Newbie... a few questions remain

[Rolfe]

will do... anyone know why the search doesn't work for "v2L"?

Some terms are considered too short for the search function to work on.

 

[DixieTGS]

If all else fails try a Google search such as:

site:mgevs.com v2l

You don't get the useful forum specific features and you still get other sponsored results but it can help sometimes.

 

[Everest]

Yeh, but is it really "engineering"?

... in my mind yes... engineering focuses on problem solving to invent solutions. Engineers use science, maths and creative thinking to design, test and create machines, structures and processes.

Sure, I may be trained in electronic engineering (a long time ago, shortly after the electron was discovered ) and spent a lifetime in software engineering and I might not be able to design a skyscraper or a nuclear power station.... But I can & have installed my own solar PV system, built a DIY LFP battery pack and written software to communicate between my battery and inverter over CANBus as well as logging RS485 Modbus RTU data from my inverter to a RPi5.

So, I feel I can wear the engineer t-shirt And I did once change a bearing on our tractor too

 

[salty]

... in my mind yes... engineering focuses on problem solving to invent solutions. Engineers use science, maths and creative thinking to design, test and create machines, structures and processes.

Sure, I may be female, trained in electronic engineering (a long time ago, shortly after the electron was discovered ) and spent a lifetime in software engineering and I might not be able to design a skyscraper or a nuclear power station.... But I can & have installed my own solar PV system, built a DIY LFP battery pack and written software to communicate between my battery and inverter over CANBus as well as logging RS485 Modbus RTU data from my inverter to a RPi5.

So, I feel I can wear the engineer t-shirt And I did once change a bearing on our tractor too

That's me bloody, told!

 

[Everest]

... oops... didn't mean to come across too like... I do love to keep learning too

 

[waspmike]

Been lurking a while and I haven’t taken the plunge yet on an Xpower (cheaper than a GR Yaris) but I have few questions from an EV newbie. I scanned through the manual.

Edit: Even cheaper here now than when I first penned these questions.

1) In the hills (decent) I simply want to drive like a “regular” car. I am not interested in one pedal control so vehicle regen will be automatic if going downhill I release the accelerator or do I have to touch the brake pedal to activate? I want as near to a manual transmission engine braking as I can get. IE no “auto” zero overrun/coasting.

2) Where I live (drive on the left) and on a dual carriageways overtaking on the left is legal. Say, if a vehicle is hogging the right lane (usual!) Will the car (LKA) do stupid things if this is attempted. Although in fairness road markings and the like are pretty variable. From what I have gleaned from the manual the car will recognize pedal/steering inputs and realize the driver is in control? Maybe.

I really don’t want to have to faff around and disable all the functions before I set off. That would be a deal breaker for me.

3) OK I can install a charger at home but if I plug into a lawnmower type extension cord should I happen to be in a motel with no charging station. Will the car display the amount drawn (kWh) from the motel so I can pay the owner. I understand the limitations of this but sometimes needs must.

4) My most common “long” drive would be home to hotel 153km, AC on all the time. Should be OK @ 64 x 2.5 (160) or 64 x 3 (192) but it is hilly. OK I might get some regen going but not coming back. Any thoughts?

Apologies for the long post Maybe it will also help someone else. Of course I can only contribute more if I take the plunge.

 

[Anon70]

Been lurking a while and I haven’t taken the plunge yet on an Xpower (cheaper than a GR Yaris) but I have few questions from an EV newbie. I scanned through the manual.

Edit: Even cheaper here now than when I first penned these questions.

1) In the hills (decent) I simply want to drive like a “regular” car. I am not interested in one pedal control so vehicle regen will be automatic if going downhill I release the accelerator or do I have to touch the brake pedal to activate? I want as near to a manual transmission engine braking as I can get. IE no “auto” zero overrun/coasting.

2) Where I live (drive on the left) and on a dual carriageways overtaking on the left is legal. Say, if a vehicle is hogging the right lane (usual!) Will the car (LKA) do stupid things if this is attempted. Although in fairness road markings and the like are pretty variable. From what I have gleaned from the manual the car will recognize pedal/steering inputs and realize the driver is in control? Maybe.

I really don’t want to have to faff around and disable all the functions before I set off. That would be a deal breaker for me.

3) OK I can install a charger at home but if I plug into a lawnmower type extension cord should I happen to be in a motel with no charging station. Will the car display the amount drawn (kWh) from the motel so I can pay the owner. I understand the limitations of this but sometimes needs must.

4) My most common “long” drive would be home to hotel 153km, AC on all the time. Should be OK @ 64 x 2.5 (160) or 64 x 3 (192) but it is hilly. OK I might get some regen going but not coming back. Any thoughts?

Apologies for the long post Maybe it will also help someone else. Of course I can only contribute more if I take the plunge.

1 - You can change the strength of the regen to adapt to personal preference
2 - As long as you indicate before manoeuvring the LKA will not impact your lane change
2a - All modern cars have mandatory driver assist systems that you may wish to disable
3 - Yes the car displays charge rate whilst charging but you will have to calculate kW added from battery percentage increase
4 My worst range with 100% charge in the XPower has been 180ish miles 290ish km

 

[siteguru]

Re. question 1 ... if you set the regen to level 1 (I have my right Star button mapped to the regen control ... the car defaults to level 3, but 2 taps of the button gets me to level 1) then the regen percentage (as shown on the driver display) is about 5% maximum; this is not enough to activate the brake lights, and gives the car a similar feel to an ICE car under engine braking.

Regardless of regen setting, you can modulate the actual amount of regen via the accelerator pedal ... press it in slightly and regen is reduced. Press the brake pedal to increase regen to maximum (up to 25%), thereafter the physical brakes come into play.

 

[Martinonline]

3. I assume you mean an AC (granny charger) that plugs into a domestic socket. If so, I have a power meter that I can insert between the socket and the granny charger that can be set to calculate the cost of the charge. You may be able to get the same in your country.

 

[ReintjeWA]

4) My most common “long” drive would be home to hotel 153km, AC on all the time. Should be OK @ 64 x 2.5 (160) or 64 x 3 (192) but it is hilly. OK I might get some regen going but not coming back. Any thoughts?

I regularly do a 110km round trip, at 100-110 kph, with a elevation difference of around 200m, and my Trophy spec car (64 kWh battery) uses 40% for that journey.

It shows a max range of 350km but that goes up to about 400km when pottering around town at 60-70 kph.

 

[siteguru]

Re. question 3 ... when I'm away from home and using the "granny charger", I note the starting SoC % and then start charging (usually to 100% but not always). When charging is finished I calculate the difference in SoC %, multiply that by the usable capacity of the battery (50.8kWh in my case), divide that by 0.8 (to account for efficiency loss - not all the electricity from the supply goes into the battery pack), then multiply the total kWh by the unit rate for wherever I'm staying.

An example:

Start SoC = 20%
End SoC = 100%
Difference = 80% = 0.8
kWh into battery = 0.8 x 50.8 = 40.64kWh
Efficiency loss adjustment = 40.64 / 0.8 = 50.8 kWh
Unit rate = £0.25/kWh therefore cost of electricity = 0.25 * 50.8 = £12.70

 

[gary333]

It appears the charging efficiency of the MG4 varies when using a granny from 84% to 89% on my own vehicle.

1.9-2.0Kw going in to the car
vs.
2.22-2.26Kw coming out of the charger @ c.243V

 

[siteguru]

I haven't measured mine - I just made a guesstimate. But see also below:

That 1.9-2.0kW going into the car also includes power used by the car, so of that 2.0kW maybe only 1.7kW is actually going into the battery.

 

[gary333]

I haven't measured mine - I just made a guesstimate. But see also below:

That 1.9-2.0kW going into the car also includes power used by the car, so of that 2.0kW maybe only 1.7kW is actually going into the battery.

I don't think that's correct, the car (and a slight loss in the external power cable) is using the delta between these two measurements. The delta accounts for both heat in external cable and car wiring along with the cars electronics/modules . The cable cannot be losing the c.300w in heat else it would be very toasty after the many, many hours of charging. My "granny" is actually an Ohme 3 pin, so the power usage I am reporting is the output, and not the EVSE input power (which is slightly higher if I measure using a Tapo Smart plug).

I wasn't saying your calc was wrong btw, just the figures I get using my equipment.

 

[siteguru]

Are you actually measuring the 1.9-2.0kW? Or taking the reading via iSmart?

Anecdotally, the car uses 300W of power whilst charging ... for local electronics and charging up the 12V battery.

 

[gary333]

When the car is turned on it uses 300w as displayed on the screen (1.9Kw drops to 1.6Kw) when leaving car on charge.

The figure i used above is from iSMART and shows 1.9Kw with car turned immediately off, as electronic systems drop offline this decreases the cars parasitic consumption leading to increased charging of 2.0Kw feeding battery.

The car is being fed with 2.25Kw by the Ohme so the loss are 2.25Kw minus the 1.9Kw/2.0Kw battery input.

This is how I calculated the percentage figures above. Further unmeasureable losses will exist within the cells and controllers, hence why I wasn’t criticising 80% efficiency as it’s likely to be a round trip of close to that (especially when a year round average is used to account for colder weather)