Mini North Island New Zealand road trip

[kiwi]

So it's Christmas and the family festivities are in Hamilton. We live in Waikanae, roughly 384 km (238 miles) one way and 6 hours driving south. However, we needed to make a detour to visit a friend with a new property in Inglewood. That added detour makes one way of the round trip 518 km (322 miles). While the direct path home will be on SH1, the trip up via Inglewood was very much B roads for more than half of the trip. So all up 900 km.

The choice of transport was our proven red ZS EV 51 base spec (goes fast because it's red) or the brand new white MG4 Essence (Trophy) 64 (stealthy but longer range). The choice... yeah nah, there really was no choice.

So a good shakedown trip for my wife and I. First action was a top up fast charge last night using a Tesla Supercharger as detailed in my post here:

New Zealand Tesla charging experience

First charge on Tesla in Bulls! Six 250 kW stalls.

www.mgevs.com

Driving at night we found the headlights on high beam sprayed too much light at the trees and not enough on the road, as noted in another thread. I also found the cabin displays too bright even on the minimum setting for unlit back roads.

This morning we stopped in Stratford and used a Z Energy charger which ran nicely up to 142 kW to about 50% before dropping off, about 30 minutes to hit 95%. We always leave plenty of margin in case the charger we are aiming for is out of service. Z is 69c per kWh.

Noted the previously mentioned bug where the Apple CarPay controls swap sides automagically. Or at least I don't know what makes it happen:

The last two examples are less than a half hour apart. Yes, I know I haven't peeled off the plastic protection film.

Anyway, another top up charge this evening at Z in Te Kūiti took 35 minutes to get from 44% to 95%:

Finally arrived Hamilton with 75% charge with an average consumption of 18.2 kWh per 100 km over some pretty twisty turny roads Including Mt Messenger. Spotted three other MG4 examples on the way up, all blue. About a million Teslas too.

Thoughts on the MG4? Driving is really really great, the LKA start up defaults are manageable, and the high charge rate is excellent for long trips. White gets dirty quickly on rural roads. There are bugs in the software (we also had one Apple CarPlay freeze) that really need to be sorted.

Postscript on the vehicle, it arrived from China second week of this month. The entertainment software versions are:

SWI165-29176-1100R11
SNAKP0432A

 

[siteguru]

You guys certainly have different software numbering from us, as here 1100Rxx denotes the SE (Excite) model range, and the Trophy LR and ER (Essence 64 and 77 for you) is 1300Rxx. ?‍

Nice update though.

 

[Ejaydee]

You guys certainly have different software

Probably because they are on the other side of the world, and upside down ?. Merry Christmas.

 

[kiwi]

Merry Christmas.

Spent the last two days running round the city catching up with friends and family. The MG4 is ideal for this sort of thing, the Essence (Trophy) version 360 degree cameras make parking a breeze at tight supermarket parks and unfamiliar hotel slots. The wide front doors make access easy for elderly relatives.

On city roads the LKA defaults are fine as long as you use indicators for lane changes. No nasty ACC issues either.

I had a chance to explore the engineering screens, noted the GNSS system only seems to use GPS and that the built in 4G was on Vodafone (now branded One).

I turned off the voice assistant. The sounds system is pretty good but the absence of AM radio is a bit irksome.

Still very happy.

 

[kiwi]

Charged up tonight to 90% as we're heading home tomorrow. Great to see a good charge rate sustained, 60kW plus even past 80%. It was 29 minutes to add 28.8kW/h at a cost of $19.87 using one of the two 180kW chargers at Z Rotokauri, Wairere Drive and Arthur Porter Drive, Hamilton.

I had the charging stop at 90% using the set point charge slider on the dash screen. I've seen people say this doesn't work. While it terminated the charge correctly for me, I did note that it didn't stop immediately the display showed 90%. Instead, it reached 90% and then seemed to wait a bit before shutting off.

Three other observations today, the remote has amazing range easily working from inside the house to the driveway. Also, the car relocks itself after a while if you unlock but don't open any doors. Lastly, the air conditioner makes a loud ticking noise at low fan speed settings.

 

[Symar300]

Interesting that you were able to use the Z chargers? Were they the Redphase brand?

There's a known issue WRT the Redphase chargers not linking with the MG4, both Z and Redphase are aware and are working on a solution though.

I don't think all Z locations have the Redphase either. I know the one in Ngatea is Redphase, and it wouldn't link with our MG4. Luckily we didn't need to charge, we had just stopped for lunch and thought we'd try our first fast charge. I reported it through the Z app, and they confirmed the above compatibility issue.

 

[kiwi]

The Redphase appear to be a mixed bag. The Hamilton Z chargers mentioned are 180kW ABB (I think).

Yesterday we travelled from Hamilton home to Waikanae. We stopped at Turangi to find all three stalls of the 200kW chargers at the Z full:

These are all Redphase Skyhook models, my MG4 on the right.

When a slot came free I had three or four goes to try and charge but only managed a short 2 minute connection for 2kW that dropped out. I reported the problem to Z tech support and they said it was a known issue.

So stopped at Z Waiouru for a ‘slow’ 73 kW rate 31 minute 30kWh top up on their Tritium charger:

But while there I noted another MG4 Essence happily charging on a Redphase stall:

Same Skyhook model. Maybe different firmware? Anyway had a nice chat with the owner who was coincidentally travelling Wellington to Hamilton.

Anyway it’s amazing that Waiouru now has two lots of three 200kW stalls plus the 75kW Tritium at Z as well as the two old 50kW ChargeNet stalls at the Museum. It would be good if they’d all play nice with the MG4. ChargeNet are going to have to look at their prices (0.80/0.85c) as Z is great value in comparison with faster charging and a cheaper rate (0.69c).