MG4 in Australia

[Ian Key]

You do not tell me how to treat your remarks. I think you are confusing your role as moderator and contributor.

I think you have a chip on your shoulder about something. There is no rule on the forum that nobody is allowed to suggest how their posts should be interpreted unless they are a moderator.

This is not a politics forum. If I wanted to argue constitutional politics I would go somewhere else.

Get a room you two

 

[ChrisR]

When using the SI or metric system of units, only multiples of one million and higher use capital letter prefixes. The rest use lower case, with one lower case Greek letter, μ, thrown into the mix for micro (10⁻⁶).

International System of Units - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Speaking of units and particularly SI, I've always been a bit confused by the UK retention of miles as a unit of distance when metric seems to have been taken on for most other measurement.

Always sounds a bit weird to hear people talking about the car's dimensions and capacity in mm and litres but then reverting to miles for range. And particularly to mix imperial and metric with mi/kWh. If you wanted to really emphasise Britishness you could go with the obvious alternative to kWh - British Thermal Units

 

[Corindikev]

I thought this thread was about MG4 in Australia. Now I am sorry I asked the Froot/Frunk question.

 

[salty]

I thought this thread was about MG4 in Australia.

It is but you know how threads Veer off into nothing whatsoever to do with the original post. Always makes me laugh. Not just this forum though, every forum.

 

[wattmatters]

Now I am sorry I asked the Froot/Frunk question.

I just call them the rear hatch and the bonnet.

 

[tsedge]

I thought this thread was about MG4 in Australia. Now I am sorry I asked the Froot/Frunk question.

Apologies... I've deleted all of my recent posts.

 

[salty]

Apologies... I've deleted all of my recent posts.

Why? It's a FORUM. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Unless of they are particularly bad.

 

[tsedge]

Why? It's a FORUM. Everyone's entitled to there opinion. Unless of they are particularly bad.

Because they were off-topic and I know how frustrating it can be reading through off-topic stuff.

 

[Corindikev]

They didn't bother me but I commend your concern and action.

 

[salty]

Because they were off-topic and I know how frustrating it can be reading through off-topic stuff.

Fair enough.

 

[Rolfe]

Speaking of units and particularly SI, I've always been a bit confused by the UK retention of miles as a unit of distance when metric seems to have been taken on for most other measurement.

Always sounds a bit weird to hear people talking about the car's dimensions and capacity in mm and litres but then reverting to miles for range. And particularly to mix imperial and metric with mi/kWh. If you wanted to really emphasise Britishness you could go with the obvious alternative to kWh - British Thermal Units

I know. It's mad. I always used SI units at work, and can switch seamlessly from wittering on about ml to talking about a pint of milk. If they changed all the road signs to km I'd get used to it pretty fast but there are a lot of reactionaries out there who would start a revolution. Also, pints just seem more convenient somehow. I guess it's what you're used to.

I do have one really strange exception. Weather temperatures come in °C, and if someone says something about it being 80 in the shade I'll ask what that is in real money. This is because the weather forecast has been in °C since forever. But when it comes to measuring body temperatures (work) I always think in °F. I think it's partly that the degrees are smaller so the measurement is more precise, and the F scale was originally intended to set 100°F as body heat, and having these numbers close to 100 is, for some reason, remarkably intuitive.

 

[kevinbassgolf]

What is everyone’s recommendation for type 2 BYO cable (eBay / Amazon / EVSE / other)?

 

[Coulomb]

What is everyone’s recommendation for type 2 BYO cable

I'm quite happy with the lime green ones from Ali Express. I suspect that they all come from the same source, but I really don't know.

Coulomb joins the MG ZS EV club - AEVA Forums

 

[wattmatters]

Road trip today:
Start charge: 100%
End charge: 39%
531.6 km
7h:21min (total with stops)
16.2 kWh/100km

Two charge stops:
Taree Evie: 34.508 kWh
Karuah NRMA Chargefox: 17.94 kWh

Both charge stops were painful. The charge network reliability is pretty crap. So glad I don't need to do road trips often. It would suck otherwise.

Took 20 minutes to get the Taree Evie charger to work. Ages on phone with tech support, was getting hot and struggling in the sun. I've had trouble there before.

Neither of the NRMA Chargefox chargers in Karuah had working screens. Gave up on one, moved to the other and after about 5 attempts it finally started to charge. The servo with the charge stations had no working toilet. Spoke with another couple there to charge who've been there quite a few times and said the toilet is always unavailable.

These shitty charge facilities wasted 30-minutes just trying start a charge, and delayed other people waiting to charge. Meanwhile I took a piss behind a tree.

 

[neerav]

Road trip today:
Start charge: 100%
End charge: 39%
531.6 km
7h:21min (total with stops)
16.2 kWh/100km

View attachment 21921

Two charge stops:
Taree Evie: 34.508 kWh
Karuah NRMA Chargefox: 17.94 kWh

Both charge stops were painful. The charge network reliability is pretty crap. So glad I don't need to do road trips often. It would suck otherwise.

Took 20 minutes to get the Taree Evie charger to work. Ages on phone with tech support, was getting hot and struggling in the sun. I've had trouble there before.

Neither of the NRMA Chargefox chargers in Karuah had working screens. Gave up on one, moved to the other and after about 5 attempts it finally started to charge. The servo with the charge stations had no working toilet. Spoke with another couple there to charge who've been there quite a few times and said the toilet is always unavailable.

These shitty charge facilities wasted 30-minutes just trying start a charge, and delayed other people waiting to charge. Meanwhile I took a piss behind a tree.

That doesn't sound fun when testing EVs I've found that with many cars it often helps to hold the heavier DC harging cable in the car socket with slight lifted up pressure, til the charge has started. Otherwise charging won't start

 

[Corindikev]

The charging network and reliability seems to be pretty poor in Australia. As you may have seen I have only been on 1 extended trip of 1100km from Corindi Beach to Noosa & return with some around town running in Noosa & Coolum.

A mate of mine had problems in Taree where internet connection was poor so the Evie charger failed. He got an Evie RFID card to fix this but I understand you did the same & you still have issues. I also now have an Evie RFID card & registered it with Chargefox as well.

My first charge experience was a disaster but that was due to the Optus network meltdown. Once the network was restored it was fine. This was a QLD government Yurika charger managed by Chargefox.

No 2 was in Noosaville next to my hotel. This was an Evie charger & worked as described.

The next was BP Pulse in Ballina & the charger I connected to went though the process, started then said charging complete. This happened 5 times. At that point the bloke with the Ioniq 5 next to me finished & I went through it again with him. Same result. I then tried the charger he was using. Perfect. I logged a fault report with BP pulse on the spot.

Basically I had a 33% failure rate on my first use of public chargers.

At home it is just plug & play. I plug in my 7 kW wall charger & that's it. The EVSE starts, realises the car is not ready & then waits till the car says start at 11pm. Simple & works 100% of the time

 

[wattmatters]

A mate of mine had problems in Taree where internet connection was poor so the Evie charger failed. He got an Evie RFID card to fix this but I understand you did the same & you still have issues. I also now have an Evie RFID card & registered it with Chargefox as well.

Yes, I have the Evie RFID and it is also registered with Chargefox. But it was useless with the NRMA charge station screens not working. I wrote to them about it last night.

Somehow I managed to get it to work with the phone app. About a dozen attempts across two chargers. That's after finding out there was no dunny.

And having the card did not help with the Evie charger either. That sucker just wouldn't work using the card, phone app or the tech support line.

I plan to also write to Evie.

when testing EVs I've found that with many cars it often helps to hold the heavier DC harging cable in the car socket with slight lifted up pressure, til the charge has started. Otherwise charging won't start

That may be the case however doing that while trying to navigate a phone app because the charge station screens are not working is not easy.

It's made worse by the app saying that charging has started when it clearly hasn't.

I had this with the Evie charger as well which did have a working screen. The displayed status is constantly wrong. The tech support person (in the Philippines) would keep saying - "it's working now" and the screen would say that too, and I have to say, "no, it's not" and ask they wait on the line because it would keep failing. And sure enough it would not be charging and eventually tell me to return the plug to the station.

As to holding the plug in when there was a working screen, I was doing that so much and for so long some smart arse walking past at Taree quipped to me, "I didn't realise they filled up so fast you can hold the plug". I bit my tongue.

Evie tech support did eventually get it going but it took ages as it was failing a lot and frankly I think it was just pure chance it started. I was not helped by having zero shade while standing under a hot sun. I realised last night I ended up with mild sunstroke - that's how long it took.
What choice do we have?

Charging here is just stupid. Why the F can't we just tap a credit/debit card, plug in, and that's it? Why is it so hard? It's just layers of unnecessary tech, each a failure point. Each uses a different process. Instructions are wrong. Displayed information (if that's working) is wrong. Parking bays which are far too restrictive.

The couple I chatted with at both Taree and Karuah (who turns out live in a town not that far from us) were regretting their EV purchase, a Volvo XC40. And it's entirely because of the poor highway charging experience, not the car. They've had it for most of the year and a dreading their substantial $ loss as a result.

Then it got worse - I specifically booked accommodation which advertised destination charging and paid the parking premium. Except of course that was a marketing lie. They don't. So now I have to waste part of today looking for a charge station somewhere and filling up.

Frankly I think many EVangelists have sold us a lie.

I would not be recommending my extended family and friends get an EV, at least not yet - the charge network has let me down on each of my four trips so far and they all like doing trips. And this weekend I'm about to interact with many dozens of them and I know the questions are coming.

I am prepared to be a bit of a lab rat, I do that with many things but I just know my extended family will have little tolerance for just how shitty the charge network really is.

It's a shame as the car drove really nicely, cruise was good and the LKA behaved. The sound system is just OK, would be nice to be better but it was enough.

ABRP, even with the OBD was not much help. Trip planning is a bit pointless when the charging network is a total crap shoot. I logged some comments into Plugshare but the filters in that are a mystery to me as often the station would not appear on the map even though I would be standing next to it.

At home it is just plug & play. I plug in my 7 kW wall charger & that's it. The EVSE starts, realises the car is not ready & then waits till the car says start at 11pm. Simple & works 100% of the time

Yes, after some set up teething issues, and even though I am using ChargeHQ and solar only charging, it just works and at least I can monitor it.

In November it supplied 190.5 kWh to the car with 76% being from my solar PV - I had to do some overnight off-peak charging for a couple of consecutive day trips in the month with a mate.

I was able to fully charge up before leaving this trip using our solar PV only. It's a LOT cheaper than the fast chargers!

And on that, for highway driving the EV is not cheaper. Once the charge station charges 60-65 c/kWh, my old diesel costs less to run per km.

 

[wattmatters]

A sample of the frustration…

 

[Corindikev]

That is pathetic. Why is the EV charging network in Australia so bad apart from there being very few public chargers. In NZ they are everywhere so you never have to plan a route. Same in the UK and I don't hear anywhere near the same complaints about charger failures in those countries.

Tesla fast and superchargers are supposed to be very reliable but only those sponsored by governments are allowed to be used by other brand EVs AFAIK. I saw a Youtube clip from a bloke in Brisbane who took his MG ZS to a Tesla charger that was supposed to allow other brands but it didn't work & he tried 2 or 3 of them.

Also I agree, why do I need an APP? Tap & go should be sufficient. I know you can't use an Ampol card at Shell or BP & vice versa but you can pay with your credit card at any of them.

Luckily I don't make many long trips so home charging is perfect for me.

 

[wattmatters]

So today I find an Evie charge station at Tempe IKEA. God this is an awful place to drive. It's so much worse than when I lived here.

Anyway, it took a couple of goes but eventually did start charging. Even got this on the charge receipt:

Max Session Power

142.5600 kW Max DC Power

So it was sucking down the juice pretty quick.

But to make things fun, I locked the car to walk into IKEA hoping to find a loo and the alarm starts blaring. Crap. Unlock the car. Check it all. Lock it. Alarm start blaring again.

Goes through this a few times.

Last time it happened it was because I left the phone in the car and connected with the OBD port in use. That's apparently enough to set the alarm off.

But this time I did what I normally do and took the phone with me. But the alarm kept firing anyway. After a few goes I ripped out the OBD dongle and that killed it.