EV opposition in the media is ramping up

[Les burrows]

Ok good luck and have a nice trip.
Les

 

[Rolfe]

Thanks. Maybe one day there will be sufficient fast-enough (i.e. 150 Kw and over) chargers at every motorway service station that nobody will have to queue. Then we could just say, OK, I'll stop at the next service station. But that day is not yet!

 

[Gomev]

Futher up the M6 is Tebay services very nice place which big farm shop and restaurant very good and Gridserve rapids 350kw I think but that does really matter as remember you car is limit is only around 87kw the site at crow orchard is good but not the cheapest around 79p but guaranteed and 150kw very convenient just off the Mway

I thought the MG4 had DC charging of way over 100kW ?

 

[Les burrows]

I thought the MG4 had DC charging of way over 100kW ?

Trophy model has I think around 125-135 but this is the SE SR that Rolfe has.
Les

Trophy model has I think around 125-135 but this is the SE SR that Rolfe has.

Guy in video says 117 kw don’t know where he got that from but maybe I’m getting confused between the MG4 and MG5 as I have both but I have seen in the spec sheets on one 87kw is max and in the video he is using what is perhaps the best charger there is and as you can see it has at max 88 kw going in the 4 SR
Les

 

[Tonych]

I thought the MG4 had DC charging of way over 100kW ?

I managed to get 140kw in my Trophy at a Gridserve site

 

[Rolfe]

I believe there was some early publicity saying the SR could get 117 Kw but nobody ever managed it and the top seems to be about 88 Kw. However the real charging curve still charges the car about as fast as the fantasy one that had a short peak of 117 Kw that wasn't maintained, or something like that. The 88 Kw or so is apparently sustained for quite a long time.

The thing is, 88 Kw is still a lot more than the car (or indeed any car) can get on a 50 Kw charger. It's actually nearly double the best speed I've seen on a 50 Kw charger. So if a charging site (like Burton) has some 50 Kw chargers and some 350 Kw chargers, I'm still going for the 350 Kw ones!

I like the LFP battery. It's simple to manage and I can feel virtuous because it doesn't have cobalt in it. It also (allegedly) has a longer working life than the NMC. I really couldn't justify spending another £2,500 for a longer range and faster charging that I'd only use two or three times a year. I'm quite happy with the charging speed, actually, except that the suggestion I should wait for two hours at Killington Lake can go raffle itself. I don't know what's going on there, but ABRP used to rate these chargers at 60 Kw but now they're saying only 40 KW. Probably still OK if I'm only going to Yorkshire, but going to Sussex needs an efficient plan.

 

[Rolfe]

In relation to that video, should I use the battery heating before I get to the chargers, even of the temperature is around 20C?

 

[Les burrows]

Well doing so could reduce your range by how much I don’t know.
Les

 

[Rolfe]

That's the thing, nobody seems to know. You'd think they wouldn't fit these things if they didn't confer some benefit, but do you use more electricity heating the battery than the extra electricity you gain from having a heated battery? I don't know.

 

[Robf]

That's the thing, nobody seems to know. You'd think they wouldn't fit these things if they didn't confer some benefit, but do you use more electricity heating the battery than the extra electricity you gain from having a heated battery? I don't know.

I wouldn't bother for the summer (as much as summer has been so far). Our ZS automatically turned on the battery heater if required once connected to a rapid charger, it quickly ramped up the charge rate. It might be different in lower temps though, and there was a discussion re warm battery giving better efficiency for longer journeys (heater on when charging before travelling) but not worth it for shorter journeys. It confirmed in the app when battery heater was on, which was handy.
The MG4 might work differently though

 

[slmorgan42]

I wouldn't bother for the summer (as much as summer has been so far). Our ZS automatically turned on the battery heater if required once connected to a rapid charger, it quickly ramped up the charge rate. It might be different in lower temps though, and there was a discussion re warm battery giving better efficiency for longer journeys (heater on when charging before travelling) but not worth it for shorter journeys. It confirmed in the app.
The MG4 might work differently though

I have to say I am the same. I do not bother during the summer but did use it during the winter. Is was more to do with shortening the time to charge on a rapid. From the times I made note is saved about 5 mins on the charging which was good when in a rush.

 

[Rolfe]

Well, it's summer now, and I'm going south where it's warmer, and really, when I think about it, even if I saved five minutes at every stop that's still just 15 minutes in a nine-hour journey. I might give it a shot at the first charging stop, which will also be the coldest, and see how it goes.

 

[siteguru]

Guy in video says 117 kw don’t know where he got that from

He got it from the UK specs for the Phase 1 SE SR ... that used to say 117kW charge rate (not that anyone has ever achieved that; now the specs don't even mention a maximum charge rate).

 

[Rolfe]

There was a discussion of this in another thread, can't remember which. The feeling was that while the car was still in development someone had set 117 Kw as an aspiration, thinking it could be achieved, but it couldn't. But the more useful conclusion was that because the actual max of about 88 Kw can be maintained for a decent length of time, the total 20-80 time for the battery is much the same as it would have been if it had been able to hit a transient max of 117.

There was a graph of the charging curve compared to a few other cars and it wasn't bad.

 

[Tonych]

In relation to that video, should I use the battery heating before I get to the chargers, even of the temperature is around 20C?

I dont think it will let you heat the battery at this time of year. I've tried to a few times and it tells me it's not necessary

 

[Rolfe]

Interesting. Mine has several times suggested I heat the battery, randomly, for no apparent reason, even though it was quite warm. I've seen other people say they've had the same. Last time it happened I just tapped on "don't show this warning again".

 

[Tonych]

Interesting. Mine has several times suggested I heat the battery, randomly, for no apparent reason, even though it was quite warm. I've seen other people say they've had the same. Last time it happened I just tapped on "don't show this warning again".

Maybe mine has the fault!?!

 

[Rolfe]

I honestly have no idea. Yours sounds more sensible to me.

 

[Lovemyev]

Another great example of how the press jumps onto a story and gets it incorrect TWICE !.

 

[Rolfe]

I feel for him. Some articles these days are little more than a string of tweets one after another. (Although I have stories that aren't dissimilar going back to 1989 and even 1979 so I'd say local papers have never been great at this.)

The irony is, EVs seem to be a lot less vulnerable to water damage than ICE cars. There was a video of a notorious ford somewhere in England where cars regularly come to grief, but they showed a series of Teslas taking it as if they were amphibious. There was another one of a different EV being submerged in a tank, apparently rated for up to 1.7 metres of water. (Those must be some door seals.)

This will be another one to add to the story I heard in the post office, about how in a six-hour traffic jam, all the EVs ran out of battery and were stranded. Er, HOW???