MG4 collection day
 

Took delivery of my Mum's new MG4 today, some 5 months after ordering. We actually got impatient and threatened to cancel after waiting so long, and being told in March (our initial delivery date) that they still didn't have a build date for us. They said they have two red top spec (trophy) models in stock, so we agreed to take one of those instead of waiting for an orange one to eventually arrive.

It was probably the nicest day of the year so far, perfect for collecting a new car. What can I say, the MG4 is just so impressive to drive, it's glides across the road in almost perfect silence, and feels like a mini rolls Royce, smooth, quiet, refined, powerful. It's so easy, comfortable and relaxing to drive, with regen set to 3, you don't even need to use the brakes. Nice weight distribution thanks to the central battery placement, RWD gives it that sporty edge. Handles well on the twisty stuff.

Averaged 3.3 MPKWH on the way home as was putting the car through it's paces on the Welsh A roads, but a shorter journey later on yielded 4.1 which is pretty impressive. Already looking forward to the next drive and learning more about this awesome little EV.

Congratulations! Looks very nice, too bad you didn't get the orange color but it's understandable that you don't want to wait forever especially with current prices. Unique colors have started going up again in price on the used car market since they are so rare. How much does the car weigh? The Volt is 3,500lbs and gets about 3.2 miles/kWh in electric mode.

Lovely car. Personally, I prefer the red. I had been looking at the old MG 5 in red before everything went pear-shaped.

I think it weighs around 3714 lbs unladen, if I converted that correctly. You can feel the weight in the bends for sure, but it does give a reassuring sense of sturdiness and feeling planted on the road. The battery is only 110MM thick so it's pretty compact and pretty energy dense.

I'd recommend sitting in one, they had the new shape in the showroom, you feel like you're sitting on the battery, it's such an odd driving position and it's very uncomfortable and rear legroom is non existent. The boot is tiny for an estate too, I wouldn't recommend the 5 if I'm honest.

That's a good looking car. It has some interesting looking angles at the back. Looking forward to updates as it becomes more familiar.

Yes, the back looks very much like a Range Rover.

Yea I like the design a lot. Got my first long trip (284 miles) on Friday, will charge half way as meeting friends for lunch. The chargers are 50/120 KW so will take way less than an hour. Mum charged on her slow charger that comes with the car last night, it added 53% or 120-130 miles, around 8 miles per hour, for most people, they won't even need a home charger, I almost cancelled ours but will be more efficient anyway.

Over 1200 miles into ownership now, my Mum adores this car, as do I if I'm honest. Just had the home charger installed which makes life easier, rather than using the granny charger which takes about a day and a half to fully charge. With a full charge, she's showing just over 300 miles on a battery now it's warmed up a little. No issues public charging, it's pricey for sure, works out way more than fossil fuels, but it's super rare to ever have to do that as everything we ever need is within a 100 mile radius. Each time we've charged publicly, it's been so quick and efficient, the car was on 97-99% before I even finished my lunch.

The best part for me personally is the regen, I know everyone with an EV bangs on about it. But on the kind of roads where I live, there are so many bends, sharp corners and hills, the accelerator is the brake pedal. The more speed you need to bleed before or during a bend is determined by how high you lift off the accelerator. On level 3 you can do several hundred miles without ever touching the brakes. It's very intuitive. You can have a lot of control on bends and steep declines by just using regen, and of course you're actually charging the battery too. Biggest surprise for me? The build quality, I was worried with an EV you'd notice more cabin creaks without an engine hum to drown them out. But the MG4 is built like a tank, even on the worst broken tarmac, you just glide over it, the supple ride absorbs the bumps and there's not a single sound, it's like driving with noise cancelling headphones on. Superb car, I'm very much leaning towards an EV for my next car, they are way more enjoyable and convenient to own than I had anticipated. Being a petrol head, I thought I'd struggle, but I think I'm ready now.

Depending on what sources you believe, if you charge the battery as slowly as you conveniently can and keep it in the 20%-80% charged range it will significantly prolong battery life. Not sure if that's true but if I had gotten the EV I was considering I planned to test the theory.

I believe, rightly or wrongly, that the manufacturer sets the max and min charge to 80% - 20% so that 100% is actually 80% of fully charged with the same the other end.
That is why Tesla was able to temporarily increase the range of cars trying to escape Hurricane Irma in September 2017.

Yeah, EVs and hybrids have buffers in the battery built in. That's why there is an usable capacity listing for the batteries. Then some let you set lower full points for charging. Tesla allows a real full charge for long trips. Regular fast charging can still be bad for the battery's long term health.

In the case of the hurricane, it only involved certain Teslas. Some of the shorter range models have the larger battery installed, but it's software locked. Tesla unlocked them for evacuation.

This is a widely respected theory in the EV world. Then again, there's a fleet of Teslas that do airport runs near Gatwick here, three of them are on 300,000 ish miles on thier original batteries and are apparently on 84% capacity still. Unless faulty, batteries should outlive the car itself.

Need to define slowly in regards to charging. The fast charging that can degrade a battery if used most of the time is the really fast public chargers that can charge an EV from 10% to 80% in under an hour. The charge rates of a home charger, even a faster one, or Level 2 public charger aren't a risk in that regard.

The general capacity loss of Li-ion batteries in the lab, and being seen with most EVs, is a fairly quick loss in the 2 to 3 years. Could be as high as 10%. After that it levels off to a really low rate; almost flat. It should hold to that for 8 or 10 years, maybe longer. Then it will go into another period of fast decline.

My understanding, from EV shopping last year, is charge it to almost 100% if you are about to leave on a long(er) drive that will consume down to below 80% without stopping and run it down to 10% or so if on a long trip to maximize driving. For general use, stay in the 80%-20% window. And charge as slowly as circumstances allow in each given instance. But I've eaten and slept since then so who knows.

The degradation will vary depending on the chemistry too, not just charging patterns, environmental factors and age. There's always going to be extremes at each end. The taxi driver that's done 300,000 miles in 4 years with a healthy battery, or the old lady who only does 2000 miles a year and has lost 20% already.

The MG4 has two different batteries, both have thier pros and cons. The standard range has a phosphate type battery which can be charged to 100% everytime, is cobalt free and lighter too. But the long range has a standard lithium ion battery. Time will tell which is better, probably not a lot in it. We won't be doing many long trips in Mum's, so it will be charged mostly to 80% on the 7KW home charger, which is considered slow. I think the max we saw was 80, rated higher but shared with a Mercedes so the power was split between the two. Was still up to 97% before I even finished lunch ha.

tl;dr there are steps you can take to help preserve the battery if you want, but the software and design already does that good enough that most drivers won't have to worry about it.

The 20 to 80 percent charge range can apply to any Li-ion battery. Nearly all BEVs have a built in buffer of 15% to 20% split between the full and empty ends. Some have a larger buffer, and the software is programed to unlock the unusable portion to compensate for normal capacity loss.

Many BEVs allow charging to another percentage point, but not above the software's 'full' level. Li-ion is happiest in the 30% to 40% if being stored, or the car parked for some time. Tesla is to only one I know of that allows charging into the upper buffer to near 100%, and then there are confirmation screens warning of the risk.

The above applies to 'typical' Li-ion chemistries; NCM, NCA, etc. LFP(lithium iron phosphate), found in the Model 3 RWD and some Chinese models, can be safely charged to 100% without concerns. Which helps make up for its lower energy density.

In order to minimize charging times on trips, you want want to arrive at the charger at as low as safely possible. The low state of charge allows a faster charge rate to start, and over a larger portion of the charge time during the trip. You stop at 80% because the rate rapidly drops to protect the battery. The rate isn't much better than a level 2, and charging that last bit can take as long as the 70% of charging.

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To everyone's surprise, the X Power edition is already hitting UK shores and is in UK showrooms. Rumours were it would be another year at least, but hey, the Chinese get things done, and done quick.

I'm awaiting a call from my dealer for a test drive, hopefully within the next two to three weeks. The stats are officially twin motor AWD with around 430 BHP, a 0-60 time of 3.8 seconds, top speed of 124 MPH and a reduced range of 239 miles. There also a larger battery but it's not available on the X Power for some reason, however that gives a 325 mile range on the top spec trophy model, which also has a more powerful than before motor option of 248 BHP and a 0-60 time of 6.5. Both are priced at circa £36500 which makes the X Power some kind of bargain for the Supercar like power output. Can't wait to try it!

I'd go for whatever has the best economy and if that is equal then with whatever has the most range. I'm sure even the lowest power output model is plenty peppy.

The longest range model has 248 bhp and 77 KWH battery, 325 mile range, but it's priced identically to the X Power, so people either choose epic power, or decent range.

For me, the long range one is hot hatch quick, but the Supercar quick version with less range would be my pick of the bunch. And yea, my Mum's has 200 BHP which is pretty nippy, but for someone who drives more powerful, lighter sports cars on a daily basis, I'd want something faster to satisfy my needs.

That's interesting the price is the same. If I was young I'd probably go power. I'm old and would go range. Either way would be fun and it is really a good looking vehicle too.