MG4 - Am I right in thinking this could be the right fit for me?

[yamagoody]

Hey, I have been thinking about this question for a good 6 months now, doing research, talking to dealerships and checking out forums. I am however still not 100% sure the MG4 Trophy or indeed any EV will work for me.

My dilemma is that I do a long commute 5 days a week of about 95 miles there and back. I live fairly centrally in London, Camden to be precise and I commute to near Stansted. The journey basically breaks down into 4 sections. Section one is about 8 miles (20mins) of fully urban driving, 20mph with lots of stop-start action. Section 2 is about 10 miles (15-20mins sometimes up to 50mins) of faster urban road, between 30-50mph still with some stop-start. Section 3 is motorway, about 15 miles (15-20mins) normally free flowing. The last section is a normal rural road about 12 miles (again 20mins) winding through several villages so between 30 and 50mph.

On the plus side, I can use a 7kwh charger at work for about 4 hours a day and there are several 22kwh chargers close to where I live as home charging is not possible. Dealers say they don't see any problem but I decided that asking those who have experience of the MG, in fact any EV, what they think. My main concerns are whether this is realistic at a practical level, what differences I should expect to experience between winter and summer commutes, and whether this can work economically.

I like the idea of reducing my 'footprint' and the tax saving in benefit in kind vs petrol is still attractive. I like the look of the MG4 but would I be taking on more hassle than it's worth? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks...

 

[richlove]

Hey, I have been thinking about this question for a good 6 months now, doing research, talking to dealerships and checking out forums. I am however still not 100% sure the MG4 Trophy or indeed any EV will work for me.

My dilemma is that I do a long commute 5 days a week of about 95 miles there and back. I live fairly centrally in London, Camden to be precise and I commute to near Stansted. The journey basically breaks down into 4 sections. Section one is about 8 miles (20mins) of fully urban driving, 20mph with lots of stop-start action. Section 2 is about 10 miles (15-20mins sometimes up to 50mins) of faster urban road, between 30-50mph still with some stop-start. Section 3 is motorway, about 15 miles (15-20mins) normally free flowing. The last section is a normal rural road about 12 miles (again 20mins) winding through several villages so between 30 and 50mph.

On the plus side, I can use a 7kwh charger at work for about 4 hours a day and there are several 22kwh chargers close to where I live as home charging is not possible. Dealers say they don't see any problem but I decided that asking those who have experience of the MG, in fact any EV, what they think. My main concerns are whether this is realistic at a practical level, what differences I should expect to experience between winter and summer commutes, and whether this can work economically.

I like the idea of reducing my 'footprint' and the tax saving in benefit in kind vs petrol is still attractive. I like the look of the MG4 but would I be taking on more hassle than it's worth? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks...

Hi, thought I'd contribute to this as there are some similarities to my situation. I have a SE short-range, with no home charging, relying mainly on 7kW work charging for half-day stints, (have to get back for the ). For me, it's working out OK, though my commute is only 7 miles or so!

It sounds like it could work for you, maybe with a long-range variant, though you could end up with a constant 'range anxiety' situation, depending on how frequently/easily you may be able to top-up out-of-work.

My general pattern is to visit the office Mon, Wed, Fri, during which I roughly get 13% (for short range) per hour, so around 35-40% top-up each time. I'm doing longer journeys at the weekend, and it's usually taking me until the Wed or Fri charge to get back to 100%, ready for the weekend again! So, maybe factor in what your outside-of-work additional usage requirements are. For me, these added up to more than I anticipated, though it's still completely manageable.

I find I'm also topping up out of work on rapid chargers occasionally, if I've not been able to get into the office, for example.

Range-wise, my driving seems to be a mixture of roads, similar to yours. Coming in to work this morning I have 244 miles driven with 11% / 27 miles left, so a potential range of 270 miles on the short-range, over mixed roads:

Not sure if that helps at all! To summarise, I'd say it's likely OK, though I'd like to have predictable, reliable access to a fast-ish charger outside of work also, as you may need it more than you anticipate.

 

[mannydhanoa]

I think yes based on what you've explained you can certainly benefit from having an MG or any EV for that matter. Some things to consider to make it beneficial:

• AC/Heating: does play a part in your range, the more you use the less your range
• Public Charging: the more you use the higher the costs (personally I find based on the public charge costs, it would not be beneficial if that was my main source of charging - i've only used it once for a 400 mile round trip which I do once a year.
• Changing your electricity tariff to benefit from cheaper home charging rates and/or investing in solar panels
• 7.4kw home charger is a must (granny chargers will suffice initially but based on your requirement I think installing a 7.4kw charger will be key.

 

[stevegus]

From my 1100 miles of experience mostly on A roads and a bit of rural driving is that the 280 quoted range for SR is more like 230 in practice

 

[siteguru]

The SR has a quoted 218 miles. The LR has a quoted 280 miles (WLTP - so a made-up scenario anyway).

 

[tsedge]

The SR has a quoted 218 miles. The LR has a quoted 280 miles (WLTP - so a made-up scenario anyway).

I think @stevegus has the LR.

 

[siteguru]

I was replying based on what was actually typed in the post I replied to.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

Read a lot of the posts here, and you,ll realise that if you get a good one , happy days. If you get a bad one, big frowny face.
But that will go for any car any make! At least you are doing your research.

 

[DelBoy]

Each day will get you say 6.5 kwh times 4 hours = 26kwh. Worse case about 2.5 m/kwh (winter) equals 65 miles. At the end of the week you would need to fast charge to full (30 minutes - Trophy or LR SE).
Summer 6.5 times 24 = 26kwh, 4 m/kwh (Summer) equals 104 miles no problem.

Go for it, you will soon get into a routine that will easily achieve the change to the MG4 (LR or Trophy)

 

[ukslim]

This is essentially my wife's situation. We don't have a home charger, it's looking as if it's not worth getting one because she has access to a 7kW charger at work. First try today, 4 hours charging added 120 miles, by the car's estimate.

 

[tsedge]

I was replying based on what was actually typed in the post I replied to.

And I was replying based on what I knew, it's all good

 

[Kentboy]

Hey, I have been thinking about this question for a good 6 months now, doing research, talking to dealerships and checking out forums. I am however still not 100% sure the MG4 Trophy or indeed any EV will work for me.

My dilemma is that I do a long commute 5 days a week of about 95 miles there and back. I live fairly centrally in London, Camden to be precise and I commute to near Stansted. The journey basically breaks down into 4 sections. Section one is about 8 miles (20mins) of fully urban driving, 20mph with lots of stop-start action. Section 2 is about 10 miles (15-20mins sometimes up to 50mins) of faster urban road, between 30-50mph still with some stop-start. Section 3 is motorway, about 15 miles (15-20mins) normally free flowing. The last section is a normal rural road about 12 miles (again 20mins) winding through several villages so between 30 and 50mph.

On the plus side, I can use a 7kwh charger at work for about 4 hours a day and there are several 22kwh chargers close to where I live as home charging is not possible. Dealers say they don't see any problem but I decided that asking those who have experience of the MG, in fact any EV, what they think. My main concerns are whether this is realistic at a practical level, what differences I should expect to experience between winter and summer commutes, and whether this can work economically.

I like the idea of reducing my 'footprint' and the tax saving in benefit in kind vs petrol is still attractive. I like the look of the MG4 but would I be taking on more hassle than it's worth? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks...

Not convinced going electric makes sense if you can't home charge. You end up paying so much more and wondering whether you can plug in or not. Seems to me the biggest bar to wider ownership. Not that the government seem,seem to acknowledge it. Though if you can charge reliably at work that may make a difference I guess.

 

[Surfdog]

Not convinced going electric makes sense if you can't home charge. You end up paying so much more and wondering whether you can plug in or not. Seems to me the biggest bar to wider ownership. Not that the government seem,seem to acknowledge it. Though if you can charge reliably at work that may make a difference I guess.

I agree. I'm 2months into owning an ev and did lots of thinking, and arithmetic before buying a full electric, though have still retained an ICE at present as its more economical on long journeys where i would have to use public charging. IMO if you can't do home charging then forget about ev ownership. Its just too expensive and lots of hassle. Petrol is about £1.40/litre just now but would you pay £2.80/litre which is the equivalent price of many public chargers.

 

[BrianG]

Sounds very doable to me. If you do get low there must be a rapid charger on the way to work? Rapid charging from under 35% can add power quickly, up to 75 kW an hour but in cold weather maybe as low as 35-45 kW per hour. A 10 to 15 minute stop would do the trick if you were desperate Your workplace charger will happily top you up where a rapid charger doesn’t. That is once the battery reaches 85% full it slows down to protect the battery and you might as well use a 7 kWh charger. Note that electricity prices will tumble later this year, the day ahead prices are down to an average of 10p a kWh wholesale which may bring public charging down 20 to 25p a kWh and home standard prices to 18 to 20 p depending on where the green levies go.

Some of the naysayers may not appreciate the cost of fuel driving in London! Nor the ULEZ charges which currently can impose hefty costs on drivers.

Also no one has mentioned the effect of speed on consumption. An EV has little losses between the battery and tarmac, consequently you notice the impact of speed far more. Driving at 40 to 50 mph will get you twice as far as at 75 mph! Just returned from a tootle round the Hampshire by ways in my v1 ZS which has the aerodynamics of a brick and it returned 4.4 m per kWh today at 16 degrees. I have had better than 5.5 on hot days at touring speeds averaging 35 mph.

 

[Rolfe]

I do hope they go down a bit. I've got the app to read my smart meter every half hour since I got the car, and I realise that the fan heater I sometimes put on to boost the living room temperature on cold evenings draws as much as the car's granny charger. One night I accidentally left it on and when I discovered what I'd done my thought was, I could have charged the car's battery for that!

I have a vivid memory of an exam question in a physics class in school where the answer to be discovered was the price of electricity per KWh. The answer was 6d. That's right, 6d in old money, 2.5 pence in today's money. How times change.

I did see a presentation not that long ago though which indicated pretty firmly that "high electricity prices are here to stay". Because reasons.

 

[BrianG]

The only reason for leccy prices to remain high is because Ofgem insisted the companies hedge on gas and electricity hence the prices will remain high until that has worked through. Gas futures are now 3.5p a kWh and the mark up for the retail price has only been 2p or thereabouts in the past. If the CCGT generators are paying about that then electricity from gas should be costing ~ 8-9p a kWh. Hence the dramatic fall on the day ahead price. The business tariffs may drop more quickly so that public chargers should be paying around 12-15p for their power which should should bring their pricing down to about 40p again.

 

[Rolfe]

How long do you think this will take? I'd quite like to get back to turning on the fan heater in my living room on chilly evenings without thinking, good grief what is this costing?

 

[Diggsy]

How long do you think this will take? I'd quite like to get back to turning on the fan heater in my living room on chilly evenings without thinking, good grief what is this costing?

Run it for a wee while from the MG once you can charge on the cheap tariffs…

 

[Rolfe]

Maybe I need to invest in a really long extension lead...

You know, some time last month I accidentally forgot to switch that heater off when I went to bed, and only realised when I found the living-room really toasty in the morning. I think I could probably have pretty much charged the car on the granny charger for that.

 

[Diggsy]

Maybe I need to invest in a really long extension lead...

You know, some time last month I accidentally forgot to switch that heater off when I went to bed, and only realised when I found the living-room really toasty in the morning. I think I could probably have pretty much charged the car on the granny charger for that.

So long as the heater isn’t more than 3kw, you could probably put it on a smart plug so you can schedule it to come on and off at particular times, just so that doesn’t happen to you again. They’re only about a tenner now and work really well in my experience. I use one for a dishwasher so I can run it during my cheap night tariff.

 

[Rolfe]

Oh, I could, I do have some lights on timer plugs. But it's just something I occasionally turn on in the evening rather than turn up the temperature of the central heating as a whole. It isn't a regular thing and the idea is I switch it off before I go to bed - whenever that is!