ZS EV Charging losses

[Lovemyev]

Or do you mean a 12v battery booster that's self contained?

Yes - A 12 volt jumper / booster pack is one and the same thing really.
A much smaller version of what the recovery people would use, when you report a flat 12 volt battery on your car.
These jumper packs do the same job as using a pair of jump leads, powered from a second vehicle.
Definitely a worth while purchase IMO.
If you want to carry out a trickle charge on your 12 volt battery, make sure you are using one of the more modern “Smart” chargers and not one of the older type battery chargers.
Smart chargers are able to run through a series of checks on the battery and then set the required charging rate that is best suited the present condition of the battery state.

 

[Ruislip Resident]

Yes that's the thing. Has anybody bought one they have actually used successfully on their MGZS EV and if so which one was it.

 

[AdeSc]

Yes - A 12 volt jumper / booster pack is one and the same thing really.
A much smaller version of what the recovery people would use, when you report a flat 12 volt battery on your car.
These jumper packs do the same job as using a pair of jump leads, powered from a second vehicle.
Definitely a worth while purchase IMO.
If you want to carry out a trickle charge on your 12 volt battery, make sure you are using one of the more modern “Smart” chargers and not one of the older type battery chargers.
Smart chargers are able to run through a series of checks on the battery and then set the required charging rate that is best suited the present condition of the battery state.

Thanks, now I do understand, bit slow this morning ?

 

[Lovemyev]

I made the decision to buy one when we went full EV in 2019.
Strangely, it has been used a few times to help out somebody with flat battery.
But all of the cars were fossil’s !.
It has not been used to rescue ? an EV ( as of yet ).
A smaller unit is very capable of bringing an EV back to life, but I opted for a unit that will start pretty much any size of ICE engine.
I have one of the Halo units that are very popular in the USA and can even start one of those huge gas guzzler engine they have.
Nocco do a range of booster packs also.
One of the Halo units is on sale at the moment, be quick !.

HALO Bolt Compact Portable Jump Starter for Car Battery with 2 USB Ports to Charger Devices, Portable Car Charger - Mint Ombre https://amzn.eu/d/56bOqIi

 

[andymgzs]

Hi All
Recently taken delivery of a 6 month old ZS EV Trophy LR. I notice that when the car is charging on my Hypervolt3 charger the I Smart app shows 6.38 kW as the charging power. To the best of my knowledge the Hypervolt3 should deliver 7kW. The charger is set to deliver full power. I understand that there will be losses when charging but 620w seems a lot. Are all ZS EVs the same?

Your grid voltage was probably low. 7kw at nominal voltage.

 

[ZSchat]

My Zappi was installed by Octopus and charge rate rises quickly to 7.2KW within a minute or two. ZS EV LR, 5m 32amp single phase cable. I find it hard to believe that some cars would limit the charge rate to less than 7kW. Thats pretty low. With CCS cable the ZS is capable of charging at 50kW given a suitable charge point.

 

[MG steve]

My Zappi was installed by Octopus and charge rate rises quickly to 7.2KW within a minute or two. ZS EV LR, 5m 32amp single phase cable. I find it hard to believe that some cars would limit the charge rate to less than 7kW. Thats pretty low. With CCS cable the ZS is capable of charging at 50kW given a suitable charge point.

You are mixing AC and DC. With AC the car will limit it to around 7kW. With DC the external charger does the hard work so times are much faster.

 

[AdeSc]

My Zappi was installed by Octopus and charge rate rises quickly to 7.2KW within a minute or two. ZS EV LR, 5m 32amp single phase cable. I find it hard to believe that some cars would limit the charge rate to less than 7kW. Thats pretty low. With CCS cable the ZS is capable of charging at 50kW given a suitable charge point.

On CCS I’ve had 143kW peak charge.

 

[Spinynorman]

I made the decision to buy one when we went full EV in 2019.
Strangely, it has been used a few times to help out somebody with flat battery.
But all of the cars were fossil’s !.
It has not been used to rescue ? an EV ( as of yet ).
A smaller unit is very capable of bringing an EV back to life, but I opted for a unit that will start pretty much any size of ICE engine.
I have one of the Halo units that are very popular in the USA and can even start one of those huge gas guzzler engine they have.
Nocco do a range of booster packs also.
One of the Halo units is on sale at the moment, be quick !.

HALO Bolt Compact Portable Jump Starter for Car Battery with 2 USB Ports to Charger Devices, Portable Car Charger - Mint Ombre https://amzn.eu/d/56bOqIi

I use a NoCo for battery maintenance, as it trickle charges whilst connected. If you need to leave your car on the drive for long periods it’ll keep your 12v battery up to scratch.
Technically, the 12v should charge when you charge your car. My Zappi 2 charger charges to 100% then spends about and hour running a very low voltage power to balance the battery cells and the app shows charge completed when this is done. However, on a fully charged car (gen 1) I can still get low battery warnings, so I use my NoCo now to keep the 12v happy.
Some guys say use the granny charger to do the equalisation but I’d have to leave a street facing window open to do this - not a clever move in east London at the best of times. When I can afford it, I’ll get a sparks to run out an external lockable 240v 3-pin mains box…

 

[Lovemyev]

Some guys say use the granny charger to do the equalisation

Are referring to the traction battery here ?.
As you are unable to balance a traction battery by charging the 12 volt battery.
Equalisation / balancing of the traction battery takes place via a A/C supply when charging.
If you are receiving low battery state warnings on a regular basis and are having to trickle charge on a regular basis on your Gen 1 ZS EV.
It maybe time to consider replacing the battery ?.
I have found it a good precautionary measure, to give our 12 volt battery a quick top up about twice a year from the CTEK smart unit we have.
I have gone this on both the Gen1 and now Gen2 models we have owned over four years and about 30,000 miles.
We have just returned from a two week holiday and I charged the traction battery to 80% and trickle charged the 12 volt battery before we left.
On our return, the 12 volt battery status was fine and the traction battery was still at 80%.
The weather conditions here where very poor over that two weeks and the car was parked outside, subjected to all of the bad conditions.

 

[Spinynorman]

Are referring to the traction battery here ?.
As you are unable to balance a traction battery by charging the 12 volt battery.
Equalisation / balancing of the traction battery takes place via a A/C supply when charging.
If you are receiving low battery state warnings on a regular basis and are having to trickle charge on a regular basis on your Gen 1 ZS EV.
It maybe time to consider replacing the battery ?.
I have found it a good precautionary measure, to give our 12 volt battery a quick top up about twice a year from the CTEK smart unit we have.
I have gone this on both the Gen1 and now Gen2 models we have owned over four years and about 30,000 miles.
We have just returned from a two week holiday and I charged the traction battery to 80% and trickle charged the 12 volt battery before we left.
On our return, the 12 volt battery status was fine and the traction battery was still at 80%.
The weather conditions here where very poor over that two weeks and the car was parked outside, subjected to all of the bad conditions.

Yeah the general wisdom on traction battery equalisation is use the granny once a month or so.
however the 12v battery should be charging at the same time with the granny charger - it apparently does both batteries during the charge.
My Zappi shows the main charge to about 80% in my case then drops to about 0.3 kw which I assumed was the Zappi equalising the traction battery cells. After about an hour or so, the Zappi reports charged and that’s the traction battery done.
My apparent problem is I’ve done this a few times now and after the traction battery is used for a free trips I get 12v battery warnings whuch go away when I put the car in ready mode - the battery charge if I just switch on is just about touching the 12v mork on the meter. So I thought I’d use my NoCo maintainer - which I used successfully with my old ICE car and it seems to be OK.
I agree though, the car is 3 years old but I think replacing the 12v is on the cards…