Xpower first long trip

[Anon70]

Just completed my first long trip in the car. Edinburgh to Leicester and back and here are some thoughts...

Gridserve chargers nice and easy to use, plug in scan your card and off they go (I used the Washington southbound Moto services and the Wetherby services chargers) 79p/kw
JetCharge - pain the backside, takes £35 pre payment and then fails to charge (This was at Newton services Darlington)
InstaVolt - bit of a pain works better with app than contactless, extortionate 85p/kW. In a really stupid position opposite McDonalds at Newton services especially if you have to reverse in

Changing mode did not seem to have much effect on range. Main impact on range was heater and speed.

Car warns of low charge at 20% and 10%

ACC gets a bit close to lorries for my liking even on the 3 bar gap. Also is not the smoothest and I tended to take over in heavy traffic.

Even in rear motor only mode the overtaking speed is more than adequate, 50mph to speed limit in no time at all and pulling on to motorways from slip roads super easy.

Shame there is no auto wiper function and the auto lights are not the most sensitive

Car has the vibration issue reported in other posts but road surface is a contributing factor.

For future long trips I think I would always make sure there is only 150 miles between charging stops so the car can be used as intended rather than freezing (as the heater is off) and crawling at 60mph on the motorway to conserve battery.

Forgot to mention, loving the rear wiper as water dribbles off the roof for the first 10 minutes on a damp morning.

Still waiting to reach first 1,000 miles before going for the full sport mode acceleration

 

[mGizmo]

I agree about the road surface versus vibration; on some bits of the M25 where the surface is new it's barely noticable at all. Other parts it's really quite obvious.

 

[lsb777]

Just completed my first long trip in the car. Edinburgh to Leicester and back and here are some thoughts...

Gridserve chargers nice and easy to use, plug in scan your card and off they go (I used the Washington southbound Moto services and the Wetherby services chargers) 79p/kw
JetCharge - pain the backside, takes £35 pre payment and then fails to charge (This was at Newton services Darlington)
InstaVolt - bit of a pain works better with app than contactless, extortionate 85p/kW. In a really stupid position opposite McDonalds at Newton services especially if you have to reverse in

Changing mode did not seem to have much effect on range. Main impact on range was heater and speed.

Car warns of low charge at 20% and 10%

ACC gets a bit close to lorries for my liking even on the 3 bar gap. Also is not the smoothest and I tended to take over in heavy traffic.

Even in rear motor only mode the overtaking speed is more than adequate, 50mph to speed limit in no time at all and pulling on to motorways from slip roads super easy.

Shame there is no auto wiper function and the auto lights are not the most sensitive

Car has the vibration issue reported in other posts but road surface is a contributing factor.

For future long trips I think I would always make sure there is only 150 miles between charging stops so the car can be used as intended rather than freezing (as the heater is off) and crawling at 60mph on the motorway to conserve battery.

Forgot to mention, loving the rear wiper as water dribbles off the roof for the first 10 minutes on a damp morning.

Still waiting to reach first 1,000 miles before going for the full sport mode acceleration

RE the ACC smoothness, some have suggested ECO on motorways for efficiency and also the acceleration after slow-down whilst in ACC is not so jerky.

Don't wait too long to try launch control and full sport mode, it's great fun but you certainly feel the kick in the stomach.

 

[it guy]

Thanks for the info, useful. What sort of outside temperature was it on the trip and what kind of mi/kwh did you get?

You mentioned the heating and speed making a difference - any rough rules of thumb?

 

[Anon70]

When I turned the heating off completely it added 3 miles to the range. Heating also appeared to reach a set temp and then just turn off rather than maintain cabin temp (not sure if this is an eco mode thing). When I then increased the set temp or turned the heating on after being off (so I didn't freeze) range dropped.

For the speed I set the ACC at 65mph but as soon as I increased to 70mph for any overtaking range started to drop much faster. I have a colleague at work with an XPower and he says anything above 60mph is going to impact range.

I started my journey with a 25 mile buffer and got home with 12 miles range so something about my journey used an extra 12 miles of range.

 

[JonnyG]

Thanks for the info, useful. What sort of outside temperature was it on the trip and what kind of mi/kwh did you get?

You mentioned the heating and speed making a difference - any rough rules of thumb?

Heating, ACC and speed make a huge difference for me. With everything on ECO (including Energy Saving Mode on) and ACC off, a 60mph cruise got me around 3.3mls/kwh over 122 miles at 9c temperature up and down the A1 (short 10 minute break).

Almost the same trip yesterday (just southbound - 110 miles at 9c temp), driving at 70mph with ACC ON and Energy Saving Mode OFF got me 2.4mls/kwh.

The only other differences were yesterday the car cabin was not preheated from the mains, so I guess the heater used a bit more kwh initially but it was a fairly mild 9c. It was also all against a fair headwind yesterday whereas the first trip was half with a tailwind and then half against a fair headwind.

 

[CooperS]

For those who are experiencing EVs for the first time this is all normal. I was like you monitoring every little impact on range. Try and ignore, you will switch off to it in time. In an ICE car we never give any thought to what all the settings do to range etc we take all for granted, Just needs a reset in how we all think, if your daily commutes are well within the range of the car, just enjoy it for what it is. Yes longer journeys need planning, again you will get used to and it becomes second nature. Here ends the sermon…..

 

[Anon70]

For those who are experiencing EVs for the first time this is all normal. I was like you monitoring every little impact on range. Try and ignore, you will switch off to it in time. In an ICE car we never give any thought to what all the settings do to range etc we take all for granted, Just needs a reset in how we all think, if your daily commutes are well within the range of the car, just enjoy it for what it is. Yes longer journeys need planning, again you will get used to and it becomes second nature. Here ends the sermon…..

Agree it's a different mindset, too many years of using dinosaur juice had me set in my ways. If we had been moving from electric to ICE cars I am sure there would be a different set of issues, things like what do mean the weight and balance of the car changes as you use up fuel.

 

[Rolfe]

I think if we were all driving EVs and for some reason ICE cars appeared, it would be a HELL of a hard sell to get anyone to change.

 

[olliewebb]

RE the ACC smoothness, some have suggested ECO on motorways for efficiency and also the acceleration after slow-down whilst in ACC is not so jerky.

Don't wait too long to try launch control and full sport mode, it's great fun but you certainly feel the kick in the stomach.

ECO does make a massive difference using ACC. I thought my car was broken on collection because of how jerky it was in Sport.

I will say 1000+ miles in it's settled down a bit.

 

[Brettus]

ECO does make a massive difference using ACC. I thought my car was broken on collection because of how jerky it was in Sport.

I will say 1000+ miles in it's settled down a bit.

Heh well yeah, you’re giving a bot made by the lowest bidder a control of 430hp, put it in eco and you more than half that giving it much more graduated control using the same dumb logic it had before.

Meant nicely and constructively I swear just breaking it down.

 

[Cymro333]

Just completed my first long trip in the car. Edinburgh to Leicester and back and here are some thoughts...

Gridserve chargers nice and easy to use, plug in scan your card and off they go (I used the Washington southbound Moto services and the Wetherby services chargers) 79p/kw
JetCharge - pain the backside, takes £35 pre payment and then fails to charge (This was at Newton services Darlington)
InstaVolt - bit of a pain works better with app than contactless, extortionate 85p/kW. In a really stupid position opposite McDonalds at Newton services especially if you have to reverse in

Changing mode did not seem to have much effect on range. Main impact on range was heater and speed.

Car warns of low charge at 20% and 10%

ACC gets a bit close to lorries for my liking even on the 3 bar gap. Also is not the smoothest and I tended to take over in heavy traffic.

Even in rear motor only mode the overtaking speed is more than adequate, 50mph to speed limit in no time at all and pulling on to motorways from slip roads super easy.

Shame there is no auto wiper function and the auto lights are not the most sensitive

Car has the vibration issue reported in other posts but road surface is a contributing factor.

For future long trips I think I would always make sure there is only 150 miles between charging stops so the car can be used as intended rather than freezing (as the heater is off) and crawling at 60mph on the motorway to conserve battery.

Forgot to mention, loving the rear wiper as water dribbles off the roof for the first 10 minutes on a damp morning.

Still waiting to reach first 1,000 miles before going for the full sport mode acceleration

Which setting is ‘rear motor only mode’? Is it eco? Or do I need to do anything else?

 

[Mennox]

Which setting is ‘rear motor only mode’? Is it eco? Or do I need to do anything else?

Been using Eco on school run and it still seems to use the front motor at times

 

[Cymro333]

Been using Eco on school run and it still seems to use the front motor at times

I’m thinking the same about eco, I’m wondering if there’s something I’m missing. I’d love to be able to turn one motor off for economy on long runs but don’t know how.
When I look on the energy consumption screen it does show the car using only the rear motor in eco but it does this for all modes, it never shows both motors, is this a glitch or does everyone’s xpower do this?

 

[JonnyG]

Try using Energy Saving Mode - I'm pretty sure that only uses the rear motor and also reduces the power output for general driving / cruising- if you can live with that . Not a setting I use apart from on long motorway trips when range is important

The front motor shows energy consumption on my screen, but you need to be accelerating quite hard for it to engage (and hence show on the screen) apart from when in Sport mode.

 

[Cymro333]

Try using Energy Saving Mode - I'm pretty sure that only uses the rear motor and also reduces the power output for general driving / cruising- if you can live with that . Not a setting I use apart from on long motorway trips when range is important

The front motor shows energy consumption on my screen, but you need to be accelerating quite hard for it to engage (and hence show on the screen) apart from when in Sport mode.

Aha, thanks Jonny, this explains everything I missed.
I’ll have a play, I always wondered what energy saving mode did

 

[JonnyG]

Quote from the manual :-

"When the energy saving mode is enabled, the vehicle will operate
on the minimal energy consumption. The power of the
air conditioner is limited. The energy regeneration level
is automatically adjusted and fixed to "strong". When the
energy saving mode is turned off, the energy regeneration
returns to the former-selected level. The energy saving
mode can be turned on and off on the infotainment display"

 

[Cymro333]

Quote from the manual :-

"When the energy saving mode is enabled, the vehicle will operate
on the minimal energy consumption. The power of the
air conditioner is limited. The energy regeneration level
is automatically adjusted and fixed to "strong". When the
energy saving mode is turned off, the energy regeneration
returns to the former-selected level. The energy saving
mode can be turned on and off on the infotainment display"

Doesn’t specifically say it uses only one motor, but it makes sense if it does. Thanks once again.
I’ll select it and floor it to see if the front motor shows up on the energy consumption screen, any excuse!

 

[JonnyG]

Doesn’t specifically say it uses only one motor, but it makes sense if it does. Thanks once again.
I’ll select it and floor it to see if the front motor shows up on the energy consumption screen, any excuse!

Yes, that manual is a general pdf one I found online, prior to the Xpower.

Let us know your result !!

 

[M4cer]

https://www.mg.co.uk/sites/default/files/2022-09/MG4_EV_Owner_Manual.pdf