MG4 Essence 64 Battery Preheating Advice

[AntAstrophY]

Hey all

I know this subject is old news but I’m late to the game. This is my first winter (Australian winter) with my car and I’m discovering just how drastically cold weather can effect battery performance. I tend to drive my car either in the early morning or late evening so it’s quite cool by the time I set off.

My question is how do I encourage my car warm up before I set off for a drive?

 

[siteguru]

There's an Intelligent Battery Heating option in the car, but it's not very intelligent.

If your car is connected to a charge point then you could (via the iSmart app) start the Battery Heating option about 30 minutes or so before you intend to set out/back. Being plugged in means that any power lost in heating the battery pack should be recovered from the charge point. (You'd stop the battery heating and the charging at the same time as you're about to leave).

If your car is not connected to a charge point then just suck it up ... you'll probably use more power heating the battery than you'd lose in efficiency whilst driving. (Unless your commute is 50km or so).

 

[davemc]

My first winter with the MG4 in Melb so colder
Heater sucks a lot of power it seems as well, performance wise been good.
Just using a lot more battery, compared to the Tesla with a heat pump..

 

[SteveMSJ]

Hey all

I know this subject is old news but I’m late to the game. This is my first winter (Australian winter) with my car and I’m discovering just how drastically cold weather can effect battery performance. I tend to drive my car either in the early morning or late evening so it’s quite cool by the time I set off.

My question is how do I encourage my car warm up before I set off for a drive?

You might find that you have Intelligent Battery Heating turned on as I think it is turned on by default. Once the ambient temperature drops below about 10 C it heats the battery whilst you are driving. As @siteguru points out, this uses a lot of kWh and severely hits efficiency, particularly for shortish journeys. The setting is on the bottom right of the 'Energy Consumption' page, from memory. In cold weather it can 'possibly' improve efficiency on long journeys, and super charging speeds.
You can manually preheat the battery before driving if you want to, see siteguru message above.

Personally, I don't bother with preheating unless the temperature is below freezing, but I'm no expert

 

[ReintjeWA]

I find running the heater uses so much more energy than running the ac for cooling in summer, I really didn't expect this, I figured running the air conditioning would be a similar drain, heating or cooling.

I try to keep it to heated seats and steering wheel as recommended by some on here. I leave intelligent battery heating off, it doesn't get down to 10 C anyway (well, maybe middle of the night, but not when I'm driving anyway).

 

[davemc]

Yes crazy no heat pump in OZ. MG not the only brand to have none for Australia.
Excite here so not heated seats Although lucky it not plastic sorry vegan leather and freeze your bum.

 

[davemc]

Just had the heater blasting on the way to drop off my wife at work around 1°C here and MG4 parked outside.. Hit the max 29.8kWh/100km which it never goes over again
Same trip in summer be like 16-17kWh/100km so yes, be nice heat pump

 

[AntAstrophY]

There's an Intelligent Battery Heating option in the car, but it's not very intelligent.

If your car is connected to a charge point then you could (via the iSmart app) start the Battery Heating option about 30 minutes or so before you intend to set out/back. Being plugged in means that any power lost in heating the battery pack should be recovered from the charge point. (You'd stop the battery heating and the charging at the same time as you're about to leave).

If your car is not connected to a charge point then just suck it up ... you'll probably use more power heating the battery than you'd lose in efficiency whilst driving. (Unless your commute is 50km or so).

I’ve been some vids and posts about the iSMART app having an heating option but for the life of me I can’t find it!

You just gave me a fresh idea of turning on the intelligent battery heating option in the car (whilst plugged in AC charging) and then rechecking the app for the option. Sadly nothing still

 

[AntAstrophY]

My first winter with the MG4 in Melb so colder
Heater sucks a lot of power it seems as well, performance wise been good.
Just using a lot more battery, compared to the Tesla with a heat pump..

Im in Brissy but have been getting 6-7 degree mornings so cold enough for me
Im really surprised that the MG4 doesn’t have a heat pump! I just figured stuff like this would be standard

 

[davemc]

no intelligent heating although I have climate which I might use the next cold morning

Was 2c out today we took the Tesla with heated seats 18.5kw vs 29.8kw
Extra power does not worry me really we get 3 hours free electricity a day (11am-2pm) which we fill up the 3 EV's we have. Just interesting

 

[siteguru]

I’ve been some vids and posts about the iSMART app having an heating option but for the life of me I can’t find it!

Open iSmart
Tap the Battery tile
On that page you'll see a Battery Heating section with a slider next to it - tap on that to manually start it (you'll probably need to enter your PIN / use your biometric function to confirm)
Alternatively click on the hexagonal nut at the top right of the screen - in there you should find an option for Scheduled Battery Heating

 

[ReintjeWA]

Open iSmart
Tap the Battery tile
On that page you'll see a Battery Heating section with a slider next to it - tap on that to manually start it (you'll probably need to enter your PIN / use your biometric function to confirm)
Alternatively click on the hexagonal nut at the top right of the screen - in there you should find an option for Scheduled Battery Heating

Doesn’t show up in the Australian app, I wonder if it’s related to us not having the options to remotely turn on heated seats, something the Europeans seem to get in their app.

For some reason the Aussie app is disappointingly bare on functions it seems.

 

[AntAstrophY]

Doesn’t show up in the Australian app, I wonder if it’s related to us not having the options to remotely turn on heated seats, something the Europeans seem to get in their app.

For some reason the Aussie app is disappointingly bare on functions it seems.

Thank god someone else sees what I don’t see!
I was honestly starting to think I was going crazy

 

[AntAstrophY]

Open iSmart
Tap the Battery tile
On that page you'll see a Battery Heating section with a slider next to it - tap on that to manually start it (you'll probably need to enter your PIN / use your biometric function to confirm)
Alternatively click on the hexagonal nut at the top right of the screen - in there you should find an option for Scheduled Battery Heating

Thanks for the adivce. I guess I’ll just have to learn to live without