MG ZS EV ISMART App

[Anf800]

It’s not a surprise to my wife in anyway that I’m still getting to grips with the iSMART app.

I’ve been struggling to work out the battery heating. It seems that when it says start time, it means the time you are planning to use the car, not the time you want the battery heating to start. Probably not news to most people.

So, is there anything else I need to know? Does battery heating work if the car isn’t plugged in? How much will range suffer etc?

 

[Susanna]

It would be news to me - I assumed it meant the time you wanted the battery heater to turn on.
No doubt someone will give a definitive answer.
I know that it only works below a certain ambient temperature (although I don’t know what the figure is) ?

 

[Anf800]

This morning is the first time I've actually seen something happening. I'd set the battery heating time to 8:30, thinking I would be driving at 9:30. It had done a scheduled charge which finished at 6am but when I check at about 08:10, the app was showing that the car was charging. I forgot to take a screen shot. But it appears that battery heating was on.

 

[bryer]

Battery heating I believe is only to be used en-route to a rapid charger. Doesn't actually do anything apart from burn electricity otherwise.

 

[Anf800]

Really? I thought when the app said "It is recommended to schedule battery heating 1 hour before use the car [sic]" it meant before any use.

 

[bryer]

Really? I thought when the app said "It is recommended to schedule battery heating 1 hour before use the car [sic]" it meant before any use.

Yeah and you've got fantastic Chinglish throughout the manual and infotainment system.

I've not noticed a increase in range warming the batteries in the cold, but I have noticed that if I warm them before I rapid charge, they maintain a high rate of charge.

 

[Anf800]

Thanks. And does the battery heating work only when charging or is that not relevant? I might do some tests to see if I notice any difference.

 

[JCFlippen]

I think the battery heating is designed for Nordic countries mainly. Heating the battery when on the road before reaching a rapid charger may give marginal extra speed when actually charging.. Miles Roberts made a video about this.

 

[hmadsen]

Thanks. And does the battery heating work only when charging or is that not relevant? I might do some tests to see if I notice any difference.

The main purpose of the battery heater is to preheat the batteries to certain temperature if it is cold outside. If they try to push a lot of amps into a very cold battery it will be damaged, so if the battery is cold and you start a DC Fastcharge, you will not be getting very many amps, until the battery will be "naturally" heated by the charge process.

So the heater is meant to be put on some time before you arrive at the fast charger, so offcourse it will work without being attached to a charger, otherwise it would kind of defeat the purpose

 

[Anf800]

It's very confusing as the instructions (manuals) are very lacking. I can't turn it on manually using the app so I'm guessing the only way is the toggle in settings on the car infotainment screen? I haven't tried that heat and I'm not sure how I will know if its working with the car on.

But thanks for the helpful comments.

Sorry to bang on, I really meant, if I set the battery heater on the app, is that the same as in the car and does that matter about being plugged in?

 

[N2STY]

As far as I have seen remote battery heater only seam's to work when plugged in and charging if cold enough it comes on by itself anyway so I wouldn't worry about it the only time you really need to put it on manually is on the way to a DC charger on a cold day

 

[Anf800]

Thanks. That makes sense. My commute lately starts at about 6-30am and it’s been very cold here. I set a scheduled charge that finishes at 6am so it seems that the heater will come on at 5-30am for an hour.

Soooo many questions . . .

 

[Grumpy]

Battery heating will automatically turn off if the battery is above 10c apparently . It also turns off when the car is turned off.
If the car is plugged in to the charger, depending on the type of charger you have, battery heating can be scheduled in the app.