Over-revving MG3 Hybrid+ engine

DeclanB said:

I think it's people looking for a problem, when none exists.

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? I agree with this, I don't see it as a real problem ?

MG Clive said:

? I agree with this, I don't see it as a real problem ?

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I'm very curios to see the powertrain of new ZS hybrid+...engine and transmission

don't get me wrong...I've already purchased one in luxury (trophy) variant...I'm afraid I made a bad deal insufficiently tested on the roads like TransAlpina

copilux said:

I'm very curios to see the powertrain of new ZS hybrid+...engine and transmission

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If it's identical to the MG3 Hybrid (which I believe it is), it may be slightly underpowered in a bigger heavier vehicle like the ZS

I don't think it will be underpowered, but it will engage petrol engine more, for sure. But still I think most of the driving will be done by electric motor.

dStan said:

I don't think it will be underpowered, but it will engage petrol engine more, for sure. But still I think most of the driving will be done by electric motor.

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Yes, underpowered was probably the wrong word, the MG3 certainly has enough power, and the ZS will have the same, but it will feel less powerful because it's a bigger, heavier vehicle.

Italy said:

Several YT videos show how difficult it is for the MG3's hybrid engine to climb high mountains.
In fact, it seems that when the high-voltage battery is empty, the combustion engine no longer delivers enough power to climb the mountain. Some people talk about having to park on the side of the road and wait 20 minutes for the regenerator to refill the high-voltage battery.
There is also talk of a software update that would have rectified this problem.

Similarly, on steep downhill gradients, if the high-voltage battery is full, the driver would be forced to coast and use the conventional brake to apply full braking without the aid of the engine brake.

Can anyone tell us about their experience and sort out the true from the false?

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Having just returned from a trip to Gibraltar from Alicante. I encountered many issues with hill climbing. Lack of power, the more throttle I gave it the slower it got with the auto gearbox going up and down the gears. The car revving it's nuts off. Very much like a slipping clutch on a manual car. It somewhat rectified itself when I switched all of the MG Pilot. That was on the way there. The return journey was marred by the same problems although not as frequently.

I'd like to know what MG MOTORS thinks about this and whether an update is planned in the near future.

New info on the topic. There is new youtube video addressing this problem with MG3 climbing mountains and also engine braking on descents.

I don't speed understand Italian, so I used NoteGPT AI tool to translate it to English, and it seems that most of the concerns raised here are true. Some quotes:

06:14, uphill:
"It's definitely not as powerful going uphill, since we don't have all the horsepower we usually do with this car on flat roads. So, if you live in the mountains, it won't give you any trouble climbing, but you definitely won't get the same performance as when you're driving on flat terrain. That's something to keep in mind"

08:38, downhill:
"I've gone about 7 km, and now the battery is almost dead because it's showing only a recovery of 1 or 2 kW. So, the engine braking is nearly nonexistent, and I really have to brake a lot. If the combustion engine kicks in, the car might brake more effectively. I think this is definitely a flaw that shouldn't be overlooked when using this MG3"

DeclanB said:

See my reply above. I think it's people looking for a problem, when none exists. Otherwise all hybrid vehicle owners would be reporting issues. I don't have any long steep descents in my area, so I can't rule it out, but I would be surprised if it's a significant issue. It's not built to be a hot hatch, so if it's driven sensibly, I can't see an issue. But I stand to be corrected.

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So is seems that maybe other hybrid vehicles have it sorted out, but maybe MG is not one of them

To be clear, I own MG3 and I really like this car, but flaws like this seems like it has been put really quick into production, without some serious testing and refining. Service manual that we have linked here on forum is also pretty low quality and with some mistakes, and even small things, like translations, in car screen and app, which are sometimes bad language (some defaults to English while I have Polish selected, but I've seen today also some other language in menu). But yeah, it's a Chinese car after all

Italy said:

I'd like to know what MG MOTORS thinks about this and whether an update is planned in the near future.

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The update is out since 2 or 3 weeks , there are at least 2 modules that require an update.

It's an interesting review, alright, but it needs to be taken in the context that it was a 14-kilometer climb with an altitude difference of 10,000 meters, so it's extreme. On the descent, he traveled 6-7km before he noticed an issue. Note how the diesel van in front also had to use its brakes despite significantly better engine braking. Granted if an update could be included where maybe a hill-decent feature could be incorporated onto one of the star buttons, that might make things easier in the circumstances that he describes, but for the most part, unless you live in a mountainous area, I would say that there is no need to panic at this stage. So, in normal circumstances, most people won't encounter any problems.

That's exactly the way I see it @DeclanB, for most owners it will never be a concern.

Italy said:

Several YT videos show how difficult it is for the MG3's hybrid engine to climb high mountains.
In fact, it seems that when the high-voltage battery is empty, the combustion engine no longer delivers enough power to climb the mountain. Some people talk about having to park on the side of the road and wait 20 minutes for the regenerator to refill the high-voltage battery.
There is also talk of a software update that would have rectified this problem.

Similarly, on steep downhill gradients, if the high-voltage battery is full, the driver would be forced to coast and use the conventional brake to apply full braking without the aid of the engine brake.

Can anyone tell us about their experience and sort out the true from the false?

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Hi i have used my MG3 in Scotland for 2 weeks this year and had no problems with the hills and mountains. with or with out ele.

A video that helps to understand this phenomenon.

Finally in the mountains!
I live in the plains, but within a couple of hours you can get to the first mountains (Alps, North West); to be precise (on this trip) to Carcoforo 1,307 m. high, a small Walser municipality 210 km away, 1 hour and 50 minutes (half highway and half mountain).
So I did 410 km in ECO mode, regeneration 3, average final consumption 3.9 l/100 km. (declared by MG 4.4 combined consumption), maximum permitted speeds. Departure with a full tank of petrol and 2 people.
I had already done (with MG3) small mountains without problems, but here I was able to test the difficulties of the battery in slightly higher mountains.
First of all, I had already done this same trip last August with my daughter's Captur Full Hybrid E-Tech 145 HP: no problems either uphill (mode: sport) or downhill (ECO, if I remember correctly), always maximum regeneration (only 2 levels); but with higher consumption and lower performance.

With the MG hybrid +:
departure with battery max 5 out of 8, highway smoothly (mostly in fast lane); all OK even on normal roads (with battery 4 out of 8), good even in low mountains and higher mountains, with ECO and regeneration 3, which kept the battery at a constant level; arrival with battery 2 out of 8 (never lower).
No rumble for the entire trip, except for fast overtaking.

Arrival, walk, hearty lunch, 4 steps to digest, departure for the return, battery always 2 out of 8.

After a few kilometers on a steep descent the battery was already 8 out of 8, full; alternating 1 and 3 regeneration, alternating ECO and Sport, moderating the speed (which must be equal to or lower than the climb), I had to use the disc brakes (at least they will have been cleaned); at the end of the short experiment, not finding big differences, I kept ECO (tends to use the battery first, in EV) with regeneration 1, alternating use of brakes and brake regeneration, when MG wanted; until the battery dropped to 7 out of 8, being able to go back to using regeneration 3 (low mountains).
Before entering the highway I had already dropped to 4/5 out of 8.
All quiet all the way home (highway slightly downhill).

Final summary on the MG3:

• excellent on the highway, speed and road holding (N.B.: new winter tires);
• excellent consumption, lower than declared;
• excellent behavior of the car, in tight curves and hairpin bends;
• good battery life, on mountain climbs (up to 1307 meters high), arrived with 2 notches.
• Negative: with a full battery, on steep descents you need to rely on experience and only the brakes, for the hardest stretch, until regeneration kicks in.

A "magic" button (on the central monitor) would be needed to empty the battery charge by 50% (if necessary) (4 out of 8).

Thank you @gian, that's good useful information.

Thank you GIAN for this exhaustive report and for taking the time to write down all your feelings.

That sounds very reassuring about our MG3.

I come from the Black Forest and can confirm that there can be a very strong loss of power under certain conditions. We have some long uphill stretches that you can only drive slowly because they are in a town, which means at 30-40km/h. This is also the mode in which the ZS like the one I have runs purely electrically and the battery is discharged. When you are outside of the town and you can drive 100km/h but the battery is already empty by then, not much comes from the combustion engine because it first tries to charge the battery in order to drive the electric motor until the combustion engine drives the wheels directly after what feels like an eternity. If you live in flat areas, you may hardly ever get into this situation, but in the mountains it is different. Best wishes from the wonderful Black Forest

DMeine said:

I come from the Black Forest and can confirm that there can be a very strong loss of power under certain conditions. We have some long uphill stretches that you can only drive slowly because they are in a town, which means at 30-40km/h. This is also the mode in which the ZS like the one I have runs purely electrically and the battery is discharged. When you are outside of the town and you can drive 100km/h but the battery is already empty by then, not much comes from the combustion engine because it first tries to charge the battery in order to drive the electric motor until the combustion engine drives the wheels directly after what feels like an eternity. If you live in flat areas, you may hardly ever get into this situation, but in the mountains it is different. Best wishes from the wonderful Black Forest

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yes that's why we advise people to use the "sport mode" instead of normal/eco so the HEV mode can supply more energy to the battery and sooner. So the battery keeps more energy and lasts longer.

The problem seems more noticeable for users with MG ZS Hybrid+ and that problem seems worldwide. MG ZS + 3 hybrid models have the issue at a different level since they share the same platform.. but different weith/tyres/aero + different ECU/MPU etc programs.

Try to contact your dealer and we all expect some "magic" from MGmotor ... for avoiding 50/60HP only when climbing any road.

The car is going back to the workshop on January 2nd and will hopefully get the right update. It's good to know that someone here is doing the same calculations as me. Because I only get 50-60hp when the battery is empty and the combustion engine tries to recharge the battery instead of immediately driving the wheels (Dacia does this better). According to MG, the combustion engine only drives the wheels directly at 80km/h, which means that you may have to accelerate from 40km/h to 80km/h on a hill with 50-60hp. I can't even think about what will happen once there's a trailer attached to the car. Will the car then stop ???

DeclanB said:

See my reply above. I think it's people looking for a problem, when none exists. Otherwise all hybrid vehicle owners would be reporting issues. I don't have any long steep descents in my area, so I can't rule it out, but I would be surprised if it's a significant issue. It's not built to be a hot hatch, so if it's driven sensibly, I can't see an issue. But I stand to be corrected.

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I live in a very hilly area, the other day someone pulled out in front of me going uphill on the motorway, I put my foot down to overtake and nothing happened except the revs increasing. It’s dangerous, but I can’t get the dealer to acknowledge the issue!