MG4 in Australia

[Coulomb]

I think I've uncovered a bug with the GOM.

I'm thinking not the GOM but perhaps the Battery Management System. Maybe one cell had under-voltage or over-temperature stress during the overtaking, and was deemed unsafe to charge, or at least unsafe to fast charge.

Obviously the BMS should have avoided that in the first place, or at least offered some explanation as to why charging was refused.

If it was temperature related, your simultaneous press of the two "start charge" buttons may not have been what allowed charging after all. Merely waiting enough time might have done it. Again, if so, some sort of message to that effect would have been very helpful.

Scary stuff. Thanks for the post.

 

[wattmatters]

A valuable lesson learned.

Our first long trip in EV sucked. Charging was a crummy experience and we arrived way late, missed our social engagement and I got sun stroke trying to resolve technical issues in the hot sun.

It's improved a lot since then with many more charging options (especially superchargers) but is certainly not without issues at times. In general the superchargers are great but you need phone signal and that's always not a given. My issues at Chatswood were the first time I'd encountered superchargers that did not actually work.

While ever charging is not consistently plug n play without need for an app or special card, it will be this way. I still hesitate to recommend an EV to most of my family as they just haven't the tolerance required.

 

[Coulomb]

Whoever the mod is who decided to turn my multiple independent posts into one TLDR wall of text, thanks... Not.

While I suspect that I check 90% of posts to this thread, in this case I had nothing to do with it. In any case, I have no desire to merge posts, except in a very few cases, such as when new posters end up with a quote and the associated text in separate posts.

Why would you do that?

We would not. We have a suspicion that some weird "feature" of this Xenforo forum software (which is generally excellent) that automatically merges posts is being invoked, despite that option definitely being turned off, according to the site owner. Fellow moderator Rolfe has been a victim of this herself. She went to some trouble to separate the merged posts, only to find them merged again later. I think that this was on a different forum that was also running the Xenforo software. I've never noticed it myself.

*I presume you aren't actually an Australian are you?

Of the three current moderators, I'm the only Australian.

 

[Jamesrr]

...
We would not. We have a suspicion that some weird "feature" of this Xenforo forum software (which is generally excellent) that automatically merges posts is being invoked, despite that option definitely being turned off, according to the site owner. Fellow moderator Rolfe has been a victim of this herself.

My apologies for casting nasturtiums... I was a tad emotional!

That being said, you gotta love "features", especially undocumented ones

 

[Coulomb]

My apologies for casting nasturtiums... I was a tad emotional!

Quite understandable. Moderators are still looking into this issue.

 

[Corindikev]

"A Stressful incident"...

I think I've uncovered a bug with the GOM. I know, who would have thought

Sooo, in the Hay to Wagga Wagga leg of my recent long trip coming back I had 265km to travel from a 80% SoC start. On the open road with no surrounding cars at 110kmh this is actually pushing it too far. Half way there I figured I'd do a quick top up stop in Narrandera on the way.

I wouldn't normally plan to rely on this stop as it is a single plug only 50kW unit so not that fast and a single plug makes me nervous.

So anyway I detour the few extra k's to go to it and sure enough, there's a Tesla there and on asking how long they expect to be, am told another 35 minutes or so. Sigh.

OK, I'll just slow down and get to Wagga with a small margin to spare.

Off I go but the margin between the GOM calculated remaining distance and my actual remaining journey starts to narrow... Hmm.

Might be time for more extreme energy conservation techniques...

I find myself a nice big B Double semi to sit behind at full "3 Bar" following distance of the ACC. It's actually a bonus to be behind the truck as not only do I get much better energy consumption but it is also going a bit faster than my previous 95kmh so a win all-round.

When following a truck like this be very careful not to "tail gate" it. You want to make sure you are staying the full 3 bar ACC following distance setting to be safe for braking, allowing enough gap for cars that want to pass to be able to, and to minimise the risk of stone strike etc...

You still get plenty of extra range and don't piss off the truck driver

I get to just before Wagga and the GOM shows me with 13km range left and 4% SOC. The GOM vs Actual remaining margin has stayed nice and stable for the last 50 k's. I'm making it to Wagga no problem. Whew

There's a long uphill section of road just before you reach the outskirts of town and an overtaking lane put there just for my convenience! Why not I think!

So I put my foot down, and blast past the truck consuming far more energy in that brief 20 seconds than the past 5 minutes. Hmmm, GOM range remaining has gone from 13km to "---", Huh? That's strange I think. Hmmm, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to pass but... I've still got 3% SoC so no problem.

I get to the Tesla charger. I plug in feeling very relieved.

It doesn't charge.

Nada. No action. I can't remove the charger. It's locked and won't unlock.

I try The Tesla app again and then tap the "commence charging" label in iSmart.

Thinking, thinking... "failed".

Stress level rising.

I find the YouTube video for how to manually unlock the charger. Lucky I read these forums enough to know that was even possible! I manage to use a prong off my phone charger to lever out the cable cover.

Hooray! I manage to get the charger out.

Try a different charging unit. Nope. Same failure.

I'm thinking the GOM algorithm has been tricked by the brief high power drain at such a low SoC and has calculated an invalid number. I'm thinking somehow that invalid result has also affected the cars comms with the DC charger.

I find a pair of 22kW type 2 AC chargers nearby. I'm thinking if I can add a little bit of charge I can get the SoC up enough that the GOM will calculate a valid result and it will be able to DC charge again.

I nurse the car to the chargers... I set up an account on the random small-time charging Company that runs these units. I plug the car in, go to activate and.... the units are down for "maintenance". Of course they are.

Stress levels really up now.

I go to a 50kW "older" DC charger and see if I can get that to kick in. Plug it in and tap "commence charging". It appears to start and then stops with the charger displaying a message saying the car had stopped the charging session.

OK, I tap the "commence charging" button for the charger again and simultaneously tap the "commence charging" button on the iSmart app for the car...

It starts to charge

Well that was freaky. I go and have lunch and let it add 50 kWh over the next hour. The iSmart app displays how much range it thinks it has along with the SoC.

I drive off to Yass for the next leg of the journey and when I plug in there, it works just fine.

I get home two & and a half hours later than I planned.

A valuable lesson learned.

Thanks for a really good summary of your trip & stressful issues.

I don't make many long trips but my first was quite memorable. It was back in October 2023 when the car was a month old. I live in Corindi Beach, just North of Coffs Harbour & had to go to Noosa for an AGM of Body Corporate of which I am Chairman.

I planned the 500km trip using Plugshare. It would be a breeze, mostly motorway at 100 to 110kmh with some slow bits getting through the Gold Coast & Brisbane. Ah, no worries I've done this trip heaps of times.

I charge at home to 100% all free from solar, great, & head off as normal, ACC set to 110kmh.

I cross the border at Tugun with 30% left & I know there is a BP pulse at Coomera North so I needed a pee & was getting hungry so figured it would be a good stop. Took the motorway off ramp & missed the turnoff to the BP so figured I'd just go around again. That didn't work & I ended up back on the motorway heading South now less than 20% left. The next off ramp South is Helensvale. Never been there before so I hit the chargers button on the Satnav & it shows one there.

I take the Helensvale off ramp and f@#k up the turn off to the shopping centre & head off down the road to the Gold Coast. After a few km I make a left turn at the lights, then another, chuck a Uee, turn right at the lights & right again & I am back on track. Take left turn to the Charger but could not find it. Drive around a bit & pull up & ask a bloke washing cars where is it. He says "See that white Tesla there (about 30 metres away) he's at it". It is in the Train Station carpark, I never even considered that is where they would put one. Doh, how could I miss that.

I pull up & one charger is free. Cool, about 12% left, no worries. I plug in follow the instructions & the App won't work. I try everything but nothing happens. The Tesla bloke tells me how to get it to work but nothing. Then I find I have no mobile coverage. What? I'm in the middle of a city. Then I hear on the radio that Optus has had a major meltdown & their entire network is down. Faaaaark.

I walk to the shopping centre (15 mins) & see the big OPTUS YES sign. Well at that stage it was OPTUS NO. I ask WTF is going on & they apologise & say it is coming back on line but SLOWLY. I organise ablutions & order lunch. BUT I couldn't pay for it as EFTpos was down & I had no cash. I walk back to the car (15 mins) get some cash, walk back to the food hall (another 15 mins) & have lunch.

Half way through my lunch I start getting notifications on the phone. Crikey it's working. I finish walk back to the car (15 mins) plug in open the App & charging starts. Wow only 75kW but who cares. I walk back to the shopping centre (15 mins), wander round the shops for a while & wander back (15 mins). Wow I've got a bit over 80% so I unplug & go.

Now I get stuck in bloody Brisbane traffic as it is getting late. I get over the gateway bridge at a crawl & the phone goes. It's the Hotel. I'd missed my stated check in & the office was closing. No kidding. I give the lady the sad story & she leaves a key in the lock box & gives me the code. Great.

I arrive 3 hours late, go to the room, knock the top off a beer & ring the wife to say I am still alive.

The Evie chargers there are 150kw so I have dinner while the car charges. It is at 96% when I drive the 50 metres to my car park.

The trip home was boring but everything worked.

 

[Rolfe]

My apologies for casting nasturtiums... I was a tad emotional!

That being said, you gotta love "features", especially undocumented ones

I was fairly sure that neither Alb nor Coulomb would have re-merged my posts after I separated them (it was in this forum, in a thread about fitting seat covers so summer 2023), but when Stuart said that the auto-merge wasn't activated I didn't pursue it further. We're having a look at it now.

 

[clayton4115]

Thanks for a really good summary of your trip & stressful issues.

I don't make many long trips but my first was quite memorable. It was back in October 2023 when the car was a month old. I live in Corindi Beach, just North of Coffs Harbour & had to go to Noosa for an AGM of Body Corporate of which I am Chairman.

I planned the 500km trip using Plugshare. It would be a breeze, mostly motorway at 100 to 110kmh with some slow bits getting through the Gold Coast & Brisbane. Ah, no worries I've done this trip heaps of times.

I charge at home to 100% all free from solar, great, & head off as normal, ACC set to 110kmh.

I cross the border at Tugun with 30% left & I know there is a BP pulse at Coomera North so I needed a pee & was getting hungry so figured it would be a good stop. Took the motorway off ramp & missed the turnoff to the BP so figured I'd just go around again. That didn't work & I ended up back on the motorway heading South now less than 20% left. The next off ramp South is Helensvale. Never been there before so I hit the chargers button on the Satnav & it shows one there.

I take the Helensvale off ramp and f@#k up the turn off to the shopping centre & head off down the road to the Gold Coast. After a few km I make a left turn at the lights, then another, chuck a Uee, turn right at the lights & right again & I am back on track. Take left turn to the Charger but could not find it. Drive around a bit & pull up & ask a bloke washing cars where is it. He says "See that white Tesla there (about 30 metres away) he's at it". It is in the Train Station carpark, I never even considered that is where they would put one. Doh, how could I miss that.

I pull up & one charger is free. Cool, about 12% left, no worries. I plug in follow the instructions & the App won't work. I try everything but nothing happens. The Tesla bloke tells me how to get it to work but nothing. Then I find I have no mobile coverage. What? I'm in the middle of a city. Then I hear on the radio that Optus has had a major meltdown & their entire network is down. Faaaaark.

I walk to the shopping centre (15 mins) & see the big OPTUS YES sign. Well at that stage it was OPTUS NO. I ask WTF is going on & they apologise & say it is coming back on line but SLOWLY. I organise ablutions & order lunch. BUT I couldn't pay for it as EFTpos was down & I had no cash. I walk back to the car (15 mins) get some cash, walk back to the food hall (another 15 mins) & have lunch.

Half way through my lunch I start getting notifications on the phone. Crikey it's working. I finish walk back to the car (15 mins) plug in open the App & charging starts. Wow only 75kW but who cares. I walk back to the shopping centre (15 mins), wander round the shops for a while & wander back (15 mins). Wow I've got a bit over 80% so I unplug & go.

Now I get stuck in bloody Brisbane traffic as it is getting late. I get over the gateway bridge at a crawl & the phone goes. It's the Hotel. I'd missed my stated check in & the office was closing. No kidding. I give the lady the sad story & she leaves a key in the lock box & gives me the code. Great.

I arrive 3 hours late, go to the room, knock the top off a beer & ring the wife to say I am still alive.

The Evie chargers there are 150kw so I have dinner while the car charges. It is at 96% when I drive the 50 metres to my car park.

The trip home was boring but everything worked.

Wow. I'd take a boring trip anyday than a stressfull one.
If it was me my first stop and possibly only stop would have been the Tesla chargers at Knockrow.

 

[wattmatters]

Wow. I'd take a boring trip anyday than a stressfull one.
If it was me my first stop and possibly only stop would have been the Tesla chargers at Knockrow.

Except that Tesla SCs require non-Teslas to have mobile phone coverage to use an app to start a charge session. When there is no phone signal you are SOL. Optus was dead that day.

Phone signal is an issue at two Tesla SC sites I've used, Thrumster and Chatswood - the signal is poor and sometimes insufficient to start a charge session.

At Chatswood (underground carpark) with Telstra it's hit n miss. You can forget it if using another network. Thrumster can also be hit and miss, it's a shame because it's a nice stop with good facilities and there really shouldn't be network issues there. It worked on my last use, but the two times before that I had issues. I do still make the stop as I prefer it but can use Taree instead if it fails, just adds an extra stop to the journey time.

Making apps the only option to initiate a charge is a poor form when clearly plug n play is an option.

 

[siteguru]

I guess they must be V2 or V3 superchargers. V4 ones support contactless payment - at least in the UK anyway.

 

[Jamesrr]

...
Making apps the only option to initiate a charge is a poor form when clearly plug n play is an option.

You bet. Chargefox and Evie both support charge initiation via an RFID card. I always use it in preference to the app.
Much more convenient and reliable.
I really wish Tesla would support it but I don't believe most (all?) have the hardware support. I've never seen a spot to tap a card...

One other thing to remember. The RFID card can be the same across networks. Whilst the RFID card I ordered from Chargefox is branded for them, you don't need a separate one for Evie. I just registered the same RFID number from the Chargefox card with Evie and it's fine.
It's just an identifier for them to perform the charge initiation auth and billing.
In fact, I believe you could just use your Opal card! I really must try this out and confirm it.

 

[Jamesrr]

I really wish Tesla would support it but I don't believe most (all?) have the hardware support. I've never seen a spot to tap a card...

I guess they must be V2 or V3 superchargers. V4 ones support contactless payment - at least in the UK anyway.

Ahh, so it looks like V4 chargers support "contactless" NFC credit cards rather than RFID cards. That would work for me, but the vast majority of Tesla chargers here in Australia are still V2, V3 AFAIK.
Darn it. Mobile comms here can be pretty bad.

 

[Jamesrr]

...Mobile comms here can be pretty bad.

BTW I can report that the Vodafone coverage (that our Aussie cars connect via) has dramatically improved.
As a long time Vodafail user I've become accustomed to where to expect mobile connectivity to be functionally usable.
On the "long trip" there used to be some pretty large dead spots even along the major highways.
Vodafone recently announced a network upgrade that vastly increased availability. I can confirm that it has dramatically improved "country" coverage, both for my mobile and for the 4G comms on the car itself.
There were very few places that it now didn't work

 

[wattmatters]

I guess they must be V2 or V3 superchargers. V4 ones support contactless payment - at least in the UK anyway.

Not here. They are capable, they just don't enable it.

You bet. Chargefox and Evie both support charge initiation via an RFID card. I always use it in preference to the app.
Much more convenient and reliable.

If you are lucky to get a working Evie charger on the highway. Most of them up our way are junk, to be avoided.

I've used the RFID card perhaps 3 or 4 times, most networks here don't support it.

Evie have introduced plug n charge with their new charge stations, which is what all charge stations should do (like Tesla does with Tesla cars). No need for RFID or credit/debit cards, nor an app. Just plug in and it starts charging. The car is already registered with the charge network. But tap n go credit/debit card should be a mandatory minimum as pretty much everyone can do that.

 

[clayton4115]

Except that Tesla SCs require non-Teslas to have mobile phone coverage to use an app to start a charge session. When there is no phone signal you are SOL. Optus was dead that day.

Phone signal is an issue at two Tesla SC sites I've used, Thrumster and Chatswood - the signal is poor and sometimes insufficient to start a charge session.

At Chatswood (underground carpark) with Telstra it's hit n miss. You can forget it if using another network. Thrumster can also be hit and miss, it's a shame because it's a nice stop with good facilities and there really shouldn't be network issues there. It worked on my last use, but the two times before that I had issues. I do still make the stop as I prefer it but can use Taree instead if it fails, just adds an extra stop to the journey time.

Making apps the only option to initiate a charge is a poor form when clearly plug n play is an option.

That would have affected everyone! that would have been a pain to deal with - hopefully it will not happen again.

 

[siteguru]

Great to hear. If I ever manage to break the GOM again and not be able to DC fast charge I'll be trying this out!

Just as proof that resetting the Accumulated Total trip resets the GOM range to nearer WLTP figures. These were taken this afternoon just before I went out in my car (after it charged to 100% and balanced last night). Note that the Acc Total had reset yesterday anyway when the SC077 update was applied:

Before reset:

After reset:

And no - there wasn't a motorcycle beside or in front of me - I was parked on my drive.

Edit: these ranges were with Normal drive mode and HVAC On ... range in the app would have been more as it calculates on the basis of Normal drive mode and HVAC Off (because the car is locked so HVAC must be Off). If I divide 196 miles by my currently reported SoH (92.5%) I get 211 miles.

 

[Rolfe]

I saw much the same thing in mine a few days ago, except I was seeing over 190 miles range because I hadn't driven much more than half an hour since the reset.

 

[T1 Terry]

Pity there isn't a separate forum heading for MG4 Australia, so there could be different topics within that heading that related to Australian conditions ..... or is there, and I'm just not clever enough to find it

My query relates to the energy/km for mild weather and cold weather .... but what about hot weather? The AC is working hard to keep the cabin, motor and battery cool because of the heat radiated up from the road surface. The roads around here get hot enough for the tar to melt resulting in road patches simply tearing up where tyre contact simply tears the gravel out of the tar on the secondary roads, and the bitumen roads form gullies where the weight of the vehicles pushes it out to each side ..... that's a lot of heat that can soak into the battery, motor and charger box that is exposed to the ground, and to the vehicle interior ......

Would it be safe to assume the consumption for winter driving in the cold climates would be similar to full summer driving in our side of the globe?

T1 Terry

 

[ReintjeWA]

Pity there isn't a separate forum heading for MG4 Australia, so there could be different topics within that heading that related to Australian conditions ..... or is there, and I'm just not clever enough to find it

My query relates to the energy/km for mild weather and cold weather .... but what about hot weather? The AC is working hard to keep the cabin, motor and battery cool because of the heat radiated up from the road surface. The roads around here get hot enough for the tar to melt resulting in road patches simply tearing up where tyre contact simply tears the gravel out of the tar on the secondary roads, and the bitumen roads form gullies where the weight of the vehicles pushes it out to each side ..... that's a lot of heat that can soak into the battery, motor and charger box that is exposed to the ground, and to the vehicle interior ......

Would it be safe to assume the consumption for winter driving in the cold climates would be similar to full summer driving in our side of the globe?

T1 Terry

I think my summer driving is a little bit more efficient than UK winter conditions, but I too am curious to find out what the consumption will be this coming winter.

I think perhaps the biggest difference is that yes an Aussie car will consume more keeping the car cool, but the battery isn’t struggling as much compared to (near) freezing temperatures. Because range wise I still get close to WLTP. The GOM “charges” me 20km for turning the aircon on.

 

[decrep]

true, there's a lot of infra red heading to the car underside, but there's also significant airflow, I suspect this would have enough cooling effect, to make our Summer consumption better than cold winter consumption.
Would be nice to see some figures though