New charging problem

[Deleted member 18097]

So once i had the correct charging lead from the MG garage I bought my MG 4 Trophy from (5 month old car) and had a software update done at the MG service garage, I have been granny charging at home - with no problem. I have done this three times - off a 30 m bog standard extension lead from the house. Today, I plugged everything in but it is not charging. Does anyone have any ideas ?

(I must say I am really losing all confidence in this car - fine when it works ok but so far I have had two trips back to the original garage, one service update and now this current problem and I have only had it about 3 weeks.)

More detail - the colour around the plug on the car is blue - not green...

 

[Coulomb]

See also this similar thread:

Granny charger connected not charging

Hello I have an MG4 for only a couple of days and come to use the granny charger for the first time at home. No extension cables just straight from plug socket out the window. It says “connected- not charging” and I cannot get it to charge. Does anyone have any tips ?!

www.mgevs.com

 

[Deleted member 18097]

No - still not working. Am going to call the garage then I am going to see if it fast charges at a pay charge point I have used before.

 

[Deleted member 11291]

Have you unlocked/locked the car? Sometimes it needs this to trigger the ‘handshake’ between the car and charger.

 

[Deleted member 18097]

I think that my extension lead has burnt out which is why it is not charging. The garage is going to get me another so we can test it.

 

[Deleted member 11291]

I think that my extension lead has burnt out which is why it is not charging. The garage is going to get me another so we can test it.

Might be worth buying an appropriate extension lead for a granny charger that is up to the job.
Try this site toughleads.co.uk I bought EV granny charger 13A weatherproof extension lead
10m / In-line RCD. I used with a previous EV when charging at a holiday property and worked fine.
They have different lengths available etc, not too expensive.

 

[Deleted member 18097]

Thank you

 

[richev]

Might be worth buying an appropriate extension lead for a granny charger that is up to the job.
Try this site toughleads.co.uk I bought EV granny charger 13A weatherproof extension lead
10m / In-line RCD. I used with a previous EV when charging at a holiday property and worked fine.
They have different lengths available etc, not too expensive.

Yep this is definitely required, standard leads just aren’t designed to take the load required for the car.

 

[Deleted member 18097]

I was meant to have a fast charger fitted this week so didn't bother with investing in an upgraded extension lead. This car has been a lot of trouble from the start and I have lost confidence in it tbh. Thinking that I am going to take it back. And wait a few years for the glitches to iron themselves out (not this glitch - this was my fault). I have never not felt confident with a car before but rely on having one as I live in the countryside. Has anyone else returned their electric car for this reason ?

 

[AndyL61]

So once i had the correct charging lead from the MG garage I bought my MG 4 Trophy from (5 month old car) and had a software update done at the MG service garage, I have been granny charging at home - with no problem. I have done this three times - off a 30 m bog standard extension lead from the house. Today, I plugged everything in but it is not charging. Does anyone have any ideas ?

(I must say I am really losing all confidence in this car - fine when it works ok but so far I have had two trips back to the original garage, one service update and now this current problem and I have only had it about 3 weeks.)

More detail - the colour around the plug on the car is blue - not green...

A 30 m extension lead is pushing it TBH , you really need a really heavy duty extension lead if it needs to be 30m or reduce the length if possible. Always have any extension lead fully unwound. So the best ext lead to use will be just more than the distance you need so it is almost straight and at least 16amp rated.

 

[richev]

I was meant to have a fast charger fitted this week so didn't bother with investing in an upgraded extension lead. This car has been a lot of trouble from the start and I have lost confidence in it tbh. Thinking that I am going to take it back. And wait a few years for the glitches to iron themselves out (not this glitch - this was my fault). I have never not felt confident with a car before but rely on having one as I live in the countryside. Has anyone else returned their electric car for this reason ?

Got an ER in Jan after reading about most of the issues, loving the car so not going to return it but this might help with some context on the frustrating bits I found:

• Software in modern cars is a real pain to deal with, especially with some daft NCAP requirements which do nothing for safety (LKA)
• There are no profiles at all on MG4 so everything resets once the car is stopped.
• LKA is not great unless on perfect roads
• I have a routine on start, enable eco, energy saving, OPD (if below 90% charge) and disable LKA.
• On startup the car can have sync issues between the modules, if the middle screen powers on a bit after the car, the car will show a bunch of faults until info screen if fully powered, this seems more software comms problem.
• If pre heating/cooling and it doesn’t reach the timeout and you start driving the opposite problem can happen in that the middle screen can get out of sync with car and stay on after the car is powered down and CarPlay doesn’t work.
• Actual issues feel like minor software bugs that can be a bit frustrating but car itself drives well and gives the range I need.
• Some models have some much worse issues on different versions of software so can be quite a range of issues depending on exact car model.
• Most new cars seem to go through abit of a beta testing phase as they improve the software as they sell the cars, the problem here is MG comms, polices and updates being inconsistent. Would help if they published details of latest software for each model.
• Charging on 7kW home charger is best as you can get a full charge overnight and with some brands of charger cheap electricity and with integration with something like Intelligent Octopus Go.

 

[Martinonline]

@nicki m, when you say fast charger do you really mean a 7kW home charger? If so are you laying an underground cable so the charger can be closer to the car. I have a 10m type 2 cable for my home charger and that is heavy/bulky enough.

 

[DrPlokta]

@nicki m, when you say fast charger do you really mean a 7kW home charger? If so are you laying an underground cable so the charger can be closer to the car. I have a 10m type 2 cable for my home charger and that is heavy/bulky enough.

A 7kW home charger is a fast charger. The terminology is outdated, and fast chargers are quite slow — 7-21 kW. The ones that are actually fast are ultra-rapid chargers.

 

[Martinonline]

A 7kW home charger is a fast charger. The terminology is outdated, and fast chargers are quite slow — 7-21 kW. The ones that are actually fast are ultra-rapid chargers.

Thanks for the clarification. Obviously the British Gas website needs updating.

 

[Purclewan]

I was meant to have a fast charger fitted this week so didn't bother with investing in an upgraded extension lead. This car has been a lot of trouble from the start and I have lost confidence in it tbh. Thinking that I am going to take it back. And wait a few years for the glitches to iron themselves out (not this glitch - this was my fault). I have never not felt confident with a car before but rely on having one as I live in the countryside. Has anyone else returned their electric car for this reason ?

Sorry you seem to having so much trouble with your MG.

I can only say, we live in rural Scotland and have owned our MG4 for 14 months. Our car has so far been perfect for us. Until we had our Ohme charge point fitted we used a mix of granny charger and supermarket chargepoints without trouble. I even had the car set to run some house circuits in the winter (professionally installed).

Stick with it, it might feel frustrating but once you get over initial niggles we have found our car super reliable and the lack of petrol bills and having to drive miles to a petrol station to stay topped up is wonderful.

We have just added 6kW of solar panels and 15kWh of battery so now we are completely self sufficient.