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The MG stops charging when the doors are unlocked? What's the drill?

Orcadian

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Orkney
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MG ZS EV
Hi as I said in a previous post, we are due to pick up our MG later this month. we will have a 270 mile trip home. We have had a Leaf for the last four years and when rapid charging I sit in the car and do a crossword for 30 minutes. The MG (I think) stops charging if the doors are unlocked. The Leaf can not be locked if the keys are inside. so What's the drill? I dn't fancy standing outside for 30 minutes.
 
The not charging when unlocked was only on AC not rapid and the latest software updates fix it.

Even on the old software it’ll charge on a rapid when unlocked.
 
@Orcadian I hope you'll like your ZS EV as much as I do. Yep, as previous have said, rapid charge - no locking required. Currently I DO have to loch for a fast charge or on my domestic charger, but that's not a bad thing.

And a great infrastructure on Orkney for an EVs too! I hope to be up there soon, once Nicola has banished this virus!!
 
It’s not a bad idea to lock the doors anyway if you’re sat inside a stationary vehicle paying little or no attention to those in the immediate vicinity - as @Chrispydoc will testify.
Agh yes...I was meaning when it was in my garage.....I often listen to music etc as I faff about in there.
 
One thing to mention given your journey, you need to be under 25% (last dash on the battery gauge), ideally 10% to get a fast charging curve, if the battery is cold the CCS will peak around 30kWh. This shouldn’t be an issue given the distance you are travelling as you have time to heat up the battery. It’s actually more for say the next time you pop to a rapid locally and the battery % is in your mind quite low, and you are surprised why the charge speed is too!
 
One thing to mention given your journey, you need to be under 25% (last dash on the battery gauge), ideally 10% to get a fast charging curve, if the battery is cold the CCS will peak around 30kWh. This shouldn’t be an issue given the distance you are travelling as you have time to heat up the battery. It’s actually more for say the next time you pop to a rapid locally and the battery % is in your mind quite low, and you are surprised why the charge speed is too!
Interesting. The max I can get from approx 20%, is 36kw on a rapid charger.
 
Interesting. The max I can get from approx 20%, is 36kw on a rapid charger.
It's all very much to do with the temperature of the battery, if you've run it down to 20% but park it up overnight and then go to a rapid the next day you will get a slower charge speed than when its nice and toasty after using all those electrons (say you run down from 100-20% and plug into a rapid).

This is a great explainer on "coldgate" it's not just our MGs that are affected by this
 
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The not charging when unlocked was only on AC not rapid and the latest software updates fix it.

Even on the old software it’ll charge on a rapid when unlocked.
The manual says in a couple of places that charging stops if unlocked - I noticed this is definitely the case with a 13 amp charger and at a Tesco's pod point.

I am planning a motorway journey which will need a stop for a rapid charge.
The current restrictions on sitting in coffee shops, it may be necessary to sit in the car with a coffee.
Has anyone confirmed that this works?
Can you charge if you press the lock button inside the car?

Car is now 2 days old, so I am new to this...
 
The manual says in a couple of places that charging stops if unlocked - I noticed this is definitely the case with a 13 amp charger and at a Tesco's pod point.

I am planning a motorway journey which will need a stop for a rapid charge.
The current restrictions on sitting in coffee shops, it may be necessary to sit in the car with a coffee.
Has anyone confirmed that this works?
Can you charge if you press the lock button inside the car?

Car is now 2 days old, so I am new to this...
Yes you can sit inside the car, press the lock button, enjoy your coffee and watch the charge.
 
It's all very much to do with the temperature of the battery, if you've run it down to 20% but park it up overnight and then go to a rapid the next day you will get a slower charge speed than when its nice and toasty after using all those electrons (say you run down from 100-20% and plug into a rapid).

This is a great explainer on "coldgate" it's not just our MGs that are affected by this

Interesting re: battery heater & insulation.
Also the thought on the Tesla of setting satnav to a rapid charger preps the battery for a max charge. This I have been told before by a friend, but put that down to the way/speed she drives!
 
The manual says in a couple of places that charging stops if unlocked - I noticed this is definitely the case with a 13 amp charger and at a Tesco's pod point.

I am planning a motorway journey which will need a stop for a rapid charge.
The current restrictions on sitting in coffee shops, it may be necessary to sit in the car with a coffee.
Has anyone confirmed that this works?
Can you charge if you press the lock button inside the car?

Car is now 2 days old, so I am new to this...
If it doesn’t charge on AC when unlocked, it hasn’t had the BMS update.
 
I have done this on a Pod Point charger - sat inside with the heater intermittently on and reading e-mails and stuff on my phone whilst charging. I'm pretty sure the car was unlocked.
 
The manual says in a couple of places that charging stops if unlocked - I noticed this is definitely the case with a 13 amp charger and at a Tesco's pod point.
The manual was produced before a recent Battery Management System (BMS) software update that allows for unlocked AC charging by updating how the Onboard Charger (OBC) works.

Here is a video of my ZS EV charging whilst unlocked:


@ScifiArgonaut has provided a great post with more detail about timed charging & unlocked AC charging:


1st. Update your ZS software. I booked mine into Richmond MG Southampton 3/11/20, they really listened to me and understood what I was talking about. I told them I had a Rolec charger and that I had charging issues and that I read on the forum that there is a BMS updates that can fix it. They have a technician called Gareth who is their EV expert and they said bring it in and they would check if the software was up to date even though I only got the car on 21 Set 20 and it already had the Comfort2 update.

As they recommend Rolec Chargers I asked if they would do this free of charge and they said yes under warranty. They contacted MG technical who authorised EVCC & OBC updates applied to my car. I told them that I wanted to post what the updates where on this forum so they kindly supplied me with this...

EVCC - Electric Vehicle Charge Control
Improves compatibility with smart and timed charging systems that use PWM wake up strategy (e.g. ROLEC Smart EV). When the customer connects the charging gun to the vehicle, a timer is started within the module. This allows a charge to delay the start of charging session for upto 10 hours before the EVCC module will shut down completely. If a charge starts but then stopped within 10 minutes the timer restarts.

If the charge starts and continues for more than 10 minutes, the timer will simply run for 10 hours from when the charge gun was inserted.

The charge timer will not terminate a charge session, even if the charge is delayed until 9 hours and 59 seconds after the charging gun is connected.

OBC - Onboard Charger
Allows the vehicle to be charged on AC charging stations without the need for the vehicle to be locked. When an AC charger is connected to the vehicle the charge gun will be locked into the socket and charging will start. If the customer locks the vehicle charging will continue.

If whilst charging the customer unlocks the vehicle the charging will temporarily stop, and the charge gun will be unlocked. If the charge gun is not removed within 1 minute, the charge gun will be relocked and charging will resume.
2nd ev.energy - check tariff peak times match your energy supplier and ask them to manually switch off trickle charge.

I first realised my ZS had the problem as the Rolec charger did not recognise when I was on peak rate and charged my car straight away and did not wait until off peak. - I could see what was happening on my smart meter. I then had to use boost in order to get a charge even when my tariff was off peak!

ev.energy (after a bit of e-maill ping pong), then told me what my peak times were set up to, of course they were wrong even though I had selected the correct tariff on the app!

They had to update the tariff on the app which took over a week but now it is set up correctly even though you cannot actually see what the peek times are on the tariff you have selected. You can only confirm its right on the app because when you update your Smart charge settings, "Only charge below" matches your peak rate in pence/kWh. I've asked them to show the peak rates on the app and they have made a note of the request for future app updates.

I told them I had my ZS charge software updated so they manually switched off trickle charge. (blue flashing light on the charger now instead of a green)

Good luck to everyone who is having this issue and I hope this helps you resolve it.

Regards

Jason
 
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