Stuck in France (nearly)!

[chris69]

So we’re on a long road trip through France at the moment. Everything has been brilliant with the car and rapid charging is much much cheaper than in the UK.

Today, however, panic set in when all of a sudden the car wouldn’t charge from any AC or DC charger. I eventually worked out that the locking pin was not operating even though I could hear it whirring as usual. So it’s a Sunday in France, everything is shut, we need to get to Calais in 24 hours for the ferry home, and the car won’t charge. The AA said on the phone all they can do with an electric car is take it to an MG dealer in France so I told them not to bother for now. Car Scanner showed a ridiculous number of active faults which was my cue to disconnect the 12 volt battery, but of course I had no tools with me as we’re on holiday! Some awful attempts at French and half an hour later a spanner was borrowed and the 12 volt battery was reconnected and the car was charging as normal.

Why can’t MG fit a big red reset button! Or at least provide a battery terminal spanner with every car.

 

[pollenface]

Why can’t MG fit a big red reset button! Or at least provide a battery terminal spanner with every car.

I keep a 10mm spanner and spare key battery in the glove compartment.

Actually adding a 12V battery isolator is not a bad idea.

Glad to hear your troubles were sorted eventually.

 

[Tim Green]

Yes I have a spanner, but haven't had to use it.....yet! (after 4.5years)
It is curious that some cars seem to breakdown with software errors and others don't?

 

[fred12345]

question on 12V battery disconnect - do you need to setup anything again (clock, driving preferences, radio stations - and most importantly phone app MG iSmart?) or it goes back to last setting by itself?

 

[MickeySw]

Yes I have a spanner, but haven't had to use it.....yet! (after 4.5years)
It is curious that some cars seem to breakdown with software errors and others don't?

Most ‘lock-ups’ seem to happen during DC Rapid charging and are usually caused by the ‘other side’. The car then gets ‘confused’ and disconnects the HV battery as a safety feature.

Either you’re doing very little DC charging or you’re just lucky..

 

[Gadget Geek]

Why can’t MG fit a big red reset button! Or at least provide a battery terminal spanner with every car.

Get yourself one of these. They're brilliant!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isolator-Electrical-Conductivity-Disconnect-Universal/dp/B08GYSJNQ6/ref=pd_bxgy_d_sccl_1/261-2379908-5008342?pd_rd_w=RfOvD&content-id=amzn1.sym.46f507f3-7fc1-4bf4-9492-ed026d6e4f68&pf_rd_p=46f507f3-7fc1-4bf4-9492-ed026d6e4f68&pf_rd_r=Z732VWJBFQ4HB9XGV18J&pd_rd_wg=4IRvR&pd_rd_r=0b4a3203-ad80-47b6-89a1-297d1facfbcc&pd_rd_i=B08GYSJNQ6&psc=1

 

[Gadget Geek]

question on 12V battery disconnect - do you need to setup anything again (clock, driving preferences, radio stations - and most importantly phone app MG iSmart?) or it goes back to last setting by itself?

No. Everything stays as it is (except the error codes, of course ).

 

[Viridis]

Thanks for such helpful info. Hubby and I are off to France tomorrow with our new 5SE.
Tool kit is being added to car boot as I type this, Just-for-if-in-case as Aunty used to say!

 

[fred12345]

Thanks for such helpful info. Hubby and I are off to France tomorrow with our new 5SE.
Tool kit is being added to car boot as I type this, Just-for-if-in-case as Aunty used to say!

please make a note and take photos of your charging experience in France and let us know how it goes.
Enjoy your trip!

 

[chris69]

For me the charging experience in France was very easy and literally half the price of UK rapids. I was able to use Electroverse for 95% of the chargers, just remember that Freshmile ones don’t allow the app but do accept the Electroverse card. There are a lot of supposedly open to all Tesla chargers but my car won’t work with Tesla even after the latest updates were applied.

 

[Caramaddy]

Get yourself one of these. They're brilliant!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isolator-Electrical-Conductivity-Disconnect-Universal/dp/B08GYSJNQ6/ref=pd_bxgy_d_sccl_1/261-2379908-5008342?pd_rd_w=RfOvD&content-id=amzn1.sym.46f507f3-7fc1-4bf4-9492-ed026d6e4f68&pf_rd_p=46f507f3-7fc1-4bf4-9492-ed026d6e4f68&pf_rd_r=Z732VWJBFQ4HB9XGV18J&pd_rd_wg=4IRvR&pd_rd_r=0b4a3203-ad80-47b6-89a1-297d1facfbcc&pd_rd_i=B08GYSJNQ6&psc=1

Got it!

 

[DB Go Rex]

I drove pretty much the full length of France and back last summer in my ZS EV.

Trip planned around Tesla Superchargers and Lidl chargers for longer stops with zero issues.

10mm spanner is always the get out of jail card

 

[fred12345]

I drove pretty much the full length of France and back last summer in my ZS EV.

Long range ZS or standard? Just wondering how often you had to stop and top up, every 2 hours? (and what motorway speed?)

 

[shpub]

Quick disconnect for MG5 battery

Cost about 70p IIRC. I also fitted a loop to extend the manual plug release just in case.

 

[DB Go Rex]

Long range ZS or standard? Just wondering how often you had to stop and top up, every 2 hours? (and what motorway speed?)

Standard range.
I was doing 120kph on the payages where the limits were 130. Fast enough to keep up with traffic, with the benefit of more efficiency.

We also did some stretches that were non tolled to keep the efficiency up and the cost down, which worked well.

I think about 2 hours sounds about right. Maybe more than that, especially for single carriageway bits.

You don't want to drive without stopping for much more than 3 hours anyway.

 

[Viridis]

please make a note and take photos of your charging experience in France and let us know how it goes.
Enjoy your trip!

Hi Fred12345. Half way through our French travels in the 5SE. Charging so far has been seamless. Using Ionity rapids at the Aires for the long-haul bits, and slow chargers when we're staying in one place for a while. Have found Chargemap card most useful. Haven't used Electroverse card yet. Will post review with piccies once we're back home.

 

[DB Go Rex]

Hi Fred12345. Half way through our French travels in the 5SE. Charging so far has been seamless. Using Ionity rapids at the Aires for the long-haul bits, and slow chargers when we're staying in one place for a while. Have found Chargemap card most useful. Haven't used Electroverse card yet. Will post review with piccies once we're back home.

Ionity + Tesla + Lidl were the 3 I stuck to in France.

Zero problems.

 

[benflugel]

We recently did a 1000 mile return trip from Lincolnshire to Dusseldorf in Germany. Back via Belgium, Netherlands and France. Belgium in particular had excellent EV charging. Super fast DC never seemed to go much above €0.50/kWh.

Like with a lot of things this side of the channel, we're slightly worse and a lot more expensive!

 

[ianwlk]

Went down to the Somme in a Toyota electric suv last week. Very impressive car and charging at both sides of the Chunnel was easy. charging at our gite easy too. as has been noted economical 50c per kWh typical. great case for EV ownership. Kia EV3 in my sights.

 

[DB Go Rex]

Went down to the Somme in a Toyota electric suv last week. Very impressive car and charging at both sides of the Chunnel was easy. charging at our gite easy too. as has been noted economical 50c per kWh typical. great case for EV ownership. Kia EV3 in my sights.

That wasn't the one with CHAdeMO was it?