MG4 Range

[cb15035]

If you're travelling on the M62 at rush hour every day, you've surely not got much to worry about speed-wise!

Only get stuck in traffic every other Friday on the way back ?

 

[Rolfe]

I was well enough aware of the limitations of the quoted range when I went for my test drive. I wanted the SE SR for various reasons, but there was one journey I wanted to be sure of being able to do on one charge even in freezing temperatures. That's the one from home to Glasgow, which is about 100 miles round trip. The reason being that I often drive there for the evening to go to the theatre, including in the middle of winter, and I didn't want the hassle and extra time of having to charge the car in Glasgow before or after the performance, or to have to find a charger on the way home in the very late evening. (I often filled up with petrol on the way home, but at least that only takes five minutes.) My dealer assured me that even the SR could manage that.

So something prompted me to take a look at the multi-storey car park where I almost always leave the car on these trips. Five charging devices, ten connectors. FREE TO USE. Obviously that might not last, and I haven't investigated whether it's possible to leave the car on the charger while attending a theatre performance or whether it has to be moved when it's charged, but this could be an unexpected bonus.

Next time I go there I'll make a point of being early and asking what the procedure is. It's close enough to the theatre that I could pop out at the interval and move it from the charger if necessary. I reckon the round trip isn't going to be an issue, but if there's free juice, I'll have some. I'd be paying their rather steep parking charges anyway.

I think that's the trick with these cars. It's not finding a charging point that's the issue. There are actually far more charging points than there are garages selling petrol or diesel. It's not the cost of the charge either, unless you've rocked up at some really expensive outlet. I mean, until we got an EV we were used to paying far more for our fuel and we weren't agonising over the last 0.2 MPG.

The issue is the time we have to wait while the car charges.

If the range we have is enough for our routine daily needs and we only have to charge away from home (or work) very occasionally, is it all that important whether we get back with 20% charge or 40% charge?

Conversely, I suspect that more and more city car parks are going to be fitting charging points and will realise that people want time to do shopping or visit the theatre while that happens, rather than to be forced to come back in 45 minutes to move the car. That's going to make a lot of difference to the real-world range of EVs.

 

[tsedge]

There is another issue - finding a charger that actually works. Quite a few don't and you don't necessarily know until you try one that it is out of order since many don't reliably report their status online.

 

[Rolfe]

That's true. I haven't had the car long enough to have any direct experience of that. Although having said that, I've talked to a number of EV owners who have said they've not experienced particular problems that way.

I chatted with a driven using our village charge point a week or two ago. His car had DK plates up, and he said that he drives from Denmark to Scotland and back quite regularly and finds everything goes quite smoothly.

 

[siteguru]

Cambridge Street or Concert Square car park? (Both show as having EV charge points. PlugShare shows both as having 6x 7kW Type 2 stations).

Cambridge Street Public Car Park | PlugShare
Concert Square Public Car Park | PlugShare

In both cases you'd be best having a Charge Place Scotland card (although a loaner can be provided).

 

[Rolfe]

Cambridge Street. Handiest for the Theatre Royal and the Athenaeum.

I've got a ChargePlace Scotland card, because the single chargepoint in the village here is one of these. (It's only a five minute walk from my house and it's going to be my backup for the granny charger in the early stages at least.)

I haven't used it yet but I'm thinking of having the allowed 45 minutes on the village chargepoint some time next week to get some practice in.

Realistically, though, I should be able to make it to Glasgow and back on a single charge even in a freeze-up. (I remember watching the original Avatar film in the Imax at the Science Centre, when my Golf GTi was brand new and before I realised what a difference winter tyres would make, and wondering if I was even going to get home. All that sultry heat on the screen and my mind was filled with images of snow-covered roads and snow blowing off the hills into drifts, and not being able to figure any way home that didn't have about a 50% chance of being blocked. That's the sort of weather I need the MG4 SR to manage at least 100 miles in.)

 

[Collected]

7kw charger is going to put in about 20 mph charge in winter when you’re looking for 100 mile range (assuming about 3 mi/kWh). So if your trip is about 50mi that’ll give you about 2.5hr charging to full.
The good thing about destination chargers like 7kw ones is that they’re untethered, and generally simpler, I find they’re more likely to work. And they actually take as long to charge as you’re intending to stay.
And if they’re giving free juice too, what’s not to love?

 

[PaulN]

First long drive in my wife’s MG4 Trophy yesterday to visit our son a mixture of motorway and town traffic, speed limited by the volume of early Friday evening traffic. On arrival we had averaged 5 mile per kw on a 70 mile trip, So 61.7kw x 5 = 308.5 mile potential range. I am so impressed the car drove really well, My daily driver is a Tesla Model Y long range and I thought that we good doing 4 mile per kw on the same journey.

 

[Rolfe]

7kw charger is going to put in about 20 mph charge in winter when you’re looking for 100 mile range (assuming about 3 mi/kWh). So if your trip is about 50mi that’ll give you about 2.5hr charging to full.
The good thing about destination chargers like 7kw ones is that they’re untethered, and generally simpler, I find they’re more likely to work. And they actually take as long to charge as you’re intending to stay.
And if they’re giving free juice too, what’s not to love?

I need to try it out, it seems slighty too good to be true.

I'm still learning about the different types of charge point. This afternoon I took the car to the village charge point to check everything was working and that I knew what to do. My brand new ChargePlace Scotland card worked fine. I chose the Type 2 connector and in the 45 minutes allowed on the charger the battery went up from about 47% to 60%, putting in a bit more than 4KWh. (It was a bit of a whim and I hadn't pre-heated the battery so it might have been slower due to that.) I'm catching on that if I want more than that in the time I should use the CSS connector. I'll try that some time next week after running the battery down going to the cinema on Monday.

Conversely, as you say, the slower chargers are good if you actively want to leave the car for a longer time. I've heard people speak about "destination chargers" but I wasn't quite sure what they were. I'll need to figure out how the ones at Cambridge Street work. I see they are all type 2 connectors, no option for CSS, so that bodes well that they expect people to leave their car there for a few hours. It's unusual for an opera performance to run to more than three hours overall, so it could work very well. If Scottish Opera ever get back to doing Wagner, well there will be a long interval if the car has to be moved.

Knowing that the village charger has a 45-minute time limit made me think that all public chargers were like that, but I'm realising that they vary a lot.

 

[Dwigt]

I've had the car for two days now and am loving it, I know the range isn't the best and charging is going to take time compared to filling up petrol, but my god does the car drive like butter.

Clocked up 300 miles already ?

 

[Rolfe]

Doesn't it just! Makes you want to go out on a joyride! (I've had mine nine days.)

I think the charging thing just needs a different way of thinking about it. If your daily drive is shorter than your usable range, you're never going to have to stop to fill up. You'll start every day with a full "tank". (This is good for me because my nearest petrol station is nine miles away.) If you need to drive further than your range in one day, well, you need to eat too, and have a bit of a rest. Schedule the charge at the same time.

It's not a car for embarking on the sort of mad 400 mile race I used to do after work sometimes to get home to Scotland from Sussex, but if you were into that sort of thing you wouldn't have bought it in the first place.

Happy motoring.

 

[CarlMG4]

I need to try it out, it seems slighty too good to be true.

I'm still learning about the different types of charge point. This afternoon I took the car to the village charge point to check everything was working and that I knew what to do. My brand new ChargePlace Scotland card worked fine. I chose the Type 2 connector and in the 45 minutes allowed on the charger the battery went up from about 47% to 60%, putting in a bit more than 4KWh. (It was a bit of a whim and I hadn't pre-heated the battery so it might have been slower due to that.) I'm catching on that if I want more than that in the time I should use the CSS connector. I'll try that some time next week after running the battery down going to the cinema on Monday.

Conversely, as you say, the slower chargers are good if you actively want to leave the car for a longer time. I've heard people speak about "destination chargers" but I wasn't quite sure what they were. I'll need to figure out how the ones at Cambridge Street work. I see they are all type 2 connectors, no option for CSS, so that bodes well that they expect people to leave their car there for a few hours. It's unusual for an opera performance to run to more than three hours overall, so it could work very well. If Scottish Opera ever get back to doing Wagner, well there will be a long interval if the car has to be moved.

Knowing that the village charger has a 45-minute time limit made me think that all public chargers were like that, but I'm realising that they vary a lot.

4kwh in 45 minutes Is standard, preheating the battery wouldn't add much at all. You'll only get 6.6kw per hour from a normal type 2, 7kw charger.

It costs around 1kwh to preheat the battery, I believe, so would have been a false economy in your case to preheat for the charge.

 

[Rolfe]

Thank you very much for that. I was just experimenting as I had never used a public charge-point before, but that's good to know.

 

[Collected]

Agree, save the preheat for if you’re doing a long trip in temps below around 20c and are not intending to spend too long at the charge point so want to maximise the speed of a DC charger. I’m not sure if it makes a difference to charging loses for DC also? Perhaps someone who knows better can confirm.

 

[Rolfe]

Most of the trips I'll be doing will be at temperatures below about 20C...

 

[greentangerine]

Having had an MG5 for 2 1/2 years (and the wife has had a Zoe for over three years) but just about to change to an MG4 my advice is to try an use off-motorway charge points if you can. Gridserve has done a great job in upgrading and expanding motorway service charge points but too many still have just two chargers (with often not incommensurate parking) and those they've expanded (e.g. Exeter) are permanently jammed - Mollies in Bristol off the motorway (just) being the exception.

The go-to reliable charge providers are Instavolt, Ionity and especially MFG. The latter is really expanding their network and their charging stations are more often than not, not too far from a motorway. Usually six, eight or more 150kW chargers and (disclaimer) always a space available, plus they work first time. Just look at Wednesbury or Wigan or Stratford or Bristol for example. Pricey but reliable and available and for me at least, that's what counts when you need to be somewhere

 

[Rolfe]

Do you know anything about the M6 between the border and the Kirkby Lonsdale turnoff? I had great luck finding cheap petrol about 100 yards from an interchange near Carlisle just before Christmas, but charging points are a closed book to me!

 

[Les burrows]

Do you know anything about the M6 between the border and the Kirkby Lonsdale turnoff? I had great luck finding cheap petrol about 100 yards from an interchange near Carlisle just before Christmas, but charging points are a closed book to me!

Best thing to do is download ZapMaps on to your phone it’s Free and you will find there almost every type of charge point across the UK and beyond plus prices in most cases directions on how to get to them and the ability to chose to search for any type or Charing providers you like to use. There are others out there but I would suggest ZapMaps is about the best in many ways.
I think you quite new to EV ownership so the golden rules are careful planing when doing a trip you have never done before always try to have a plan B just in case when you get to a charger it’s out of order and don’t push your luck with distance you will get to know how far your vehicle can go never mind what the sales men of road tests tell you.
Know your car and the way you drive it and if your confident you can get 180 miles then look at charging at around 150 miles so you have always got some in reserve there is no point in driving an EV from 100% down to 10% and then finding where you had planned to recharge that charger is out of service then you might have a problem where as if you plan to charge when down to say 30% you have a good chance to get to your plan B charging point without problems if there is a issue with you first choice.
Les

 

[Collected]

Most of the trips I'll be doing will be at temperatures below about 20C...

True of Scotland, but if you’re having a good length stop because you’re having a bite and stretching your legs then you’re not going to mind getting 70kw ish versus 90+ with the battery heating.

 

[siteguru]

Do you know anything about the M6 between the border and the Kirkby Lonsdale turnoff? I had great luck finding cheap petrol about 100 yards from an interchange near Carlisle just before Christmas, but charging points are a closed book to me!

As I have a 7kW home wall box, when doing a long journey I just bite the bullet and use the GridServe chargers at Gretna Green. Yes, they cost (last time I was there) 79p per kWh but that's still around the same p per mile cost as for an ICE car (when filling from a local garage, not factoring in motorway prices). For the rare times I need to use rapid chargers I don't think messing around looking for cheaper options is worth my time.