Advice for EV newbie please

[EVnewbie2024]

I need some advice as a complete newbie to EV’s.

I am very interested in the MG4ER but have some concerns about range and could do with some experienced drivers confirming the true figures.

I can put a home charger in but I regularly drive 200+ miles for social and business and don’t want to get bogged down in what the stories tell about broken or busy chargers on motorways etc.

Is that an accurate picture, and is the dealer’s figure of 230 miles range accurate?

And as to home chargers what is the best one to get (I am on Octopus) and how long does it take to install? What is the difference between tethered and untethered? What btw is a granny charger and do I need/ can I get longer cables for use on the network?

I really like the car and would go for a good discounted deal if I can resolve these concerns. Many thanks.

 

[Ian Key]

The MG4 isn't compatible with Octopus Intelligent so you need a compatible charger. The Octopus website should tell you which ones are.

Tethered means the charging cable is permanently attached to the charger, untethered means you have a separate cable and charger.

A granny charger is one you plug into a normal 13amp socket but the mileage you are doing I'd go for a wall charger.

 

[EVnewbie2024]

really helpful, The granny charger tag makes sense now- 13amp plug indeed. I will go for a wall charger but need to contact Octopus

 

[salty]

 

[dsr]

I have an ER, which I got (rather than an LR) because I do a number of journeys around 200-240 miles. The MG claim theoretical claim is just over 300 miles. My experience has been something like 280 miles in the summer and 260 miles last winter = no problem for my ER.
Of course, and most importantly, so much depends on the road and your right foot. I do not drive at 70mph on a motorway for most of my journeys. Keeping at 65mph max makes a significant difference to the miles per kWh and using A-roads some of the time helps eke out the potential distance as well.
Having said all that, I have never had an issue with broken or busy chargers when I have needed them.

 

[EVnewbie2024]

very useful, thanks

 

[dsr]

very useful, thanks

I should have added that my journeys have my wife with me and luggage in the boot and on the back seat. The range would increase a little with a lighter car.

 

[APMG]

I have a Zappi v2 installed by Octopus but moved to Tomato Energy to charge in the 6 hour window where you get 5p per KWH.

Depending on what model you go for your mileage will vary from using A/C, How much regen, where you drive. Motorways you're not recommended to drive over 60mph due to the efficiencies between 60/70mph are drastic.

If you're doing a lot of motorway miles the battery often has zero change to recharge hence you'll get drastically lower miles per kwh than if you were in a town.

My LR 80% charge shows me 180 miles and 100% shows 230 miles. I wouldn't really trust me to do the full 230/180 on it and more likely with a mix of motorways you may be looking at 30-40 miles under that.

ER as dsr mentioned might net you more range but again it comes down to style of driving. I would highly suggest if you're smart home inclined to setup the MG Home Assistant integration of which links into A better route planner and this can accurately pull data out of the car and use it to map chargers.

I can charge within the 6 hours 42kwh for £2.10 on Tomato. The Battery of the LR is about 61kwh usable and the ER is about 74kwh useable so obviously bigger battery, more charge and more time but you'll get more range. Typically I get 3 miles per KWH but this can flex up and down depending how you drive.

So some calculations off these states. Using a conservative 3 miles per KWH you can suggest the max range would be around;

Trophy ER 74kwh x 3(miles) = 222 miles
Trophy LR 61kwh x 3(miles) = 183 miles

Obviously if you can get better range even 3.5 miles per KWH these increase to a fair bit more;

Trophy ER 74kwh x 3.5(miles) = 259 miles
Trophy LR 61kwh x 3.5(miles) = 213 miles


Bare in mind EV chargers at home unless 3 phase (unlikely) do 7kw per hour. So if you did run the battery to very low, it would take more than the 6 hours if you needed to drive the next day. However Tomato do offer from 10pm-12 a rate of 13.37p then 6 hours of 5p so you may be able to over compensate during this. As well as 9:30-11:30am is 13.37p for me.

 

[Anon70]

the stories tell about broken or busy chargers on motorways etc.

In my experience these are just stories and if you are going to use public chargers on a regular basis you will be able to add 100 miles range in the time it takes to walk from the car to the service area toilets and back (15 - 20 minutes).

If you use a network like Tesla where the cars and the chargers tend to spend no more than 30 minutes on the charger you should also not have to queue for long, if at all. (i have had a 2 minute wait once, in 12 months of ownership)

 

[MGFour]

Same as anon, when you are driving your 200+ journey do you go the whole way without any comfort breaks? as if you usually take a stop even the SR will be enough range. I have the SE and regularly carry out a 220ish mile journey with a stop halfway, plug in (always been an available working charger upto now) nip to loo and grab a coffee if I fancy one then back on way 10-15mins is all it needs, I've even been tempted on a warm dry day to see if will make it the whole way without a charge but as I'm stopping anyway I haven't yet risked it. Cold days no chance without the pitstop but it suits me stopping for a ten min stretch.

 

[EVnewbie2024]

these are all really helpful replies. many thanks

 

[Griffian]

We get just over 4 mpkW in the summer and are getting about 3 mpkW now, so we can usually expect just under 300 miles when it's warmer or 220 miles in the winter, on a full charge. Our usual/regular long journey is 180 miles so we don't usually need public charging.

We have an Ohme Home Pro (8m cable) purchased for £580 and installed by our usual electrician who combined it with replacing the consumer unit in the house. Ohme installation cost £250. Our tariff is Octopus Intelligent Go (with a fixed rate for gas) and our total charge cost for our first 4,000 miles was £80. With load shifting, we have seen no increase in our electricity cost so we are making a 100% saving on our previous petrol expenses.

The Ohme has been trouble-free and has never failed to charge. We have nothing set in the car and since setting up back in February have never touched the Octopus App nor the MG iSmart App so we have avoided what appear to be conflicts which cause issues with the Ohme.

 

[EVnewbie2024]

Good advice about home chargers. The range you give for the Extended MG4 is way short of what the dealer claims (323) but this seems to be a general picture. I regularly drive 200 miles plus at weekends and need to decide whether the whole business of finding a charger for topping up on these journeys is worth the big savings on running costs. The deals on MG's are very good and the fuel savings over 4-5 years are close to the extra cost over the MG3 hybrid for a lot more car.

 

[APMG]

Even MG's site themselves have a driving style breakdown which is largely bullcrap. So no doubt the dealer just goes off MG's range figures.

vs

 

[DixieTGS]

The 239 motorway figure seems reasonable to me..... as long as it's summer temperatures and you only charge when you reach 0% SOC.

A typical SOC people aim for is 20% so a realistic range between charges is 192 miles and perhaps 20% less in winter.

Having said that it's not normally that bad as there are sections of any journey driven at less than 70 and for regular journeys in particular people get to know where possible charge points are etc and are quite happy to go to 10% or lower.

 

[Rolfe]

I rocked up at Tebay last month on 7%, I think I was at 4% once at Annandale Water. Probably, having the SR, I'm more motivated to spin out a single charge as far as possible.

 

[salty]

Went to 5% the other day in me X Power.
Must admit being a tad, worried. Gonna try and not go below 10% in future.

 

[EVnewbie2024]

what is SOC? and am I correct in reading that 60-70mph is optimum for mileage- seems a little slow for motorways

 

[siteguru]

State of Charge.

With an EV slower is better generally ... 50mph will give you more range than 60, which will give more than 70. This is due to drag/wind resistance, which increases by the square of speed increase. (e.g. the drag at 70 mph will typically be 4x the drag at 35 mph).

 

[EVnewbie2024]

thanks for clarifying that