MG4 in Australia

[Corindikev]

Our scenario was exactly the same, excepting the main meter was an old style digital unit with three registers but it may as well have been analogue as it was manual meter reads and flat rate tariff, plus a controlled load analogue disk meter.


Sad to say you will lose that.

Talk with them, I went onto Switch Saver plan and they gave me $150 credit. It's a worse plan all round but all the new plans are.

I also asked them to arrange for a meter upgrade so I could get back to an EV plan. I figured I'd get ahead of the game in prep for our solar installation as that can't operate without a smart meter anyway.

Our solar PV (14.725 kW) goes in next week and the 24 kWh battery will follow, timing just depends on today's election result.


Mine includes the daily charge for the controlled load. If your new place doesn't have a CL then the daily fee will be lower. Table below shows how much the CL adds to the daily charge for us.

This is my comparison of the three Powershop plans based on our average daily consumption so far in our new place (first "CURRENT" plan is the Powershop Switch Saver). We've had no heating or cooling energy consumption in that mix (we've not needed it but this place has none anyway - we are installing that soon as well).

For the comparison I've assumed my EV charging energy will all move to Super Off-Peak and that's the only energy consumption in that window. That's not quite going to be true of course but it's a reasonable starting assumption.

View attachment 36549

The rates have all gone up, especially the daily charges. The last EV Day plan was too good to last and I'm pretty sure they were going to migrate us eventually to newer tariffs.

At the moment the EV Night plan is looking like the choice for us. Solar will take care of the day, while the night plan is 5 c/kWh from 12-4 AM.

Once we have the battery I'll review again.

Just a note:

It takes a while for a smart meter installation to happen.

I requested the meter upgrade 17 March 2025.
It was installed on 8 April 2025.

Even so that's not the end of it.

I spoke with Powershop earlier this week requesting to be changed to an EV plan, but they were unable to do so even though we've had the smart meter for several weeks now and the interval data is showing in their portal as normal.

Turns out that even though my meter had been upgraded, that did not automatically trigger a change of Essential Energy's underlying tariff, I am still being billed as if I had the old meters.

Powershop have now initiated the request for tariff change with EE, that can take 1-3 weeks, so I can't get onto the EV plan until that's done.

The new default EE tariff is Solar Soaker.
Peak is 7-10 AM and 3-10 PM every day. Off-peak all other times.


If the government is returned today, then the new battery rebate program is, frankly, very generous and makes home batteries a no brainer, especially in NSW.

That's because can be combined with the NSW govt peak demand reduction scheme rebate. If it comes to pass then my Sigenergy 24 kWh battery stack is going to cost under $6k fully installed. The more expensive bit is the solar PV, inverter and Gateway, which I'd have anyway whether or not I was going to install a battery.

Thanks for the comprehensive response.

When I added the extra 6.5kW solar to my current house (February 2024) I had to upgrade to a smart meter. The old 2kW system had been in for over 10 years. I was with Red Energy at the time on their EV plan & it took only about a week to get the meter installed & then only a couple of days to get everything switched over. Why the change is now much longer is a bit baffling.

Yes I am hoping the Labor government gets re-elected as well partly because of their support for renewable projects and battery subsidies. The new property has a heat pump hot water system but I am unsure of whether it is connected via controlled load. It doesn't really matter as I plan to change everything anyway.

Since I have been with Powershop (9 July 2024) I have only paid about $150.00 in total for electricity and most of the 25,000km on the MG4 has come from charging at home from solar and the 2 hours free power daily.

 

[David Wennerbom]

Ok, you've got me. What is the difference?
I've got a Tesla Wall charger in my driveway configured to support 7kW and 11kW (32A on all 3 phases).
It's CCS as are Tesla cars and MGs ( and every other car except for Leafs).
It charges our two MG4s just fine.

Before the government standardized the nation's charging plugs to CCS2 (Combined Charging Systems) 1 was AC and 2 is both AC and DC. CCS1 is pretty well extinct now, except for home chargers. Tesla used a system similar to the European system CHAdeMO. At one stage only Tesla EVs could only use Tesla chargers. Other different EVs had a variety of plugs. Now all EVs sold in Australia have CCS2 plugs. This is so much easier, fortunately MG used CCS plugs.

 

[Phil]

I drove home yesterday(44km) with 43km available(~12% charge left) and arrived in my garage with 4% charge and 15km range remaining. Having begun the week’s driving at 100% I estimate that the range of my vehicle sits at about 410km +/-10km in an average drive.

 

[Coulomb]

1 was AC and 2 is both AC and DC.

? Are you talking about type 1 (J1772) versus type 2 (Mennekes), or CCS1 versus CCS2, or Tesla NACS connectors, or something else?

CCS1 is pretty well extinct now, except for home chargers.

Very few EVs in Australia use CCS1, true, but there are plenty in the USA and Canada.

Tesla used a system similar to the European system CHAdeMO.

CHAdeMO is a Japanese standard, as far as I know not common in Europe. The original Tesla system was I think essentially J1772 but with a very different connector, plus a proprietary system to allow DC charging over the AC pins. Possibly the DC charging was not available in the earliest models.

 

[wattmatters]

Since I have been with Powershop (9 July 2024) I have only paid about $150.00 in total for electricity and most of the 25,000km on the MG4 has come from charging at home from solar and the 2 hours free power daily.

My Essential Energy tariff reassignment was processed today and Powershop called to switch me to an EV plan. That should take effect in the days ahead. I've opted for the EV Night plan (super off-peak is 12-4 AM every day).

They also gave me a $100 credit. They gave me a $150 credit less than two months ago when we bought the place, so I'm not complaining.

Solar PV goes in this week, which should cover most charging.

 

[Corindikev]

? Are you talking about type 1 (J1772) versus type 2 (Mennekes), or CCS1 versus CCS2, or Tesla NACS connectors, or something else?

Very few EVs in Australia use CCS1, true, but there are plenty in the USA and Canada.


CHAdeMO is a Japanese standard, as far as I know not common in Europe. The original Tesla system was I think essentially J1772 but with a very different connector, plus a proprietary system to allow DC charging over the AC pins. Possibly the DC charging was not available in the earliest models.

CCS2 was legislated as the standard from 1 January 2020 for all new EVs sold in Australia so it is not new. Only some Japanese vehicles have CHAdeMO most notably the Nissan Leaf. CHAdeMO chargers are becoming increasingly rare.

CCS2 is also the standard in Europe & China. Only the USA has set the standard as the Tesla NACS system. Originally only a Tesla system it is now used by Ford & GM & presumably any imports from other countries. There won't be many with Trump's tariffs. They won't change as it would be un-American just like their original foray in to the metric system used throughout the rest of the world.

 

[siteguru]

CHAdeMO is a Japanese standard, as far as I know not common in Europe.

Indeed it is:

CHAdeMO is a fast-charging system for battery electric vehicles, developed in 2010 by the CHAdeMO Association, formed by the Tokyo Electric Power Company and five major Japanese automakers.[1] The name is an abbreviation of "CHArge de MOve" (which the organization translates as "charge for moving") and is derived from the Japanese phrase "o CHA deMO ikaga desuka" (お茶でもいかがですか), translating to English as "How about a cup of tea?", referring to the time it would take to charge a car.

CHAdeMO - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org