Webasto heater ? JUST INSTALLED :-)

[hermitdave]

I'm curious about how pre-heating the car works (whether petrol or electric aftermarket), I don't tend to bother with the preheat. I do a regular 10mile ish journey, and until recently, I'd let the petrol run the first couple of miles, and that would be enough to keep the cabin warm, and de-mist etc. However now temperatures are dropping, I have to either run half the time on petrol, or accept a colder cabin. The heaters are set at 18-19 unless the missus has been messing. I don't consider 5 deg outside particularly cold either.

Surely even if the engine is preheated (probably more than my 2 miles), it will still be cooled enough in 10miles that I need to run the engine. And obviously on the return journey I'd be still running 50% petrol.

Today it was chilly here and I ran the demister for good 2 miles. Swtiched it off and after another minute or two the car allowed switch to EV. It moved into Auto mode a few times but reverted to EV each time I tried afterwards. I honestly think it should enabled EV under 35 mph and switch engine on / off as needed rather than use idiots having to constantly press the bleeding button

 

[Dragonfly]

Yes wouldn't be half as annoying if it heated then engine than reverted to EV.

 

[hermitdave]

Bulgaria here, but otherwise exactly the same logic, we are probably more likely to use the Leaf more for local runs over winter, not least because I can pre-heat the car.

warmed and demisted by wife's leaf using the app today. we do use the leaf a fair bit but its a Leaf 30 and she uses it most week

 

[Dragonfly]

Yes ours is also a 17 plate Leaf, so it can cope with York-Leeds-York, on a cold day, but not much more. I do know where the decent rapid chargers are though

 

[hermitdave]

Yes ours is also a 17 plate Leaf, so it can cope with York-Leeds-York, on a cold day, but not much more. I do know where the decent rapid chargers are though

We live in a rapid charger desert - Hertfordshire. There's are a few more than when we picked up the car (there was only Nissan rapid 5 miles away) now we have a handful single units in 5 mile radius

 

[Dragonfly]

Yes the A64 has been a desert for years (Main Road from Leeds or anywhere south upto York/East Coast) but we now have a Starbucks/Rapid Charger about half way up, which is spot on for when I mis-judge things by a few miles. Before that I'd done the last 8 miles on flashing zero on more than one occasion :lol

 

[Fpowell]

I’ve been following the HS and it looks a great car - vary fast too!
The car heating issue seems to hit right at the heart of how you use a hybrid. If for any short journey where you need to have the heater on, the ICE needs to be running and warm up, surely that means in winter with short trips you may as well just run an ice car? The electric side is effectively redundant until the engine warms up. Are all PHEV’s like this? Does the ICE need to run also for cooling aircon in the summer?

I didn't have this problem with my BMW PHEV. I was also able to pre heat the car remotely, which was a major benefit in the winter months. Virtually all modern cars have this ability today. Had I known about this problem of having to choose between a warm cabin or electric drive option, I wouldn't have gone for the MG. EV mode is effectively redundant during the winter months. Even when the car warms up and you force EV mode, as soon as the cabin temperature drops below the setting, the heater comes on and EV mode is disabled. You then have to manually switch it back on when you think the cabin temperature has risen to the setting, or alternatively you have to switch off the heater through the sluggish touch screen. You'll then be able to manually select EV mode. This is just one of the many lack of refinement issues I've found with the MH HS PHEV.

 

[Fpowell]

Winter morning regime for an HS PHEV.

1. Unplug the cable from overnight charge
2. Start the petrol engine
3. Press rear window heater and demist keys
4. Turn on seat heater
5. Go in and finish my cup of coffee
6. Check out window that ice has melted on windows
7. Finish my coffee
8. Enter toasty car
9. Set heat heater as required
10. Press EV button
11. Turn up planet rock and drive off

Simples!

What a regime! I miss my BMW PHEV.

Morning routine.
1. Press the Pre conditioning button on key fob approx 5 minutes before departure.
1A. If you're out of range, i.e in the cenima or finishing a gym workout, open the Smart Connect app on your phone and activate pre conditioning.
2. When ready, get into perfectly conditioned car cabin with windows fully de misted and clear of ice and snow.
3. Press start, select drive and drive off.

 

[marcopolomt]

I didn't have this problem with my BMW PHEV. I was also able to pre heat the car remotely, which was a major benefit in the winter months. Virtually all modern cars have this ability today. Had I known about this problem of having to choose between a warm cabin or electric drive option, I wouldn't have gone for the MG. EV mode is effectively redundant during the winter months. Even when the car warms up and you force EV mode, as soon as the cabin temperature drops below the setting, the heater comes on and EV mode is disabled. You then have to manually switch it back on when you think the cabin temperature has risen to the setting, or alternatively you have to switch off the heater through the sluggish touch screen. You'll then be able to manually select EV mode. This is just one of the many lack of refinement issues I've found with the MH HS PHEV.

This is why, as much as we loved the HS we cancelled our order and went for the new ZS EV instead. As the weather has cooled we realised we preheat the leaf quite a bit and rely on the demister a lot too. We wouldn't be doing many EV miles at all in the HS and I don't want to be putting in a lot of fuel at over £1.45 a litre. App-controlled preheat, charging timers, and the 360 cameras gave us what we are used to on the leaf but were missing on the original ZS EV.

 

[Deleted member 3150]

I looked at the BMW X1 phev but at £10k more and is significantly more per month for a smaller car I decided a few drops of petrol in the worst weather was a good trade off. No other Phev other than the outlander got into my short list.

 

[djenson]

After the overnight test-drive of the car, i do agree that this is one of my biggest disappointments of the car. Why they didn't add a cheep resistive heater for preconditioning is beyond me.

 

[hermitdave]

After the overnight test-drive of the car, i do agree that this is one of my biggest disappointments of the car. Why they didn't add a cheep resistive heater for preconditioning is beyond me.

I hope someone eventually opens it up and adds one. I’ve seen a Zoe video of someone doing the same

 

[JABO]

i finally found a workshop to have the webasto installed ? imho this is more than worth it to avoid the ICE coming on.
In so many ways It's a car worth more than you Pay, let down by an easily fixable issue.

MG has no plans for a solution, i've been in contact with the Danish importer.

 

[skosan]

Jeg fandt endelig et værksted for at få installeret webasto, ? imho dette er mere end det værd for at undgå, at ICE kommer på.
På så mange måder er det en bil, der er mere værd, end du betaler, svigtet af et problem, der let kan løses.

MG har ingen planer om en løsning, jeg har været i kontakt med den danske importør.

Hej JABO
Kan du venligst oplyse navnet på værkstedet, der monterer Webasto varmere på MG EHS. Evt. også en pris.

 

[JABO]

Hej JABO
Kan du venligst oplyse navnet på værkstedet, der monterer Webasto varmere på MG EHS. Evt. også en pris.

Hej , automester på Mesterlodden i Gentofte , det tager 2 dage og koster 18k incl. App styring fra mobilen. Jeg får den tilbage i morgen, og skal nok dele mine erfaringer.

 

[Archev]

det er litt dyrt - jeg blir med den fulle elektriske MG5 med de varme setene.

 

[hermitdave]

i finally found a workshop to have the webasto installed ? imho this is more than worth it to avoid the ICE coming on.
In so many ways It's a car worth more than you Pay, let down by an easily fixable issue.

MG has no plans for a solution, i've been in contact with the Danish importer.

Think besides the block heater we need a way to block the air intake cooling the radiator rapidly

 

[EVGeezer]

Think besides the block heater we need a way to block the air intake cooling the radiator rapidly

Why would you need to block airflow?

 

[djenson]

Why would you need to block airflow?

Because the airflow would quickly cool the engine, causing the coolant temp to go down with the block heater approach. One though i have had is installing a diesel heater that is air based(like those lowered costs ones) But that then needs a tank of diesel somewhere in the car.

 

[hermitdave]

Why would you need to block airflow?

The heat from engine is circulated to

• cabin heat exchanger
• main radiator - the air intake blows directly into it.

If you want to use block heater or use engine less, you need something to not cool the coolant too quickly.

At -2C, the car needed 3.5 miles with cabin temp set to 18C to allow EV mode. After a further 3.5 miles, it decided that coolant wasn't warm enough and started the engine again. I then dropped the temp to 16C and switched to EV mode again.

Suppose going forward I will stick it to 16C and hopefully it will stay in EV mode longer. That and the 250VAC 2kW heater I plan to use to warm up the cabin on cold mornings