Very poor range in Trophy LR

[stephen85]

Hi all,

New to the MG4, had a Kona EV for 3 years. I have a Trophy Long Range 64 KWH and since owing this car I am constantly charging it. I only had to charge my Kona once a week and got about 245 miles range without issue.

I did 180 miles last week. To achieve this range I needed to charge 3 times. If this keeps up I will need to return this car as it’s not doing anywhere near the range I was told or expected. My car is either defective or the range is awful.

Can anyone help me? Am I doing something wrong? I drive the car no differently to my Kona, normal speed, school runs etc. It’s got to the stage I’m considering buying an ICE car as I don’t trust I could go for a day trip and make it home again, which is sad.

My car currently is doing 2.3 miles/kwh, my Kona was doing 4 miles/kwh. I have tried eco, normal, snow, all, range never really changes. Can anyone help?

 

[lsb777]

Check in the charging section, energy consumption screen and make sure intelligent battery charging is OFF. This drains battery and most people say not needed. Also if you have a home charger, let it charge fully to 100% to do an equalisation charge which may help to level out the battery cells. Are you using High regen as I find this helps more than OPD with gaining a bit back into the battery. Korean cars are always very efficient so the MG4 will struggle to keep up with your previous range.

 

[Rolfe]

Welcome to the forum, @stephen85.

Something doesn't quite compute here. A consumption of 2.3 miles/kwh is low but not completely impossible in cold winter weather if you're doing a lot of short trips, particularly if you pre-heat the cabin a lot before these trips. What I don't understand is how this fits with having to charge three times to do 180 miles. This would suggest you're only getting a practical range of about 60 miles from each charge, which is way too low and way lower than 2.3 miles/kwh ought to be giving you from the LR battery.

I have the SR battery and even doing a lot of short trips with pre-heating in cold weather I've never seen a GOM range less than 145 miles, and I'm confident of doing 100 miles in one trip and getting back with about 30% battery. So on the face of it, there may be something wrong with your car.

On the other hand, 4 miles/kwh is very good, and not likely to be achieved in winter. Did you not notice your Kona losing range in the cold weather? If you had it three years I'd have thought it was something you'd have experienced.

Could you give us a bit more detail about what you're seeing? What % are you charging up to, how low are you letting the car go before you charge again, and what distance have you covered in that time? Are you seeing the GOM reading decrease evenly, or does it drop suddenly then level off?

Have a look at this thread, which discusses the loss of range experienced in winter, and see if anything applies.

Range decrease due to cold weather [merged thread]

Hi all. Ive had my Mg4 long range trophy for 3 months, its advertised at 281 miles withnits 64kw battery. When fully charged it used to show 276 miles of range, the last few charges it is only showing around 196 to 210 miles. What has gone wrong?, its only 3 months old?, could it be an issue...

www.mgevs.com

 

[Rolfe]

OK, I did some sums. Charging to 80% and running the car down to 20% before recharging should give you about 90 miles even at 2.3 miles/kwh. But of course how often you charge will depend on what battery % you decide to recharge at.

How big a battery did the Kona have? 245 miles of practical range is a lot, especially in winter. Or was that the 100% to 0% range? How many miles did you actually drive between charges in that car?

 

[stephen85]

I had the 64Kwh battery in the Kona, in summer fully charged it showed 301 miles but in reality I got about 260/270 out of it no issue, in winter showed me about 275 when full and I always got 220/240 out of it. I understand range drop etc in winter.

As soon as I start driving the the MG the range just drops like a stone I get to between 20/30% and change to 80/100% - mainly 100% as I need the range for my wife to get my son to and from school. It's not a short trip, 20 miles round trip so 40 miles a day. We have had the car since December and I honestly don’t trust the range on it at all.

I do not pre heat the car, I get in and drive etc, nothing fancy or sporty. If the car has 60 miles in it my wife freaks out and worries she won’t make it a 20 mile round trip. To me something isn’t correct or if the car's range is really this bad I will see if I can return the car and get out of my lease and return to Hyundai.

I think the car is OK if the battery was better, unless I’m doing something wrong. I went and checked on the other advice given, intelligent battery was deactivated, I use high regeneration, don’t use OPD find it quite abrupt but like the mental LKA that loves trying to put you in hedges. I thought I had taken pictures but can’t find them at the minute. Apologies, I’m really not hating on this car but at the minute I’m just not enjoying my ownership.

 

[Rolfe]

So your battery is the same as in the Kona. The MG4 probably isn't as efficient as the Kona, but what you're describing seems way too much to be accounted for by a somewhat less fuel-efficient car. It's also not as if you're first-time EV drivers plagued by the infamous "range anxiety" and freaked out by the drop in range in cold weather.

Nobody else with a Trophy is describing this behaviour, so my guess is there's something wrong. The forum tends to be a bit quiet at this time in the evening, but hopefully some other Trophy owners will come along in the morning and give you some input.

If you have charged to 100% then even with very poor fuel consumption of 2.3 miles/kw, you should still be getting about 115 miles before you see 20%. It doesn't sound as if that is happening. And if you're doing 20-mile school runs regularly then 2.3 miles/kwh is ridiculously low in itself.

I take it you haven't actually run out of charge? In that case my first guess is that the GOM is lying to you. The commonest reason for the GOM to be lying to you is that the battery hasn't been balanced regularly. How long have you had the car for, and was it new or second-hand? When you charge to 100% are you letting the car sit on the charger (I'm presuming AC) drawing power until it has finished balancing?

 

[Archev]

So your battery is the same as in the Kona. The MG4 probably isn't as efficient as the Kona, but what you're describing seems way too much to be accounted for by a somewhat less fuel-efficient car. It's also not as if you're first-time EV drivers plagued by the infamous "range anxiety" and freaked out by the drop in range in cold weather.

Nobody else with a Trophy is describing this behaviour, so my guess is there's something wrong. The forum tends to be a bit quiet at this time in the evening, but hopefully some other Trophy owners will come along in the morning and give you some input.

If you have charged to 100% then even with very poor fuel consumption of 2.3 miles/kw, you should still be getting about 115 miles before you see 20%. It doesn't sound as if that is happening. And if you're doing 20-mile school runs regularly then 2.3 miles/kwh is ridiculously low in itself.

I take it you haven't actually run out of charge? In that case my first guess is that the GOM is lying to you. The commonest reason for the GOM to be lying to you is that the battery hasn't been balanced regularly. How long have you had the car for, and was it new or second-hand? When you charge to 100% are you letting the car sit on the charger (I'm presuming AC) drawing power until it has finished balancing?

Not quite the same car but my five was sitting this morning at about 93% and showing 240 miles. I’ve driven about
125 miles today and there’s just under 50% and 110 miles left. Allowing for one or two “urgent” tractor and truck overtakes I think that’s about right.
I too get the feeling your battery isn’t balanced or has a problem.

 

[stephen85]

I have left it on AC to 100% 3 times I think I will try a few things over the rest of this week see what happens and if anything changes, if nothing changes I will call MG and see what they say I got the car brand new with 9 miles on the clock on December 18th

 

[dsimpkins]

I know I'm further South than you, but my SE LR has the same battery capacity and I'm not having to charge 3 times a week. In summer I was getting around 270/280 and 4 miles/kWh (sometimes up to 300 miles). In winter I've seen it as low as 2miles/kWh and range drop to around 220 miles, but usually around 240 miles at around 2.4-2.6 miles/kWh. I do a lot of short commuting journeys which do not help with range, but on a longer journey in winter I can easily get 3.3-3.4 miles/kWh.

IMO I would say there's definitely a fault with your Trophy and it needs to go back to MG.

 

[Rolfe]

Nobody else with a Trophy is describing this behaviour, ...

Actually I've just realised there is another thread open at the moment about a Trophy with a sort of similar problem, but I don't think it's the same. It's a sudden step-wise GOM drop near the end of the range, not this very poor range over the entire charging curve.

That car is also brand new low mileage too.

 

[fnegroni]

Hi all,

New to the MG4, had a Kona EV for 3 years. I have a Trophy Long Range 64 KWH and since owing this car I am constantly charging it. I only had to charge my Kona once a week and got about 245 miles range without issue.

I did 180 miles last week. To achieve this range I needed to charge 3 times. If this keeps up I will need to return this car as it’s not doing anywhere near the range I was told or expected. My car is either defective or the range is awful.

Can anyone help me? Am I doing something wrong? I drive the car no differently to my Kona, normal speed, school runs etc. It’s got to the stage I’m considering buying an ICE car as I don’t trust I could go for a day trip and make it home again, which is sad.

My car currently is doing 2.3 miles/kwh, my Kona was doing 4 miles/kwh. I have tried eco, normal, snow, all, range never really changes. Can anyone help?

It would put some context if you could take pictures of the accumulated total, since last charge, from start figures on the front panel.
I’m interested in knowing what the journey length is and the average speed. Reason for asking for pictures is that memory isn’t reliable and neither is a number typed using a keyboard.

The tyres pressure page also please. Want to see what tyre pressure you are running.

The drive settings would be useful too. Accelerator/brake/regen.
Pictures please

 

[smartn]

Although not the most efficient of cars my Trophy worst case scenario is around 2.5 miles /kWh with pre-heat and a commute of 4 miles in winter. Once on a run I'd certainly expect over 3 miles /kWh.

The Trophy will not be as efficient as the Kona but I expect around 190 miles on a long Motorway run in winter and 230+ in summer. I think something must be wrong with your car for the behaviour you describe.

 

[fnegroni]

It would put some context if you could take pictures of the accumulated total, since last charge, from start figures on the front panel.
I’m interested in knowing what the journey length is and the average speed. Reason for asking for pictures is that memory isn’t reliable and neither is a number typed using a keyboard.

The tyres pressure page also please. Want to see what tyre pressure you are running.

The drive settings would be useful too. Accelerator/brake/regen.
Pictures please

Additionally, have you ever run the battery below 10%?
I’m interested in knowing if the percentage indicator might be out of whack

 

[tsedge]

The LR gives me about 200-210 miles in winter with ECO mode on, power saving on and gentle driving. In Sport mode, I get 180-190 miles total. This is 0-100%.

Your experience sounds normal although there is no need to charge when 60 miles is remaining, you can go a lot lower.

I have heard that Konas are very efficient but I have never owned one.

 

[stephen85]

Just done the commute, in Normal mode, high regen achieved 3.1miles/kwh trip was 18.1 miles, left with 133 range 57%, returned with 48% 103 miles on the range is this normal if so I will just have to get used to it, maybe this car performance is better in summer as I got the car in winter maybe is not that good in winter/cold weather

 

[smartn]

That looks pretty normal to me.

 

[smartn]

For Trophy in winter I generally work on about 2 miles per 1 percent so your 18 miles for 9 percent fits that exactly.

 

[PeteC]

My Trophy is not as efficient as my previous EV but nothing like as bad as you seem to be getting. I drove up to Scotland a couple of weeks ago (around 10 degrees if I remember) and drove 160 miles to my first stop, with over 140 miles of that at 70mph. I'd started at 100% SoC and reached the stop with 25% and showing 3.3 m/kWh. Driving around East Lothian with lots of 20mph towns I'm easily getting 4+m/kWh. Even very short trips are getting up to 3m/kWh. Always have AC on and heat as needed, driving in normal with strongest regen other than on motorway where I'll use adaptive regen.

 

[PeteC]

For Trophy in winter I generally work on about 2 miles per 1 percent so your 18 miles for 9 percent fits that exactly.

I also use that approximation as a reasonable guide.

 

[siteguru]

Bear in mind that range estimate in the app equates to Normal mode/no HVAC or Eco mode/with HVAC. (They approximate to the same thing). The in-car picture shows Normal mode - was HVAC turned on?