Real World Range

[ChrisT]

Today I finally had chance to test the real world range of my 3 month old Exclusive ZS EV.

Having had a Nissan Leaf 30kwh car previously and driven it for 3 years I was eager to experience the benefits of the 44kwh MG.

So it was an appalling wintery day, 4 degrees, dark and raining.

The journey was Brigg to the centre of Sheffield which is approx 62 miles each way so 124 miles in total. The terrain is mostly flat with some slopes but nothing steep.

The journey down I travelled at 50 to 60 mph and sat behind a lorry to benefit from reduced drag. All gadgets were on and I used the cruise control which had an impact on range on the Leaf.

The journey back was the same speed but no cruise control and half way in to the journey and after stopping at Doncaster services where I reminded myself the Ecotricity charger only has chademo, I turned off all unnecessary home comforts.

So after the round trip I had one bar left and working on my experience that each bar is approx 17 miles I had 10 miles left in range.

So on that journey the real world range in these circumstances is approx 130 to 140 miles.

The leaf would have had a range of 80 to 90 miles in the same circumstances I would say.

Overall I am happy with that and in the summer would expect the range to be 150 to 160.

One other point, the range on the dash at the end of the trip was 30 miles so not accurate and that's why I dont use the system range when planning journeys.

 

[Tango130]

--- appears on your range at 10 miles left.

 

[Jake]

The journey down I travelled at 50 to 60 mph and sat behind a lorry to benefit from reduced drag. All gadgets were on and I used the cruise control which had an impact on range on the Leaf.

Did you find cruise control impact to be better or worse for range?

 

[Mark Holmes]

Don’t forget that the last digit has a lot more charge left than the others Digits that come before, did you low power warning lights come on? There are two reminders when you are getting low on battery power..

 

[ChrisT]

Yes the first warning came on but not the second, how much range has the last bar?

 

[ChrisT]

Did you find cruise control impact to be better or worse for range?

Hard to tell but my experience with the Leaf was that it dropped the range a little. However there are so many factors to take into account, no two journeys are the same.

 

[rbpasapera]

Yes the first warning came on but not the second, how much range has the last bar?

First warning at 20% SOC battery light comes on, second warning at 10% SOC battery light blinks.

 

[Tango130]

On the battery level, you need to recalibrate as that last dash is worth 25% (10% when flashing) so the other ones as they drop are dropping by around 11%, so you were somewhere between 58-69% battery, taking four dashes as half (not having a percentage gauge and a non linear charge level indicator is my big bug bear that I'd like to see MG address in a software update to more accurately judge your charge level and range you can eek out, I used to always use percentage left in my old Leaf as that had a schizophrenic GOM).

Taken from the MG Owners Club FAQ from @Mike

Q What do the 8 bars around the lower part of the ‘fuel’ gauge mean?
A Here's the state of charge as per the 8 bar gauge:
8 : 91-100%
7 : 80-91%
6 : 69-80%
5 : 58-69%
4 : 47-58%
3 : 36-47%
2 : 25-36%
1 : <25% (HV battery light comes on)
HV battery light starts flashing at 10% and will warn about aggressive driving. It stops flashing and disappears at 5%.
The GoM turns to --- at 10 miles

https://www.mgevs.com/threads/let’s-see-who-gets-rattled-charging-details.448/page-2#post-5337

 

[Mark Holmes]

From my experience normally about 20 miles

 

[Jake]

Hard to tell but my experience with the Leaf was that it dropped the range a little. However there are so many factors to take into account, no two journeys are the same.

Yes I found I could better the miles/kW manually over cruise control which seems to 'waste' energy trying to maintain uphill speed and not benefiting enough from regen on the way down the hills. My journey to work was a 56 miles round trip and I tried alternating methods on identical weather/time of day conditions to compare which was most economical. I regularly achieved 5-6 miles or more range from no cruise control.

 

[Mark Holmes]

I would agree with Jake on this subject.

 

[Mgzs ev]

Today I finally had chance to test the real world range of my 3 month old Exclusive ZS EV.

Having had a Nissan Leaf 30kwh car previously and driven it for 3 years I was eager to experience the benefits of the 44kwh MG.

So it was an appalling wintery day, 4 degrees, dark and raining.

The journey was Brigg to the centre of Sheffield which is approx 62 miles each way so 124 miles in total. The terrain is mostly flat with some slopes but nothing steep.

The journey down I travelled at 50 to 60 mph and sat behind a lorry to benefit from reduced drag. All gadgets were on and I used the cruise control which had an impact on range on the Leaf.

The journey back was the same speed but no cruise control and half way in to the journey and after stopping at Doncaster services where I reminded myself the Ecotricity charger only has chademo, I turned off all unnecessary home comforts.

So after the round trip I had one bar left and working on my experience that each bar is approx 17 miles I had 10 miles left in range.

So on that journey the real world range in these circumstances is approx 130 to 140 miles.

The leaf would have had a range of 80 to 90 miles in the same circumstances I would say.

Overall I am happy with that and in the summer would expect the range to be 150 to 160.

One other point, the range on the dash at the end of the trip was 30 miles so not accurate and that's why I dont use the system range when planning journey

 

[Mgzs ev]

Very good?a few degrees higher en de range is much beter. Ik love de mg? smooth relax driving

 

[Orcadian]

Yes I found I could better the miles/kW manually over cruise control which seems to 'waste' energy trying to maintain uphill speed and not benefiting enough from regen on the way down the hills. My journey to work was a 56 miles round trip and I tried alternating methods on identical weather/time of day conditions to compare which was most economical. I regularly achieved 5-6 miles or more range from no cruise control.

I found the same with my 30kw Leaf on cruise control. We don't have many steep hills in Orkney, but I would get a bit of regen going down but with CC the Leaf would accelerate hard to get back to the set speed. CC is great for straight and level motorway driving though.

 

[tintin]

I'm currently getting 2.9 miles per KW on mixed driving, half on A roads the other half in town, this seems a bit high, what do others get, no mods have been done yet

 

[Jake]

I'm currently getting 2.9 miles per KW on mixed driving, half on A roads the other half in town, this seems a bit high, what do others get, no mods have been done yet

I've just done a 30 mile trip this morning, no lights, no wipers, moderate heating, Normal with Regen 3 set, using A & B roads, not much town driving, between 30-60mph and got 4miles/kW.

 

[tintin]

have just done 2 town trips this morning avg speed 15 MPH still shows 2.9 miles per KW no heating, no aircon, no lights and regen 3 with eco setting

 

[Jake]

have just done 2 town trips this morning avg speed 15 MPH still shows 2.9 miles per KW no heating, no aircon, no lights and regen 3 with eco setting

Is that for the 2 trips or total mileage of the car?

 

[tintin]

that's for the 2 trips as I reset it before the journeys myself and one passenger, tyres reading 31.5, but the garage pump said 33, temp 4 degrees no wind, level road heavy traffic, I did have a problem with the TPMS giving inaccurate readings, but pumped tyres up and seems OK, also horn going off randomly, but now stopped, dealer will check on next service and do updates as well