MG4 Trophy Range Test

[TonyC]

I’ve had my Camden Grey MG4 Trophy 2 weeks. Overall I’m very happy with it. Yes the lane assist and AEB can be a bit annoying, and I occasionally have to restart the infotainment when the radio decides to go quiet, but otherwise no issues.

Anyway, this weekend I have done a long range trial to Manchester and back from Darlington with the missus. It’s a 218 mile round trip and I knew it would be close run thing to do it on a single charge, with the majority of the trip on motorway and over the Pennines too. But it did it… Just! I nearly bailed out with a fast charge at Scotch Corner on the way back, but I had 8 miles to go with 15 miles range, so carried on.

My cruising speed on the motorway was between 65 and 70mph. I was on Eco mode and had the heating on on the way there. Aircon on the way back as and when required if the windows started misting. At 10% battery on the way home I took the option of energy saving mode. Two photos attached are arrival at Manchester Piccadilly and arrival back in Darlo. 3.7 miles per kWh overall isn’t too shabbby in my opinion for that trip. At least I know what it can do!

 

[Cocijo]

That’s pretty good going. If you pushed the average speed up to beyond 50mph from the 45mph that you averaged you would see the range affected considerably.

 

[AndyL61]

It will do better, depending on the journey. My grey Trophy is currently averaging 4 miles per kwh which is still rising slowly from the 3.6 which it was. I am now seeing 4.3 on from last charge so I do expect it to rise a bit more during summer. This is with my 50 mile daily commute on mostly A roads and some motorway running too. Happy with that so far.

 

[TonyC]

That’s pretty good going. If you pushed the average speed up to beyond 50mph from the 45mph that you averaged you would see the range affected considerably.

To get the average speed above 50 on that type of journey, you’d need to be doing 80 plus on the motorway, which will hit the efficiency in any car.

 

[StanBowlesb]

We have just taken delivery of our new MG4 Trophy. My wife is using it today for her 142 round trip commute. Motorway driving. I see from the MG app that she is on her way back and seems to be getting 3.4 miles per kw. I imagine her speed will be 60-70mph depending on the traffic conditions.

 

[pharrison84]

We had a trip to Scotland this weekend a week into ownership - Wigan to Loch Lomond - a journey of 220+ miles.

I'd earmarked a fast charger in Hamilton at around the 185 mile mark, and anticipated that I would relatively easily make that. I stuck the ACC at 70mph and put the air-con on auto and at 24 degrees (which users know to be a fair bit colder than that in reality), figuring that given it would actually be cooling me down just a little, and would hopefully not be too power intensive.

I was admittedly a little disappointed to find that we were simply not going to make it to to Hamilton. We came up short at around 2.8-2.9 kw/hour. The air-con had more affect than I'd expected, but ultimately I think it was the speed and the largely clear motorway that was the undoing. We averaged over 60mph. We ended up stopping briefly at Gretna and then again at Hamilton (the charging experiences being pretty straightforward, and hitting 140kw/h charging in Hamilton).

Testing it during both the outward and return journey it is clear that restricting the ACC speed to 65mph makes a massive difference, increasing the range by about 10-15%, not a dissimilar amount to turning the air-con off. I can see how some of the ranges achieved above can be achieved where average speed is down at around 45mph (as it appears to be from the screenshots) but if above 60mph, 200 mile range is surely going to be a real struggle even with air-con off and at any time of year.

Fortunately trips such as this will be infrequent for us, and through the rest of mixed use I have seen more like 3.5 miles / kwh, which I am perfectly happy with. For longer trips we will just need to be more conservative when planning charging stops and / or drive more sedately and / or severely restrict use of air con!

 

[siteguru]

Where in Hamilton did you stop? The services on the M74 Northbound?

 

[pharrison84]

Where in Hamilton did you stop? The services on the M74 Northbound?

The Fastned chargers at ML3 6AD. A retail park. They were really good.

 

[FiferMG4]

The Fastned chargers at ML3 6AD. A retail park. They were really good.

That’s a really good charging rate! How was Loch Lomond by the way? I was cycling round Loch Earn at the weekend which is in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs national park and the scenery was beautiful.

 

[pharrison84]

That’s a really good charging rate! How was Loch Lomond by the way? I was cycling round Loch Earn at the weekend which is in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs national park and the scenery was beautiful.

Lovely. We lucked out with the weather. Although we did end up choosing the greyest of the afternoons to walk up high for a view!

 

[tsedge]

We had a trip to Scotland this weekend a week into ownership - Wigan to Loch Lomond - a journey of 220+ miles.

I'd earmarked a fast charger in Hamilton at around the 185 mile mark, and anticipated that I would relatively easily make that. I stuck the ACC at 70mph and put the air-con on auto and at 24 degrees (which users know to be a fair bit colder than that in reality), figuring that given it would actually be cooling me down just a little, and would hopefully not be too power intensive.

I was admittedly a little disappointed to find that we were simply not going to make it to to Hamilton. We came up short at around 2.8-2.9 kw/hour. The air-con had more affect than I'd expected, but ultimately I think it was the speed and the largely clear motorway that was the undoing. We averaged over 60mph. We ended up stopping briefly at Gretna and then again at Hamilton (the charging experiences being pretty straightforward, and hitting 140kw/h charging in Hamilton).

Testing it during both the outward and return journey it is clear that restricting the ACC speed to 65mph makes a massive difference, increasing the range by about 10-15%, not a dissimilar amount to turning the air-con off. I can see how some of the ranges achieved above can be achieved where average speed is down at around 45mph (as it appears to be from the screenshots) but if above 60mph, 200 mile range is surely going to be a real struggle even with air-con off and at any time of year.

Fortunately trips such as this will be infrequent for us, and through the rest of mixed use I have seen more like 3.5 miles / kwh, which I am perfectly happy with. For longer trips we will just need to be more conservative when planning charging stops and / or drive more sedately and / or severely restrict use of air con!

Yes, the drag with higher speeds is a squared relationship so 10% higher speed == 20% higher drag. It is the biggest secret to better efficiency, but requires learning how to be comfortable driving a bit slower than most other people.

 

[siteguru]

The Fastned chargers at ML3 6AD. A retail park. They were really good.

Ah - the ones behind the Aldi supermarket? (I knew there were charge points in there, but didn't know what type - I assumed they were 7kW destination type 2 charge points in there, like my local Aldi has).

 

[StanBowlesb]

Here's a more accurate update based on actual mileage and charging from my wife's first long MG4 Trophy commute from yesterday with 172 round trip motorway driving. The miles per km was 3.7 (not the 3.4 estimated mid-trip yesterday).

 

[siteguru]

miles per kWh, not km

 

[Alb]

The car will always achieve 0.62 miles/km

 

[nickyprice]

Did he not say he was driving at 65 to 70?

 

[pharrison84]

Did he not say he was driving at 65 to 70?

Average speed is displayed in the screenshot at 45mph. If that's motorway driving, there was a decent amount of congestion / traffic.

No chance of getting that sort of economy on a clear motorway run.

 

[TonyC]

The average speed of 45mph was for the full journey, which included a decent amount of 30 and 40mph driving at both ends. Significantly more going into and back out of the centre of Manchester. This dramatically reduces the average speed of the full journey over just a plain motorway trip.

 

[tsedge]

The average speed of 45mph was for the full journey, which included a decent amount of 30 and 40mph driving at both ends. Significantly more going into and back out of the centre of Manchester. This dramatically reduces the average speed of the full journey over just a plain motorway trip.

Indeed, I imagine driving at 70mph in central Manchester would be frowned upon.