Recent content by wattmatters

February 2026 update. A trip to Sydney for each of January and February this year saw our mileage and charging cost up as that requires use of highway DC fast charging. Else the rest of our charge energy came from our solar PV, and little from free grid energy.

Others have covered it but you can have more PV power connected to an inverter's solar PV inputs than the inverter's rated AC power output. How much more is a function of the inverter's specifications and local installation codes. 133% is a pretty nice DC:AC power ratio as others have...

At zero volts your car's battery is toast, never to be recovered or used again. Off to the recyclers. Fortunately that will never happen in normal use as the BMS will prevent discharge below a minimum voltage threshold. As to range, when state of charge indicates 0% I would treat that as...

You can get them for a few $k more in the east and with far fewer km on the clock.

Is that a typo? Headwinds do have a penalty but not a tripling of consumption.

The ACC operates much better in my wife's ZSEV than in my MG4. I only ever really use it on a dual carriageway/highway. The MG4 when approaching a slower vehicle is OK but it could be a little more subtle in how it adjusts speed, the speed changes are not smooth at all. The ZSEV is much...

It always did, it's just the manner of selecting either 1 or 5 km/h increment has changed. Short or long presses on the up/down of the toggle. Short press changes setting by 1 km/h / long press 5 km/h = newer software Short press changes setting by 5 km/h / long press 1 km/h = older software...

A majority of the riders in my local group are using e-bikes. It has really democratised cycling in groups and extended the cycling participation lifespan for many older riders as the ebikes "flatten out" rides so much. No one is left far behind because the e-bikes get up the hills so well...

Yes, ref my post from early last year: https://www.mgevs.com/threads/mg4-in-australia.13438/page-83#post-357455 The tow bar fitment came with two attachments, the tow ball attachment as seen in that post above, as well as a hitch adapter for bike carrier attachments. I removed the tow ball...

I have slowly been getting back to my bike riding after a long time away from it. Not bike races like I did in the old days, just enjoyable rides. I'm too fat for racing anymore! There's a local bike riding group I've joined and it's been great to get out and about again. After being back on...

Update with January 2026 numbers and comparison with previous Januarys: Did a Sydney run this month and that was the sum total of charging cost, using the superchargers. The rest of the charging was at home from excess solar. Break down by charge source:

Not sure in which thread it was but there was a question a while back about the charging plugs I have. Here are the two types of plug I have: On the right is the CCS Type 2 DC charging plug. The black one on the left is a regular Mennekes Type 2 plug from our ZJBeny single phase 7 kW EVSE...

They are both actual, just measuring different things.

In my numbers, the energy consumed is always that supplied to the car, be it from our solar PV system, the grid or a public charging station. IOW the energy I have to "pay" for (even though some energy might be free of charge). The rare exception is when using destination AC charging for which...

It'll get canned as unconstitutional unless it's a federal program.