When I started this forum in 2019, I thought that the ZS EV was going to be a hit and hit was.
It's brilliant that the MG4 has done even better. The EV for other EV brands to beat.
Personally I sold my Ioniq in 2022 because I was so fed up with the public charging network and bought myself (or rather my business bought) a used, red Model S, which I think is utterly beautiful with the light silver alloys. I think Teslas are pretty bland to look at, but then all cars are (or should be) converging towards the most aerodynamic shape, which is where Teslas are at. Otherwise cars are less efficient than they could be. Some significantly so.
With the Ioniq, every long distance journey involved planning a main and backup place to charge each time it was needed. And then arriving at each charger was stressful because it wasn't certain that it would be a) working and b) available.
Now with the Tesla, I don't even think about it. I just put the destination in the Tesla and it figures out where I need to charge and for how long.
For that reason, right now, I would only ever have a Tesla and I'm grateful that I can afford one. But that's me and MG are offering fantastic alternatives.
I do get excited about other EVs. I like the MG4 and the ORA Funky Cat. I can imagine owning an Aptera. But my biggest gripe continues to be the absolutely sh*t charging infrastructure in the UK.
I totally agree, the Charging network is BY FAR the biggest plus, compared to any other EV.
I only had the MG ZS EV for 4 months but had the chance to charge at different public chargers. Here there are "plenty" if you talk about distance between them, but they are shared among all EV's
Most places there are 2-4-6 fast chargers, and especially in places with only 2, i have been needing to wait because both chargers were in use.
Also, there are sooo many different charging providers, so atleast in the time i owned the MG, i had to almost every time, download another app, make an account, add my credit card and so on, before i could start charging. This meant that it took maybe 10 minutes from arriving until the car actually started charging, and every different company has their own sequence to start the charge.
Some were "Pay, plug-in, press start charge", some where "Pay, press start, plug-in" and some where "Plug in, press start and then pay".
I can just imagine us, going through Europe on a holiday trip to Italy. All new charging providers, all needing app download, account creation and so on...Not to mention, what if chargers were occupied.
We drive at night, so it would be very possible that someone would plug in and charge, while taking a nap in the car, blocking a charger for an hour.
Tesla chargers are usually located on sites with 12-16 chargers, and it takes literally 10 seconds from plugging in, until it starts charging.
And even if all tesla chargers were occupied, cars rarely stay for more than 30 minutes, so on average one car would leave every 2 minutes. And if they don't they will be charged for parking at the charger, blocking it, which is a rather good incentinve to get people to move the car.
Another thing is....The price per kilowatt, atleast here in Denmark is quite a bit lower on a Tesla charger, than it is on other public fast chargers.
Right now, it cost £0,34, and the Q8 petrol station right nearby the Tesla supercharger station where i live has a price of £0,58
I know of no other public non-tesla supercharger that has lower rates for above 100KW charging.
In the city centre in "my" city, there are even 11KW AC chargers that cost more than £0,34
Again....Not trying to talk the MG down, but i must admit that there are some things that are just a lot better with Tesla.
I guess, in 10 years all chargers work like tesla for all cars, making it a breeze to charge at one of the plentiful amount of chargers available, but right now it seems to be a lot easier with Tesla.
To be honest, when we drive to Italy, i am not going to bother looking at charging at all, the car will sort it out and make sure i am routed to a supercharger when i need one, and if i pop in for a wee, at some place that it does not want me to charge, i will probably plug it in and go have a wee, if the SOT is below 60%. I mean, why wouldn't i, might as well charge while i am gone for 10 minutes, the car will dynamically recalculate when i need to stop the next time.
I would love for ALL EV's to be able to charge as easy and reliably, as this would make it a lot easier for people that do not want to deal with the faff of charging, which would mean that more people would buy an EV.
www.tesla.com
I did find a workaround, but that involved a Raspberry Pi...
