Max rapid charge rate

[kiwi]

We've never seen more than the 62.4 kW below in my wife's ZS EV SR, usually the peak at a good charger is in the high forties.

 

[Clinnt]

The maximum I saw at my ZS EV SR (50kWh LiFePo) was 68.1 kW. The SOC was 17%.

In one of my Charging-Apps I found the technical Information:


MG ZS EV (2022) LR with 70kWh NMC Batterie max. charge is 95 kW

MG ZS EV (2022) SR with 50kWh LFP Batterie max. charge is 75 kW

WHEN all conditions are perfekt!

SOC starting at 10%-20%
Temperature of Batterie roughtly 30-35 degrees

 

[CoolDudePT]

Hi everyone! Great replies on this thread IMHO. I totally agree with the “don’t worry as I wanna p/eat/stretch my legs but here in Portugal you’re charged by the minute, not kWh. And pricing is somewhat defined by the faster the charger the more expensive the minute. So when you’re at a fast charger and not getting a great throughput you’re getting kinda robbed :/

 

[Borja]

Pre-heating the battery for more than 25 minutes before arriving at the charger, solves the issue.

 

[linkandnavi]

Pre-heating the battery for more than 25 minutes before arriving at the charger, solves the issue.

There's no option to preheat the battery before arriving at a charger in an MG? Unless you mean just driving it around for 25 minutes which will inevitably put some heat into it (unlike say a Tesla which will automatically preheat in advance when a charger is entered into the navigation).

It also won't "solve" the issue, just as it doesn't in a Tesla, as there are a many variables that impact on the rate of charge of which optimal battery temperature is just one. Many of those are set out in the posts above. When a car has an option to preheat the battery pre-charging it essentially manages one variable and can improve your prospects of a faster charging rates but there are a whole host of variables that can result in a slower rate that have nothing to do with the car and which are beyond your control.

The maximum charge rate for a particular car is just that - a maximum. It can never charge faster but it doesn't mean it will always charge at the maximum. The idea that there is something that can "be done" to always achieve the fastest rates is one of those EV misunderstandings/myths along with "I was promised 250 miles of range but I charged it this morning and the screen says 240 miles. Do I need a new battery?".

 

[Susanna]

@linkandnavi - there is an option to pre heat the battery. It’s in the app. I have never done so myself, as I haven’t rapid charged. I believe that @Miles Roberts CG did an experiment to see whether it made a difference. Maybe it would come up in a search on this forum?

 

[linkandnavi]

@linkandnavi - there is an option to pre heat the battery. It’s in the app. I have never done so myself, as I haven’t rapid charged. I believe that @Miles Roberts CG did an experiment to see whether it made a difference. Maybe it would come up in a search on this forum?

I did a search but couldn't immediately see it. I don't think the battery heating in question is the same thing as pre-fast charger heating though.

The battery heating via the app is a scheduled battery heating for pre-departure (i.e. for ensuring the battery isn't completely cold when leaving home and further reducing efficiency/limiting regen - although unless it's sub-freezing pre-heating makes little difference).

Hence the app recommending it be scheduled for an hour before departure and there being no in-car option for pre-charge heating en route.

So I strongly suspect that the app heating isn't doing anything that isn't happening by virtue of just driving it.

(If anyone is better at searching and finds the relevant "test thread" I'd be interested to see it!).

 

[Coulomb]

If anyone is better at searching and finds the relevant "test thread" I'd be interested to see it!

I think it was in a video. Perhaps when the MG4 had just come out, or maybe it was the Mark 2 ZS EV. Maybe in the EV Podcast forum.

 

[Borja]

What I meant is: In a MG Marvel R, when you are driving, you can go to the charging section on the screen of the car, and go to charge settings, and turn on the battery pre-heating.

If I don't do this when the outside temperature is very low 25 minutes before arriving at the charger, the charging session is at 40 kW. Activating it 25 minutes in advance, I see my car charges at more than 60 kW.

 

[linkandnavi]

What I meant is: In a MG Marvel R, when you are driving, you can go to the charging section on the screen of the car, and go to charge settings, and turn on the battery pre-heating.

If I don't do this when the outside temperature is very low 25 minutes before arriving at the charger, the charging session is at 40 kW. Activating it 25 minutes in advance, I see my car charges at more than 60 kW.

Thanks for clarifying. I suspected that was more what you meant, rather than a scheduled precondition.

There's no such option in the MG ZS unfortunately (which is the OP's car).

 

[CoolDudePT]

Pre-heating the battery for more than 25 minutes before arriving at the charger, solves the issue.

Thanks for clarifying. I suspected that was more what you meant, rather than a scheduled precondition.

There's no such option in the MG ZS unfortunately (which is the OP's car).

There is! I have a ZS. In the charge management menu there’s this:
(Pop up show when you press the i button.
So there is a manual preconditioning for charge option, in car only.

 

[linkandnavi]

There is! I have a ZS. In the charge management menu there’s this:
(Pop up show when you press the i button.
So there is a manual preconditioning for charge option, in car only.

Interesting! Thanks for putting me right. It's my wife's MG and she's never had cause to charge away from home as whenever we do long distances we take my Tesla.

I've always set everything up and maintained the MG for her and I couldn't find anything like that when I was going through all the systems. I wonder if it's a firmware/long range thing (my wife's is a standard range and "non" trophy version).

I'm away for New Year but will check her car when I get home.

 

[CoolDudePT]

Interesting! Thanks for putting me right. It's my wife's MG and she's never had cause to charge away from home as whenever we do long distances we take my Tesla.

I've always set everything up and maintained the MG for her and I couldn't find anything like that when I was going through all the systems. I wonder if it's a firmware/long range thing (my wife's is a standard range and "non" trophy version).

I'm away for New Year but will check her car when I get home.

Hi! Happy new year!

I have no idea whether it’s a LR/Trophy thing, guess we’ll find out battery chemistry is different so it might be a thing. Let us know what you find! ?

 

[Richard P]

Useful stuff on here -:aI wondered why the swanky looking charger at Southwaite Services on M6 North was taking so long to top us up from 30% to 80% whilst the car on the next one was showing double my rate. I'll have to buy a large latte next time ?

 

[the woodies]

I can confirm that the 'Traction battery heating' option is available in my 2023 MG ZSEV SR. Yesterday, I did a 125 mile journey (each way) and had the slow charging issue. This was on an Instavolt, Gridserve, and an EVPoint on the way back. I suspect the Insta and the Gridserve may have been throttled, but the EVPoint ones are recently new, it was 9:30pm and I was the only car there. It maxed at 46kW. I turned on the battery heating about 20 minutes beforehand.

90% of the time, I agree with the philosophy (and enjoy it) of not worrying about how long it takes. However, when it is winter and you are motorway driving, late at night, needing more than one charge on the journey meaning range is greatly reduced, with no children to accommodate, you do want your car to charge rapidly. I can't imagine what this would be like for a travelling salesman who was on the road all the time.

Like many other aspects of the charging experience, there is still some way to go in improving this! That being said, I would never go back to an ICE simply for the convenience!

 

[Ruislip Resident]

I can confirm that the 'Traction battery heating' option is available in my 2023 MG ZSEV SR. Yesterday, I did a 125 mile journey (each way) and had the slow charging issue. This was on an Instavolt, Gridserve, and an EVPoint on the way back. I suspect the Insta and the Gridserve may have been throttled, but the EVPoint ones are recently new, it was 9:30pm and I was the only car there. It maxed at 46kWh. I turned on the battery heating about 20 minutes beforehand.

90% of the time, I agree with the philosophy (and enjoy it) of not worrying about how long it takes. However, when it is winter and you are motorway driving, late at night, needing more than one charge on the journey meaning range is greatly reduced, with no children to accommodate, you do want your car to charge rapidly. I can't imagine what this would be like for a travelling salesman who was on the road all the time.

Like many other aspects of the charging experience, there is still some way to go in improving this! That being said, I would never go back to an ICE simply for the convenience!

If I was a travelling sales rep or similar doing hundreds of miles a day for work, I would at the moment, have a Tesla.

 

[salsa]

Is there anyone who got a charging speed of 50 kW or more with a MG ZS EV facelift standard battery ( 52 kWh ) ?

 

[linkandnavi]

If I was a travelling sales rep or similar doing hundreds of miles a day for work, I would at the moment, have a Tesla.

My wife has her (standard range) MG ZS for driving our two year old around town etc with no need for rapid charging, and I have a Tesla for long distance family trips and work.

I'm conscious that's a privileged position to be in (we moved out of London and the difference in house prices freed up just enough cash). At the time we had a Nissan Leaf (max 100 mile range on motorway and it used the defunct CHAdeMO rapid charging standard which made it next to impossible to charge on the go. If you could find one CHAdeMO offered max 50kW and you usually managed about 20). We have family 300 miles away with a (then) one year old in the back seat, the decision was either get a petrol car or a Tesla.

The entire experience between long distance drives in a Tesla and frankly any other EV is night and day. If you did regular long distance like a salesman I reckon you could make it work in something like a Kia EV6 or Hyundai Ionic 5/6 with their higher charging rates, notwithstanding the lack of Supercharger Network (although they are of course opening up to non-Teslas). In a petrol car, you can pretty much use any car for any purpose within reason, but that isn't the case for all EVs (yet) and I think that trips people up.

I know £30k for a car isn't cheap in the slightest but without meaning to sound crass, it is cheap for an EV, at this stage in the game at least and MG or SIAC have managed to hit that price point by cutting corners and quality wherever they could get away with it - one of those corners is unfortunately the car's onboard charging system and consequently its max charging abilities.

 

[CoolDudePT]

I know £30k for a car isn't cheap in the slightest but without meaning to sound crass, it is cheap for an EV, at this stage in the game at least and MG or SIAC have managed to hit that price point by cutting corners and quality wherever they could get away with it - one of those corners is unfortunately the car's onboard charging system and consequently it's max charging abilities.

Being a previous Tesla owner your post completely resonates with me. One of the things that is bumming in my new ZS EV experience is the inefficiency in charging compared to the Tesla. Not only the electronics do not draw all the power the Tesla could (my Tesla would draw 7kW flat from a 7kW charger, the ZS gets 6.6/6.8) 99% of those 7 would go in the battery. With the ZS I see 6.6 in the charging station and 5.8 in the app, a ~800W loss.

Not to mention efficiency but electronics aren’t the only part there so not a fair comparison at some point.

 

[Clinnt]

is there anyone who got a charging speed of 50 kw or more with a mg zs ev facelift standard battery ( 52 kw ) ?

Yes, see posting #22 !

Wait until it‘s summer. When the temperature will arrive 30 Degrees, drive to a HyperCharger with a SOC below 20%……