The Ultimate MGS5 "Real World" Energy Consumption Thread

[tsedge]

Pretty similar to the wife's MG4

You can't really compare different people's results because terrain, weather and driving style/speeds makes such a difference.

But comparing the same person, driving the same routes in a similar weather, is a useful guide. Hence why @Alb sharing results was useful.

 

[Weeble]

Here's mine for November. 95% urban use ferrying grandkids. Always use OPD, AC on auto 21C, and NORMAL mode (except on one occassion when a yoof in an Astra with a baked bean can exhaust started giving me the bad eye at a set of traffic lights.... whereupon I must admit I thought it only right to show him that pensioners' rule, and stuck it in SPORT mode for a few miles )

I'm starting to really enjoy this car despite it's software misgivings.

 

[dx4100]

Here's mine for November. 95% urban use ferrying grandkids. Always use OPD, AC on auto 21C, and NORMAL mode (except on one occassion when a yoof in an Astra with a baked bean can exhaust started giving me the bad eye at a set of traffic lights.... whereupon I must admit I thought it only right to show him that pensioners' rule, and stuck it in SPORT mode for a few miles )

I'm starting to really enjoy this car despite it's software misgivings.

Exactly the same for me - mileage and efficiency

 

[James Dean Driving School]

I'm consistently 0.7 to 1 mile more than wifey. Although she does the school run and uses the heater a lot more than I do.

 

[matejF]

Winter in my country not many times it got above 5°
I can say it's 25kwh+ on highway with speed 135kmh.
And yes I didn't buy an electric car to drive slow.

 

[Alb]

I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the MGS5. Not only a consistent energy consumption improvement on the MG5 but a completely unexpected 4.x for December!

 

[Blackbartblues]

I’ve only done a few hundred miles in my Trophy LR so far, but very disappointed to only get 3.0 miles/kWh. I’ve driven it very sedately as I get used to it, and use OPD. I consistently got between 3.7 (in winter) and 4 (through spring and summer) out of my Polestar, which as a company car I drove much more fruitily. I expected this to match that or better it, given its claimed range is longer despite a slightly smaller battery. If it doesn’t improve I shall be pissed though as it will be used every few weeks for taking stuff to trade shows and I didn’t expect to need to charge it on the round trips (which I will if it stays at its current level of efficiency).

I shall reset the trip tomorrow morning and report back after my first full month in it.

 

[Hugo A Go Go]

Unfortunately i accidentally reset the counter at some point in the month so can’t make a submission for December.

764 miles covered and I estimate the figure to be around 2.7m/kWh due to lots of short journeys where I was only seeing 2m/kWh.

The longer journeys seem to be more efficient at this cold time of year. I guess it is due to the consumption being higher whilst the car warms up.

 

[Iwasyoungonce]

I’ve only done a few hundred miles in my Trophy LR so far, but very disappointed to only get 3.0 miles/kWh. I’ve driven it very sedately as I get used to it, and use OPD. I consistently got between 3.7 (in winter) and 4 (through spring and summer) out of my Polestar, which as a company car I drove much more fruitily. I expected this to match that or better it, given its claimed range is longer despite a slightly smaller battery. If it doesn’t improve I shall be pissed though as it will be used every few weeks for taking stuff to trade shows and I didn’t expect to need to charge it on the round trips (which I will if it stays at its current level of efficiency).

I shall reset the trip tomorrow morning and report back after my first full month in it.

Very disappointed to get 3.0 ?
My new MGS5 was delivered 2 weeks ago showing 2.0 after what I assume was a 45+ mile journey from the dealership mostly via the M1 and since then I've only achieved 2.4 so I'm also currently very disappointed.

 

[emmrecs]

@Blackbartblues and @Iwasyoungonce

I think you both need to give it time!

The current ambient temperature does nothing to aid better economy and we, as owners, need to "learn" how to best "drive" our cars in order to achieve increased range!

I previously owned an MG5 and it took me some weeks to learn how to achieve miles/kWh at anything like I was expecting or hoping. Similarly, having now learned some of the foibles of MG EV cars, my transition to a new S5 has been much less difficult and I am already seeing, after about 5 weeks of ownership, figures of 3.1 and 3.2.

 

[Iwasyoungonce]

@Blackbartblues and @Iwasyoungonce

I think you both need to give it time!

The current ambient temperature does nothing to aid better economy and we, as owners, need to "learn" how to best "drive" our cars in order to achieve increased range!

I previously owned an MG5 and it took me some weeks to learn how to achieve miles/kWh at anything like I was expecting or hoping. Similarly, having now learned some of the foibles of MG EV cars, my transition to a new S5 has been much less difficult and I am already seeing, after about 5 weeks of ownership, figures of 3.1 and 3.2.

I used the WLTP figures given by MG and the dealership (288 and 64kw) to get a figure of 4.5 but revised that down on reading through info online to 3.75 (240 and 64kw) which I thought would be a conservative estimate.

 

[Blackbartblues]

@Blackbartblues and @Iwasyoungonce

I think you both need to give it time!

The current ambient temperature does nothing to aid better economy and we, as owners, need to "learn" how to best "drive" our cars in order to achieve increased range!

I previously owned an MG5 and it took me some weeks to learn how to achieve miles/kWh at anything like I was expecting or hoping. Similarly, having now learned some of the foibles of MG EV cars, my transition to a new S5 has been much less difficult and I am already seeing, after about 5 weeks of ownership, figures of 3.1 and 3.2.

I know how to get the best out of an EV; per my post I achieved 3.7 miles per kWh in my Polestar in the winter and 4 in the summer. That’s a 3 year old car with an on paper higher drag coefficient and greater weight. Plus I regularly drove country routes at pace in it without too much of an effect of efficiency.

This car should do significantly better; so far it won’t get me 190 miles in the winter and that’s driving it like a grandma. If it doesn’t improve with another week of driving I shall be back at the dealership as I’ll be well within 28 days of ownership. In current form it’s not fit for purpose or as designed and advertised.

 

[Iwasyoungonce]

Like @Blackbartblues I drive in the grandma style but as this a new car and my first EV I was prepared to try and adapt my style where possible.

To get it from my current 2.4 to 3.75 where I expected it to be would take a 50%+ improvement would tweaking my "driving style" really make that much difference ?

BTW the dealership said during the test drive that the 288 mile range could be exceeded with care and the use of brake regen !

 

[stevedee]

I've no idea what the 'secret' is to driving economically.

We drove back south after Christmas, with a lot of start/stop driving on the M6 & M5, but I 'showed the car the whip' from Oxford down to Bognor, cruising at 70mph.

I expected that the mls/kWhr figure would be dreadful, but it returned 3.5. I'm happy with that!

Best we have seen is 4.1 on a 160m round trip to Kent.

 

[Blackbartblues]

I’m very confused now!

Just took it out for a 60 mile round trip. Mainly fast country roads, drove at a normal non-Grandma pace and chucked it in sport to give it fulls beans and overtake a couple people (where safe and appropriate of course).

3.7 m/kwh

Shall withhold further judgement and report back after a full month behind the wheel.

 

[stevedee]

I'm beginning to think it might just be a random number generator!

 

[tsedge]

There is a knack to driving these cars efficiently. Mainly I think it is about preserving momentum and avoiding sustained high speeds.

Drivers that struggle for efficiency can suffer from:

• Lots of overtaking / braking / accelerating.
• Driving faster than others.
• Not using the ECO features.
• Excessive use of heating or AC.
• Battery preheating left on.

In general, the MGS5 is more efficient than earlier MG EVs, so should give a reasonable efficiency, though MGs never seem best in class. We know this from the specs, reviews and members who have had previous cars and the MGS5 (the only true comparison is the same person on the same routes at the same times of years).

It takes a decent amount of driving before the GOM settles down and shorter journeys never seem to give a realistic number, so I would ignore them.

 

[Ian Key]

I can understand the concept of seeing how efficiently you can drive and trying to get as high a miles/kW as possible but unless I need the extra range that brings, I drive the car normally and enjoy the performance when I feel like it in the warm/cool depending on the time of year.

As @tsedge says, short journeys are less efficient as the heating has to warm or cool the car from scratch for every journey as opposed to a long journey, where after it's reached the desired temperature it only has to maintain it.

 

[Alb]

If I can take you back to the concept underpinning this thread, it is absolutely NOT about chasing some kind of economy goal. The reference to "Real World" in the the thread title is intended to anchor results to "normal" driving. For the majority, this will mean driving as you wish to drive without thinking too much about the effect on economy.
As Tom has correctly pointed out, my own data gives a like-for-like comparison between two different MG models using the same driver/driving technique and same routes at the same time of the year.

 

[TimothyN]

I drove Biggin Hill to Woburn, about 90 miles, at 0° yesterday, just leaving it in Normal, ACC on 55 mph. There was an extended 10mph section from M3 to M40, as ever.

I had seat and steering wheel heating on, but kept the cabin heating off because I had a week's shopping aboard.

So I drove slowly, but not ridiculously so, and I ended up getting 4.2.