Maximum Charge rate for Long Range Trophy?

[Loveclose]

Sorry if this is an obvious question, but I thought I'd ask those in the know before I blow up my MG....

I'm already starting to plan the one regular long journey I do (216 mile round trip). In the summer, it is possible I may be able to do this without the need to charge, unless I use the vehicle whilst at the destination.... The Cobham services on the M25 are the obvious half-way point if charging is needed, but the chargers rate there are 350kw. Now I know that my MG4 will not charge at that rate, but I'm just asking if it's ok to use chargers of that capacity, relying on the car to restrict the rate as required. There are 50kw chargers their too, I believe, but none at around 100 or 150kw.
Thank you for reading this.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes, it's absolutely OK. Your car will negotiate with the charger for whatever charge it can accept at the time, and it can't possibly over-charge. The 350 Kw is simply the maximum the charger can deliver, but I'm not even sure that there is a car available in Britain that can charge at that rate. Maybe the new face-lifted Taycan, on a good day?

Your car will charge at a maximum of about 145 Kw, but as it gets closer to 100% this will slow down, as it does in all cars. Even the super-fast Taycan will charge relatively slowly at that point. The car will only take what it needs from the charger.

I have had my SE SR on 350 Kw Ionity and Gridserve chargers, and the most I have ever seen it take is 85 Kw. I also have Cobham in my sights for my third charge on my way to Brighton in the summer, it looks like an excellent choice.

 

[Loveclose]

Thanks for confirming this - I had been perusing my route for sure, and the one service station we use regularly was the only one I've found so far that has the 350kw rate!!

 

[kiwi]

Can't comment on UK prices but here in NZ it's common to pay roughly 10% premium to use chargers over about 75kW or so.

 

[Rolfe]

Thanks for confirming this - I had been perusing my route for sure, and the one service station we use regularly was the only one I've found so far that has the 350kw rate!!

The trick is to try to find chargers that offer at least what your car can accept. So you're looking for anything of 150 Kw or over. Also watch out for shared power. Some of these units will split 350 Kw between two cars if they're plugged in next to each other and in that situation the maximum a single car can get is less. It's not always clear however if the charger will simply offer each car 175 Kw, or whether it will cleverly offer a car that's asking for more a higher rate of charge if the other one is either slow because it's nearly full, or because it just doesn't charge so fast (like the SR). Obviously you're still OK with a 350 Kw unite that is sharing power, but someone in a Taycan may give you a dirty look if you plug in next to him on a charger like that. Ionitys, as far as I know, don't share power though, so it's not an issue.

I'm quite happy with anything from 100 Kw up, because the most I'm ever going to get is 90 Kw on a really good day. But if it's a choice between a 50 Kw unit and a 350 Kw one (as it often is, when big new chargers have been installed somewhere that also has the old Gridserve setup) I'm going for a 350 Kw one if I can get it. Especially since the 50 Kw ones also split the charge sometimes and you can end up with only 25 Kw on a bad day.

Can't comment on UK prices but here in NZ it's common to pay roughly 10% premium to use chargers over about 75kW or so.

That's not commonly seen here.

 

[Grriff]

As Rolfe has said, the rate of charge decreases as the charge nears 100%. It's generally considered to be more time-efficient to charge to 80% twice than 100% in a single charge session. It's also more considerate if drivers are waiting.

 

[Loveclose]

As Rolfe has said, the rate of charge decreases as the charge nears 100%. It's generally considered to be more time-efficient to charge to 80% twice than 100% in a single charge session. It's also more considerate if drivers are waiting.

Yep, I figure that 80% charge would get me to my next caffeine stop well before I get to 10%!!
Charger etiquette is getting more familiar, although I have yet to visit a charger in earnest.....

 

[Rolfe]

Don't stress it too much unless there's a serious queue. If you need 85% to make your next viable charging stop, take it.

The real ire is reserved for the people who disappear until their car is at 100% when a lot of people are waiting. Bear in mind it's a progressive fall-off in speed, and 80% to 90% is still a lot faster than 90% to 95%, which is itself positively speedy compared to 95% to 100%.

If you really want to get on, you yourself are likely to be losing patience past 90%.

If you want to stop for a while, maybe have a decent meal and take the dog for a walk, there's always the ploy of connecting to one of the old 50 kW chargers.

 

[tsedge]

Sorry if this is an obvious question, but I thought I'd ask those in the know before I blow up my MG....

I'm already starting to plan the one regular long journey I do (216 mile round trip). In the summer, it is possible I may be able to do this without the need to charge, unless I use the vehicle whilst at the destination.... The Cobham services on the M25 are the obvious half-way point if charging is needed, but the chargers rate there are 350kw. Now I know that my MG4 will not charge at that rate, but I'm just asking if it's ok to use chargers of that capacity, relying on the car to restrict the rate as required. There are 50kw chargers their too, I believe, but none at around 100 or 150kw.
Thank you for reading this.

You can use any charger of any rating. The actual rate you'll get is strongly influenced by the temperature of your battery and the car's limits.

In summer, I can get a 140kW peak charge rate, but this will be only between about 10-50% SOC (state of charge). Then it will drop. At 80% I get about 50kW in summer, 30kW at 90%.

When the battery is cold in winter, these figures will be considerably less. This winter I've seen a peak around 100kW, dropping to 30kW at 80%, 20kW at 90%.

It takes only about 20-25 minutes or so to go from 20-80% when the battery is warm. This is the sweet spot for long journeys with repeated chargers.

 

[dwoop]

We had to take a 50kW charger at Cherwell Valley recently (an iPace had parked diagonally across 2 spaces on the 350kW bank and disappeared ?) and were pleasantly surprised at the speed of the charge - it actually gave us 64kW and we were topped up by the time we had “freshened up” bought our lunch and eaten it. So, in future I’ll be less picky about what charger I use, as long as we need a break.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes, that happened to me the first time I went to Cherwell Valley. The car charged pretty quickly. On the way back home I got one of the 350 kW units and to be honest it didn't seem all that much quicker. On the SR though!

 

[jwoo2507]

Yes, it's absolutely OK. Your car will negotiate with the charger for whatever charge it can accept at the time, and it can't possibly over-charge. The 350 Kw is simply the maximum the charger can deliver, but I'm not even sure that there is a car available in Britain that can charge at that rate. Maybe the new face-lifted Taycan, on a good day?

Your car will charge at a maximum of about 145 Kw, but as it gets closer to 100% this will slow down, as it does in all cars. Even the super-fast Taycan will charge relatively slowly at that point. The car will only take what it needs from the charger.

I have had my SE SR on 350 Kw Ionity and Gridserve chargers, and the most I have ever seen it take is 85 Kw. I also have Cobham in my sights for my third charge on my way to Brighton in the summer, it looks like an excellent choice.

Just as an aside. The please pottage (just off m23) are brilliant for charging and I believe cheaper than m25 chertsey

 

[AdrianVolly]

Someone did mention it earlier about price. I think it will cost more per KW if you choose a faster charger. So, if you're not in a hurry then perhaps a 50KW point will be fine. And have a good rest and stretch legs. This works for me as long as I've anticipated the longer wait and don't mind.

 

[siteguru]

That's not always the case though, but it does have some logic to it.

 

[Rolfe]

Just as an aside. The please pottage (just off m23) are brilliant for charging and I believe cheaper than m25 chertsey

I looked at Pease Pottage, but it's too far for me from NEC Birmingham.

Someone did mention it earlier about price. I think it will cost more per KW if you choose a faster charger. So, if you're not in a hurry then perhaps a 50KW point will be fine. And have a good rest and stretch legs. This works for me as long as I've anticipated the longer wait and don't mind.

I'm not seeing much price difference between different powers of DC charger. I mean you'd think, wouldn't you, but usually it seems to be much the same.

With the SR I don't mind too much going on a 50 Kw charger, but even so, if I can get one with enough power to get my 85 Kw max charging speed, I'll have it!

 

[Joningy]

Yes, it's absolutely OK. Your car will negotiate with the charger for whatever charge it can accept at the time, and it can't possibly over-charge. The 350 Kw is simply the maximum the charger can deliver, but I'm not even sure that there is a car available in Britain that can charge at that rate. Maybe the new face-lifted Taycan, on a good day?

Your car will charge at a maximum of about 145 Kw, but as it gets closer to 100% this will slow down, as it does in all cars. Even the super-fast Taycan will charge relatively slowly at that point. The car will only take what it needs from the charger.

I have had my SE SR on 350 Kw Ionity and Gridserve chargers, and the most I have ever seen it take is 85 Kw. I also have Cobham in my sights for my third charge on my way to Brighton in the summer, it looks like an excellent choice.

Sorry if this is an obvious question, but I thought I'd ask those in the know before I blow up my MG....

I'm already starting to plan the one regular long journey I do (216 mile round trip). In the summer, it is possible I may be able to do this without the need to charge, unless I use the vehicle whilst at the destination.... The Cobham services on the M25 are the obvious half-way point if charging is needed, but the chargers rate there are 350kw. Now I know that my MG4 will not charge at that rate, but I'm just asking if it's ok to use chargers of that capacity, relying on the car to restrict the rate as required. There are 50kw chargers their too, I believe, but none at around 100 or 150kw.
Thank you for reading this.

We used Cobham Services to charge up to 95% 4 weeks ago, so our return home from Gatwick Airport, in our new MG4 Trophy LR didn't need another charge. Worked well.
Rolfe was correct in saying absolutely no harm to the car, it will only charge to a max set by MG, irrespective of the output of the charge unit.

 

[Profpalindrome]

One more tip for a road trip is that I would download the Tesla App and think about using the Tesla superchargers that are open to everyone, it is a fraction of the entire SC network but getting bigger all the time. I always look to see if there are any available on road trips that I take and I have even been known to take a detour in order to use them. The advantages are that they are (as far as I can tell) the cheapest of any of the rapid chargers, there are always multiple chargers so less of a chance to be queuing and they always appear to work (in my experience). The disadvantage is that Mr Musk is a bit of a .............. (insert as you see fit)

 

[Loveclose]

We used Cobham Services to charge up to 95% 4 weeks ago, so our return home from Gatwick Airport, in our new MG4 Trophy LR didn't need another charge. Worked well.
Rolfe was correct in saying absolutely no harm to the car, it will only charge to a max set by MG, irrespective of the output of the charge unit.

That's good to know.... thank you for your reply!

 

[GrayCat]

Well-known e-mobile DataBase:
MG MG4 Electric Long Range charging curve & performance:

MG MG4 Electric Long Range charging curve & performance :: evkx.net

Below is the charging curve for MG MG4 Electric Long Range, illustrating the charging speed at various battery levels. Additionally, graphs for range and time provide comprehensive details on charging performance.

evkx.net

https://evkx.net/models/mg/mg4/mg4_electric_long_range/chargingcurve.svg

 

[Scarbs]

Well-known e-mobile DataBase:
MG MG4 Electric Long Range charging curve & performance:

MG MG4 Electric Long Range charging curve & performance :: evkx.net

Below is the charging curve for MG MG4 Electric Long Range, illustrating the charging speed at various battery levels. Additionally, graphs for range and time provide comprehensive details on charging performance.

evkx.net

https://evkx.net/models/mg/mg4/mg4_electric_long_range/chargingcurve.svg

View attachment 24278

Thank you GrayCat this is very useful. Do you have a chart for AC charging as well?