MG4 - First UK dealer hands on photos and specifications

Hi Miles
Please can you ask them about towing and towbars for bike carriers as well, across both battery sizes. The absence of either is a bit of a deal breaker, and your colleague will be aware of the capacity of the ID.3 (0, 75kg), Kona (300kg, 100kg) and e-Niro (750kg, 100kg).
Thanks in advance!
This page seems to this it has 1500kg towing.

 
As always when a new model is released I'm looking forward to see the respective charge profiles. Too often in the past peak rates that are only achieved for a few minutes are quoted. I'm hopeful that the MG4 will offer a flatter profile with near peak charge rates maintained for a longer period.

Many vehicles (I'm thinking of you Mk1 ZS) charge at significantly slower rates when the ambient temperature is low, even if the car has been driven hard for a long time to warm the battery before plugging in. I guess we won't know how the MG4 fares in this regard until there are significant numbers in use in a colder climate.

What I hope we will see is an ability to add 100 miles range in about 20 mins from say 20% SoC in all conditions on a 75kW+ rapid.

The other thing that I've yet to see mentioned is the likely service interval and costs. Will the 3rd or 4th service be especially expensive for instance?
 
What I hope we will see is an ability to add 100 miles range in about 20 mins from say 20% SoC in all conditions on a 75kW+ rapid.
That's quite an ask. Assuming 4 miles/kWh that's 25kWh in 20 minutes, so an average rate of 75kW which would need at least a 90kW charger. For the smaller battery that's 20-70% and the larger battery 20-60% so before you'd expect significant throttling.
 
That's quite an ask. Assuming 4 miles/kWh that's 25kWh in 20 minutes, so an average rate of 75kW which would need at least a 90kW charger. For the smaller battery that's 20-70% and the larger battery 20-60% so before you'd expect significant throttling.
Is ir? The Ioniq 5 or EV6 with a 77 kWh battery can add 100 km (60 miles) in less than 5 mins, or go from 0-80% (adding over 61 kWh) in less than 20 mins. The MG4 LR charge rate is quoted as up to 125 kW. We can expect some gradual tapering of charge speed beyond around 80% SoC but on a charger rated at more than 75 kW that is the sort of speed we should expect isn't it?

Compare the EV6 charge profile

1660202436137.png

with the ZS EV profile
1660202562455.png
 
Is ir? The Ioniq 5 or EV6 with a 77 kWh battery can add 100 km (60 miles) in less than 5 mins, or go from 0-80% (adding over 61 kWh) in less than 20 mins. The MG4 LR charge rate is quoted as up to 125 kW. We can expect some gradual tapering of charge speed beyond around 80% SoC but on a charger rated at more than 75 kW that is the sort of speed we should expect isn't it?

Compare the EV6 charge profile

View attachment 10201
with the ZS EV profile
View attachment 10202

The EV6 costs nearly 50% more than the most expensive MG4 ? Not really a fair expectation imo.
 
Is ir? The Ioniq 5 or EV6 with a 77 kWh battery can add 100 km (60 miles) in less than 5 mins, or go from 0-80% (adding over 61 kWh) in less than 20 mins. The MG4 LR charge rate is quoted as up to 125 kW. We can expect some gradual tapering of charge speed beyond around 80% SoC but on a charger rated at more than 75 kW that is the sort of speed we should expect isn't it?

Compare the EV6 charge profile

View attachment 10201
with the ZS EV profile
View attachment 10202
mg5 lr using the battery heater got 92kW from 10% to 35% then 78kw to 45% then it dropped to about 68kw till at least 60% and I stopped recording. I do know it can still pull >50kw up to 80%.
So that looks like it averages around 80kw for 10%-60% and even if it throttles to 50kw for 60% -80% that would still average out >70kw.
I would expect the MG4 to come in at a similar but slightly improved average rate. So more that 10%-60% would be better than 70 kW for the MG4 SE and better than 85 kW for the MG4 LR.
 
Is ir? The Ioniq 5 or EV6 with a 77 kWh battery can add 100 km (60 miles) in less than 5 mins, or go from 0-80% (adding over 61 kWh) in less than 20 mins. The MG4 LR charge rate is quoted as up to 125 kW. We can expect some gradual tapering of charge speed beyond around 80% SoC but on a charger rated at more than 75 kW that is the sort of speed we should expect isn't it?

Compare the EV6 charge profile

View attachment 10201
with the ZS EV profile
View attachment 10202
The Ionic and KIA achieve those speeds on 800v chargers - there's no mention of that technology with the MG4.
But even on 400v they are fast - clearly it's something that they have prioritised. We'll have to wait to see what Bjorn finds when he gets one, and how accessible the fastest rates actually are as he has to go to extremes to achieve them on the South Korean cars.
 
Hi yes your right to say the Trophy should have And I sure hope it does but it is not listed in the specs on the MG website so I was just quoting the Specs and nothing else I couldn’t believe satnav is not in the SEs sorry if i cause any Confusion

Just looking at MG website Adam it is not listed there, but hopefully it’s as benfello said above, the Trophy will have it as well as the SatNav but it does say that anywhere, I apologise if I’m wrong had I had said to Amun who asked the question yes it will everything on all 3 as all other models do have as he rightly point out then that would have been far more misleading in my book.

I have never even tried to use CarPlay or android auto quite happy with the satnav in my MG5 but if we do order a MG4 SE for the wife we will need to learn how or get the old TomTom out and update it seeing has it’s not been used In a good good while and as I said above sorry for any confusion I may have caused.

Im no expert on MGs or any other cars but I do always read all specs sheets and Owners handbooks from cover to cover when I am first given them that’s where I discovered the issues with the roof rails buy reading MGs handbook on line before I even had the car.
Les
@Les burrows , on your phone get AmiGO app, it is Tomtom, is free and is pretty good, I've been trying it out recently.
 
The Ionic and KIA achieve those speeds on 800v chargers - there's no mention of that technology with the MG4.
But even on 400v they are fast - clearly it's something that they have prioritised. We'll have to wait to see what Bjorn finds when he gets one, and how accessible the fastest rates actually are as he has to go to extremes to achieve them on the South Korean cars.
Yes you are right, the Ioniq 5 and EV6 are able to charge at 800V and hence a direct comparison is unfair. There are multiple technical problems at charging at these high rates, not least managing the heat generated, so it should be possible for other manufacturers to achieve around half their speed at 400V assuming that the charger itself is not the limiting factor.

My substantive point though is that it not about quoted peak charge rates, but about the shape of the charge profile and the time it takes to add a substantial amount of energy. The WalkingBootWeather metric would be time taken to add 50% of battery capacity (20-70% SoC) as that would be more useful than a peak value.

From what @aled says charge rates and profile have improved from Mk1 ZS to 5 and we might hope and expect to see further improvements with the 4. The proof of the pudding will be the tasting but it is difficult to make purchasing decisions when this sort of info is unknown.
 
The EV6 costs nearly 50% more than the most expensive MG4 ? Not really a fair expectation imo.
So what is a fair expectation for a car marketed as being able to charge at a peak rate of 125 kW when the charger is not the limiting factor?

Give us a meaningful real-world metric such as time necessary to take on sufficient charge to travel 100 miles without having to get down to single figure SoC or to drive in a particular way to pre-condition battery.
 
So what is a fair expectation for a car marketed as being able to charge at a peak rate of 125 kW when the charger is not the limiting factor?

Give us a meaningful real-world metric such as time necessary to take on sufficient charge to travel 100 miles without having to get down to single figure SoC or to drive in a particular way to pre-condition battery.
I find this kind of info interesting but am mostly happy that it will charge faster and go further than my MK1 ZS ☺️
 
I find this kind of info interesting but am mostly happy that it will charge faster and go further than my MK1 ZS ☺️
In general I agree with you right up to the point where you are significantly inconvenienced. Case in point; I made a 250 mile journey to attend a funeral in January 2001 and found that my Mk1 ZS was charging at around 30kW even after driving fairly fast for 120 miles and arriving at around 10% SoC, and hence taking more than an hour to go from 10-80% and add another 100 miles range. I still had to make a second charging stop adding a further 15kW in around half an hour and only just arrived in time for the service.

Before purchasing I was told that the car would charge at a peak rate of 76 kW, and influencers were releasing videos suggesting high rates were possible, without dwelling on the fact that this was only possible under a very particular set of conditions. Since I'd mainly charged at home I had not appreciated how much slower than advertised the car would charge in practice.

All I'm asking for is for honest, real world performance to be made available so that we can make an informed buying decision. That applies to all vehicles not just MG but I'd expect manufacturers to know what the charge profile of their vehicle looks like, so why do we have to wait until they are released and independently tested to know what they are?
 
So what is a fair expectation for a car marketed as being able to charge at a peak rate of 125 kW when the charger is not the limiting factor?

Give us a meaningful real-world metric such as time necessary to take on sufficient charge to travel 100 miles without having to get down to single figure SoC or to drive in a particular way to pre-condition battery.
Based on my experience charging the mg5 lr and the spec of the mg4 I would say 160 miles of real world range added in half an hour if you charge from 10%. This is a guess Based on me charging the mg5 lr and the difference in specification it has to the mg4 hopefully without any mistakes.
I used the 100% range of 225 from ev database and assumed it would charge 25% faster as the peak mg4 is 125 and mg5 is 100. The mg4 se would likely be 130 miles in half an hour since its battery is smaller.
 
In general I agree with you right up to the point where you are significantly inconvenienced. Case in point; I made a 250 mile journey to attend a funeral in January 2001 and found that my Mk1 ZS was charging at around 30kW even after driving fairly fast for 120 miles and arriving at around 10% SoC, and hence taking more than an hour to go from 10-80% and add another 100 miles range. I still had to make a second charging stop adding a further 15kW in around half an hour and only just arrived in time for the service.

Before purchasing I was told that the car would charge at a peak rate of 76 kW, and influencers were releasing videos suggesting high rates were possible, without dwelling on the fact that this was only possible under a very particular set of conditions. Since I'd mainly charged at home I had not appreciated how much slower than advertised the car would charge in practice.

All I'm asking for is for honest, real world performance to be made available so that we can make an informed buying decision. That applies to all vehicles not just MG but I'd expect manufacturers to know what the charge profile of their vehicle looks like, so why do we have to wait until they are released and independently tested to know what they are?
The problem with the mk1 zs and the mg5 standard range is there is no way to preheat the battery. The mg5 lr has a battery heater that you can turn on that significantly improved the rapid charge speed.
 
In general I agree with you right up to the point where you are significantly inconvenienced. Case in point; I made a 250 mile journey to attend a funeral in January 2001 and found that my Mk1 ZS was charging at around 30kW even after driving fairly fast for 120 miles and arriving at around 10% SoC, and hence taking more than an hour to go from 10-80% and add another 100 miles range. I still had to make a second charging stop adding a further 15kW in around half an hour and only just arrived in time for the service.

Before purchasing I was told that the car would charge at a peak rate of 76 kW, and influencers were releasing videos suggesting high rates were possible, without dwelling on the fact that this was only possible under a very particular set of conditions. Since I'd mainly charged at home I had not appreciated how much slower than advertised the car would charge in practice.

All I'm asking for is for honest, real world performance to be made available so that we can make an informed buying decision. That applies to all vehicles not just MG but I'd expect manufacturers to know what the charge profile of their vehicle looks like, so why do we have to wait until they are released and independently tested to know what they are?
As far as I know, all chargers in the UK are load balanced, and to expect the same charge rate, wherever you charge is unrealistic. The manufacturer cannot and will not supply you with information on what to expect, as again, that all depends on the amount of people charging around you, at any given time. I have very rarely achieved the advertised charge rate, and that’s purely as I was the only one charging, and that is diminishing by the day, as more EV’s are sold.
 
The problem with the mk1 zs and the mg5 standard range is there is no way to preheat the battery. The mg5 lr has a battery heater that you can turn on that significantly improved the rapid charge speed.
Interesting. A battery heating option was offered for the Mk1 ZS for a while but it was found that in the UK the improvement in charge speed did not justify the energy needed to pre-heat the battery. Do we know if the MG4 has a battery heater and what the impact of that might be? Does the active grill make any difference to battery temperature and hence charge speed?
 
Interesting. A battery heating option was offered for the Mk1 ZS for a while but it was found that in the UK the improvement in charge speed did not justify the energy needed to pre-heat the battery. Do we know if the MG4 has a battery heater and what the impact of that might be? Does the active grill make any difference to battery temprature and hence charge speed?
From memory the mk1 zs update was made for sub zero climates where it was not managing to rapid charge properly as the heat generated when charging wasn't enough to warm the battery enough to allow higher speeds. I believe it only heated the battery when temperature was lower than -10 as they found when it was cold in norway the charge speed was ridiculously low and the waste heat was not enough to allow faster charging as the battery warmed. The battery heater on the mg5 lr heats the battery to something like 20°C when you turn it on and keeps the battery warm ready to achieve high charge rates when you get to a rapid.
 
As far as I know, all chargers in the UK are load balanced, and to expect the same charge rate, wherever you charge is unrealistic. The manufacturer cannot and will not supply you with information on what to expect, as again, that all depends on the amount of people charging around you, at any given time. I have very rarely achieved the advertised charge rate, and that’s purely as I was the only one charging, and that is diminishing by the day, as more EV’s are sold.
I get that in the real world there are variations, but the likes of Fastned are able to produce charge profile graphs and WLTP figures are published so clearly it is possible to standardise metrics.

We still run 2 EVs - a Kia Soul and a Mk 1 ZS. The ZS although being a generation newer with the larger battery and a higher claimed peak charge rate, in practise takes considerably longer to charge at a rapid in winter. The Soul typically charges as around 42kW, and the ZS at around 32kW. Those figures are experienced at the same chargers and similar conditions.

But we are getting distracted, all I'm wanting to know is what the charging performance of the MG4 will likely be in normal use. Is that really an unreasonable ask?
 

Are you enjoying your MG4?

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