basicsboy
Standard Member
Hi everyone - I'm keen to hear if anyone has had a similar experience with their range cars, or if we are expecting too much from it.
In essence - we don't feel the car's range is as advertised, and are therefore beginning the process of rejecting the purchase (but first attempting to file a warranty claim). I may have some data which shows our battery is particularly poor, but I'm coming on here to share it with you all, and see if you've seen similar things on your journeys too.
My wife and I picked up our ZS EV in around April 2020 and were over the moon with it to begin with. Clearly it's great value for money when compared against other EVs at the time (and even now to be fair). Our plan was to use this as our primary car, and we road trips might get a little more inconvenient - but to be honest we've enjoyed the change of pace - stopping for coffee or a walk with our dog more regularly etc.
We get a lot of joy from driving through central London without paying the congestion charge, and from using the car for small journeys. We advice from Fully Charged very much to heart - that is "90% of your journeys can be done on a single charge, so don't worry about splashing out on the 200+ mile range EVs"
We live in London, and have a 40 mile journey to my parents (40 miles) and a 50 mile journey to my wife's parents. We don't trust the car to do those return journeys on a single full charge.
We also wanted the car to be able to travel to or from Bristol (120 miles) on a single charge. Not a chance in our minds.
We have used the car to go to Devon 3 times too (215 miles) - which should be one or two stops only, right? Instead, we feel the need to stop 3 or 4 times.
Using the wonderfully objective EV Database page for the ZS EV the real range is advertised as 95-210 miles. 95 miles being highway driving at 10 degrees below zero. That "worst case scenario" feels like our status quo.
What's almost as frustrating as the range, is how poorly the dash estimates that range. We've run a bunch of tests and found that while highway driving on eco, the range drops 3 miles for every 1 mile we drive. So - if we can't trust the range, perhaps we can trust the KWh when charging.
Take for example 1 stint of our journey down to Devon at the end of April - Temperature was 11 degrees celsius.
Leave McDonalds Wincanton with a 159 mile range (94% charge)
Arrive at Exeter Racecourse with 34 miles.
That's a 64 mile journey, which took 124 miles off the range.
According to the charger at Exeter Racecourse and our car, we arrived with 24% battery. So we'd lost 70% of our battery doing 65 miles. That implies a full range of 92 miles.
Herein lies the rub though: We charged from 24% to 97% at Exeter Racecourse, with 21.9kwh. Given that ZS EVs have a 44.5 kWh battery, 21.9kwh should equate to 49% increase in charge, but our car suggested it was 73%.
If 21.9kwh equals 73% of a full battery charge, that implies that 100% equals 30kwh. That also implies a car that has a battery performing at 67% of the level advertised.
I have a few more examples to rely on - and have taken pictures to back this up - do you think I'm justified in pursuing a warranty claim on the battery here, and if that fails, rejecting the car outright (probably with some legal help) through the protections offered to us by getting the car on finance?
Below is what our Dealer has said so far after describing our situation over the phone.
"We'd get the car in, and do a diagnosis on the fault that you've got. If it's obvious, then we can carry it out ourselves upto £1000 in value. If it's a problem with the battery I can't authorise it, I'd need to authorise that with MG. They have an online system to report the faults and a technical teal which will look into the fault.
If a replacement part is needed then that will be done.
The range issue you're having is something you're not alone in having, it does take a while for the range to come back. There's no magic way for me to equalise the battery other than regular charging of it, which will bring it back into line. MG may not replace the battery, and expect us to use the car long enough to have the range come back."
"After the Software update on 22nd March, would be expecting it to have improved by now. I'd expect you to be driving 120 miles comfortably, but you've mentioned that you wouldn't trust the car to do 90 miles from the home following a slow charge."
Keen to hear your thoughts.
In essence - we don't feel the car's range is as advertised, and are therefore beginning the process of rejecting the purchase (but first attempting to file a warranty claim). I may have some data which shows our battery is particularly poor, but I'm coming on here to share it with you all, and see if you've seen similar things on your journeys too.
My wife and I picked up our ZS EV in around April 2020 and were over the moon with it to begin with. Clearly it's great value for money when compared against other EVs at the time (and even now to be fair). Our plan was to use this as our primary car, and we road trips might get a little more inconvenient - but to be honest we've enjoyed the change of pace - stopping for coffee or a walk with our dog more regularly etc.
We get a lot of joy from driving through central London without paying the congestion charge, and from using the car for small journeys. We advice from Fully Charged very much to heart - that is "90% of your journeys can be done on a single charge, so don't worry about splashing out on the 200+ mile range EVs"
We live in London, and have a 40 mile journey to my parents (40 miles) and a 50 mile journey to my wife's parents. We don't trust the car to do those return journeys on a single full charge.
We also wanted the car to be able to travel to or from Bristol (120 miles) on a single charge. Not a chance in our minds.
We have used the car to go to Devon 3 times too (215 miles) - which should be one or two stops only, right? Instead, we feel the need to stop 3 or 4 times.
Using the wonderfully objective EV Database page for the ZS EV the real range is advertised as 95-210 miles. 95 miles being highway driving at 10 degrees below zero. That "worst case scenario" feels like our status quo.
What's almost as frustrating as the range, is how poorly the dash estimates that range. We've run a bunch of tests and found that while highway driving on eco, the range drops 3 miles for every 1 mile we drive. So - if we can't trust the range, perhaps we can trust the KWh when charging.
Take for example 1 stint of our journey down to Devon at the end of April - Temperature was 11 degrees celsius.
Leave McDonalds Wincanton with a 159 mile range (94% charge)
Arrive at Exeter Racecourse with 34 miles.
That's a 64 mile journey, which took 124 miles off the range.
According to the charger at Exeter Racecourse and our car, we arrived with 24% battery. So we'd lost 70% of our battery doing 65 miles. That implies a full range of 92 miles.
Herein lies the rub though: We charged from 24% to 97% at Exeter Racecourse, with 21.9kwh. Given that ZS EVs have a 44.5 kWh battery, 21.9kwh should equate to 49% increase in charge, but our car suggested it was 73%.
If 21.9kwh equals 73% of a full battery charge, that implies that 100% equals 30kwh. That also implies a car that has a battery performing at 67% of the level advertised.
I have a few more examples to rely on - and have taken pictures to back this up - do you think I'm justified in pursuing a warranty claim on the battery here, and if that fails, rejecting the car outright (probably with some legal help) through the protections offered to us by getting the car on finance?
Below is what our Dealer has said so far after describing our situation over the phone.
"We'd get the car in, and do a diagnosis on the fault that you've got. If it's obvious, then we can carry it out ourselves upto £1000 in value. If it's a problem with the battery I can't authorise it, I'd need to authorise that with MG. They have an online system to report the faults and a technical teal which will look into the fault.
If a replacement part is needed then that will be done.
The range issue you're having is something you're not alone in having, it does take a while for the range to come back. There's no magic way for me to equalise the battery other than regular charging of it, which will bring it back into line. MG may not replace the battery, and expect us to use the car long enough to have the range come back."
"After the Software update on 22nd March, would be expecting it to have improved by now. I'd expect you to be driving 120 miles comfortably, but you've mentioned that you wouldn't trust the car to do 90 miles from the home following a slow charge."
Keen to hear your thoughts.