LeClerjussien
Standard Member
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2023
- Messages
- 20
- Reaction score
- 6
- Points
- 5
- Location
- Le Clerjus, France
- Driving
- MG4 Trophy LR
Our MG4 Trophy Long Range (second edition) has just had its first annual service (where they found the battery still to be operating at 100% 
), which prompts me to share the results of the records I have been keeping over the last year, each time I have charged the car (that's 141 charges in total, 85 at home and 56 from public chargers, over a total of 14,239 miles). I should clarify that I moved to France just over a year ago (which is why I bought the car), so some of the data reflects local conditions here. Here are the headlines:
1. Average energy consumption according to the car itself has been 16,2 kWh per 100 km. My own calculation, based on kWh used divided by km travelled has been slightly different, at 17,1 kWh per 100 km. I am not clear how this discrepancy can be explained, but either way I am satisfied with that. Seasonal variations show the corresponding figure in the three months of the height of summer to be 13,7 kWh per 100 km (or 15,4 kWh per 100 km using my calculation) while in the height of winter it was 19,2 kWh per 100 km (or 20,3 kWh per 100 km).
2. By my calculations, the real full range of the vehicle has been 243 miles on average across the whole year, 268 miles in the height of summer and 199 miles in the height of winter).
3. The average cost of all the charges I have made over the year has been 21 p per kWh. This is where France and the UK differ quite significantly, I suspect. The average price I have paid from public chargers has been 32p per kWh and the average at home, 15p per kWh). (Public chargers in France tend to be cheaper than in the UK once off the motorway. Very fast chargers are provided by NW IECharge at 21 p per kWH (or failing that, there's a bigger network of Lidl chargers at 33 p per kWh). I do travel back to the UK every couple of months or so, and those charges push up my average!
4. If I compare how much I pay for each kWh combined with the distance I can travel per kWh with the equivalent cost analysis for my previous petrol vehicle (a slightly larger Ford C-Max, with an average consumption rate of 35 miles per gallon), running the MG4 has been the equivalent of paying 46p per litre of fuel (31p per litre from home). To put that in concrete terms, over the year I have paid £813 in electricity charges for the MG4, whereas I calculate that I would have had to pay £2,749 for my Ford C-Max, a saving of over 70% overall, and nearly 80% from home. (It should be noted that over the last year, fuel has generally been a little more expensive in France than in the UK.)
5. In terms of owning and driving the car itself, my principal reflections are: (1) I have loved having the MG4! I really value the fact that in terms of immediate CO2 damage, in any case, I am doing less harm to the environment when driving; (2) it's a wonderful car to drive (nippy, no gear changes, sturdy), and I absolutely love one-pedal driving and auto-control; (3) I am less enamoured by the fact I have to make various changes to the car settings every single journey and sometimes even after putting the handbrake on (see below); (4) this group and various Youtube channels have been invaluable in understanding the car better, how it works and what to do, and I really don't understand why MG itself does not provide more of this type of information itself rather than leaving users to work it out for themselves; (5) I don't understand why the charging process itself (for public chargers) could not have been made simpler (I hanker for the days when one could open the tank and just pour the petrol in - the number of technical problems I have experienced at charging stations has been ridiculous, and the fact that different prices apply to different networks at the very same charging station is crazy - overall I am left feeling that governments are not taking the roll-out of an EV future seriously enough to avoid 'range anxiety', nor indeed to make EV charging financially far more attractive in the UK than it is at the moment; (6) I have never got the hang of working the headlights. When I manually intervene to dip the main beam, sometimes the system reverts to the automatic system and sometimes it does not. When it does not, I have not been able to work out how to turn it back on myself, so I am left operating the lights manually; (7) I find that the lane control system can be temperamental. I normally set it to beep when I cross a line rather than physically jolt the steering wheel, but I find that it can revert to the 'jolt' setting on its own, sometimes after I have stopped the car and/or applied the handbrake in Park, but sometimes even when I am still driving the car; (8) I absolutely love one-pedal driving and think it bizarre (apparently to earn safety points) that one cannot leave that setting on all the time. I find it a major irritation to have to set the car to my preferences every time I drive. It really needs to be able to remember prior settings.
I would be interested to compare this with your experiences!
), which prompts me to share the results of the records I have been keeping over the last year, each time I have charged the car (that's 141 charges in total, 85 at home and 56 from public chargers, over a total of 14,239 miles). I should clarify that I moved to France just over a year ago (which is why I bought the car), so some of the data reflects local conditions here. Here are the headlines:1. Average energy consumption according to the car itself has been 16,2 kWh per 100 km. My own calculation, based on kWh used divided by km travelled has been slightly different, at 17,1 kWh per 100 km. I am not clear how this discrepancy can be explained, but either way I am satisfied with that. Seasonal variations show the corresponding figure in the three months of the height of summer to be 13,7 kWh per 100 km (or 15,4 kWh per 100 km using my calculation) while in the height of winter it was 19,2 kWh per 100 km (or 20,3 kWh per 100 km).
2. By my calculations, the real full range of the vehicle has been 243 miles on average across the whole year, 268 miles in the height of summer and 199 miles in the height of winter).
3. The average cost of all the charges I have made over the year has been 21 p per kWh. This is where France and the UK differ quite significantly, I suspect. The average price I have paid from public chargers has been 32p per kWh and the average at home, 15p per kWh). (Public chargers in France tend to be cheaper than in the UK once off the motorway. Very fast chargers are provided by NW IECharge at 21 p per kWH (or failing that, there's a bigger network of Lidl chargers at 33 p per kWh). I do travel back to the UK every couple of months or so, and those charges push up my average!
4. If I compare how much I pay for each kWh combined with the distance I can travel per kWh with the equivalent cost analysis for my previous petrol vehicle (a slightly larger Ford C-Max, with an average consumption rate of 35 miles per gallon), running the MG4 has been the equivalent of paying 46p per litre of fuel (31p per litre from home). To put that in concrete terms, over the year I have paid £813 in electricity charges for the MG4, whereas I calculate that I would have had to pay £2,749 for my Ford C-Max, a saving of over 70% overall, and nearly 80% from home. (It should be noted that over the last year, fuel has generally been a little more expensive in France than in the UK.)
5. In terms of owning and driving the car itself, my principal reflections are: (1) I have loved having the MG4! I really value the fact that in terms of immediate CO2 damage, in any case, I am doing less harm to the environment when driving; (2) it's a wonderful car to drive (nippy, no gear changes, sturdy), and I absolutely love one-pedal driving and auto-control; (3) I am less enamoured by the fact I have to make various changes to the car settings every single journey and sometimes even after putting the handbrake on (see below); (4) this group and various Youtube channels have been invaluable in understanding the car better, how it works and what to do, and I really don't understand why MG itself does not provide more of this type of information itself rather than leaving users to work it out for themselves; (5) I don't understand why the charging process itself (for public chargers) could not have been made simpler (I hanker for the days when one could open the tank and just pour the petrol in - the number of technical problems I have experienced at charging stations has been ridiculous, and the fact that different prices apply to different networks at the very same charging station is crazy - overall I am left feeling that governments are not taking the roll-out of an EV future seriously enough to avoid 'range anxiety', nor indeed to make EV charging financially far more attractive in the UK than it is at the moment; (6) I have never got the hang of working the headlights. When I manually intervene to dip the main beam, sometimes the system reverts to the automatic system and sometimes it does not. When it does not, I have not been able to work out how to turn it back on myself, so I am left operating the lights manually; (7) I find that the lane control system can be temperamental. I normally set it to beep when I cross a line rather than physically jolt the steering wheel, but I find that it can revert to the 'jolt' setting on its own, sometimes after I have stopped the car and/or applied the handbrake in Park, but sometimes even when I am still driving the car; (8) I absolutely love one-pedal driving and think it bizarre (apparently to earn safety points) that one cannot leave that setting on all the time. I find it a major irritation to have to set the car to my preferences every time I drive. It really needs to be able to remember prior settings.
I would be interested to compare this with your experiences!
