MG ZS EV Rubbish

[TartanTerror1968]

I bought a MG ZS EV in October 23. It was an ex demo with 270 miles on the clock registered in June 23. Picked the Car in Oct 23. Travelling to work in January 24, I had a complete system failure and had to be recovered as I couldn't drive anywhere. Went to the Dealership were I bought it to discover that they moved to another town. The kind recovery driver took me to the next MG Dealership. They discovered the cable that attaches to the 12V Battery had came loose. Got the car back. On the 13th of February ANOTHER Breakdown, but managed to get home. Got booked in to another Dealership in Essex, to be told that the car needed 6 Software Updates. Another Days Annual Leave. Got the car back and on the 5th of April 24 Complete Vehicle System Failure. Got recovered to the Dealership where my car currently is 3 weeks later 26/04/24. They are Adamant there is no issues after diagnostic tests and checks. They are now trying replacing the 12V Battery. I have NO confidence in the car and refuse to drive it. I have a Courtesy Car as I have them I want to return the car for a replacement preferably a petrol version or a Refund. This is a top of the range Electric MG ZS EV Trophy retailing at £35,000. Don't waste your money, You will have loads of various issues. The Dealerships and MG are not interested. They are selling faulty cars.

 

[Roldorf]

????

 

[ozzz]

Question are u plugging the vehicle in to charge it ? Huge step chip 2 total failure.

 

[Ruislip Resident]

Another Fudster infesting the forum.

 

[johnb80]

I bought a MG ZS EV in October 23. It was an ex demo with 270 miles on the clock registered in June 23. Picked the car up, no Valet and it had a chip on the front.

Well thats hardly a reason to condemn the car

They ask me to go there in November to have the chip fixed. It took 3 hours

Again, not a car problem

Travelling to work in January 24, I had a complete system failure and had to be recovered. Went to the Dealership were I bought it to discover that they moved to another town.

Ooo look, yet another not a car problem

The kind recovery driver to me to the next MG Dealership. They discovered the cable that attaches to the 12V Battery had came loose.

More than likely a dealer problem, not a car problem

Got the car back. On the 13th of February ANOTHER Breakdown, but managed to get home.

Well did it breakdown or not, it seems not.

Got booked in to another Dealership in Essex, to be told that the car needed 6 Software Updates.

I dont see that as a car 'problem' it's ongoing development work. In the past work like this would have been manufacturers recalls.

Another Days Annual Leave.

Again, not a specific car issue.

Got the car back and on the 5th of April 24 Complete Vehicle System Failure.

This potentially is the first car fault but unlikely to be as dramatic as 'complete vehicle system failure' it's a bit like using this description for a flat 12V battery on any vehicle.

Got recovered to the Dealership where my car currently is 3 weeks later 26/04/24. They are Adamant there is no issues after diagnostic tests and checks.

It does sound like nothing more than a 12V battery issue.

They are now trying replacing the 12V Battery.

Ha, thought so

I have NO confidence in the car and refuse to drive it.

Well thats just being daft really, if you properly assess the above.

I have a Courtesy Car as I have them I want to return the car for a replacement preferably a petrol version or a Refund.

I think you're out of time for rejecting the car.

This is a top of the range Electric MG ZS EV Trophy retailing at £35,000. Don't waste your money, You will have loads of various issues.

Well in all honesty I doubt that, the majority of people have little / no problems with them at all. Describing stone chips, valeting and loose 12V lead as a car problem is ridiculous, theyre DEALER problems.

The Dealerships and MG are not interested. They are selling faulty cars.

If you really believe that, you should take the matter up with trading standards, MG do seem slow to respond to warranty issues BUT they do respond eventually. The design of the vehicle is fine IMHO and SAIC is one of the bigger manufacturers in the world.

 

[TartanTerror1968]

Question are u plugging the vehicle in to charge it ? Huge step chip 2 total failure.

The Charger is Fine. We have another electric car charges with no issues.

This is NOT right..

 

[Alb]

Did your dealer actually replace the 12V battery?

 

[fred12345]

The Charger is Fine. We have another electric car charges with no issues.

This is NOT right..

yeah, looks bad... if they don't fix it within some reasonable time and it's problem free, you should definitely ask for a replacement car or refund. If they fix it, you still got long warranty and you'll enjoy the car. Most of the time it's dealers, not the car itself that is causing us grief ...
I got second-hand ex-lease (yes, few stone chips on it) and fingers crossed it's great so far. I think it happens to all of us that from time to time bad luck strikes ...

 

[Gadget Geek]

The key fault warning there was the accessory battery at 11.9V! That would be the cause of all your problems. With the car on it should show at least 13V.

 

[fred12345]

The key fault warning there was the accessory battery at 11.9V! That would be the cause of all your problems. With the car on it should show at least 13V.

On the subject of 12V battery, I read somewhere in the instructions manual that the car must be fully powered for 30 min once a week to make sure 12V battery charges... If the car was sitting in the dealership or parked for a while...

 

[Rolfe]

I don't know about the ZS specifically, but that sounds ridiculous. Many if not most people go on holiday for more than a week every year, leaving the car behind. Certainly in the MG4 forum many people have left their cars at airports and parked at home for several weeks with no issues. The car is supposed to keep the 12V topped up from the HV battery so long as the HV battery has a decent amount of charge in it.

 

[MG steve]

The key fault warning there was the accessory battery at 11.9V! That would be the cause of all your problems. With the car on it should show at least 13V.

Exactly, go and get a new battery from Halfords.

 

[Tread Softly Terran]

I'm sorry to hear you've had all that frustration.
I have enjoyed driving my Trophy LR 2022 model for 1 1/2 years. No major issues & just a few niggles that others have mentioned in other posts. I had software updates allowing Tesla charging etc after 6 months.
So, by my experience only, it does sound more a dealer & 12V battery problem is likely to have caused most of this.

Its a separate issue, but I did notice your tyres are reporting below 2.8 bar. Might be worth pumping them up as you/dealer replaces the 12V battery.

 

[Lovemyev]

As others have already stated, the likely root cause of the multiple fault codes being generated, was an issue caused by either a low state of charge in the original factory battery, which can become so discharged, it becomes unrecoverable, so now becomes a defective battery.
This issue MAY have manifested itself as a result of the one of the terminals not being tightened correctly, as you have stated.
When the car detects multiple errors in rapid succession, it struggles to deal with the high volume of errors and can result a complete shut down of the system.
EV’s are more like mobile computers, but without a good quality 12 volt battery under the bonnet, they are a pure paper weight !.
All that energy that can be stored in the huge traction battery under the car and a small 12 volt battery is still required in most cases.

 

[Coulomb]

This is NOT right..

All those trouble codes are likely false positives from the 12V battery issues. Get them cleared, or clear them yourself with an OBD2 app, and see which if any return.

The 12V battery can cause issues to be reported that are truly scary. This is the case with other EVs as well, at least the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi iMiEV that I'm familiar with.

 

[Alb]

Not just EVs.
I had an Alternator failure on an ICE car many years ago. It continued to run on the strength of the battery but once the voltage dropped sufficiently, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas Tree indicating Steering Failure, ESP, ABS and a bunch of other stuff. It taught me that multiple spurious failure indications could be directly associated with low battery voltage.

 

[Stuart Wright]

My first EV (2017 Hyundai Ioniq from new) had a flat 12V battery from sitting in a car park with the radio on for an hour. Which, of course, is ridiculous. To be fair, the car did warn me and I ignored it. The AA gave me a power charge and I was on my way. From then on I was careful with the 12V.
I have heard of flat 12V battery issues a few times since 2017 and a well designed EV should NEVER have a flat 12V battery since it has a huge (in comparison) high voltage battery at the system's disposal to trickle charge the 12V if needed. And, indeed, that's what the Ioniq did if sat parked for a while. Just not when the car is occupied without the ignition fully on.

Of course, the 12V battery can be flattened in an ICE car under the same circumstances.

My point is that owners should not have to make allowances for this kind of thing and it's understandable when unfamiliar EV owners panic when this huge computer does something unexpected and unpleasant.

With regard to an owner's opinion about a car, well it's going to be led by emotion no matter what.
It's difficult to 'forgive' a car if it lets you down. And once an owner loses confidence in it, then it can be uncomfortable to use when we need to rely on it.
Example 1. My Audi A4 diesel was making a horrible clattering clutch sound and I was constantly worried that the clutch would fail. I had to sell it ASAP even though it hadn't failed and served me well.
Example 2. I've just returned from a 10 day road trip round Scotland. On day 7, my Tesla would not turn on, but eventually did by itself. I felt a bit anxious about the car until day 9 it wouldn't start at all until support told me to reboot it and it is fine now. So faith restored. I've been coding computers since the late 70s and I know they can just 'play up' sometimes. If it hadn't been fine since rebooting, it would have to go in for a service.
You need to be able to rely on a car and if you lose that trust, it can be very difficult to continue with that car.

At the same time, I think it's better all round if you can be analytical about the causes of some problems. In the case of this thread, I think the owner is upset about the whole experience and doesn't want to consider that much of it is not down to the car itself.
But the experience with the dealer is all part of the brand ownership experience and can lead you to feel negative about the brand.

This community is about sharing help and advice to make everyone's purchasing decisions and ownership experience better.
So I hope the OP takes some time to consider the (positive) replies, learn from the advice given.

 

[TartanTerror1968]

Another Fudster infesting the forum.

Can You explain?

All those trouble codes are likely false positives from the 12V battery issues. Get them cleared, or clear them yourself with an OBD2 app, and see which if any return.

The 12V battery can cause issues to be reported that are truly scary. This is the case with other EVs as well, at least the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi iMiEV that I'm familiar with.

Using a OBD2 Invalidates the warranty.

 

[johnb80]

Using a OBD2 Invalidates the warranty.

Doubtful this would be the case.

The problem MG would have is a) proving you'd used the ODBII socket and b) your actions had damaged something.

 

[fred12345]

Doubtful this would be the case.

The problem MG would have is a) proving you'd used the ODBII socket and b) your actions had damaged something.

I guess it's somewhere in-between, if you use ODB2 and don't mess up anything, all good.... if you use it and mess up something fairly biggish, they would surely charge you to fix it and I'm sure that could invalidate your warranty