Worrying drop of battery and range below 25%

[decrep]

You can also set the door handle button to open the drivers door only and that’s how you can check the state of charge on the drivers display and sit back in the car

Thanks, I'll certainly give that a try, next time I charge

 

[Martinonline]

Seems mine is a lot different to yours. The display in front of the steering column gives state of charge, if you hit the lock button while it's charging. If I'm outside the car it locks no problems, but won't lock if I'm inside the car and the charger door is open.I haven't taken notice of the port charging lights once charge, but I think they are solid, not flashing.

I understand. When I am in the car and charging I have never tried to lock the car for fear of the locked-in syndrome (see other posts).

But, again I am confused. Do you not have the standard centre display that gives you access to the battery status (see my previous photo) plus power consumption figures and discharge data if you have V2L?

Usually the port green segmented lights flash when charging though people have reported problems.

Do you have a granny charger - one that connects to a socket in your home? You can check the lights using that.

 

[Martinonline]

Further to the above, here are the images from the info display on my Trophy, including one from the power consumption tab after tapping the battery panel from the home page.

You should have similar. If not, could ok please you post some photos because a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[decrep]

Further to the above, here are the images from the info display on my Trophy, including one from the power consumption tab after tapping the battery panel from the home page.

You should have similar. If not, could ok please you post some photos because a picture is worth a thousand words.

View attachment 27035

View attachment 27036
View attachment 27037

My display looks nothing like that, and as yet I haven't managed to be in the car while charging. I can't get charging to start unless I am outside and the car is locked. Just had a thought, it may be possible if I'm in the passengers seat, that way it doesn't think I want to drive off with the charge door open.

 

[Martinonline]

In the UK the display could be one of two types - with and without navigation. The MG UK website quick guide document shows the image below. The displays may have changed for later versions.

There are common elements, eg the battery tile, giving access to the images in my previous post. Your profile says that you have an SE so do not have navigation.

Are you able to upload a picture of the centre display showing its home page?

Do you have a portable mains granny charger? All UK MG4s come with one.

 

[Martinonline]

@decrep, a picture of your driver's display would be useful too. Thanks.

EDIT: Just checking you don't have a ZS.

 

[decrep]

I'm unfamilar with the term "granny charger" it's used a lot on this forum, and I've gathered it's the low power, plug into a domestic power socket device. Yes our car came with one of those, it plugs into our 10A wall socket. It's what we always use.

I'll post pics a bit later

 

[decrep]

@decrep, a picture of your driver's display would be useful too. Thanks.

EDIT: Just checking you don't have a ZS.

The Australian designation is MG4 51 Excite, make of that what you will, but people here said it equates to the SE SR

 

[decrep]

I've found out a few things.
The driver's door button doesn't unlock while charging.
But I can sit in front passenger seat, and start charging, then lean on the drivers seat to power on and get the infotainment display. Seems a firmware bug doesn't allow me to start charging from the drivers seat. I have pics, but we're going shopping now, I'll post later.

 

[decrep]

here's the pics.
Drivers display on charge, it stays on for about a minute then turns off, pressing the lock button will bring it back up

At this stage, if I try and open the driver's or passengers door from outside it aborts the charge.

However if I enter via the passengers door first, lock the doors to start the charge and activate the info screen I get this.

Leaning on the drivers seat, to power up I then get the full display.

At this stage I can then exit via the passenger door without stopping the charge, and the display stays on.

 

[decrep]

Thanks everybody for your help, you got me there in the end.

 

[Rolfe]

I've had some trouble with this, if I've started the car charging then locked it, thinking to go away. Then realised I've left phone/house key/handbag/whatever in the car and had to unlock it again. That aborts the charge. It should start again within a minute or two but it doesn't always do it. Certainly on one occasion when I had to go back in twice - first for the house key then for the phone - I realised when back in the house with my slippers on that it wasn't charging. I was able to start the charge from the phone without going back out though.

 

[Martinonline]

@decrep, great news, glad you have a solution. You have a newer infotainment system version than I have. I seem to remember a photo from this version and it shows 'battery balancing' in the centre of the wiggly circle in your display.

Can you check something with your low power (granny) charger. I have added photos to show what happens with my Trophy connected to my granny charger. My HV battery is at 24%, that is 1 quadrant of the charging port.

With the car unlocked and charging flap open the top quadrant shows a solid grey/blue colour (not clear in the photo)

With the mains supply not connected to the granny charger plug in the charger plug, the quadrant light will turn solid blue.

Plug in the mains and switch on. After a few moments, the quadrant light turns green to show the car is charging. This green light flashes and becomes solid when a quadrant is full - 25% cumulative for each quadrant.

The car should not need to be locked but lock the car.

After a short time unlock the car, the charging will stop and the solid blue quadrant light will show. If you do not do anything else the car will shut itself and after a while the charging should resume.

If you unlock the car and sit in the driver's seat to power up the car, the centre display will show the home screen. If you go to the battery management screen you will see that the charging has stopped.



There is a Start Charging button but if you wait for a few minutes then charging should start again.



As @Rolfe has said re-starting sometimes doesn't work but I've not found that with my granny charger/Trophy.

It would be interesting to know what happens with your car using the same process. Thanks.

 

[DixieTGS]

When I've locked the car during charging then unlocked to look at the display it has always restarted the charge on its own even if I don't re-lock. Presumably another minor difference caused by different module software versions.

Today I thought I'd check to see what the charging port lights did when balancing started. I expected to see the pulsing stop and it go to solid green, but it carried on until all activity had stopped. That would have been a useful feature.

It also seems that if already unlocked and you go in the passenger side while balancing, the infotainment shows "trickle charging" if you press the home button. So you don't need to power the whole car up to see the status.

Next I want to know why the drivers screen shows the status some times and not others when not fully powered up. I expect it'll become clear over time.

 

[Martinonline]

The info screen can be powered separately from the car but it normally shuts down after 10minutes. You can sit in the driver's seat and power down the car from the home/car icon/safety tab. The car will power down but leave the info screen going for the 10 minutes. I believe the time limit is to save the 12V battery.

EDIT: I've just remembered that the 12V battery is charged when the car's HV battery is being charged so the 10 minute limit may not apply but I have no data.

If you have the app you can see the balancing going on because it shows trickle charging at 100% and the end time keeps going up matching real time.

 

[fshuk1]

just a reminder.
Charging has percentage loss when converting from AC to DC. If you use your granny charger your efficiency is low ie you lose nearly 8-10%. Using a 7kw home charger your efficiency is better ie 4-5% loss. So charging using Granny cable in the long run has a higher cost (plus all the other hazards that you can find on this forum)

 

[fnegroni]

just a reminder.
Charging has percentage loss when converting from AC to DC. If you use your granny charger your efficiency is low ie you lose nearly 8-10%. Using a 7kw home charger your efficiency is better ie 4-5% loss. So charging using Granny cable in the long run has a higher cost (plus all the other hazards that you can find on this forum)

I measured a much higher loss on mine on a granny charger using a Tapo smart plug as well as the apps by Monta and the screen on GeniePoint AC chargers.
Granny charger: supply 2.2kW - charge rate reported by MG app 1.87kW
Monta/PodPoint/GeniePoint - supply 7.4kW - charge rate 6.5kW
That’s roughly 85% to 88% efficient.

Only with DC chargers I get 96% efficiency (eg Tesla app reports 91kW, MG app reports 88kW)

 

[DixieTGS]

That seems to make sense to me. I thought the AC reached the car pretty much unadulterated and the AC to DC in the car was the same for a granny or home charger.

There will be some fixed losses in the converter which would make the granny worse but had imagined these were tiny compared to the energy being stored.

The relative losses due to heating of the house wiring with the granny should also be small. If not I'd be very worried.

 

[pollenface]

The estimated range fell during that day from ~120km to only 50km, while driving only about 22km. Consumption was normal the whole time at ~15 KWh/100km.

Yeah it constantly adjusts its estimate as you drive. Like an ICE car.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes, but that doesn't explain what the OP observed. Read the thread. He didn't know about balancing the pack, or doing the six-monthly long charge.