HS PHEV - the good, the bad and the ugly

[JohnMG]

Having completed 2000 miles in my new HS Exclusive PHEV, mostly in UK, and on holiday in France and Belgium, here are my initial reactions. Many of the following points have been made in other posts, but this may be a useful summary for discussion.
The good: a lovely car for the money, I'm very pleased with it. The power from the combination of petrol engine and electric motor is good, driving position is comfortable (as are all the seats), and the car provides a smooth motorway ride. The adaptive cruise control is superb (though I've switched off most other driver assist functions). The door mirrors, rear passing sensors and 360 degree camera are brilliant aids to driving and parking. Nice interior, well finished in (mostly) leather, nice sunroof and shade. Luggage space in boot not great but OK.
The bad: The suspension is too bouncy on minor roads, and is clearly under-damped for the weight of the PHEV. Petrol consumption on long trips is disappointing - I'm averaging only 40 mpg. There is a noticable hesitation on accelerating at about 48 mph and a slight vibration on the accelerator pedal while the petrol engine is warming up. The internal heater seems inefficient and since it relies on the petrol engine, it's often impossible to drive entirely in EV mode from startup. Also I've noticed uncomfortably high levels of heat transmission through drivers side window in sunny weather. Weird, since the glass is standard AS2, and so gives 30% visible light absorption. Any further tinting would be illegal in the UK so I'm having clear heat-absorbing film applied to remain legal and cool!!
The ugly: Enough has been said about the 'temporary' ugly DAB radio dongle and windscreen aerial. Maybe MG will fix one day. The entertainment screen is a bit of a mess and does not display the title of radio stations. Combining entertainment and heater conttrols on the touchscreen is a bad idea, not just ugly but potentially distracting and dangerous when adjusting heater settings. The instrument display isn't greateither - seems to focus on non-essential information at the expense of more important information (e.g. petrol engine temperature and fuel consumption) which is hidden and difficult or impossible to access.

All comments welcome!

 

[Kerno]

Having completed 2000 miles in my new HS Exclusive PHEV, mostly in UK, and on holiday in France and Belgium, here are my initial reactions. Many of the following points have been made in other posts, but this may be a useful summary for discussion.
The good: a lovely car for the money, I'm very pleased with it. The power from the combination of petrol engine and electric motor is good, driving position is comfortable (as are all the seats), and the car provides a smooth motorway ride. The adaptive cruise control is superb (though I've switched off most other driver assist functions). The door mirrors, rear passing sensors and 360 degree camera are brilliant aids to driving and parking. Nice interior, well finished in (mostly) leather, nice sunroof and shade. Luggage space in boot not great but OK.
The bad: The suspension is too bouncy on minor roads, and is clearly under-damped for the weight of the PHEV. Petrol consumption on long trips is disappointing - I'm averaging only 40 mpg. There is a noticable hesitation on accelerating at about 48 mph and a slight vibration on the accelerator pedal while the petrol engine is warming up. The internal heater seems inefficient and since it relies on the petrol engine, it's often impossible to drive entirely in EV mode from startup. Also I've noticed uncomfortably high levels of heat transmission through drivers side window in sunny weather. Weird, since the glass is standard AS2, and so gives 30% visible light absorption. Any further tinting would be illegal in the UK so I'm having clear heat-absorbing film applied to remain legal and cool!!
The ugly: Enough has been said about the 'temporary' ugly DAB radio dongle and windscreen aerial. Maybe MG will fix one day. The entertainment screen is a bit of a mess and does not display the title of radio stations. Combining entertainment and heater conttrols on the touchscreen is a bad idea, not just ugly but potentially distracting and dangerous when adjusting heater settings. The instrument display isn't greateither - seems to focus on non-essential information at the expense of more important information (e.g. petrol engine temperature and fuel consumption) which is hidden and difficult or impossible to access.

All comments welcome!

I could have written this myself. I am yet to find the engine temp information. I have just posted about the not-so-cold aircon and asked for tinting options as I too find the heat coming in via the driver's window uncomfortable. I will certainly look at getting the clear heat film fitted so thanks for the heads up. Over a couple of thousand miles I am averaging around 55MPG overall which is around 10 more than my diesel Insignia. When I am local this is around 85MPG which is excellent sadly on trips like yesterday of 300 miles only like yourself 40.

Overall though I am very pleased with the car and if they could sort out the infotainment system the experience would be so much better.

Paul

 

[djenson]

clearly under-damped for the weight of the PHEV

Spot on, gets way bouncy sometimes, but without expensive and prone to failure electronic variable dampers i don't know how the refined motorway driving could be maintained while solving this.

I'm averaging only 40 mpg

People are saying 40 mpg like its bad?? Id love to hear of any medium-large petrol/hybrid SUV that does significantly better than this - i average 44 on longer trips (80+ miles, 62 MPH)

hesitation on accelerating at about 48 mph

I only get this in EV mode - but not in hybrid mode.

often impossible to drive entirely in EV mode from startup

The heater situation is a bit of a joke, but setting climate to low (or holding down the climate key for ~3 seconds) stops this happening

clear heat-absorbing film applied to remain legal and cool!!

This sounds like a great idea - would be curious to know how well it works

hidden and difficult or impossible to access.

I don't think the driver information is difficult to access - right/left to access different categories of data (ACC, vehicle information, settings etc) then up/down to navigate through the data available in those categories. Holding OK on the trip resets it. Do agree ould like to see engine temp however.

 

[Cafeg]

I have had my MGHS phev for 4 months now. I enjoy driving it around town and on a trip, It is very comfortable and the mirror placement is good and very easy to see behind and around the car.

What could be improved:
Having a Electric cabin heater instead of starting the petrol motor to heat the car cabin.
(We have the temp down to 19c for the driver and passenger lets us start and run in EV mode for all the trip.)

The GPS maps dont find hardly any streets we look for which makes them un-usable.
(Plugging my phone in and using android auto to bring up google maps to use instead)

No iSmart access for the MG iSmart app ?
(Not a game changer but could it be installed through setup screens, Thai phev versions have it)

Put the auto boot height on both versions of the phev, currently only on the deluxe version.
Change the petrol cap system so when you push the button to refuel it becomes loose

What we like:
Petrol economy is great.
Nearly all our running is in the city and it averages just under 2l/100km in the city,
We are in EV mode all the time by dropping the temp down to 19deg for both driver and passenger and it stays in EV mode all day and stops switching to auto mode. We average over 50 kms a day city driving.
On a trip in Hybrid mode, just over 5 litres/100 kms, This is comparable to a Prius we also have on a trip.

For the first few months I filled it up once it got to 1000kms and still had 3 bars of fuel left.
Currently we have done one trip on hybrid, the rest in EV and we have gone 1,350 kms and still have 3 bars petrol left. When we do a trip on hybrid I make sure the Battery is fully charged and when we are close to home - 50kms away and do the rest of the trip on EV mode. Some of the shopping centers also have free charging as well to recharge while shopping.

I plug in the 3 pin plug every night and recharge the battery. We also have Solar + Tesla Powerwall2 battery so when sun is down I can start charging if The powerwall battery has enough to go until 9pm when our free power kicks in. We also have 3 hrs of free Elec every night from 9pm to midnight so I can get the car charged easily at night. The 3 pin plug is plugged into a wifi plug and I control the charging with that.

Seats are very comfortable, and the driver display screen is clear and full of info.
Lane warning drives you crazy BUT I leave it on to keep my attention on the road
The inside is almost all leather which is great and very comfortable.
The MG is very roomy inside. I went for test drives in other EV's and felt very squashed in.

Price was good here in NZ, I traded in a 2006 Prius for $4,500 nzd,
The govt EV allowance of $5,750 bought the price down to just over $43,000 nzd which is a good price for a EV, Most of the others are over $60,000 to $70,000 here. Teslas are almost $100,000

Back seat passengers have commented how its great the space they have.
Boot space is good,
We have a stall at a market every saturday and everything fits in well with the back seats down.

All in All we are very happy with our MGhs phev and I'm glad I bought it

 

[JohnMG]

Thanks Cafeg, New Zealand sounds like EV heaven! As benchmarks on petrol consumption, my average 40 miles per (British) gallon equates to 7.1 litres/100km and your average 5 litres/100km is around 55 mpg. Very good! And free electricity!

 

[Cafeg]

Thanks Cafeg, New Zealand sounds like EV heaven! As benchmarks on petrol consumption, my average 40 miles per (British) gallon equates to 7.1 litres/100km and your average 5 litres/100km is around 55 mpg. Very good! And free electricity!

Yes and even better, over 80% of our running is in free EV mode with one trip up to 200kms once a month in hybrid mode. The rest of the time we are in full EV mode.

Our battery is being charged for free at home by 4 ways :
1) solar,
2) existing powerwall2 battery,
3) our free power from 9pm to midnight.
4) At the shopping centre while shopping.

The MG phev fits in with this very well which is why I bought a PHEV. Earlier PHEV models didnt really let you drive very far in EV mode but the MG phev does 64km's in EV mode which fits in well with us.

I looked at full EV's and went for test drives in a few, but none had the space inside the car the MG has
and also in the future the lack of charging stations once more people buy an EV it will get worse.

My next car will be a full EV probly in about 5 years time which once I see the charging station issue resolved.
When you think on it, you only spend say 5 mins in a petrol station for petrol right now, with a EV even fast charging to 80% charge in 30 mins to 1 hour will mean queues unless they all charge at home..
A bit different to 5 mins in a petrol station, there will be queues of cars waiting once more have an EV.

Also even better once you drop the cabin heater temp down to 19deg so the ICE doesnt keep cuting in and you have a full EV for 64 KM's apart from the first couple of minutes of startup in the morning.
Its winter here right now with the day temps around 15deg, so in summer it should start in EV mode every day and stay in it all day.

Thats why the MG phev really fits in with us