I'm now over 8,000 miles in with my MG4 and have done a fair bit of rapid and ultra rapid public charging due to the long trips I do frequently. In my experience, and with my MG4, I do find the MFG 150kW, Osprey 150kW, Instavolt 120kW, Ionity 350kW and Fastned Ultra rapids (300kW) to be exceptionally reliable, along with most 50kW chargers. It just seems that for my EV some of the Ultra rapid chargers (i.e. Gridserve and BP Pulse) just won't work. Maybe my car needs another software update?

I've used those Gridserve 350kW chargers at Wetherby Services on 5 different occasions. 4 of those 5 times they worked first time on our Trophy and charged well, peaking at 130kW+. One time I had similar troubles as you. Other (non MG) owners were having problems too. Only about half of the 350kW chargers were working properly. Once I got on one that was ok, it started up with no problems and charged at a very fast rate.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Speaking from experience, a Trophy will charge perfectly fine at a public Tesla Supercharger.
Just remember to create a Tesla account before going to the chargers! (also speaking from experience )

 

[siteguru]

I used the Applegreen chargers at Gretna today ... like @Rolfe it took 3 goes (so £90 pre-auth charges) before it started charging.

It looks like the Gridserve chargers have been moved to over besides the Tesla ones .. they were in use when I arrived.

 

[Rolfe]

I had three goes but never got on at all. The Gridserve chargers were indeed beside the Tesla ones that day, and I got on a Gridserve charger first go out of the box.

That charger conveniently broke down after it had given me plenty to get home on (while I was still drinking my coffee) and then failed to bill me!

 

[adiel]

Quick update and worth other members trying this tip too. I was not happy that I had given the ultra-rapid Gridserve chargers a fair crack of the whip with my MG4 Trophy, so I tried one located at Washington Northbound services. I had a thought about what might have caused issues before with our ZS, so before plugging in the charger I used the 'Safety' tab in the MG Pilot section of the infotainment system to turn the system off. I then plugged in and hey presto, a successful charge started relatively quickly too. I then repeated the trick at Wetherby services, where I had experienced my initial issues and again a charge started successfully. So, I would say that the charging errors, particularly with Ultra-rapids, on some MG4's may be caused by the fact that the car seems to be in an 'on' state which will not be tolerated by certain chargers. By turning the car off before you start a charge you might have a better chance of success with some of the 'pickier' ultra-rapid chargers in the public network. Give it a go and feedback your findings, please.

 

[DBedford]

Maybe I’m missing something, but why use these chargers when the 4 peaks at 135Kw and the ZS at 90Kw approx. (I think).
Are you not just paying for something you don’t get?

 

[PeteC]

Quick update and worth other members trying this tip too. I was not happy that I had given the ultra-rapid Gridserve chargers a fair crack of the whip with my MG4 Trophy, so I tried one located at Washington Northbound services. I had a thought about what might have caused issues before with our ZS, so before plugging in the charger I used the 'Safety' tab in the MG Pilot section of the infotainment system to turn the system off. I then plugged in and hey presto, a successful charge started relatively quickly too. I then repeated the trick at Wetherby services, where I had experienced my initial issues and again a charge started successfully. So, I would say that the charging errors, particularly with Ultra-rapids, on some MG4's may be caused by the fact that the car seems to be in an 'on' state which will not be tolerated by certain chargers. By turning the car off before you start a charge you might have a better chance of success with some of the 'pickier' ultra-rapid chargers in the public network. Give it a go and feedback your findings, please.

I'd done the same (shutting down car) when I charged there, so maybe you're onto something. I should be there again this weekend. If I remember, I'll try starting a charge without shutting the car down to see what happens.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Maybe I’m missing something, but why use these chargers when the 4 peaks at 135Kw and the ZS at 90Kw approx. (I think).
Are you not just paying for something you don’t get?

All UK charging is priced per kWh delivered, not how fast it's delivered.

 

[PeteC]

Maybe I’m missing something, but why use these chargers when the 4 peaks at 135Kw and the ZS at 90Kw approx. (I think).
Are you not just paying for something you don’t get?

The choice at Wetherby is between 50Kw chargers and 350kW chargers which both cost the same per kWh. The 350kW chargers are the only way to get the 135+kW that the Trophy will manage.

 

[adiel]

The choice at Wetherby is between 50Kw chargers and 350kW chargers which both cost the same per kWh. The 350kW chargers are the only way to get the 135+kW that the Trophy will manage.

Spot on PeteC. I think the other thing I've noticed is that the 50kW chargers, like those at Wetherby, can tend to run well below 50kW. Whereas the Ultra rapid chargers, depending on state of charge of your EV, consistently hit 135kW+ for me.

 

[Rolfe]

Quick update and worth other members trying this tip too. I was not happy that I had given the ultra-rapid Gridserve chargers a fair crack of the whip with my MG4 Trophy, so I tried one located at Washington Northbound services. I had a thought about what might have caused issues before with our ZS, so before plugging in the charger I used the 'Safety' tab in the MG Pilot section of the infotainment system to turn the system off. I then plugged in and hey presto, a successful charge started relatively quickly too. I then repeated the trick at Wetherby services, where I had experienced my initial issues and again a charge started successfully. So, I would say that the charging errors, particularly with Ultra-rapids, on some MG4's may be caused by the fact that the car seems to be in an 'on' state which will not be tolerated by certain chargers. By turning the car off before you start a charge you might have a better chance of success with some of the 'pickier' ultra-rapid chargers in the public network. Give it a go and feedback your findings, please.

Maybe that's why I couldn't get the Applegreen charger to work. It just kept saying "the car did something unexpected."

 

[adiel]

Maybe that's why I couldn't get the Applegreen charger to work. It just kept saying "the car did something unexpected."

It's worth giving it a try next time you're there and reporting back.

 

[Rolfe]

Will do.

 

[PeteC]

Maybe that's why I couldn't get the Applegreen charger to work. It just kept saying "the car did something unexpected."

If you're talking about the Applegreen chargers at Gretna, I had similar trouble getting those to work even though I was shutting down the car before trying to charge. I tried three different chargers before one eventually worked. When it did, it charged at a good speed.