Thoughts on first 7 months ownership

[Cafeg]

I tried 19 degrees set both sides this morning with an outside temperature of 11 degrees C, but “EV mode not supported”. However, after 2 or 3 minutes I was able to select EV mode, so minimal delay.

yes and it stops it from starting auto mode once you have been running a while. It used to get down to 10 and below here as well in winter. I used to watch the side of the road marking where I could switch to ev mode without it saying ev mode not available and didnt bother trying to switch it until I got to where I'd marked. You can also throttle off or going downhill and push the ev button to get it to go into ev mode

 

[PedroPhev]

Hi Pedro,
Yes, its refreshing to hear that there are owners out there that are pleased with the HS phev and are willing and happy to experiment with the different modes of propulsion to find out which combination works for them best. I think with a bit of forethought and trial and error it will be very possible to get 100 MPG.
Glad that you have taken the plunge with buying the dash mat,I think you will be pleased. As for the indoor stainless steel switch surrounds, I would be careful with them as I think they are only available for left hand drive cars for the front doors. The rear doors will be universal so no problem with them. There is loads of nice gear for MG cars as you no doubt know now you have been on the website. I have bought stacks of different things through Ali Express ( car accessories, shooting accessories , portable air compressors etc.) and not once have I had a problem (only knowing when to stop spending of course!!!) Yes, I know, it must be a shock to find a jock that likes to spend dosh !!
It is a real pleasure to have this car in a sunny country. I find whilst in EV mode the A/C works well if you keep the temperature setting just below the outside temperature by a couple of degrees only. Or, if its required to be even colder inside, you can do as you do in the UK and run the ICE for several minutes with recirculate engaged until the required temp is reached, then simply switch to EV and the car will be good for some time. As I said earlier, its a case of experimenting to find which way works for you. I run my A/C continuously in the summer and have no problems. I am sure you will enjoy your trip in Spain, have a great time.
As for my user name, yep, the FAA part is Fleet Air Arm. I was in the FAA (Navy) for 14 years as an aircraft Electrical Engineer and worked on various aircraft (Wessex and Sea king helicopters and also the Sea Harrier)
Well, all for now. Happy motoring!!

Hi once more.
Sorry, I have just looked at your user name and realised that you have a very nice dog picture on it. I am now wondering if "Pedro" is infact your pooches name. If it is I appologise for getting the wrong end of the stick and have just called you by a dogs name !!

Hi Ian
Thanks for the Ali Express tip, I’m now ready for Spain.
Regards
Pete ️

 

[FAA Jock]

Hi Pete,
yes, it was certainly an eye opener when I started to use Ali Express. There is an unbelievable amount of items for the HS on offer, glad I could help. My next purchase will be running boards. They are to help my wife to enter and exit the car as she suffers from dodgy knees after operations, plus of course, they look pretty cool. There are some really nice looking sets on offer. All these little "additions" make the car look that much more "premium".
Good luck in sunny Spain.
Cheers mate, all the best, Ian

 

[Nic2385]

Hi Pedro, what a brilliant read. A nice contrast to some posts which focus on negatives (although I respect if you have something going wrong, you'll be upset quite naturally). I have had my 2022 PHEV Exclusive 3 weeks so your performance experience is very useful to know. I do love a spreadsheet, I imagine you do to by your comments.

Thanks again for taking the time to provide your reflections.

 

[PedroPhev]

Hi Nic, Thanks for your positive comments. Yes I do have a spreadsheet, I was career military so good pension but not wealthy, so there was a real need to assess projected outgoings & incoming and understand what was available to spend in the long term. Consequently I took a big leap and retired in 2015 aged 56 having built up a comprehensive spreadsheet over the previous 7 years. It has proven to be about 97% accurate and guided me safely through the first 9 years of retirement. It has allowed me to spend disposable income wisely, hence the MG purchase. Consequently we are in Southern Spain in a rented villa for three months enjoying the winter sun as we do every year. We drove down in the MG and it has been great, have a read of a post I did just after we got here titled “Road trip”, I think you’ll find it interesting.

 

[kumar007]

A good summary which mirrors my thoughts, also after 7 months experience of a 2022 build/23 plate HS PHEV Exclusive! My driving has included several long trips to Scotland and one to France, Belgium and the Netherlands with a fair amount of high-speed motorway use, and fewer opportunities to use pure EV mode. 9,000 miles done over the 7 months, with no serious problems.

I like the car very much, including its individuality and various quirks. Android Auto (cable connected) takes care of navigation, phone calls and music, and cabin overheating in sunshine has been solved with solar/thermal rejecting transparent film on the front side windows. Good motorway comfort and performance (though yes, you have to be alert to gear-change hesitation at about 49mph). I've turned off most 'MG Pilot' functions but the adaptive cruise control is superb, as is the 360 deg. camera.

Boot space could be better, even given the need to accommodate the high-voltage battery, so shipping the golf clubs requires lowering one of the split rear seats. Not fantastic fuel consumption (42mpg averaged over 7 months) compared to some smaller self-charging hybrids, but obviously it's much better on short drives mainly in EV mode. I paid £28k for an excellent new car which is unbeatable value, at least in the UK.

Completely agree with you. Had the same experience with my MG HS PHEV 23 plate.

 

[New to MG]

I tried 19 degrees set both sides this morning with an outside temperature of 11 degrees C, but “EV mode not supported”. However, after 2 or 3 minutes I was able to select EV mode, so minimal delay.

Hi Pete,
I drive the 2022 build/MY 23 MG HS + EV (PHEV) in Sydney.
Its not so cold for us here, but we still do get into the car on winter mornings when the temperature may be 11-12°C. To overcome that issue of the ICE kicking in (when just wanting to drive in EV for a short urban journey on A or B roads), I sometimes do this in the drive, before setting off:

• turn the temp control down from 20 to 16. And put the seat heater on to keep me warm.
• select EV. It comes on.
• after 2-3 minutes, when stopped at a traffic lights, turn the seat heater off, and put the temp back to 19-20.
• That annoying message is not received! “EV mode not supported”.

BTW : I have the HVAC on "auto" virtually 365 days a year. Seems fine to me.
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Was most intrigued by your comment : "when starting I keep my foot on the brake until “System Ready” appears on the dash. Move the gear lever from Park to Neutral before selecting Drive or Reverse, move the lever slowly and deliberately to each indent. " Like you I wait for "system ready", but have always moved from "P" to "R" or "D" with no issues.
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You say, "I try to not go regularly below 20% battery charge in the interest of long term battery health, am I being over cautious?" I have sometimes gone down to 8-10% by the time I am back home in the evening. On those occasions I take the opportunity to do a full charge (is that called the equalisation charge?) taking the charge fully up to 100% = 62-63 km (39 miles). Normally I would just recharge up to 80-90%.
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That was a good idea to point out it is better to disengage cruise control to allow regen to function. There is no regen with cruise control on.
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On the question of your overall economy : 72 mpg.
All that depends a lot on the 'mix 'of long trips in hybrid / auto mode, and short trips in EV Only mode. Here is an example of where a driver could be around 1.4L per 100km = 202 MPG -UK. See this annual example below:

• Long road trips on Motorways and "A" roads, always in Hybrid / Auto. Distance travelled : say 3900 km (2423 miles). Fuel consumption : 6 L per 100 km (47 MPG - UK). 6 x 39 L = 234 L of petrol used. That is 51.5 UK gallons.
• Short local round trips in hometown, and around hometown, each short round trip less than 55 km (34 miles) = ZERO litres of petrol used (all done on EV only). Distance travelled : say 330 trips x 40 km average = 13200 km (8202 miles).

Total annual distance 3900 + 13200 = 17,100 km (10,625 miles).
Total Petrol consumed = 234 L = 51.5 UK gallons.
Consumption averages out to 1.4L per 100 km or 202 MPG (UK).
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It has been a very good car for me - so far - over the 12 months of ownership.

 

[Cafeg]

Hi Pete,
I drive the 2022 build/MY 23 MG HS + EV (PHEV) in Sydney.
Its not so cold for us here, but we still do get into the car on winter mornings when the temperature may be 11-12°C. To overcome that issue of the ICE kicking in (when just wanting to drive in EV for a short urban journey on A or B roads), I sometimes do this in the drive, before setting off:

• turn the temp control down from 20 to 16. And put the seat heater on to keep me warm.
• select EV. It comes on.
• after 2-3 minutes, when stopped at a traffic lights, turn the seat heater off, and put the temp back to 19-20.
• That annoying message is not received! “EV mode not supported”.

BTW : I have the HVAC on "auto" virtually 365 days a year. Seems fine to me.
----------------------------------
Was most intrigued by your comment : "when starting I keep my foot on the brake until “System Ready” appears on the dash. Move the gear lever from Park to Neutral before selecting Drive or Reverse, move the lever slowly and deliberately to each indent. " Like you I wait for "system ready", but have always moved from "P" to "R" or "D" with no issues.
----------------------------------
You say, "I try to not go regularly below 20% battery charge in the interest of long term battery health, am I being over cautious?" I have sometimes gone down to 8-10% by the time I am back home in the evening. On those occasions I take the opportunity to do a full charge (is that called the equalisation charge?) taking the charge fully up to 100% = 62-63 km (39 miles). Normally I would just recharge up to 80-90%.
----------------------------------
That was a good idea to point out it is better to disengage cruise control to allow regen to function. There is no regen with cruise control on.
----------------------------------
On the question of your overall economy : 72 mpg.
All that depends a lot on the 'mix 'of long trips in hybrid / auto mode, and short trips in EV Only mode. Here is an example of where a driver could be around 1.4L per 100km = 202 MPG -UK. See this annual example below:

• Long road trips on Motorways and "A" roads, always in Hybrid / Auto. Distance travelled : say 3900 km (2423 miles). Fuel consumption : 6 L per 100 km (47 MPG - UK). 6 x 39 L = 234 L of petrol used. That is 51.5 UK gallons.
• Short local round trips in hometown, and around hometown, each short round trip less than 55 km (34 miles) = ZERO litres of petrol used (all done on EV only). Distance travelled : say 330 trips x 40 km average = 13200 km (8202 miles).

Total annual distance 3900 + 13200 = 17,100 km (10,625 miles).
Total Petrol consumed = 234 L = 51.5 UK gallons.
Consumption averages out to 1.4L per 100 km or 202 MPG (UK).
---------------------------------
It has been a very good car for me - so far - over the 12 months of ownership.

I also have a 2023 MG phev from bought brand new here in NZ on March 2023.
These are my thoughts on the car for the last 2.5 years.

I live in NZ and we get down around zero deg in the winter at times right now.
I have the car temp set to 19deg all year round and also with HVAC set to auto with aircon on,
but this doesnt stop heated air coming out once the car warms up.
In winter the car starts and runs in auto and after 5 minutes I can switch it to EV mode.
In summer once the outside temps are better it can starts in EV mode and stays in it easily.
To get it to go into EV faster you have to be a light touch on the accelerator or switch to EV going downhill or when you are coasting to traffic lights then it will go into EV mode. If you take it easy driving it will stay in EV mode. It has to heat up the water temp before it will stay in EV as it doesnt have a heat pump heater, it uses water temp for the HV battery and using the car heater. This is a known problem and I believe this has been fixed in the new model with a heat pump. If your window starts fogging up push the right side piano switch which defrosts the window and clears it straight away which cooler air clears the window faster than heated air. This normally makes it kick back into auto mode again but you can change back into EV after the piano switch is repressed again.

Mine is the same, I can move to any gear P,R or D position after ready comes up but you must wait until ready comes up. Not get in and drive off straight away.

I charge the battery to 100% every day with the granny charger as it only charges at 1.8kW with the granny charger or 3.6kW at a wallbox charger at a shopping centre which is free here The small charge rate doesnt affect the battery. I am still getting 61km range after 2.5 years of ownership so no battery loss yet. I also have Solar + a Tesla powerwall2 battery so all charging is free for us.
My Tesla powerwall2 battery is also charged to 100% every day and it has lost 1% in 5 years.

I run around in EV mode in town or to a satellite city here less the 30km away and it will do 110km/h on the highway in EV mode. If I go away on a trip I stay in auto mode which gets 5.5L/100km petrol use. Staying in EV mode it does around 0.5L/100km usage. I went to Auckland last week which Is 240km round trip and I drove it in Auto mode all the way there and back. I filled up with petrol when I got back for the first time since 14/10/2024 after 2,792 km which is great as nearly all my km are in EV mode. This total should have been more but MG zeroed the accumulated km on servicing. The best I have got is 3,306 km inbetween fills.

Yes cruise control doesnt use regen so I rarely use it plus it keeps you awake driving without it
It is a really comfortable car to drive and very quiet in EV mode which we are in most of the time.

We have had np in 13,000 km apart from a petrol cap too tight and the oxygen (02) sensor which is being replaced under warranty this Tuesday.
Which I think is pretty good in 2.5 years. I love driving it and would I buy another one, YES !