Road tripping in the MG4

[Jamesrr]

Best charge speed I have seen is 140kw on a Tesla charger, only up to 50% after this it drops off to 70kw until I reached about 80% then speed drops off again. No preheating of the battery, ambient temp in double digits.

Yes, the highest charge speed is only realised under 50%. There's a charge curve graphic posted earlier from memory.

With my NMC battery "77" ER the max is 144kW, a "64" LR tops off at 140kW and the LFP "51" SR only does 88kW.

I regularly see 144kW on Tesla and RAA (Kempower hardware) chargers when charging from a low SoC. Never with a Tritium hardware charger.

Past 80% charging is really slow. You really shouldn't use a DCFC past that unless you really need the extra few percent to be sure of reaching the next charger.

You're just wasting time and potentially holding up other people waiting.

 

[mg4]

Yes, the highest charge speed is only realised under 50%. There's a charge curve graphic posted earlier from memory.

With my NMC battery "77" ER the max is 144kW, a "64" LR tops off at 140kW and the LFP "51" SR only does 88kW.

I regularly see 144kW on Tesla and RAA (Kempower hardware) chargers when charging from a slow SoC. Never with a Tritium hardware charger.

Last year i used Tesla as much as possible and i did see well over 135kW speeds, highest ever was 143kW.
However, all the charging curves point that if i start charging at ANY % between 5 and 40 i should get 144kW speeds. Let's even say 130kW. But so far i read 2 comments saying that is only if i start from 'low' SoC. That goes against what the charging curves say. If i understand it correctly.

Is there a charging curve in case you start charging from more than 0%? Say a curve for every 5% SoC?

Past 80% charging is really slow. You really shouldn't use a DCFC past that unless you really need the extra few percent to be sure of reaching the next charger.
You're just wasting time and potentially holding up other people waiting.

Fully agree on that, sometimes i do have to charge to 100% even in EV unfriendly countries. But usually between 75% and 85% the speed is still acceptable.

 

[mg4]

At the very least, i canceled my subscription with Ionity, i take it it is maybe a nice backup, but i should not expect the normal speeds from their chargers. I am curious as to why, but will try to re-test Tesla. Are the majority of Fastned chargers just a reskinned Kempower charger?

 

[Jamesrr]

Last year i used Tesla as much as possible and i did see well over 135kW speeds, highest ever was 143kW.
However, all the charging curves point that if i start charging at ANY % between 5 and 40 i should get 144kW speeds. Let's even say 130kW. But so far i read 2 comments saying that is only if i start from 'low' SoC. That goes against what the charging curves say. If i understand it correctly.

In my experience if you start below 40% you will get to near 140kW as in my experience it takes a minute or so to get to full power (which if you've started above about 40% it will hit the 50% mark by the time it could hit full power but now won't as it is on the downward part of the curve). Make sense? I think I'm explaining it right!

So yeah, anywhere from 5-40 start will hit 140kW. That being said, it doesn't take very long at that rate to get the SoC to 50%!

MG MG4 Electric Extended Range charging curve & performance :: evkx.net

Below is the charging curve for MG MG4 Electric Extended Range, illustrating the charging speed at various battery levels. Additionally, graphs for range and time provide comprehensive details on charging performance.

evkx.net

At 40% SoC it only takes 4 minutes to get to 50%.

Is there a charging curve in case you start charging from more than 0%? Say a curve for every 5% SoC?

The curve applies irrespective of when you start with the proviso that it takes a minute or so to build up to "full" speed.

Fully agree on that, sometimes i do have to charge to 100% even in EV unfriendly countries. But usually between 75% and 85% the speed is still acceptable.

Yep. I often don't get back from whatever I've pottered off to do whilst charging before it's hit the 80% mark!
But if needing that extra little bit from 85+ it does get painful

 

[Jamesrr]

Are the majority of Fastned chargers just a reskinned Kempower charger?

I don't know about them other than in Australia where they are used by one of our State's motoring groups (The RAA) extensively and they're really good!

Unfortunately the Tritium chargers have proven to be a disaster

 

[mg4]

Understood. Then my expectations on the charge curve are correct. From other comments it sounded that starting a charge at anything higher than 10% would not hit the max according to the charge curve.

I will try Tesla and hit the penalty of them rarely being on the highways (rest areas).

 

[mg4]

Attempt #3 at Ionity, no preheating. Apparently my idea of a warm battery was 'above 15°C' while i imagine it likes to be above 30°C. Here's a gif of the charging speed, again from 25%.

 

[Jamesrr]

Attempt #3 at Ionity, no preheating. Apparently my idea of a warm battery was 'above 15°C' while i imagine it likes to be above 30°C. Here's a gif of the charging speed, again from 25%.

I'm afraid I can't see where on that gif the charging speed is shown?

 

[siteguru]

2nd row, right hand column? Varies between -80kW to -100kW ... the minus signifying power into the battery.

 

[wattmatters]

I'm afraid I can't see where on that gif the charging speed is shown?

2nd row, 3rd column. 90-100 kW.

I've seen a touch over 140 kW in my Essence 64 at a Tesla V3 supercharger.

Plenty of times in the high 130s. It's obviously much warmer here.

 

[mg4]

So, i tried a lot of things to get a higher charge speed, but at the moment i seem to not be able. I read the posts around here and my battery is between 13 and 15 °C.

Starting the preheating from the app with the car parked and locked, but not plugged in since i can't pkug in on my parking spot does not work.

Starting the inteligent battery heating from the car while driving does nothing. I had car scanner the entire time on and the battery warmed up from 13 to 13.5 °C over 120km for close to 2 hours of driving it.

So i keep getting the charge curve as in my previous gif. It seems like on paper the battery supports preheating, but i cannot get it to 30°C. Does anyone know how to do that? I hope i am doing something wrong and there is a way.

 

[Anon70]

So, i tried a lot of things to get a higher charge speed, but at the moment i seem to not be able. I read the posts around here and my battery is between 13 and 15 °C.

Starting the preheating from the app with the car parked and locked, but not plugged in since i can't pkug in on my parking spot does not work.

Starting the inteligent battery heating from the car while driving does nothing. I had car scanner the entire time on and the battery warmed up from 13 to 13.5 °C over 120km for close to 2 hours of driving it.

So i keep getting the charge curve as in my previous gif. It seems like on paper the battery supports preheating, but i cannot get it to 30°C. Does anyone know how to do that? I hope i am doing something wrong and there is a way.

Bjorn Nyland has done a few MG4 tests, maybe you can compare your results to his

XPower in cold weather..



Trophy LR



Compared to Tesla Model 3 and VW ID3

 

[mg4]

Thanks, i pretty much watched all the MG4 videos til now.

He starts his tests from a preheated garage at 20 °C or more with the battery also warmed up with industrial heaters. I don't have that option sadly, so i am asking here for your experience. I already got some replies with more than 90kW speeds, so my ask is mainly within the context of this thread.

 

[mg4]

Last summer i was using Tesla DCSCs and about half the time i did get speeds close to 130kW, a few times 143kW as well. However, I just winged it. I am now trying to preplan better, hence me trying to learn from our community how to control the charge speeds best. That all hoping it can be done easy.

 

[mg4]

Here's another thing i am wondering when it comes to road tripping in the MG4.

Is there a way to calculate the optimal speed for a stretch of 1000km? I know Bjorn does 120km/h, but is that because of speed limits or is that a golden speed number? ABRP on the other hand asks for a consumption at 110km/h.

I know that inclines, wind, and 100 other factors influence the consumption, but what would your speed be if you only wanted to cross something like a 1000km as fast as possible?

 

[Jamesrr]

Is there a way to calculate the optimal speed for a stretch of 1000km? I know Bjorn does 120km/h, but is that because of speed limits or is that a golden speed number? ABRP on the other hand asks for a consumption at 110km/h.

I'm sure there's a mathematical model for it that looks fantastic but becomes very less useful when reality becomes involved

I know that inclines, wind, and 100 other factors influence the consumption, but what would your speed be if you only wanted to cross something like a 1000km as fast as possible?

For me here in Australia the limiting factor is actually charger availability along with speed limits.

Many country roads are only 100kmh and the top legal speed is 110kmh (except in a very few places that are essentially out of reach of EVs anyway).

I do find that travelling within a "convoy" of cars all going the same speed on a highway is far, far more energy efficient than being a solo driver. Being at the head of the queue or alone uses a couple of kWh more per 100k's than being in a pack.

Same with doing 110 vs 100. Again, a couple of kWh more per 100k's when driving solo. (Albeit, I find 110 in a pack uses less energy than 100 solo)

Getting somewhere as fast as possible is less of an issue as getting there stress free and that means with enough SoC left at the next planned charger stop to not feel anxious about making it

 

[siteguru]

Bjorn uses a specific speed so that he can cross-compare all the cars whilst minimising the variables that apply for each journey. If he wanted a better efficiency then he'd use 100 km/h or less.

 

[Phil]

Looks OK I guess - I did this search on Amazon Au and came up with the following: -

https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=suv+car+tent&crid=3B7ZTTR2TM8SC&sprefix=suv+car+tent%2Caps%2C216&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Lots more options...

Not that I'm interested in the tent/camping option myself. My idea of slumming it is a Motel

Aaah, sleeping under 4 stars! Do it myself more often than not