Battery heater

[Mike]

Is the advantage of having LED headlamps power saving, or better lights, or of course both?

I suggest you ask this in another thread so we can keep this on topic. (The answer will be (b)

 

[Mike]

I have booked my car in for a week on Friday to have this update.

Horsham Car Center will update the car at a cost, but it’s not really recommended for our market as it doesn’t get cold enough!

As I’ve suffered from #coldgate a few times, I disagree.

 

[shikoku14]

Are you at liberty to say how much they are charging you @Mike it would be interesting if we see similar pricing variances between dealers that you got with Comfort2 and servicing in general.

 

[Gomev]

Is the advantage of having LED headlamps power saving, or better lights, or of course both?

I would quite like to know how much power it would save as well.

 

[JohnG]

As an FYI if you set the new battery heater option to On, it appears to being reset to Off when you park the car and switch the ignition off.

 

[ClawzSkunk]

The battery heater option seems to be an interesting idea and the discussion on the podcast about combining it with OVMS to be able to read the temperature is also interesting. Rather than requiring OVMS though, wouldn't it be prudent to simply ask MG to add the battery temp to the battery heater screen? that way you could make an informed decision on whether to turn it on or not? And conversley when to turn it off..

 

[Kithmo]

If this is just about heating to enable rapid charging, I appreciate MG could provide a solution for this (ie battery warmer), however as this effects all EV’s would a better solution not be to have heated pads installed in front of charge points?

These could could be temperature triggered (ie ambient temp drops below 5 degrees turn heater on), would be much more energy efficient (after all we’ve gone electric to be green), it would be a much cheaper retrofit to add pad to chargers than to add heaters to cars, and lastly it would benefit all EV car drivers.

If on the other hand a heated battery gives longer distance as well as allowing better rapid charge then I’m all for it ?

Why not go the whole hog and have a heated garage on each one, to drive into and charge.

 

[AussiePete]

Just had a chat on the MG Electric Vehicle Owners Club FB group with a guy in Norway. He’s had the battery heater upgrade but has turned it off as it eats too much juice.

He was getting between 23kwh and 27kwh per 100km (note km not miles) with heater on, with heater turned off he’s getting 19kwh per 100km. Would suggest heater costs about 20% to 25% when in use.

Sounds like it would be best to turn on 30 minutes before next rapid charge rather than leave it on all the time ?

 

[EricGao]

battery heating can make the battery in a better working condition for recharge and release electricity.

 

[Electrifried]

I have booked my car in for a week on Friday to have this update.

Horsham Car Center will update the car at a cost, but it’s not really recommended for our market as it doesn’t get cold enough!

As I’ve suffered from #coldgate a few times, I disagree.

Doesn’t get cold enough, just how cold does it need to get. Up here in the north east of Scotland we have had temps in the past heading into the -20’s region, surely anyone is going to describe that as cold enough???

 

[Noraf142]

I wonder, can you run the battery heather while connected to the charger at home? That way the battery is nice and warm before leaving in the mornings

 

[CDR]

I wonder, can you run the battery heather while connected to the charger at home? That way the battery is nice and warm before leaving in the mornings

I bet you cant, as that would be thinking outside the MG box ?

 

[Mike]

I doubt it as the car will need to be switched on, and from what I can tell the car won’t draw any power while attached to a type 2 wallbox for anything other than charging the HV & 12v batteries. Which doesn’t bode well for pre heating while plugged in either. I seem to remember that TeslaBjorn also reported this on his Thai car.