Keeping track of my MG4 (efficiency)

[MattyS]

I do love a good spreadsheet. I'd love to set something like this up but I find my data gets reset each time I restart the car...is there a way to pull the data out filtering by month/week/data range on the car?

 

[MG4JP]

I do love a good spreadsheet. I'd love to set something like this up but I find my data gets reset each time I restart the car...is there a way to pull the data out filtering by month/week/data range on the car?

You can scroll through 3 counters in total*: "From Start", "From last charge" and "Accumulated Total".

"From Start" will reset each time you start the car (if half an hour or more has passed since the last start, otherwise it will keep going);
"From last charge" will reset every time you plug-in the car, even if not reaching 100% charge.
"Accumulated Total" will only reset by demand - or if 99 hours and 59 minutes of running time have gone by, in which case it will reset itself automatically.

Because of this last point, I now reset "Accumulated Total" each month.


*To be able to scroll, press the button circled below and then use the up/down arrows:

 

[MattyS]

You can scroll through 3 counters in total*: "From Start", "From last charge" and "Accumulated Total".

"From Start" will reset each time you start the car (if half an hour or more has passed since the last start, otherwise it will keep going);
"From last charge" will reset every time you plug-in the car, even if not reaching 100% charge.
"Accumulated Total" will only reset by demand - or if 99 hours and 59 minutes of running time have gone by, in which case it will reset itself automatically.

Because of this last point, I now reset "Accumulated Total" each month.


*To be able to scroll, press the button circled below and then use the up/down arrows:

AHH that's brilliant thanks I'll add that to my sheet

 

[MG4JP]

First post updated, with March's data:

Period	Distance (km)	Efficiency (kWh/100km)	Average Speed (km/h)	Up Time
March 2025	1697	14.9 (4.17 mi/kWh)	35	47:58

Current overall combined efficiency: 15.2 kWh/100km (4.10 mi/kWh)

 

[wattmatters]

Economy for March was much worse than usual as I did a lot of towing (we moved home). I'd say there would be something like 1,200 km of towing work in that.

Costs are also up as I have been charging with grid power at the new place and I need new utility smart metering to get access to cheap grid charging rates, plus there is no solar PV either (which I will be adding before long). New meter scheduled to be installed on 8 April and I should be changing electricity plans very soon.

I brought over our ZJBeny OCPP 7 kW charge station, sparky costs for the removal and reinstall were $217. Fortunately it was a pretty simple installation at the new place.

 

[Rolfe]

One thing that makes me not bother about any of this is that I use the power in the car for many things. Pre-heating the battery. Pre-heating the cabin. Boiling the kettle. Keeping the car warm while sleeping in it overnight, and so on. All that, especially the last, plays havoc with any calculations.

 

[wattmatters]

One thing that makes me not bother about any of this is that I use the power in the car for many things. Pre-heating the battery. Pre-heating the cabin. Boiling the kettle. Keeping the car warm while sleeping in it overnight, and so on. All that, especially the last, plays havoc with any calculations.

I account for things like discharging V2L - that gets removed.

In the end though it's just an expression of how you use your car.

 

[SBJames]

I have always had an MPG spreadsheet - well since I earnt enough to fill my car up whenever I go to the petrol station.

The biggest issue I have is adding charge only to 80% (or a different percentage). Now I can just add some charges together, but if I only charge to 100% once in a blue moon, what's the point of knowing my stats once every 125 days (say!) rather than every 2-3 weeks when I'd usually have 'filled up'.
I'm still doing it (old habit die hard) but it is all a bit of a mess...

 

[SBJames]

This was soo much neater:

 

[MattyS]

This is how I've done it so far might add mpge too

 

[Anon70]

The biggest issue I have is adding charge only to 80%

Not sure why this would be an issue. You would never get an exact 100% fill in a fuel tank and the other metric with fuel is the amount of weight it adds to the car. 60 litres is around 43.2kg. Which would mean your calculations should adjust as the tank empties.(To be fair I never did this in all my MPG spreadsheets over the years).

Another couple of things thing to note:
The GOM is always changing estimates of range so make sure all calculations are against actual miles travelled.
There are losses between what a charger supplies and what reaches the battery, so unless you are using an actual charge figures from the battery the kWh supplied will not be what the battery has received.
The amount of charge each battery cell thinks it can receive changes depending when the last equalisation charge took place.

 

[LenEV2016]

I take my hat off to all the members who have the patience to monitor this continuously, for me when I switched to an EV several years ago (now on my third) I do nothing different to when I owned my ice cars, I drive at exactly the same speeds, heat it when it needs it, cool it when it needs it and fuel it when it needs it.
It's just that's it's easier and cheaper to fuel now and a more relaxing drive.
Even on really long journeys I can't be arsed with going slow or getting cold or hot just to get a few extra miles drive as I always have.
Not a dig at anyone that does but it does kind of add to the anti EV idiots arguements when they bring it up as reasons against EVs

 

[salty]

I take my hat off to all the members who have the patience to monitor this continuously, for me when I switched to an EV several years ago (now on my third) I do nothing different to when I owned my ice cars, I drive at exactly the same speeds, heat it when it needs it, cool it when it needs it and fuel it when it needs it.
It's just that's it's easier and cheaper to fuel now and a more relaxing drive.
Even on really long journeys I can't be arsed with going slow or getting cold or hot just to get a few extra miles drive as I always have.
Not a dig at anyone that does but it does kind of add to the anti EV idiots arguements when they bring it up as reasons against EVs

Absolutely, totally agree.

 

[MG4JP]

Keeping track of a car's mileage and its economy has been around forever and is actually part of a car/engine data sheet for decades.

It all comes down to being interested in such data or not caring about it at all - not sure being an EV or ICE has anything to do with it in the end.

In my particular case, I do this because I find it interesting and also because it helps when planning longer journeys - stopping mid-journey for charging can be quite a hassle where I come from and may easily mess up your travelling plans.

Also, as a side note, I don't actually care how much my car is spending, as I don't pay for the electricity that goes into it. I'm just interested in this kind of data and want to get to know my car (and the EV world) the best I can.

 

[salty]

Keeping track of a car's mileage and its economy has been around forever and is actually part of a car/engine data sheet for decades.

It all comes down to being interested in such data or not caring about it at all - not sure being an EV or ICE has anything to do with it in the end.

In my particular case, I do this because I find it interesting and also because it helps when planning longer journeys - stopping mid-journey for charging can be quite a hassle where I come from and may easily mess up your travelling plans.

Also, as a side note, I don't actually care how much my car is spending, as I don't pay for the electricity that goes into it. I'm just interested in this kind of data and want to get to know my car (and the EV world) the best I can.

Fair enough. If that's what you want to do.
Each to there own.

 

[LenEV2016]

It all comes down to being interested in such data or not caring about it at all - not sure being an EV or ICE has anything to do with it in the end.

As you say it all comes to down to what you are interested in, I feel the same about whisky, beer and rugby

 

[MattyS]

Any excuse for me to start an new spreadsheet and I'm all over it haha. I enjoy tracking things (I am ADHD diagnosed so maybe thats part of it)

 

[GJMG4 North]

The GOM is particularly frustrating, one example would be when efficiency increases yet the estimated range reduces. For example, Monday averaged 3.4m/kWh and remaining range estimate when I parked up for the day was 160 miles, Tuesday, drove 12 miles at an average of 4.2 and the GOM advises there's now 136 miles left, aaarrrgghh! I'd rather just see battery % remaining as I'm too lazy to do the maths (mulitply by 2 works as a safe approximation)

 

[MG4JP]

Someone was feeling optimistic yesterday! I even turned on ECO mode, just for those magic extra km.

This is the result of a trip I did during the past weekend, which consisted of 253 km, on something equivalent to A- and B-roads.

It was hot (around 27ºC), there were 3 of us inside the car and the AC was on the whole time, on 22ºC.

The average speed was 64 km/h (~40 mph) and the consumption 12.2 kWh/100km (5.1 mi/kWh), which is frankly good and the reason why the GOM was feeling so optimistic.

The car was still showing 36% of battery remaining (141 km) at the end of the trip.

 

[wattmatters]

Cost of charging has been higher this past couple of months as we've moved home and for now have no solar PV or super off-peak charging options.

Will be getting solar PV soon, and just waiting for a utility tariff change after having a smart meter installed earlier in the month. Then we can get back to uber cheap motoring. Mind you, it's still half the cost of the Golf.