Road tripping in the MG4

SueH said:

That sounds like a complication of the issue.

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It is, but i will have at least 40% of the trunk filled up with gifts (clothes or rigid odd shaped things) that we will haul the entire trip to gift to family members. It's just how the family on my partner's side are and is non-negotiable.

SueH said:

If you are going to more rural areas a granny might be a useful back up.

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Will get one then. Should i look for something specific? I couldn't find an official MG one oddly enough.

SueH said:

A small 12v coolbox could be the divider between the kids on the back seat (!) and they regularly appear on sale around this time of year in Lidl/Aldi.

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That
is a nice idea indeed, using it as a separator. Thanks

Rolfe said:

if you switch the car off, it goes off too.

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I think the only time the car would be off while we are not at our several accomodations, would be while charging, so for about 30 minutes to an hour. I hope it is not gonna warm up too much inside of the fridge.
Is it a fridge you recommend?

What I have is a cool box, from Lidl originally (about 20 years ago) which has a small refrigeration unit in the lid which runs off the 12v to keep the inside cool. After some experimentation I left the thing on all night (I was sleeping in the car, so it was on) because it didn't take that much power and I knew the milk would stay liquid and the butter would stay solid.

mg4 said:

Any luggage recommendations of any sort are welcome. I am considering bringing a battery operated vacuum cleaner to vacuum compress our clothes

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Have a look on Amazon for roll up travel bags. Instead of using a vacuum you roll the filled bag up to remove the air.

mg4 said:

Do you load up on top of the parcel shelf? Or keep all the cargo under it?

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Why not leave the parcel shelf at home?

mg4 said:

Are there any good fitting SPF window blinds for the rear? Last summer it was not nice for the kids in the back since the air conditioning can only do so much against the sensation of the sun burning your skin off.

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Get a couple of fans that clip onto the front seats. The kids can have one each so there's no arguing. You'll have to get a USB hub too.

mg4 said:

• Frunk or not? I know it maybe invalidates the warranty? I already store the charge cable under the hood on trips where i only use DC FC, but thinking of a frunk still. Would it hold more space? I think there is only one available? Gas struts?

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I’ve got a frunk, I love storing my V2L, granny charger (stuck down with some Velcro) and a 7m long type2 cable. I don’t think it should cause any warranty issues, it’s fixed in place with the same plugs the cover uses. I like having the granny with me wherever I go, especially going out of the city. Mine came with a granny charger from the dealer.

If you get a frunk I can highly recommend doing the gas strut upgrade, but be sure to check your frunk is compatible with gas struts before ordering one.

More info on frunks here;

Post in thread 'MG4 Frunk now available'
MG4 Frunk now available

a few things put me off road tripping with my mg4...(ignoring the obvious need to charge)
1) boot a bit too small
2) no spare tyre

mhoolahan said:

a few things put me off road tripping with my mg4...(ignoring the obvious need to charge)
1) boot a bit too small
2) no spare tyre

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1) Boot is big enough for us, but there's only the 2 of us (and 2x Bichon Frise dogs who lie on the rear seat).

2) That's why I carry a tar string type tyre repair kit.

Last few days i am trying Ionity to see how it goes. So far i had only two charge sessions, both of which went less than optimally. Before this, if I charge at a DC FC I did not focus on speed, it was colder, I did not preheat, etc.

I tried two different Ionity locations, both times claiming 350 kW charge speeds, both times i got between 60 and 70 kW charge speed.

Expectations:
Follow this curve MG MG4 Electric Extended Range charging curve & performance :: evkx.net



Attempt 1:
Reached the charger at 26% and charged to 90%. After 2 or 3 minutes the charge speed reached around 70 kW at 30%.


Attempt 2:
I installed car scanner to try and spot the issue, but the temp looks good on the battery. I did reach the charger at 45% and left at 77%.






Any ideas are welcome. I have seen speeds of over 120 kW but not in the past year.

You will only see charging rtate of 120kW from under 20% SOC up till about 60% SOC. After that, it will slow down, and get considerably slower after 80% SOC. Other things can affect rate of charge such as battery temperature. Don't expect this in winter unless preheated battery, or after a long drive.

In my experience, I've only seen 120 kW+ charging rate at Tesla superchargers. Other claim that, but depends if others are charging, and the 120kW is shared across two or more connections.

Also, remember the maximum charge rate is limited by the car itself, not the charger. 120kW is near the top end of what the MG4 is capable of.

dsimpkins said:

You will only see charging rtate of 120kW from under 20% SOC up till about 60% SOC.

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So, both times i was under 60%, the first one even at 26%, 1 hour of intelligent battery heating and driving for 2 hours before the stop.

Or are you saying that i need to start charging with less than 20% in the first place to reach 100+ kW speeds? I sure hope that is not the case, otherwise what good are those charge curves.

I don't have experience of this model. However, here are the stats from EV Database based on fastned experience:

Here is Tesla Bjorn's test:

Bam Bam said:

I don't have experience of this model. However, here are the stats from EV Database based on fastned experience:

MG MG4 EV Long Range

All details and specs of the MG MG4 EV Long Range (2022). Compare price, lease, real-world range and consumption of every electric vehicle.

ev-database.org

Here is Tesla Bjorn's test:

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I watched that one, thanks. It is a model with a smaller battery pack but i think same chemistry so it should be comparable for charging speed. I will rewatch it to see if i missed something, but he did drive it with battery heating on all the time as well. Well, that was in another video from the same test.

Thanks for the Fastned link, also curious to see what it holds.

The speeds i am getting are 60 to 70 kW as if i plugged in at 65%, even though i plugged in at 26% and 45%. Based on Fastned, at 26% i should be charging at well over 100kW.

mg4 said:

The speeds i am getting are 60 to 70 kW as if i plugged in at 65%, evennthough i plugged in at 26% and 45%. Based on Fastned, at 26% i should be charging at well over 100kW.

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I think that our experience (on our few occasions using rapid chargers) with the SE 51kWh LFP was lower rates than the official ones.

About 70kW max instead of the official 87kW.

But that then is a much less significant relative drop than the one you are reporting.

Aussie here, we’re going to do the Big Lap around Australia which is now possible due to the charger network in place and we’re thinking of buying this tent for the MG4.

Phil said:

Aussie here, we’re going to do the Big Lap around Australia which is now possible due to the charger network in place and we’re thinking of buying this tent for the MG4.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/suv-camping-tent-car-tailgate-shade-side-awning-canopy-portable-outdoor-shelter-suv-2p-black_p0615104

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Looks OK I guess - I did this search on Amazon Au and came up with the following: -


Lots more options...

Not that I'm interested in the tent/camping option myself. My idea of slumming it is a Motel

Phil said:

we’re thinking of buying this tent for the MG4.

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I note the one review, for one star. One review photo shows an MG; it looks like a ZS petrol to me.

mg4 said:

The speeds i am getting are 60 to 70 kW as if i plugged in at 65%, even though i plugged in at 26% and 45%. Based on Fastned, at 26% i should be charging at well over 100kW.

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It could be balance, temperature, or some weirdness with the charger.

Your Car Scanner screenshot shows what appears to be quite good balance at 70% SoC, so that doesn't seem likely to be the issue.

25°C is possibly low for the best charging speed. I note that the reported 165kW was at some 40°C.

But others reporting best charge speeds from a Tesla charging station suggests that the charger is not providing all the power that the car is saying it can take. Otherwise, the charger brand should not make a difference, unless the Tesla chargers have a superior charge plug. For example, Tesla might have better cooling of the charge pins, or the Ionity branded Tritium charger might not be water cooled at all. The charger or the car or both may be reducing the charge current based on the measured temperature of the DC charge pins.

Unfortunately, diagnosing the charger interaction presumably requires reading the CAN bus messages between the car and the charger, and I suspect that this doesn't appear on the general CAN bus that reaches the OBD port. So you'd need a way to tap into the charger CAN bus, and some fancy software to decode the messages and present a summary. It might even be possible to do this access non-invasively, since CCS CAN bus messages use Power Line Communications, which is high frequency. But this is getting very technical.

Coulomb said:

Your Car Scanner screenshot shows what appears to be quite good balance at 70% SoC, so that doesn't seem likely to be the issue.

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I installed carscanner at 60% charge, since i remembered i have the obd2 with me and was running out of ideas as of why it was stuck at the same charge speed.

Will try to track it the next time from start. And also try a Tesla charger.

But what i take from this is i cannot have control over the speed and best to plan x2 time for the charge stops that ABRP otherwise claims.

mg4 said:

I tried two different Ionity locations, both times claiming 350 kW charge speeds, both times i got between 60 and 70 kW charge speed.

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Best charge speed I have seen is 140kw on a Tesla charger, only up to 50% after this it drops off to 70kw until I reached about 80% then speed drops off again. No preheating of the battery, ambient temp in double digits.