5.5 miles/kWh!

[jelly]

Not sure what mild weather means but if it below 12C you’ll see higher consumption from PTC heater for cabin and possibly battery too if below 10C and you have battery heating enabled or below 0C and the battery is stone cold. Plus brand new tyres will possibly have a bit more rolling resistance in the first 2/300 miles.
This is assuming you are a seasoned EV driver and don’t have lead feet

I'd say most days (apart from today) has been well above 12°C.
I tend to drive with the heating off most of the time as it's not been hot or cold enough to require it running.
The part I haven't thought about is tyres, the car is brand new car so it could be this.
Other than 'testing' sports mode for maybe 1 or 2 miles it's been in comfort and driven normal. (No fast acceleration)
I'm going to test again from next charge and keep it in eco. I've driven lots of EV cars for work although this is my first car that I own. And have for personal use. It could be I'm still to heavy on the accelerator although I don't feel I am.

 

[fnegroni]

One thing I see it’s consistently overlooked when testing consumption is that you can’t put the whole journey in one single figure. And that efficiency numbers aren’t linear: difference between 3.1 and 3.5 miles per kWh is way smaller than between say 2.5 and 3 miles per kWh.

That’s why when people boast that their car does 5 miles to the kWh compared to another doing say 4.5 miles per kWh I just wonder if the wind was blowing a little stronger on that day.

You should only measure the motorway miles once up to speed. And the acceleration and deceleration should be accounted for separately.
Also the test should never be done when battery charge is above 90% as maximum regen coasting will be limited.
Or if anything you should also account for regen separately.

 

[google1901]

Setting ECO mode & Kers 3 will, as already mentioned, help with moderating speed. There's no doubt it will improve your miles per kWh. But ultimately a choice between performance or higher miles per kWh?

As for us (London roads!) the above settings are fine.

 

[Alibro]

I only get 3.1mile per kWh in my new MG5. I've done over 500miles in mild weather. I'm Starting to think something is off as that seems very low.
Driving type city 30/40 and one motorway of 200 miles at 70.
Mode: comfort
Regeneration mid.

On a motorway at 70 I get 2.8 or 2.9 miles per kWh. On A roads doing 60 I get just over 3mpkWh, maybe 3.1 so this sounds about right, TBH I've never seen the numbers others here talk about unless doing mostly town driving but overall I'm getting an average 3.5 at the minute.

 

[Gomev]

Short journeys form 'cold' will produce poorer figures as the HV/traction battery is not up to temperature. As that warms up through use it performs better.
An example of this was last year when on a 45 mile journey starting at zero degrees first thing in the morning, and ending at 4 degrees I achieved just over 1 mile/kWh over the first 5 miles through town and out. After I had been on dual carriageway at speeds of 60mph for most of the rest of the journey overall the car achieved 3.1 miles/kWh.
An extreme case but demonstrates the principle.

 

[Alibro]

Short journeys form 'cold' will produce poorer figures as the HV/traction battery is not up to temperature. As that warms up through use it performs better.
An example of this was last year when on a 45 mile journey starting at zero degrees first thing in the morning, and ending at 4 degrees I achieved just over 1 mile/kWh over the first 5 miles through town and out. After I had been on dual carriageway at speeds of 60mph for most of the rest of the journey overall the car achieved 3.1 miles/kWh.
An extreme case but demonstrates the principle.

Does it make any difference if we turn the car on for 10 minutes or so with the heater on while still plugged in? I've not tried it but have heard it works with other makes of car.
Mine is a PFL LR

 

[Gomev]

Does it make any difference if we turn the car on for 10 minutes or so with the heater on while still plugged in? I've not tried it but have heard it works with other makes of car.
Mine is a PFL LR

Possibly, worth a try, but it takes a while for the batteries to warm up. You can see the temperatures with the use of an OBD dongle and app, but that's complicating things.

 

[Verdigris]

I suspect that only applies to cars with a heat pump (which MG5s don't) and the discharge rate from the cabin heater wouldn't be sufficient to cause significant heating within the battery.

 

[Alibro]

Possibly, worth a try, but it takes a while for the batteries to warm up. You can see the temperatures with the use of an OBD dongle and app, but that's complicating things.

Do you have a link to a compatible dongle? I tried this one but no joy. Is it as simple as picking theright one and loading the app?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NEXAS-Bluetooth-Diagnostic-Motorcycles-Specially/dp/B08BPC179W/ref=sr_1_2?nsdOptOutParam=true&s=automotive&sr=1-2

I suspect that only applies to cars with a heat pump (which MG5s don't) and the discharge rate from the cabin heater wouldn't be sufficient to cause significant heating within the battery.

I wasn't sure if the MG5 would heat the battery automatically if the temps were low enough. Pre-warming while still plugged in would be a sensible option but the pre facelift models are especially basic.

 

[Tangoed Man]

I'm quite new to the MG community and the forum but find myself becoming increasingly frustrated at the amount of navel gazing which goes on. I'm a retired university lecturer and absolutely appreciate the need for accuracy where that is needed. But I honestly can't see a need to work out the miles/kWh to any greater accuracy than is shown in the dashboard readout.

Surely the important thing is not so much an absolute number to X significant figures. To me, it's more useful to track the trend for your particular car and style of driving. For example, take the mi/kWh for trip A compared to trips B, C, D & E in the same car. What were the characteristics of each trip, in what circumstances does that suggest the car gives better or worse results and, ultimately, how can I use that understanding to maximise my efficiency?

I do, however, understand that my own view isn't universal. If someone likes working out the "correct" way to calculate mi/kWh (or whatever is being discussed in a particular thread) that's perfectly fine. Maybe, as a new member, I should keep my views to myself ?

Perfectly agree. On this, and other EV forums, several navel-gazers have taken me to task by arguing with me that slowing down as much as possible to use regen was better than driving at a constant speed. Well at least I had Isaac Newton and his three laws of motion on my side.

 

[Pebblefeline]

Pfl has a pre heat option for charging

Maybe it would help if turned on for 10 minutes or so?

 

[MickeySw]

Pfl has a pre heat option for charging

Maybe it would help if turned on for 10 minutes or so?

NMC batteries can be damaged if they are to be charged below 0deg, the BMS will automatically turn on the battery heater if that’s the case, it should also disable regen for the same reason.

To make things more complicated, the ‘heating (cooling)’ liquid is constantly pumped trough an external heat exchanger once cell temperatures go above 10deg to the effect that the battery generally remains at ambient temperatures (or 10 deg, whichever is higher)

The manual battery heater only works if the battery temp is below 10deg therefore a 10min pre-heat won’t make much (if any) difference.

 

[Pebblefeline]

That useful to know thanks

 

[Gomev]

Do you have a link to a compatible dongle? I tried this one but no joy. Is it as simple as picking theright one and loading the app?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NEXAS-Bluetooth-Diagnostic-Motorcycles-Specially/dp/B08BPC179W/ref=sr_1_2?nsdOptOutParam=true&s=automotive&sr=1-2

I wasn't sure if the MG5 would heat the battery automatically if the temps were low enough. Pre-warming while still plugged in would be a sensible option but the pre facelift models are especially basic.

Good question. I see no reason why that wouldn't work with the appropriate app, most use Car Scanner I think, me included but there are others.
BUT here is the big but, I have used my dongle/app on my original ZS EV, worked great, works on my current Kona EV great but it would not work on my MG5 at all. There are a few others that have had the same problem. I even bought a different dongle as recommended by others that worked on theirs but to no avail. So it might just be that you have one of the 5s that plain old won't work

See here

OBD2 MG5 PFL LR

Can anyone help? Bought a NEXAS OBD2 dongle, and using Car Scanner it connects to the dongle ok but it keeps saying can't connect to the car ECU. It goes round trying every protocol and failing. Maybe I have the wrong profile? I set it to MG5 2021-22. See screenshot. Thanks P

www.mgevs.com

or here

Nexlink ODB won't connect to ECU

I've got a pre-facelift MG5 from the second half of 2021 and no OBD reader seems to connect to the ECU. I found a recommendation for a Nexas Nexlink BT5 device elsewhere on the forum, which that user said works with their car. However, it doesn't seem to work for mine. I'm using an Android...

www.mgevs.com

 

[Alibro]

Good question. I see no reason why that wouldn't work with the appropriate app, most use Car Scanner I think, me included but there are others.
BUT here is the big but, I have used my dongle/app on my original ZS EV, worked great, works on my current Kona EV great but it would not work on my MG5 at all. There are a few others that have had the same problem. I even bought a different dongle as recommended by others that worked on theirs but to no avail. So it might just be that you have one of the 5s that plain old won't work

See here

OBD2 MG5 PFL LR

Can anyone help? Bought a NEXAS OBD2 dongle, and using Car Scanner it connects to the dongle ok but it keeps saying can't connect to the car ECU. It goes round trying every protocol and failing. Maybe I have the wrong profile? I set it to MG5 2021-22. See screenshot. Thanks P

www.mgevs.com

or here
rola

Nexlink ODB won't connect to ECU

I've got a pre-facelift MG5 from the second half of 2021 and no OBD reader seems to connect to the ECU. I found a recommendation for a Nexas Nexlink BT5 device elsewhere on the forum, which that user said works with their car. However, it doesn't seem to work for mine. I'm using an Android...

www.mgevs.com

Thanks mate, I tried several apps but nothing worked. It could be me (a numpty) or my phone A crappy old Motorola One Zoom that won't connect Android Auto to anything.
When I replace it I'll try again.