MG4 in Australia

[clayton4115]

I've just done Melbourne - Sydney in my 51.

Worked really well but running along at 110 km/h has you pretty much going charger to charger.
I nearly got caught out at Avenel with the Evie station being out of order, but luckily just made it to Euroa.
After that I was being a lot more cautious about my options in case a station wasn't working.

Never again long distance trips, the past Christmas 2023 Bris - Melb - Bris trip in our Ioniq for the most stressful experience i've ever had in my life because of broken chargers, others hogging chargers etc - that's why I am going all out with the 77 to give me all the range I can get.

Even those may not be reliable soon since Elon has sacked the whole team

Govt money is there so someone else will step in i.e Chargefox, EVIE et al

 

[NLMGSAN]

Even those may not be reliable soon since Elon has sacked the whole team

What happened? Is this an Aussi issue?

 

[clayton4115]

What happened? Is this an Aussi issue?

Tesla Fans Furious as Company Fires Supercharger Team, Cancels Supercharger Leases

Tesla owners, who had long been compelled by Musk's vision for a fast-charging network, are furious by the Supercharger team being laid off.

futurism.com

 

[wattmatters]

Did you end the charge process manually?

Yes, we'd finished our lunch break and I stopped the session when I got back to the car. It was still the only car plugged in at the 12 station site so it's not like I was hogging a spot.

Even those may not be reliable soon since Elon has sacked the whole team

I guess a bit of a shake up every now and then is a thing with Tesla. Tech companies seem to make a sport of it.

Hopefully not a big change to the roll out here, with most of the sites I'm interested in at least being govt subsidised so I'd expect them to continue with those plans.

Never again long distance trips, the past Christmas 20223 Bris - Melb - Bris trip in our Ioniq for the most stressful experience i've ever had in my life because of broken chargers, others hogging chargers etc

Yeah that sucks. What is the range in an Ioniq?

I just look at the supercharger sites which are open to all EVs and would plan trip stops based around those plus destination charging.

Other network chargers are on a "no other choice" basis.

 

[clayton4115]

Yeah that sucks. What is the range in an Ionic?

I just look at the supercharger sites which are open to all EVs and would plan trip stops based around those plus destination charging.

Other network chargers are on a "no other choice" basis.

View attachment 26241

To add salt to my wounds we stopped at the Wagga Tesla super charger to charge but it would not work - the one in Dubbo did - so I thought this one would as well as it is open to non tesla's but it would not work with my Ioniq. Thank goodness I had enough charge to get us to Tarcutta where I charged there on the Evie chargers. Horrible horrible experience, however I do suppose the small battery on this car was a contributing factor. Country drives with this car and around 150 kms I am looking for a charger.

 

[wattmatters]

Is this the original Ioniq / 38 kWh?
That would be stressful.

 

[clayton4115]

Is this the original Ioniq / 38 kWh?
That would be stressful.

No the original 28

 

[wattmatters]

No the original 28

Oof. Yeah, pretty brave to try that trip in that car.

 

[clayton4115]

Oof. Yeah, pretty brave to try that trip in that car.

Yeah not going to do it again, next road trip to Melb will be in the 77 MG4 I worked it out that there will be no charger anxiety at all if I were to travel using the 77 and need a charge around 300 kms the only charge stop that would may need me to wait would be at Barnawatha north.

When we travel we are in no rush so the x has the overnight stops

Home Brisbane southside	Kms
Tenterfield Tesla	270
Tamworth Tesla	300
Gunnedah x	76
Dubbo Tesla	265
Cootamundra x	317
Wagga Tesla	90
Barnawatha North	150
Melbourne Western suburbs	302

 

[Wil Tryharder]

Rare as hens teeth!
Hi from Noosa on the Sunshine Coast.
Just joined MGEVs, great community and the advice is awesome. So thank you in advance.

We ordered our MG4 last week. We've gone for whats called in the brochure a MG4 Long Range 77, Volcano Orange! We had a couple of test drives and I was really impressed. I'm not sure what it's like in the rest of the world but here they just get you to sign a crazy insurance deal and send you off on you own Literally 30 seconds tuition and you're away into the traffic with LKA and OPD on full. "Take it down the highway, see how it goes". Was the dealers parting comment. I made a mental note not to buy a demonstrator car ever! lol

Rather frustratingly orange 77's are 'As rare as hens teeth'. So it looks like we've got to wait for the next ship to arrive from China. End of May apparently. Even more frustratingly Our dealer can't tell us if there is an unsold, orange, 77 on the ship. So if that doesn't work out it's the next ship after that, which is anyones guess. Still, plenty to look forward too.

I've made the rookie error and order a shed load of mods. 14 at the last count, including a colour coordinated reg plate. I've sounded out the local ceramic coating specialist and they're ready to go. I think I might ask the dealership not to put any 'pre-delivery' wax on the car prior to pick up. Seems reasonable? And we're just in the process of upgrading our solar installation. We already have 3phase supply, so with the panels going up to 15kW and a new 13kW 3phase inverter, and a smartish charger, it'll be interesting to see just how low we can bring our $/km. I could well be setting up a V2L charging/station/circuit for all the lithium power tools and the battery powered ride on mower. It feels like the snowball is off and running, and the dollars are flying out the door lol.

The dealer has just sent me some pics of the official MG tow bar that was installed a MG4 last week. And they raise many questions, so I'll be back with those shortly.

 

[White Walker]

Rare as hens teeth!
Hi from Noosa on the Sunshine Coast.
Just joined MGEVs, great community and the advice is awesome. So thank you in advance.

We ordered our MG4 last week. We've gone for whats called in the brochure a MG4 Long Range 77, Volcano Orange! We had a couple of test drives and I was really impressed. I'm not sure what it's like in the rest of the world but here they just get you to sign a crazy insurance deal and send you off on you own Literally 30 seconds tuition and you're away into the traffic with LKA and OPD on full. "Take it down the highway, see how it goes". Was the dealers parting comment. I made a mental note not to buy a demonstrator car ever! lol

Rather frustratingly orange 77's are 'As rare as hens teeth'. So it looks like we've got to wait for the next ship to arrive from China. End of May apparently. Even more frustratingly Our dealer can't tell us if there is an unsold, orange, 77 on the ship. So if that doesn't work out it's the next ship after that, which is anyones guess. Still, plenty to look forward too.

I've made the rookie error and order a shed load of mods. 14 at the last count, including a colour coordinated reg plate. I've sounded out the local ceramic coating specialist and they're ready to go. I think I might ask the dealership not to put any 'pre-delivery' wax on the car prior to pick up. Seems reasonable? And we're just in the process of upgrading our solar installation. We already have 3phase supply, so with the panels going up to 15Kw and a new 13Kw 3phase inverter, and a smartish charger, it'll be interesting to see just how low we can bring our $/Km. I could well be setting up a V2L charging/station/circuit for all the lithium power tools and the battery powered ride on mower. It feels like the snowball is off and running, and the dollars are flying out the door lol.

The dealer has just sent me some pics of the official MG tow bar that was installed a MG4 last week. And they raise many questions, so I'll be back with those shortly.

Go hard, I love it

 

[NLMGSAN]

Go hard, I love it

Did not know there was a tow bar for the ER? Or could it have been a version for 64/51 kWh.

 

[wattmatters]

When we travel we are in no rush so the x has the overnight stops

Any reason for New England inland route?

The M1 (then M31/Hume from Sydney) is faster and with more charge options. And in general it's a safer road. I guess at present the 360km gap between Knockrow (Byron) and Thrumster (Port Macquarie) supercharger sites is quite long, leaving you reliant on other charge networks in Coffs Harbour (and it's pretty thin there for non-Tesla, until the new all access Tesla supercharger site gets built) but there are backup charge options in Nambucca and Macksville not that much further along.

I guess with the 77 the 300km legs are OK. I'd be looking for a charge stop before then in the 64. Getting below 20% is a risk IMO (as that represents a spare 75km of range to get out of trouble if we come across a failed charge stop) and with DC charging you are not getting up to 100% SOC, generally hitting 80-90%.

We were getting over 90% on our stops but that's because (i) there were plenty of spare stations so we were not holding anyone up and (ii) our stop time was dictated by what we were doing (coffee/lunch break), not what they car needed.

Our preference now is to have a break roughly about every 2 hours so where that can also be a charge stop. For us Thrumster is only 140km / 90 min away so a shorter leg to start with but we are OK with that, and then Raymond Terrace is another 210km / 2hrs10.

If heading to Victoria:
Raymond Terrace to Campbelltown is 215km / 2hrs20
Yass another 220km / 2hrs30
Albury another 275km / 2hrs50
Melbourne is a stretch at 325 km so we'd be reliant on other charge networks and that's not so great.

 

[clayton4115]

Any reason for New England inland route?

The M1 (then M31/Hume from Sydney) is faster and with more charge options. And in general it's a safer road. I guess at present the 360km gap between Knockrow (Byron) and Thrumster (Port Macquarie) supercharger sites is quite long, leaving you reliant on other charge networks in Coffs Harbour (and it's pretty thin there for non-Tesla, until the new all access Tesla supercharger site gets built) but there are backup charge options in Nambucca and Macksville not that much further along.

I guess with the 77 the 300km legs are OK. I'd be looking for a charge stop before then in the 64. Getting below 20% is a risk IMO (as that represents a spare 75km of range to get out of trouble if we come across a failed charge stop) and with DC charging you are not getting up to 100% SOC, generally hitting 80-90%.

We were getting over 90% on our stops but that's because (i) there were plenty of spare stations so we were not holding anyone up and (ii) our stop time was dictated by what we were doing (coffee/lunch break), not what they car needed.

Our preference now is to have a break roughly about every 2 hours so where that can also be a charge stop. For us Thrumster is only 140km / 90 min away so a shorter leg to start with but we are OK with that, and then Raymond Terrace is another 210km / 2hrs10.

If heading to Victoria:
Raymond Terrace to Campbelltown is 215km / 2hrs20
Yass another 220km / 2hrs30
Albury another 275km / 2hrs50
Melbourne is a stretch at 325 km so we'd be reliant on other charge networks and that's not so great.

I prefer the inland route, - avoid Sydney and the tolls and possibly traffic jams if there is a crash on those ring roads, we came back via Sydney and it cost me $30 in tolls. However the road from Melb-Syd-Brisbane coastal route is first class, very high quality and well built.

Factoring in 300kms before charge should give enough buffer but if I am aiming to charge at a Tesla charger then non working chargers should not be an issue and no need for a back up.

 

[clayton4115]

Are these dealers stupid or something? In Queensland the state government will give you $6000 as a rebate if you buy a fully electric car - but it has to be brand new I see the brand new 77 are selling for, driveaway price $52,990 - the $6,000 rebate it will be $46,990, however on CarSales I see demos going for way over that price.

https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/used/mg/mg4/long-range-77-badge/queensland-state/hatch-bodystyle/?sort=Price

 

[leonkernan]

Well I'm back in Melbourne now after the trip to Sydney.
Ended up doing around 2000km over 4 days. 14 charging stops in all.

In my Prius C I've done each way in a day, with the Excite 51 I split it with a stop at Albury on the way up and Wagga on the way back.

On the way up I went from Albury to Yass via Wagga and Cootamundra. The car left the Wagga supercharger with 86% and got to Yass with about 9% left. That was probably the riskiest part of the trip since there were no fallback options anywhere except going out of my way to Young.

Sticking to the freeway otherwise wasn't too bad. The car was comfortable and quiet. The cruise and lanekeeping worked incredibly well at times and other times wanted to throw me off the road. It seems like any sort of turning lane or break in the lines on the left seemed to be a tossup if it would continue straight or try to drag itself off to the left.

Haven't had the AEB update yet, it's booked in to check for that on Wednesday.

I can highly recommend ABRP, it nailed every prediction along the trip. I feed it data automatically from my Home Assistant setup at home and it got it right every time.
I wouldn't have even attempted the detour via Coota without it telling me it could be done.

 

[clayton4115]

Well I'm back in Melbourne now.
Ended up doing around 2000km over 4 days. 14 charging stops in all.

In my Prius C I've done each way in a day, with the Excite 51 I split it with a stop at Albury on the way up and Wagga on the way back.

On the way up I went from Albury to Yass via Wagga and Cootamundra. The car left the Wagga supercharger with 86% and got to Yass with about 9% left. That was probably the riskiest part of the trip since there were no fallback options anywhere except going out of my way to Young.

Sticking to the freeway otherwise wasn't too bad. The car was comfortable and quiet. The cruise and lanekeeping worked incredibly well at times and other times wanted to throw me off the road. It seems like any sort of turning lane or break in the lines on the left seemed to be a tossup if it would continue straight or try to drag itself off to the left.

Haven't had the AEB update yet, it's booked in to check for that on Wednesday.

I can highly recommend ABRP, it nailed every prediction along the trip. I feed it data automatically from my Home Assistant setup at home and it got it right every time.
I wouldn't have even attempted the detour via Coota without it telling me it could be done.

Thanks for sharing your trip, where did you go ?

 

[leonkernan]

Thanks for sharing your trip, where did you go ?

Ah sorry, Sydney. Was a continuation from the post that fell onto the previous page.

 

[clayton4115]

Ah sorry, Sydney. Was a continuation from the post that fell onto the previous page.

any reason you stopped at 86% at Wagga?

 

[leonkernan]

any reason you stopped at 86% at Wagga?

ABRP told me that was enough, plus I had to get to Sydney by the end of the day for other reasons.

Basically, I didn't want to waste any more time than I had to. That dictated how long I charged at a lot of places.

It also pissed me off when I had to wait for someone who insisted on getting to 100% exactly at Goulburn KFC Chargefox.