CONSIDERING BUYING THE HS PHEV BUT NEED SOME ADVICE

[ajw1100]

Found this very informative review on YouTube:

 

[Tim]

I'm averaging plus 320 miles easy so you'll be okay on the range.

 

[hewguy]

Hi Jto, thanks for your reply. So is it correct if you have the aircon on in hot weather you can't run in EV mode?

I had read about the power drop and I tried to replicate it on my test drive but didn't notice it or the high ICE revs at 30mph. I must admit I didn't notice gear changes much at all after it had warmed up, it almost left more like a CVT than a DCT.

If you do not want heat in summer, turn to LOW, and air con works in EV

 

[Fpowell]

Hi All, l am seriously considering buying the HS PHEV after being very impressed on a test drive yesterday.

However, l would appreciate some advice from existing owners if possible please as follows;

(1) l know the heating does not operate in EV mode but the salesman did not seem sure about the Air Con in summer. Does the Air Con need the ICE running as well?
(2) Can anyone give me an idea of what the typical max range is with a full tank of fuel and a fully charged battery?
(3) When l first drove out of the dealership and the car was stone cold l did notice a very slight jerkiness. This did seem to subside as the car warmed up but is this normal?
(4) When the salesman started the car l was still standing outside and noticed a momentary rattle like a chain rattle. It did disappear after a few seconds. Any idea if this is normal?
(5) l do have some concerns about long term reliability and MG after sales service. I guess most owners have not done large mileages yet but any feedback would be appreciated.

l realise this may see a long list but overall l was VERY impressed so l am VERY tempted.

Many thanks for any feedback.

Mike H

Hi Mike

I've had the HS PHEV for 7 months, covered 6400 miles and can answer as follows.

1. You can run in EV mode with AC on. I do have a huge issue with not being able to run in EV with the heater on. In my mind, this is a huge flaw. I didn't have this problem with my BMW PHEV. When the interior of the car reaches the desired temperature, you can manually switch to EV mode. But this will cut out and return to ICE mode once the temperature drops and the heater switches back on. But once the car has heated back up, it doesn't automatically return to EV mode. You have to keep pressing the EV mode switch in the hope that the temperature is high enough for the heater not to be on. All very distracting. I usually switch the climate control off completely which then allows me to drive in EV, but the windows then mist up!!
This is a PHEV car in the summer only, unless you're happy to be in a cold car with misted up windows.

2. A fully charged battery now shows 31 miles. When the car was brand new, it showed 32 miles.
I'm not sure on the fuel as I've hardly ever filled up fully. A word of warning - When the remaining fuel drops down to 32 miles, it then doesn't go down any further. It goes from 32 miles to zero. This had me panicking on a couple of occasions as you have no idea whether you're going to make it to the petrol station.

3. ICE mode is not as smooth as EV mode.

4. Not experienced this. Check again and query.

5. No particular reliability issues with the car apart from occasional glitch (4 times) with the infotainment display. It blanked out twice and froze once.
The SAT NAV is probably the worst I've come across on any of the cars I've had. It's very slow (quicker to use an A-Z sometimes) has door numbers missing in the address and takes you on random routes. It also has to load up each time you select the option from the infotainment screen and you have to accept terms and conditions of use. I often use my phone via the USB connected Android Auto.
The tail gate very occasionally fails to close. I've discovered that this is usually if I open one of the doors when the tailgate is in the process of closing.

Other things: An MG Connect App is very much needed for this car. I miss being able to pre-condition my car or manage/monitor EV charging using my phone.

Why would they make a car this size without front parking sensors??

When driving in EV mode, there's a momentary and very noticeable power drop at around 50mph. I find this can be potentially dangerous if you're in the process of overtaking.

The auto gearbox is terrible. It hangs onto gears for too long and occasionally red lines on the rev counter.

Hope this helps

Floyd

 

[Deleted member 3150]

Yep agree with all this. Also the infotainment system when phone is answered stops the satnav. You can guarantee it’s exactly when you need it at a junction! Mpg when the battery runs out is also comparatively poor. Waiting for spring to return as frustrates me that I have to use the engine on short runs, which is what I do most and I bought the hybrid for this very reason. I’d rather have an electric heater trade off on cost

 

[jem111111]

I wont disagree that heating is an issue with this car, but so far this winter i have only ran the phev with the heater on ( so ICE on ) twice.
So for example today 07:30 at 0 c , started car put demister on so this starts the ICE, put heated seats on ,scrapped car.
By time i scrapped the car , it had demisted , so i then turn the demister off and went to the hvac , making sure temp is set to LO and put it on screen and feet then turn the fan down from full ( this setting does not require the ICE ,and i find this still keeps the screen clear), but the ICE will still be running until you select EV.
Switch to EV mode and drive off, now in EV mode only.
I drove 5 miles no problem , and did not feel cold .
Now in an ideal world , it would have the heater off the battery ( or some type of heating system that does not need the ICE to run like the webasto heater mention on the forum) but unfortunately it does not.
Some people will only want to drive with the heater on , and that is not a problem, but the downside is the ICE will still run.
So i brought the car last April and to think i have only run the car with needing the heater on twice so far , isnt too bad , and all my journeys under 32 miles have all been pure EV mode only , and longer journeys have used some petrol , i am more than happy.

If you think you cannot live without the heater , then you will need to seriously ask if this is the phev for you , are there other phevs out there that do have the heating facility ( will they be in your price range) or do you go full BEV or stick with an ICE.
No one can answer that for you , you have to make your own judgement on the pros and cons of any car you feel like getting.
Im just trying to show you that there is an alternative ( some may say not a good one LOL) so you can still drive in EV mode through most of the winter(if you are happy to drive the car with the heated seats on only but the downside is you wont put the heating on).
I know if it gets really cold , then there may be days i will but the heating on ( and car seat heater), while im scraping the car ( like a normal ICE car) and may start off the journey initially in ICE , but when its reached the temperature , i can manually select EV mode. It will run in EV mode until it cools below the required heating i have set , and so starts up the ICE to warm up the engine / heating.
Again this is a bit hit and miss ( as you may need to press the EV a few times before it allows you to go to EV ), but turning the heating down from the original temp setting will allow it to move to EV a bit sooner and last a bit longer before the ICE kicks in.
I hope this helps to give another view on how you can use this car in the winter, its up to you to decide if its for you.
Good luck

 

[bwanamdevu]

Considered a PHEV for some time in the spring and summer when wanting to change my MB B180 and had a serious study of the MG HS. My Australian mate from Brisbane hired a PHEV last summer - his that is but our winter - and travelled over 2000km in one, raving about it. Not an MG unfortunately! He’s getting one next.

I plumped eventually for the MG5 as a hybrid seems like a half-way house and still a fossil fuel user and polluter. Getting more environmental in my old age but hardly surprising as used to teach some courses in Environmental Science way back!

We have to consider the future that we are going to leave for our grandkids so an EV this year and solar panels next. If only I still lived near a river I would have considered a hydro-electric turbine but am seriously thinking about a small wind turbine after the recent winds blew my fence down!

 

[Mike0811uk]

Thanks for all your I/P's guys, I have thought long and hard and I just can't get over the compromises this car brings with it and nagging doubts about reliability and parts availability if things do go wrong. For now I have decided not to proceed and wait and see how the MG brand develops over the next few years. My car after next will probably be a full BEV so will be interesting to see where MG are in 2-3 years time.

 

[kazuki1328]

Found this very informative review on YouTube:

Haha, that's my video. Thank you very much for the recommendation!

 

[Lovemyev]

Regarding the heater on the MG PHEV - it works in a different way than the VW PHEV I owned before the ZS EV.
The heater system in the VW worked great.
It would provide max heat to the cabin in pure EV mode with no problem.
It depleted the range quickly, but that was to be expected !.
The clever part was that when the engine was running and reached normal working temperature, it would allow heat to be supplied to the cabin via a normal type heater radiator.
So, effectively it had two means of heating the cabin space.
An electric heater and a water filled heater like all ICE cars.
One system overlapped the other perfectly !.

 

[ajw1100]

I don't even have an HS PHEV yet, it's still on order. I too am slightly concerned over the few issues that seem to be mentioned here, technicians knowledge (when things go wrong as they most surely will) is my main concern with a fairly new car and fairly new dealers selling and servicing them. and no heating apart from the ICE.
As I said in another post, I use a small fan heater to warm up the car's cabin, demist the windows and clear the snow/frost on the outside. Not sure what the cabin temp is at that point but it's warm enough for me. IF I use the same in the HS; warm cabin interior but 0 degree engine temp which governs the heating ? The outside temp or the cabin temp?
Do the car sensors think it's warm inside the cabin so I won't start the ICE or it's cold in the engine bay so must be cold in the cabin so I will start the ICE

 

[Deleted member 3150]

As long as the car is warmer inside than out and the heater is turned all the way down to low, the engine won’t start even when the ice engine is stone cold and aircon on. However even if you start a journey with clear windows, sometimes I still find condensation will build up with or without aircon on. Aircon does not require heater on. At this point I turn up the the heater which then allows me to depress the window demister piano key And the ice engine will burst into life and start to demist. When car is demisted (a few petrol guzzling minutes), I then turn temp back to low and repress the EV to continue on battery. Or if I’m with elderly passengers I just run in hybrid and be dames. This is after all a hybrid not a BEV and like many other hybrids runs the same way. It’s a great car, very comfortable, bigger than the ZS and very good VFM. The technicians are all trained and PHEV are no longer new tech. MG escalation on difficult faults is good and so is the warranty. Please don’t be put off. I had more faults on my Merc.

 

[ajw1100]

Thanks Electrickery for the confirmation, I am sure I will get the hang of it in time!
The majority of my journeys will be local and short, although my present Octavia 1.4 petrol will do 55 mpg on a run and tax is just £30 a year and that is hard to beat. My wife has ordered a Hyundai Kona MH. so we will have a choice of transport for longer runs. Two things were causing me to think about the change: BEV range anxiety (But with PHEV not a problem) and no spare wheel and overpriced and uncomfortable low profile tyres. I have not had a flat in about 10 years and with my back would call roadside assist anyway, if a new tyre is needed they are cheaper and more comfortable than low profiles so no real problem there either.

 

[Deleted member 3150]

Thanks Electrickery for the confirmation, I am sure I will get the hang of it in time!
The majority of my journeys will be local and short, although my present Octavia 1.4 petrol will do 55 mpg on a run and tax is just £30 a year and that is hard to beat. My wife has ordered a Hyundai Kona MH. so we will have a choice of transport for longer runs. Two things were causing me to think about the change: BEV range anxiety (But with PHEV not a problem) and no spare wheel and overpriced and uncomfortable low profile tyres. I have not had a flat in about 10 years and with my back would call roadside assist anyway, if a new tyre is needed they are cheaper and more comfortable than low profiles so no real problem there either.

Yes had the MG ZS before and the wheels were regularly curbed so used the GardX insurance that came with the car several times. The HS phev has nice big tyres and as yet no curb damage. It’s a more comfortable ride. And yes, I would also call the AA if I had a flat!

 

[kazuki1328]

Yes had the MG ZS before and the wheels were regularly curbed so used the GardX insurance that came with the car several times. The HS phev has nice big tyres and as yet no curb damage. It’s a more comfortable ride. And yes, I would also call the AA if I had a flat!

I was offered scratch insurance and alloy insurance when buying the car. In the end decided not to get alloy wheel insurance but bought after market scratch / dent insurance.

Glad I didnt buy wheel refurb insurance as after 4 months I havent kerbed it once, mostly because of 360 camera. On my old car I would probably scratch it once a month.

But glad I bought the scratch insurance, I was parked in a tight supermarket car park space and the A....... next to me scratched my driver side door when he drove off. Supermarket was useless with cctv footage, waiting for repairs to be done but at least they said they will fix it

 

[hermitdave]

I purchased gap insurance from online shop suggested by the dealers. Told me to save my money. I did scratch the paint on door but I had the touch up paint which came handy

 

[jem111111]

So summarising, its a great car but part of the phev DNA, is it is a hybrid so you will use both the EV and ICE ( obviously lol, I hope im not teaching gandmothers to suck eggs lol ).
So depending on circumstances you can drive it as an EV mode (alot of the time in my case) but you will also use the ICE at sometime either for heating or on longer journeys over the EV range (32+miles).
The more you use the ICE the less efficient the car becomes.
There are posts on the forum concerning economy .
I posted one when i first got it and went down the route of trying to cost out ( pence per mile) the phev against an ICE car. It was good to do , but i remember Greebo12 saying i was over complicating things and to just see how much petrol you put in. I must admit i did not quite see that point of view at the time , and its just now after knowing more about the car and how to run it , i can see what they meant.
So for example we filled up the tank a couple of weeks just before the dredded UK petrol shortage happened in September in the UK ( how lucky was that ).
Just before christmas we filled it up again ( even though there was 50 odd miles left) so thats 2 tanks in just over 4 months. The rest of the time we just charged it overnight ( octopus go ) and used it in EV mode.
I am doing about 120 miles per week so up til now ive done about 2000 miles since September , used a tank of petrol and still got 1/2 a tank left .
Sorry now going into calculation mode.
So assuming that ive used approx 50 litres , then at 1.45 per litre thats £72.50
Im charging it about 2 times a week ( i do also plug into podpoint at tescos when shpping 2 times a week as its free lol ) , and so thats £23 for the same time , so lets call it £100 for the odd times i may charge it extra.
So £100 for 2000 miles.
At 1.45 per litre, petrol costs £6.58 per gallon in the UK.
So to do 2000 miles for £100 in petrol ( if my maths is right lol £100 / 6.58= 15.1 gallons, so to work out the equivalent MPG for my £100 spent is 2000 miles / 15.1( gallons) = 133 mpg.

As another case a car doing 50 mpg then 2000 miles = 40 gallons which would cost £263
Phew calculations over lol

So I know its only a rough estimate and things will change during thw winter months but its good to see im getting the equivalent of over 100 MPG and its costing me £100 for 2000 miles and im not filling up the tank that often.

Where my old car was a diesel and did about 50 mpg on a run (less on shorter journeys). As diesel is moe expensive than petrol then it would be slightly more than £263 for that car for 2000 miles and the MG is much nicer to drive.

Obviously I can see that this would mean driving a BEV would work out even cheaper and a quick calculation doing 120 miles on a 50kwh battery charging at the 5p ( then adding a bit more as you may need to charge out of that price range) still would come to £50- £60

I know i will use more petrol in the winter ( weather depending) but i know i have to due to the limitation of a PHEV.

As long as you are happy with what driving a PHEV entails, then it's a great car.

On a plus note ,one reason to have a hybrid is not to feel range anxiety on occasional long journeys and have to rely on the iffy charging infrastructure as you can always go to a petrol station and refuel in minutes.
But the downside will always be the fuel economy will go down, on my long trips i was geting about 40mpg in ICE mode with very little EV left. I personally thought that was good for a SUV as streamlined as a brick LOL.

 

[Deleted member 3150]

@jem111111 as always totally agree. I have done 4.5k miles but don’t keep petrol receipts. I just know that my trip which has never been reset says I’m averaging 77 mpg. And yes when battery depleted I get about 40 mpg. I mostly run on very short trips in EV but have done UK holiday road trips which I think equates to about 1800 miles of long trips, min 150 a leg.

 

[Lovemyev]

So summarising, its a great car but part of the phev DNA, is it is a hybrid so you will use both the EV and ICE ( obviously lol, I hope im not teaching gandmothers to suck eggs lol ).
So depending on circumstances you can drive it as an EV mode (alot of the time in my case) but you will also use the ICE at sometime either for heating or on longer journeys over the EV range (32+miles).
The more you use the ICE the less efficient the car becomes.
There are posts on the forum concerning economy .
I posted one when i first got it and went down the route of trying to cost out ( pence per mile) the phev against an ICE car. It was good to do , but i remember Greebo12 saying i was over complicating things and to just see how much petrol you put in. I must admit i did not quite see that point of view at the time , and its just now after knowing more about the car and how to run it , i can see what they meant.
So for example we filled up the tank a couple of weeks just before the dredded UK petrol shortage happened in September in the UK ( how lucky was that ).
Just before christmas we filled it up again ( even though there was 50 odd miles left) so thats 2 tanks in just over 4 months. The rest of the time we just charged it overnight ( octopus go ) and used it in EV mode.
I am doing about 120 miles per week so up til now ive done about 2000 miles since September , used a tank of petrol and still got 1/2 a tank left .
Sorry now going into calculation mode.
So assuming that ive used approx 50 litres , then at 1.45 per litre thats £72.50
Im charging it about 2 times a week ( i do also plug into podpoint at tescos when shpping 2 times a week as its free lol ) , and so thats £23 for the same time , so lets call it £100 for the odd times i may charge it extra.
So £100 for 2000 miles.
At 1.45 per litre, petrol costs £6.58 per gallon in the UK.
So to do 2000 miles for £100 in petrol ( if my maths is right lol £100 / 6.58= 15.1 gallons, so to work out the equivalent MPG for my £100 spent is 2000 miles / 15.1( gallons) = 133 mpg.

As another case a car doing 50 mpg then 2000 miles = 40 gallons which would cost £263
Phew calculations over lol

So I know its only a rough estimate and things will change during thw winter months but its good to see im getting the equivalent of over 100 MPG and its costing me £100 for 2000 miles and im not filling up the tank that often.

Where my old car was a diesel and did about 50 mpg on a run (less on shorter journeys). As diesel is moe expensive than petrol then it would be slightly more than £263 for that car for 2000 miles and the MG is much nicer to drive.

Obviously I can see that this would mean driving a BEV would work out even cheaper and a quick calculation doing 120 miles on a 50kwh battery charging at the 5p ( then adding a bit more as you may need to charge out of that price range) still would come to £50- £60

I know i will use more petrol in the winter ( weather depending) but i know i have to due to the limitation of a PHEV.

As long as you are happy with what driving a PHEV entails, then it's a great car.

On a plus note ,one reason to have a hybrid is not to feel range anxiety on occasional long journeys and have to rely on the iffy charging infrastructure as you can always go to a petrol station and refuel in minutes.
But the downside will always be the fuel economy will go down, on my long trips i was geting about 40mpg in ICE mode with very little EV left. I personally thought that was good for a SUV as streamlined as a brick LOL.

I agree !.
I owned a PHEV for four years before going full BEV over two years ago.
Goven the choice between normal ICE and a PHEV - Then I would pick the PHEV every single time !.
I loved the time spent with our PHEV and I considered it really cheap to run, until I bought the BEV that is.
I think that a PHEV is a great choice for taking short trips and running on EV power.
Taking a lot of longer trips decreases the benefits in economy of owning a PHEV though.
It just depends on your usage case I think.
I would regularly see an MPG return of around 85 - 95 MPG over each tank refill.
The best I ever achieved on one single fill up, was 110 MPG.
Not many would complain with that ?.
But the running costs on the BEV ( in our case ) is even less expensive !.
But it’s horses for courses.
We owned the PHEV for over four years, from almost brand new and I found that as time moved on, it did become more expensive in servicing costs.
It makes sense, because you are serving two masters really.
You have the requirements of a ICE plus any additional requirements of a EV as well.
The factory warranty was the normal 3 year affair, so extending the term was another £200 per year.
The hybrid system is complicated and is never going to be a cheap repair, so extending the warranty helped me sleep better at night !.