What Car summer efficiency test on YouTube

[GaryMG4]

Just watched the above, first released a couple of weeks ago. Interestingly the MG4 LR was only beaten by Tesla in miles/kWh at 4.1 vs 4.3 and 4.7. Coincidentally my accumulated average is 4.1 too.

 

[Rolfe]

Linky?

 

[gnutrino]

Presumably this. I'd have been interested whether the slightly lighter SR could have eked out a bit more efficiency (although obviously with less range) - why is it only Tesla that gets two variants tested?

 

[Rolfe]

I'm slightly tired of tests and reviews that only review the Trophy and at best give a minor nod to the fact that there are other versions on sale - often getting the differences in spec wrong when they mention them at all.

The SE is jawdroppingly good value for money, but is so often overlooked. Or even, they quote the price of the SR SR, then go on to tell you all about the Trophy's bells and whistles.

 

[gnutrino]

The SE is jawdroppingly good value for money, but is so often overlooked

I'd tend to agree. I also think it's a shame that the potentially longevity benefits of the LiFePO batteries rarely gets a mention - personally it was a big reason for going for the SE SR and I'd even have been willing to pay a bit extra for some of the Trophy's bells and whistles with a LiFePO battery had it been an option (maybe not the stupid split spoiler thing though, sorry to any fans of that on the Trophy).

 

[Rolfe]

To be fair (now that I watched the video) the model tested was the SE LR, which I think was the right choice for the circumstances.

I too like the LFP battery. I like the ability to treat it much as I treat my phone and my Kindle - see the charge is down a bit, plug it in to charge, and unplug it when it's done. I like what I hear about its lifespan, and I like knowing that it doesn't have cobalt in it. The lower energy density seems to be the actual reason for the relatively robust nature of the thing, but on the other hand that lower density and so lower range is maybe not what most people are interested in when they're looking at a top of the range model.

I'm not sure there's anything on the Trophy I actually want. I would have said electrically folding wing mirrors, but in fact there's decent clearance on my new garage doors and it's not a problem to park with them open. Yes there are about three annoying bugs in the SE software that the Trophy doesn't have, but on the other hand I read the threads created by Trophy owners about unpairing phones and infotainment screens not booting up (and there are a couple of Trophy-specific bugs to offset the three SE-specific bugs), and I realise we're not so badly off - at least the damn system is stable, even if there are a couple of things it's not doing right.

I do find it odd that tests like this don't say which sort of battery each car has. I've occasionally asked EV owners in conversation which type of battery they have, and a lot of the time they don't know. I'm not even sure that the answer to "are you recommended only to charge it to 80% unless you're going on a long trip?" would be a reliable guide, because even on this forum there are people who are confused about that.

I was especially curious about the Kia e-Niro, the car "Mr EV" managed to run out of juice in twice.



I googled the car and I'm fairly sure it's an LFP, but even from the manufacturer's specs I'm not 100% certain. He ran out because the SoC and the GOM estimates dropped precipitously when he was already getting fairly low on charge - the first time on the motorway, after missing his exit. I think this is the behaviour of an LFP battery than hasn't been balanced enough, but I'm struggling to find any serious discussion about this. There's another video of German guy having the same thing happen to him, but again I don't know the battery type.

I think there are quite a lot of people who read about how the NMC battery should be managed and think they should do that with the LFP too, and then run into trouble because they're afraid to do that 100%-and-balance thing the LFP needs to prevent it lying to you. But until there's more discussion about this, I don't see that changing.

I'd like to know if there was any difference in performance on the range tests between cars with NMCs and cars with LFPs, but they don't even mention it.

 

[GaryMG4]

I must admit that the SE SR would have been perfectly acceptable to me, the LFP battery is a better option. For all my normal usage the range is enough, around here all the demonstrators were Trophy models (I wonder why -. I think the thing that swayed me away from the SE was lack of heated seats as I'd found them useful in my MX5 most of the other toys I could live without.

 

[Rolfe]

I had a demo in a Trophy too, and the salesman tried to sell me one (then an LR when that didn't work), but I'd done my homework (in the week since I'd first heard of the MG4) and knew what I wanted.

I liked the heated seats in my Golf, but then last winter there was a day I realised I'd forgotten I had them - I'd done little cold-weather-morning driving since I retired. My reasoning was that the ability to pre-heat the car through the app would compensate for the lack. Having the entire car warm to get into beats having to turn on the heater at start-up and drive for ten miles before it really gets the cabin warm, while having your bum toasted.

 

[GaryMG4]

With the MX5 on the lowest setting most of the heat was in the small of the back, really nice when you have a niggley back ache. I am looking forward to not sitting in the car with the engine running waiting for the screen to clear.

 

[Rolfe]

The screen clears really fast in the MG4 even when you haven't pre-heated anything.

 

[GaryMG4]

The screen clears really fast in the MG4 even when you haven't pre-heated anything.

I guess it won't be long before I find out.