MG ZS EV Facelift - Test drives

[drmcw]

The brake pedal definitely gives regen. The gauge drops into the recharge zone to show that it's using regen. If you are going down a hill using L3 regen, and you apply the brakes, the regen increases before it uses the friction brakes.

Really? Glad to be wrong and that's good to know thanks. I found the brakes quite "snappy". Maybe I should go back and have another go . Had my booster injection yesterday, maybe they gave me added grumpiness?
I really expected to be ordering today but the test gave me cold feet.

 

[Alan]

Really? Glad to be wrong and that's good to know thanks. I found the brakes quite "snappy". Maybe I should go back and have another go . Had my booster injection yesterday, maybe they gave me added grumpiness?
I really expected to be ordering today but the test gave me cold feet.

its the same on the gen1 cars too.

 

[Lovemyev]

Really? Glad to be wrong and that's good to know thanks. I found the brakes quite "snappy". Maybe I should go back and have another go . Had my booster injection yesterday, maybe they gave me added grumpiness?
I really expected to be ordering today but the test gave me cold feet.

Question :- Which drive mode where you using and what was the SOC of the battery ?.
If you where in Eco mode and the pack was almost full, then the Regen will feel pretty weak.
Regen is available in all modes when you lift off the “GO” pedal and climbs as you increase pressure on the footbrake.
You can see the needle swinging hard over into the green recuperation zone as brake pedal pressure increases, as long as there is space in the pack to except the energy that is.
We are talking Gen1 model here of course.
The face lift acts in the same way, but has a digital read out in lieu of a analogy gauge.

 

[drmcw]

Question :- Which drive mode where you using and what was the SOC of the battery ?.
If you where in Eco mode and the pack was almost full, then the Regen will feel pretty weak.
Regen is available in all modes when you lift off the “GO” pedal and climbs as you increase pressure on the footbrake.
You can see the needle swinging hard over into the green recuperation zone as brake pedal pressure increases, as long as there is space in the pack to except the energy that is.
We are talking Gen1 model here of course.
The face lift acts in the same way, but has a digital read out in lieu of a analogy gauge.

Mostly in eco. It was just under 80% SOC. Showing 2.7 m/kWh I'm annoyed I perhaps wasn't more patient and should've taken more time.

 

[Lovemyev]

Mostly in eco. It was just under 80% SOC. Showing 2.7 m/kWh I'm annoyed I perhaps wasn't more patient and should've taken more time.

I would book another test drive if I was you.
Then you will know 100% if it suits you our not !.

 

[BruceT]

Mostly in eco. It was just under 80% SOC. Showing 2.7 m/kWh I'm annoyed I perhaps wasn't more patient and should've taken more time.

Unfortunately, I can't really give you my thoughts on the regen as my dealer had (thoughtfully?) charged my demo car to 100% so I didn't expect to feel much regen. I feel that they are advised to do that to demonstrate the massive increase in range over the mod1, after all, why else would you change? the infotainment upgrade and the range

 

[BruceT]

Mostly in eco. It was just under 80% SOC. Showing 2.7 m/kWh I'm annoyed I perhaps wasn't more patient and should've taken more time.

Yes! absolutely take more time, you are talking about spending 30 grand!! I notice you have "not an MG" do you have an EV or is this new too?

 

[drmcw]

Yes! absolutely take more time, you are talking about spending 30 grand!! I notice you have "not an MG" do you have an EV or is this new too?

I have a leaf so not new to EV's. I bought it 4 years ago as an experiment and was so impressed got rid of my gas guzzlers! It's absolutely fine for 99.9% of uses but a year ago specced up what my "new" requirements would be to fill the last 0.1%. The pandemic, or more precisely the "chip shortage", scuppered plans as everything seemed to get shifted into the never never. Test drove the EV6 as that's great on paper but the options are a little annoying where you either pay more and get things you don't want or less and not get quite what you want. This compromise then led me the other way and thought that if compromise was part of the equation then can go further in which case an Enyaq 60 would probably fit the bill. Test drove an enyaq too. The MG has compromises too but is just great value and why I really wanted to like it. Decisions!

 

[Deleted member 7171]

Hi

Regen is, in my opinion, a minor issue when choosing an EV. Let's face it, just exactly how much voltage is put back in to the battery from regen? Not very much I think.

Don't get me wrong, I use it a lot, mainly because it's convenient. But my last service also highlighted a downside - the break discs were slightly corroded, undoubtedly through lack of use.

In my opinion(as a Peugeot EV owner seriously considering a ZS) regen has more value in saving wear on pads (but the trade-off is as mentioned above) and to some degree reducing the production of brake dust as a pollutant than it does reducing charging costs.

I've come to realise from my current EV that the 3 main things I will use, other than value for money, to sway my choice is an accurate(ish) GOM with a percentage battery display, the extra 100 miles between recharges and finally an app that is useful and functional - the my Peugeot app is truly appalling.

 

[MoDolph]

Regen is, in my opinion, a minor issue when choosing an EV. Let's face it, just exactly how much voltage is put back in to the battery from regen? Not very much I think.

I disagree. Going back to a car without regen would be similar to going to a car without cruise control. I don't care about the efficiency gains so much as the ability to one pedal drive as much as possible. Being able to modulate your descent down a hill without switching pedals might seem trivial but really does make the driving experience better.

If manufacturers were designing ICE cars with no regen but still one pedal driving using the brakes I might agree with you, but they aren't.

 

[JodyS21]

Hi

Regen is, in my opinion, a minor issue when choosing an EV. Let's face it, just exactly how much voltage is put back in to the battery from regen? Not very much I think.

FYI, Regen puts a lot of energy back into the system, I was very surprised.
I've several journeys logged using obd2 apps and I think it was over 10% of energy used was from regen.

 

[Kithmo]

Hi

Regen is, in my opinion, a minor issue when choosing an EV. Let's face it, just exactly how much voltage is put back in to the battery from regen? Not very much I think.

Don't get me wrong, I use it a lot, mainly because it's convenient. But my last service also highlighted a downside - the break discs were slightly corroded, undoubtedly through lack of use.

In my opinion(as a Peugeot EV owner seriously considering a ZS) regen has more value in saving wear on pads (but the trade-off is as mentioned above) and to some degree reducing the production of brake dust as a pollutant than it does reducing charging costs.

I've come to realise from my current EV that the 3 main things I will use, other than value for money, to sway my choice is an accurate(ish) GOM with a percentage battery display, the extra 100 miles between recharges and finally an app that is useful and functional - the my Peugeot app is truly appalling.

Take a look at the screen that shows Amps and see how much goes in. Admittedly it's only a short time, but it is a lot.

 

[drmcw]

My main concern with the KERS was that I found it difficult to get it to fit in with my driving style. Maybe I need to learn to fit with it? It was a niggle that spoilt the test drive. Flappy paddles for the KERS selection would've been an improvement. I didn't feel any regen when braking as they just seemed to snap on; again maybe something to get used to?

 

[Deleted member 7171]

I didn't say I disliked Regen, I like it, it's convenient but for me it is not a reason to buy one EV over another. In my Pug I use cruise control to check my speed going downhill, if I were to use B mode the car would slow too quickly. Cruise control uses regen in the Pug and doesn't "run away" with over speed downhill.

Believe me, after 18 months of EV ownership I would never consider going back to ICE or DERV.

On regen of 10% - surely this depends on the type of driving environment. I concede in stop start city driving then it stands to reason that more use equals more harvested electrons but duel carriageway and motorway driving regen would be significantly less. Most of my driving is the latter.

I guess perception plays a part too and given the vagueness of the GOM it's hard to actually quantify the amount regen going back to the battery without a specific built in or an external plug in means to measure it. I don't have a screen showing how many amps are going back in so can't comment. I have a screen that gives a visual representation of the energy use and energy regen but it's not clear to me what the relative quantities are.

As I said the amount of regen is not the deal breaker for me but it is certainly convenient.

 

[MoDolph]

My main concern with the KERS was that I found it difficult to get it to fit in with my driving style. Maybe I need to learn to fit with it? It was a niggle that spoilt the test drive. Flappy paddles for the KERS selection would've been an improvement. I didn't feel any regen when braking as they just seemed to snap on; again maybe something to get used to?

That's surprising to me as a fellow LEAF owner as I found KERS 3 almost the same as B mode. Is your LEAF a 40 kWh with e-pedal?

I don't see the point of paddles to control regen, but I admit that I've never tried them. I prefer to have maximum regen available and choose how much deceleration I get by letting off the accelerator, if I want to coast I just hold the pedal half way. I only use the brake pedal as a last resort.

The ZS brakes were terrible at blending regen and physical brakes but no worse than the brakes of my LEAF.

 

[drmcw]

That's surprising to me as a fellow LEAF owner as I found KERS 3 almost the same as B mode. Is your LEAF a 40 kWh with e-pedal?

I don't see the point of paddles to control regen, but I admit that I've never tried them. I prefer to have maximum regen available and choose how much deceleration I get by letting off the accelerator, if I want to coast I just hold the pedal half way. I only use the brake pedal as a last resort.

The ZS brakes were terrible at blending regen and physical brakes but no worse than the brakes of my LEAF.

No it's a 30 kWh leaf. I use B mode on steep hills to keep speed down and it's easier to use being part of the gear selector on the leaf than a switch that I had to stretch to reach. I must just be used to the d mode regen on the leaf? I found the flappy paddles on the EV6 surprisingly intuitive. the enyaq had them also but found I didn't need to use them as it just worked for me!

 

[marcopolomt]

That's surprising to me as a fellow LEAF owner as I found KERS 3 almost the same as B mode. Is your LEAF a 40 kWh with e-pedal?

I don't see the point of paddles to control regen, but I admit that I've never tried them. I prefer to have maximum regen available and choose how much deceleration I get by letting off the accelerator, if I want to coast I just hold the pedal half way. I only use the brake pedal as a last resort.

The ZS brakes were terrible at blending regen and physical brakes but no worse than the brakes of my LEAF.

I'm a leaf 40 owner. i generally drive in normal eco mode, occasionally turning it off for a bit of a blast. i only use b mode for descending steep hills. i use epedal for heavy traffic or as a hold function at traffic lights. Am I right in that there is no equivalent to epedal then in the zs?

 

[MoDolph]

Am I right in that there is no equivalent to epedal then in the zs?

Mine's a 24 kWh so I've never tried e-pedal but no, the regen will not bring you to a stop. It does have auto hold so you can take your foot of the brake but I think it uses the handbrake resulting in a pause every time you set off whilst it releases

 

[Gomev]

My main concern with the KERS was that I found it difficult to get it to fit in with my driving style. Maybe I need to learn to fit with it? It was a niggle that spoilt the test drive. Flappy paddles for the KERS selection would've been an improvement. I didn't feel any regen when braking as they just seemed to snap on; again maybe something to get used to?

Without wanting to be disrespectful, if you want a car to drive like your Leaf, with the same regen and same paddles etc. then perhaps you should consider a new Leaf.
All EVs like all ICE cars although basically using the same technologies will drive differently and have their own quirks. As you said it is us that has to adapt to a different car.

 

[Jaygee]

Is that an VW ID3 ??? .

yeah the prototype version..