MG ZS EV Long Range - Rapid Charging Test - 76kW Peak?

[WalkingBootWeather]

Thank you @MilesperkWh this is infinitely more useful than quoting just a peak reached for a short period. Sounds like the option to pre-heat battery before reaching a charger overcomes the worst impact of coldgate.

Overall it sounds like a big improvement over the original model. Hopefully the disappointment experienced by early adopters finding that in the 'real world' it might take over an hour to take on less than 30kW will be a thing of the past.

 

[marcopolomt]

Excellent write-up Miles. Thanks for your work there, great to see such a helpful dealer representative.

Using back of fag packet maths I think we could get to a similar level of charge in a similar amount of time as my leaf but with a much larger battery to play with. Certainly removes a lot of range charger anxiety as more charging options open up in places like north Wales.

 

[Lordvader]

Does the battery heater need to be used in cold conditions when charging at home or is it only for when rapid charging?

New to all this EV stuff so just learning.

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

Does the battery heater need to be used in cold conditions when charging at home or is it only for when rapid charging?

New to all this EV stuff so just learning.

The battery heater only needs to be used to improve DC rapid charging speeds. The home AC 7kW charger won't make any difference if battery is warmer it cooler really.

 

[prmedloc]

Excellent write-up Miles. Thanks for your work there, great to see such a helpful dealer representative.

Using back of fag packet maths I think we could get to a similar level of charge in a similar amount of time as my leaf but with a much larger battery to play with. Certainly removes a lot of range charger anxiety as more charging options open up in places like north Wales.

I was working it out in those terms as well. In 30 minutes from 20% to 70% you can get close to a Leaf 40's 100% charge (34kw).

 

[jamesie]

I seem to remember that there was a paid for BMS update available for Gen 1 ZS EV that allowed selectable battery heating. A couple of members had it installed (Michael) only to find it would only work at very low temperatures and was really meant for Scandinavian countries.

Why is that different to this feature available in the Gen 2?

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

I was working it out in those terms as well. In 30 minutes from 20% to 70% you can get close to a Leaf 40's 100% charge (34kw).

We took on 63.25kWh in the hour (so an average charge rate of 63kW). Our average charge rate from 20-70% was 72.6kW.

 

[Alan]

You've basically got to make sure that you've got plenty of range to get to the charger, and then turn it on around 30 mins before. It will burn through about 15 miles of range extra in that last 30 mins, so you don't want to be cutting it fine.

Last year the range was at --- when I got to the Ionity chargers at Athlone, so you're saying don't use the battery heater in this instance?!! Mind you, to be fair it charged at about 63kw for a while anyway!

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

I seem to remember that there was a paid for BMS update available for Gen 1 ZS EV that allowed selectable battery heating. A couple of members had it installed (Michael) only to find it would only work at very low temperatures and was really meant for Scandinavian countries.

Why is that different to this feature available in the Gen 2?

I think this version has the ability to widen the parameters of when it will actually work, and it also resets after every journey, so your don't have to worry about accidentally leaving it on.

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

Last year the range was at --- when I got to the Ionity chargers at Athlone, so you're saying don't use the battery heater in this instance?!!

I'm saying you probably wouldn't have made it to the chargers
However, the battery heater automatically comes on whilst rapid charging in cold weather, to heat the pack up if necessary. So once plugged in, it should help to get the charge rate up eventually too

 

[Alan]

I'm saying you probably wouldn't have made it to the chargers
However, the battery heater automatically comes on whilst rapid charging in cold weather, to heat the pack up if necessary. So once plugged in, it should help to get the charge rate up eventually too

ah, ok thats good!

 

[Coulomb]

So do you think there is a chance that a higher rate charger, IE more than 200 amps, might get slightly more?

I was wondering the same thing. It's a shame that the ultra rapid Ionity chargers weren't available. Perhaps another test one day? It only really needs to be a partial test, say 10-20%.

So it's still possible that the 91kW figure is true. Say 250A @ 365V. That's one of the pests with a relatively low battery voltage: you don't get maximum power from some rapid chargers.

 

[drmcw]

The battery heater only needs to be used to improve DC rapid charging speeds. The home AC 7kW charger won't make any difference if battery is warmer it cooler really.

I wondered if the battery heater would help prevent lithium plating when it's cold in which case would be handy for AC charging too? Hoped the engineers would know what they're doing and turn it on when charging on AC too and it's cold!

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

I wondered if the battery heater would help prevent lithium plating when it's cold in which case would be handy for AC charging too? Hoped the engineers would know what they're doing and turn it on when charging on AC too and it's cold!

True, but if the battery heater uses 7kW to heat the cells, then you won't get much charge actually making it into the battery on a home AC charger.

 

[drmcw]

True, but if the battery heater uses 7kW to heat the cells, then you won't get much charge actually making it into the battery on a home AC charger.

It's a great optimisation problem isn't it? Hoped the engineers would rise to the challenge.

 

[Miles Roberts CG]

It's a great optimisation problem isn't it? Hoped the engineers would rise to the challenge.

They may well have done, but they haven't advertised it to us if they have.

 

[ProfessorE]

Thanks Miles. the charging performance is better at these temperatures than with my current Hyundai Kona. I'm already looking forward to January. will also do charging tests in cold and warm temperatures.

 

[JodyS21]

That's a really good interesting test, thanks Miles.

I does raise a lot of questions regarding the battery heater lol!!!!! (I don't expect these to be answered btw!)
Doesn't it get warmed up automatically (and indeed cooled) when it is being used.
7kW is one hell of a heater to warm the battery up.
I wonder if appropriate battery temperature is needed for both the discharging rate and charging rate the battery. Can the car pull more than 200Amps when being driven hard, if so then I wonder if that amount of power can be discharged from the battery when it's not "hot".
It really would make sense to display the battery temperature so you can decide whether to use the battery heater or not.
What would be incredibly useful is to have a graph etc, that shows what rate of charge is allowed at what battery temperature; one could make an informed choice then on whether to use the battery heater or not based on the intended rapid (rate) charger to use.

 

[BruceT]

I think this version has the ability to widen the parameters of when it will actually work, and it also resets after every journey, so your don't have to worry about accidentally leaving it on.

Hi Miles, while you have all the spare time on your hands....... Could you do the same test without using the battery heater? I suppose the trade-off here is time/cost

 

[drmcw]

I don't have any previous MG experience but would be interested to know what the MG experience has been like. The new model has solved many niggles it would seem and there were some updates that improved things for the previous version. So seems they do listen to feedback. How likely is it that MG would add a battery temperature gauge in a future update? The connect version has so much potential but only if it's allowed to develop. Have MG just passed the buck to Amazon to provide what I regard as a few unenticing tidbits or will MG open up the connect option with more useful updates?