MG4 Trophy Preheat Battery Help

[Paul V Smith]

Does the MG4 Trophy allow you to Preheat the battery, if it does, can someone help explain how. I was hoping to preheat from my MG App? Thanks in advance.

 

[siteguru]

Yes it does, yes you can. Someone with an MG4 will surely be along shortly to explain how.

 

[tsedge]

Yes it does, yes you can. Someone with an MG4 will surely be along shortly to explain how.

Are you serving coffee while he waits?

 

[Saintsman]

Does the MG4 Trophy allow you to Preheat the battery, if it does, can someone help explain how. I was hoping to preheat from my MG App? Thanks in advance.

in the iSmart app, go to Charging Management page. select scheduled charging at the bottom of the app.

here you can schedule a battery heating or start it straight away.
it also notifies if it is not necessary to preheat battery.

hope this helps

 

[Paul V Smith]

in the iSmart app, go to Charging Management page. select scheduled charging at the bottom of the app.

here you can schedule a battery heating or start it straight away.
it also notifies if it is not necessary to preheat battery.

hope this helps

Thanks will have a look.

 

[Paul V Smith]

As advised by Saintsman how to preheat battery. Will give it ago tomorrow morning. Thanks again. Paul

 

[Chr1sB]

As advised by Saintsman how to preheat battery. Will give it ago tomorrow morning. Thanks again. Paul

Talk about hiding things ... shouldn't that option be on the previous Charging Mgt page ... perhaps selectable by pressing the "Heating Stopped" text ?

 

[spr97ajm]

Under what circumstances would you heat the battery? E.G. I'm at work and it's a 20 mile journey home (car not charging). If I pre-heat the battery before I leave, would the extra efficiency offset the charge used in heating the battery?

 

[the briggie]

Battery heating should not really be needed above 5c, some may argue otherwise. My car switches battery heater off at >10 but doesn't kick in unless below 0c. It will increase efficiency somewhat but I doubt energy used from the batteries is offset by efficiency gains. As per the quote below it seems the car app will help make the decision.

in the iSmart app, go to Charging Management page. select scheduled charging at the bottom of the app.

here you can schedule a battery heating or start it straight away.
it also notifies if it is not necessary to preheat battery.

hope this helps

 

[the briggie]

Note* Preheating the cabin will NOT work via the app if the car is plugged in but not charging. MG are aware of this and investigating

 

[Tigger]

I'm at work and it's a 20 mile journey home (car not charging). If I pre-heat the battery before I leave, would the extra efficiency offset the charge used in heating the battery?

I decided to test this today, as the temperature was -2C in London. First I did the standard 10 min AC warmup of the car - this cost me 1% range (=2 miles on my Trophy).

I then did a 10 min battery warmup - this also cost me 1% range (2mi). After that I did an 18 mile journey, mixed conditions, and the car showed the same miles/kwh as it was doing a week ago,when it was over 5C here (3.1-3.3 mi/kwh), so no drop in efficiency.

What we need to know is the drop in efficiency when the battery is cold. You must know what m/kw you were getting last week, how much less is it this week, when the temperatures are much lower? If you are experiencing a drop of say 3.2 to 2.6 m/kw, that would be a drop of 21%, costing you 4 miles range on a 20 mile journey. In that case, battery warming for 10 minutes should be worth it. If the drop is less, it might not be.

 

[Chr1sB]

I decided to test this today, as the temperature was -2C in London. First I did the standard 10 min AC warmup of the car - this cost me 1% range (=2 miles on my Trophy).

I then did a 10 min battery warmup - this also cost me 1% range (2mi). After that I did an 18 mile journey, mixed conditions, and the car showed the same miles/kwh as it was doing a week ago,when it was over 5C here (3.1-3.3 mi/kwh), so no drop in efficiency.

What we need to know is the drop in efficiency when the battery is cold. You must know what m/kw you were getting last week, how much less is it this week, when the temperatures are much lower? If you are experiencing a drop of say 3.2 to 2.6 m/kw, that would be a drop of 21%, costing you 4 miles range on a 20 mile journey. In that case, battery warming for 10 minutes should be worth it. If the drop is less, it might not be.

Interesting. I did about 120 miles today without pre-heating either the cabin or the battery before hand and for at least the first 40 miles of mixed relatively careful driving I was down at 2m/kw. By the end I was up to 2.8m/kw so my experience today probably reflects your observation and I’ll definitely try the pre-heating next time.

 

[Tigger]

Interesting. I did about 120 miles today without pre-heating either the cabin or the battery before hand and for at least the first 40 miles of mixed relatively careful driving I was down at 2m/kw. By the end I was up to 2.8m/kw so my experience today probably reflects your observation and I’ll definitely try the pre-heating next time.

Very interesting. I have now repeated my experiment of yesterday without pre-heating the battery, and got much the same result as I got yesterday. I started off getting 2m/kw, but this cranked up to 2.6 by mile 3, then up to 3.2 by mile 4. I was going to post that pre-heating didn't seem to be much help, but your experience could well contradict this.

A couple more variables to add to the mix:. First, I suspect that just running the car warms up the battery. But if you are driving fast, cold air flowing under the car could cool it. My maximum speed today was 50mph (lots of traffic) which might have helped my figures. I look forward to your results with pre-heating with interest - your trip of 120 miles is a much better test than mine.

P.S. For the record, the temperature here this morning was -1.8C.

 

[the briggie]

Trigger, given EV's have very little heat waste what do you think could warm up the battery other than Interior heating? Or do you think that whilst running some form of battery heating kicks in?

 

[MoDolph]

Very interesting. I have now repeated my experiment of yesterday without pre-heating the battery, and got much the same result as I got yesterday. I started off getting 2m/kw, but this cranked up to 2.6 by mile 3, then up to 3.2 by mile 4. I was going to post that pre-heating didn't seem to be much help, but your experience could well contradict this.

A couple more variables to add to the mix:. First, I suspect that just running the car warms up the battery. But if you are driving fast, cold air flowing under the car could cool it. My maximum speed today was 50mph (lots of traffic) which might have helped my figures. I look forward to your results with pre-heating with interest - your trip of 120 miles is a much better test than mine.

P.S. For the record, the temperature here this morning was -1.8C.

I don't think any improvement provided by pre-heating the battery will show up in the efficiency numbers as the car should be consuming the same. It is the battery's effective useable capacity that is changing. You can get more energy out of a warm battery as the internal resistance is lower.

It might be possible to measure a difference by taking note of the percent of battery used and consumption number to calculate the real useable capacity but it will not be very accurate unless you start with a full charge and run to almost empty.

 

[Ayoull]

Batteries do warm-up through use, so by discharging or charging the battery it does warm up, this is a consequence of the chemical reaction taking place, but the penalty of the cold will in these situations outweigh the natural heating caused by usage.

Trigger, given EV's have very little heat waste what do you think could warm up the battery other than Interior heating? Or do you think that whilst running some form of battery heating kicks in?

 

[the briggie]

Good point so by warming up we mean the "electrons and ions" are moving more freely increasing efficiency

 

[Tigger]

Trigger, given EV's have very little heat waste what do you think could warm up the battery other than Interior heating? Or do you think that whilst running some form of battery heating kicks in?

I was thinking about the advice Tesla gives in their manual about fast charging when the battery is cold: basically, don't do it! Here is what the manual says:

"You can minimize the amount of charge time by using Trip Planner (if available in your market region) to warm the Battery while driving to a Supercharger."

Which I interpret as meaning that driving the car warms up the battery. See also post by Ayoull above.

 

[PeteC]

If I wanted to use the intelligent battery heating on a journey before stopping for a rapid charge, how long before the stop should it be turned on?

 

[Tigger]

If I wanted to use the intelligent battery heating on a journey before stopping for a rapid charge, how long before the stop should it be turned on?

If you are on a journey, and need a rapid charge, I assume you will have been driviing for some time. In this case, my understandiing is that the battery will already be warm, so no extra heating is necessary.

Pre-heating is exactly that: heating a cold battery before you start your journey.

P.S. Pete, you talk about 'intelligent battery heating' - is this available on UK models? I was under the impressioon that it was sold in places like Norway. My app only gives me 'Scheduled Battery Heating' (or is Scheduled Battery Heating 'intelligent'?).