Not proud of it, but hit 0% battery range a mile from home and made it back!!!!

gwig66

gwig66

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Driving
I have the short range MG ZS EV and I embarked on a journey of 19 miles last night with double the battery range needed to drive there and back. A late night motorway closure added a small amount to the journey, but I was a mile from home, creeping about at under 30mph, chuckling to myself that 9 miles remaining was lower than I ever planned to drain the battery to, but I had made it, when boom, flashing dashboard announcement, no miles range remaining. The last mile was heart in mouth. I crawled home at 18mph, slight downhill at the end, reassuring myself with the mantra 'but it had 9 miles left' and I got home, plugged in, no harm done. Except to my nerves. The 'I got away without bricking my EV Club' is not one anyone should aspire to join.
Signs along the way
A yellow battery warning at 44 miles remaining
A red battery warning at about 15
Then a permanently flashing orange/EV battery icon and the white 12v battery battery display reporting it as 'empty'.
Don't do it, folks!
 
I think there should be a special medal for this!

The story of the suddenly-disappearing range at the very bottom of the tank is one that crops up again and again, and I think it might be related to not doing the <10% to 100% AC charge that's recommended every few months. The car needs to see the whole range of the battery from time to time in one fell swoop, hysteresis curve, coulomb counting and so on. If it doesn't get that it loses track of where the bottom of the barrel is, then when it actually sees it, it may not be quite where it thought it was.

Yes it's a pain to get the car down to under 10% at a convenient moment, and if you're on a limited-time off-peak rate it will mean you'll use some peak-rate electricity to keep the charge continuous over the whole range, but it's only every six months.
 
I imagine you were in less danger than you thought, because most EVs have a fair few miles of slow driving available after they read zero. The MG4 seems to have about 15 miles. Nerveracking nevertheless.
 
Caramaddy said:
Did your car go into limp mode?
Or did you drive very carefully and slowly?
Click to expand...
I drove incredibly slowly with minimal acceleration

Rolfe said:
I imagine you were in less danger than you thought, because most EVs have a fair few miles of slow driving available after they read zero. The MG4 seems to have about 15 miles. Nerveracking nevertheless.
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Had read that on here before and it was comforting, but a relative bricked his big Tesla this summer, and will never be allowed to forget it!
 
Rolfe said:
I imagine you were in less danger than you thought, because most EVs have a fair few miles of slow driving available after they read zero. The MG4 seems to have about 15 miles. Nerveracking nevertheless.
Click to expand...
That was Bjorn Nyland's test of a Trophy LR ... I suspect the SE SR will have less. :)
 
There are tests that suggest the SR is similar. A bunch of guys in the Phillipines (I think) had a ball driving one till it bricked and got a surprisingly long way, even considering that you'll get further in these temperatures than we will here.
 
Ha... that constant looking at the sat nav, then the range... mental calc..
sat nav, then the range... mental calc... and on and on...
 
It would be nice to have a long range car, but there's always a price compromise. I was getting quite confident about my range, but this was a surprise. Monday to Friday, the car is a dream.
 
Try the long charge, then. Although I suppose once it's happened to you, you lose confidence.

I've been down to 4% a couple of times with no problems and no surprises. On this occasion I swept into Abington Water services from the M74 without a care in the world and no loss of power. You can see the general impression from the ACC reading.

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Lacking an inbuilt satnav, what I do is decide which charger I'm heading for and put that as my destination in Android Auto. I then watch the miles tick down to that destination on the central screen at the same time as I'm watching the remaining range on the driver's screen. If I don't like the way the two match up, I ease off the accelerator a bit. I try to keep about ten miles more range than the remaining distance. It's worked so far.
 
I think the novice EV driver needs to.work to a bigger margin than 10 miles extra, until they have a feel for their car and driving style. On this occasion I had 38 motorway miles to do - albeit at 60, without aircon - with a reported battery range of 79 miles. But if I have been driving urban roads at 30 all week, that predicted range is inaccurate for the open road.
Dropping to below 10 miles range before charging might be a good idea, every 6 months. I often push on home with 15 to spare.
 
Yes, obviously one can set whatever margin one is comfortable with. After getting home on 4% after only a couple of months of ownership I got the confidence that I'd be OK. I've been down under 10% fairly often (including when preparing for a long charge). I got in to Aberdeen with about 7 miles to spare but I can't remember the % charge. It's downhill on the last bit of that road, which helped!

I've heard that it's common for Tesla owners to rock up at a supercharger on 1-2%, and their cars seem fine about it.
 
Aaarrgghhh!!! All those dirty electrons in the bottom of the battery you'll have pulled into the system ?

Fill to 110% immediately and drive careful for 50 miles or so... Aaand have AA on quick dial ??

Got down to 2 miles left at Jamaica Inn once, 2230, pitch black, driving into the tail end of a hurricane. Last half mile or so is uphill. Can't tell you how pleased I was that their charger worked. Nearest charger 30 miles away. Didn't know whether to heart attack or vomit.... or both.
As you say, not recommended ?
 
Bjorn did a few test drives dragging a tesla below zero miles range ... till it stopped ... then he plugged in a portable battery/inverter pack and put some back in so he could get to a charging station.
Over this side of the globe, it can be a long way between power points, I was thinking of buying or building one of these things to at least feel I had a safety margin, or a "Jerry can" I could hitch a lift with to get some more "fuel" to get to a power point of some sort .... had the name of the commercial unit saved on my other 'puter .... that information is up in the clouds now :rolleyes:

T1 Terry
 
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ABRP thinks it's a runner and that I should get in with 5%. I presume it knows about the change in elevation. I plan to drive slowly in any case. I can see three ultra-rapids within reach if I get cold feet but two are BP Pulse which I'm wary of, and the Ionity is on the wrong carriageway of the A27. Although reachable.

Funnily enough, ABRP says there are 16 stalls at the Glyndebourne PodPoints, when there are actually 32. Either it means 16 chargers (they are dual bay) or it already knows that half of them have been reserved for this afternoon. (There were 18 spaces left when I reserved mine a few days ago.) The latter would be quite uncanny as the car park doesn't open till one.

PS. Extra special pedant brownie points for spelling adrenaline correctly.
 
gwig66 said:
I have the short range MG ZS EV and I embarked on a journey of 19 miles last night with double the battery range needed to drive there and back. A late night motorway closure added a small amount to the journey, but I was a mile from home, creeping about at under 30mph, chuckling to myself that 9 miles remaining was lower than I ever planned to drain the battery to, but I had made it, when boom, flashing dashboard announcement, no miles range remaining. The last mile was heart in mouth. I crawled home at 18mph, slight downhill at the end, reassuring myself with the mantra 'but it had 9 miles left' and I got home, plugged in, no harm done. Except to my nerves. The 'I got away without bricking my EV Club' is not one anyone should aspire to join.
Signs along the way
A yellow battery warning at 44 miles remaining
A red battery warning at about 15
Then a permanently flashing orange/EV battery icon and the white 12v battery battery display reporting it as 'empty'.
Don't do it, folks!
Click to expand...
DEFINITELY not recommended, When I first got my MG5 I thought I would reach the chargers at M3 j1 (Sunbury cross) got to 0% within view of the j1 sign (about 2km from the junction) and it cut out completely!!! (not even charging the 12V) stuck there for nearly 3 hours in December, when it was -2!! Lucky I had warm clothes and 2 hats, but I was still freezing by the time the AA got there! ignore the "miles remaining" it's the battery % you really need to watch...
 
gwig66 said:
I have the short range MG ZS EV and I embarked on a journey of 19 miles last night with double the battery range needed to drive there and back. A late night motorway closure added a small amount to the journey, but I was a mile from home, creeping about at under 30mph, chuckling to myself that 9 miles remaining was lower than I ever planned to drain the battery to, but I had made it, when boom, flashing dashboard announcement, no miles range remaining. The last mile was heart in mouth. I crawled home at 18mph, slight downhill at the end, reassuring myself with the mantra 'but it had 9 miles left' and I got home, plugged in, no harm done. Except to my nerves. The 'I got away without bricking my EV Club' is not one anyone should aspire to join.
Signs along the way
A yellow battery warning at 44 miles remaining
A red battery warning at about 15
Then a permanently flashing orange/EV battery icon and the white 12v battery battery display reporting it as 'empty'.
Don't do it, folks!
Click to expand...
Got down to 2% on MG4SR but my range guessometer was spot on for the entire 210 mile journey so pretty happy at the end of it.
 
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