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Pre heating batteries

Mr Gear

Standard Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2022
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Location
Buckinghamshire
Driving
MG5
Hi
Having had an electric car for 3 months now, iv really noticed the range drop since the weather got colder,

I had a thought,
I charge at home at night most of the time, if I set my charger schedule so the car finished charging the same time I need to leave in the morning, the batteries would be that little bit warmer first thing in the morning so I would end up with a better range??

Anyone had any experience doing this?

I will try this over next few weeks.

At the moment my fully charge mg5 lr says 180 range every morning with 100% battery.
 
Do you charge using an offpeak tariff as that may limit your charge window.
To get a better figure on the GOM reset the trip counters as it uses them to work out your range.
 
No off peak tariff for me. As I was reading your post I was watching a YouTube video at the same time, the guy was saying the exact thing you say about resetting the trip computer, spooky...

I'll be installing a 3 phase charger at my work soon, then I really won't care about the economy.
Infact I will probably try and get the range to under 100 miles lol
 
I'll be installing a 3 phase charger at my work soon
Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying (my apologies if so) I believe the MG5, at least the pre-facelift model, cannot really benefit from 3 phase charging.
 
Well they can charge faster than the 7 kw a single phase charger in a home can do. Plus it has the 2 extra plug holes for a rapid charger.
Also I don't intend to have the mg for long, iv never owned a budget brand before. It was just a bit of an experiment with electric cars. I'm hoping to palm it off on the wife n get something a bit more up market.
Plus other people at work will want to use the charger.
It costs about the same to have a 3 phase installed.
We have a machine shop on the corner of the car park so it will be just as easy to put a 3 phase in.

Anyway my question was, is it worth setting your charging schedule to to finish just before I use the car so the batteries are a bit warmer in the mornings to get better mpa.

Anyone had any success doing this?
 
Well they can charge faster than the 7 kw a single phase charger in a home can do. Plus it has the 2 extra plug holes for a rapid charger.
...
They can't charge faster. The car is in charge of fast/AC charging, not the wallbox, and they will only charge as fast as the car allows, which is single phase 6.6kW.

PS Rapid charging is DC.
 
The mg5 can deffo charge faster than just 7kw

Yes I am aware that rapid charging is DC, The car is DC whats the problem. My home charger saits at 7.2 kw while it charging so how is its max 6.3?

3 phase charger is for future proofing
 
Yes I am aware that rapid charging is DC, The car is DC whats the problem. My home charger saits at 7.2 kw while it charging so how is its max 6.3?
There is no problem
The MG5 is fitted with a 6.6kW onboard charger as I stated, and cannot charge any quicker.
Are you measuring the power at the home end or the car end. 7.4kW less 10% transmission and conversion losses is 6.6kW

1669626506211.png


or see the charging section on this link.

 
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Terribly sorry sir after some research I have found you are infact 100% correct 🤓
I feel like iv been miss sold this car lol, why they even mention rapid charge then.

Anyway I'm still going to install a 3 phase for othe cars.

I do quite like the polestars.

I'm sorry if my messages seem a bit short and arrogant, I always seem in a rush when I write on this forum, like on teabreak or something.
And I find it hard not to come across as a tw@t

Thanks for the advice anyway 👍

So am I right in thinking about setting my charger to finish just before I use the car, so the batterys are a bit warmer in the mornings, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Saying that, my home charger smart features never work anyway, I got a free one from vanarama, three time they been out cus it always looses connection to my Internet.

One of the times they changed my home WiFi password, without asking me!! cus they reckoned that was the problem but it still stopped working after 12 hours
 
Terribly sorry sir after some research I have found you are infact 100% correct 🤓
I feel like iv been miss sold this car lol, why they even mention rapid charge then.

Anyway I'm still going to install a 3 phase for othe cars.

I do quite like the polestars.

I'm sorry if my messages seem a bit short and arrogant, I always seem in a rush when I write on this forum, like on teabreak or something.
And I find it hard not to come across as a tw@t

Thanks for the advice anyway 👍

So am I right in thinking about setting my charger to finish just before I use the car, so the batterys are a bit warmer in the mornings, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Saying that, my home charger smart features never work anyway, I got a free one from vanarama, three time they been out cus it always looses connection to my Internet.

One of the times they changed my home WiFi password, without asking me!! cus they reckoned that was the problem but it still stopped working after 12 hours
You may well benefit by charging up to the point of using the car as this will warm the batteries to some degree even on a fast (7kW) charge.
As mentioned before DC is Rapid charging using the CCS connection, and the car can charge up to officially about 80kW but many myself included have seen figures of over 90kW.

You will enjoy the car. :)
 
I am travelling from Newcastle to Hull tomorrow to watch a rugby game and will be stopping at York to use public charging.
from what I gather it’s to my advantage to pre heat the batteries prior to using the rapid chargers at York. Could you tell me roughly when I should be switching on pre heat to get the best out of the charging system.
 
I am travelling from Newcastle to Hull tomorrow to watch a rugby game and will be stopping at York to use public charging.
from what I gather it’s to my advantage to pre heat the batteries prior to using the rapid chargers at York. Could you tell me roughly when I should be switching on pre heat to get the best out of the charging system.
Hi, won't the battery already be warm from driving the motor?
 
I am travelling from Newcastle to Hull tomorrow to watch a rugby game and will be stopping at York to use public charging.
from what I gather it’s to my advantage to pre heat the batteries prior to using the rapid chargers at York. Could you tell me roughly when I should be switching on pre heat to get the best out of the charging system.
I did notice a difference after a long drive when using the battery heater beforehand. 10 - 15 mins seems to be enough. The battery heater does come on automatically when you start charging as well if still not warm enough.
 
Does the battery heater not use a bit of juice??

I believe people overthink all this stuff but there you go.

Btw in relation to comments further up, you do realise it doesn't matter what the GOM thinks you will get, you can reset it as often as you like but it will still only go until it runs out of charge. You ought to be able to estimate that yourself on the fly, as you have the %age remaining and your current average usage in front of you.
 
My thoughts as well but I have read somewhere you still need to pre heat them But wasn’t sure what time you would factor in when doing this.
You don't need to pre-heat them, I have never done so and have had charging speeds up to 90kW almost straight away. albeit in summer.
Pre-heating I believe is good for really cold temperatures, like in Norway or Braemar.
 

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You don't need to pre-heat them, I have never done so and have had charging speeds up to 90kW almost straight away. albeit in summer.
Pre-heating I believe is good for really cold temperatures, like in Norway or Braemar.
Thanks for that. I will see how I get on today. I believe like you say outside temp is a factor as well as the state of charge when you initially start the rapid charging.
 
Thanks for that. I will see how I get on today. I believe like you say outside temp is a factor as well as the state of charge when you initially start the rapid charging.
Hey

Yeah outside temp is the key factor. The recommendation is below 10c use pre heat.

As mentioned above it does use up juice so you need to be mindful of that. The key reason I have used it is to get the max charge rate I can from the start. If you do not bother it will heat up while charging and you eventually get the max speed. But I have found preheat can save me ~10 to 15 mins at the charger as I get max charge rate from the start
 
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