In the UK I thought it was mandated by the govt that they had to start opening up the superchargers to none tesla.

Maybe mandated is the wrong word, but encouraged…

My recollection is that it was originally reported along the lines of, so that they could take advantage of Gov. grants for developing public infrastructure. Certainly the case in the EU where I think it was originally trialed. The EU/Gov grants weren’t available to walled garden networks.  I might be wrong

@DrJ I’m also having problems with our charger regularly tripping out but SP Energy have washed their hands of it after a few attempts to dial down the voltage at the sub-station.

Do they get to wash their hands? I’m told that delivering 230v +10%/- 6% is a legal requirement.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/supply-overvoltage-ignored-by-dno.169073/

Just took delivery of an MG ZS EV Trophy Long Range. Liking it a lot so far – did a couple of motorway based trips (about 110 miles all in) – averaged about 3.4miles/kwh without knowing anything about the car. I assume i’ll get a bit higher than that if I do 65mph instead of 70 etc. Main observations / weird things so far:

– Took me a while to work out how to turn it off fully. Has a standby mode, you can only turn it off if you put your foot on the brake. If you don’t then it just honks if you try and lock it.
– Adaptive cruise control is great! Esp once you realise how to turn down the min distance.
– The default sat nav set up is insane. I was putting in my destination, and then it refused to update my position. Following some side of the road googling turns out there is a setting termed ‘dead reckoning’ and you turn that off, reset the display (hold down home button) and it’ll then work perfectly. Apparently dead reckoning just uses the mobile cell location for positioning rather than gps. Crazy.
– The passenger side door internal release didn’t work to start with. My wife was essentially locked in on our first drive – had to get out and open the door for her like a proper gent. I then had a go in the passenger seat and rather than getting locked in myself i wound down the window and opened the door from the outside. Bizarrely the problem has now totally gone away.
– MG have updated the spec unexpectedly. The trophy used to have a panoramic roof, but that then got despecced for whatever reason, but now it’s back again. Bonus. A load of the reviews moaned that you couldn’t adjust the steering column for height – and this was correct on the test drive. However the one I got delivered lets you adjust height and in/out with the standard lever. In production change I guess.

At the moment i’m not getting a special charger but will use the granny plug instead. The main usecase will be as a runabout and shorter trips. Will be pretty unlikely that we need to travel 200 miles in it and not know a few days in advance (we have/will have a diesel mpv for longer trips), so on that basis it seems like a granny plug is better than dropping a grand on a special charger. I’ve signed up with the octopus 4 hours of cheap charging thing anyway.

dear lord temperature makes a difference to efficiency

Hmm, well, rain makes far more difference in my experience – was it wet when you got 3.1?  I haven’t had a car without a heat pump, but temperature has nowhere near that much impact for me.

Wow, is this in the Ioniq? Hyper miling or just normal driving?

It’s an Ioniq Electric 38kWh, not 5 or 6.  I go on about it on here but they are brilliant cars, possibly the most efficient car you can get currently of any kind.  And they’re cheap too, maybe because people don’t want short range cars.  However, it says 190 miles of range, but you can actually get that or even more in summer, and it only drops to about 175 in winter.  Water cooled battery with heat management between cabin, motor and battery as opposed to the Leaf which had er.. no management at all.  And super durable batteries too.  Only real downside is slow charging.  That trip was totally normal driving – maybe a touch slower through corners than if I’d been on my own since there were four of us in the car and I didn’t want to make anyone puke. But it was properly windy West Wales driving until we got to the A48/M4 on the way home.  I did 70mph on the motorway/DC for about 70 miles.  On my wife’s commute it is currently averaging low 5s, will be in the mid or high 5s by summer – and it’s still on the crappy high rolling resistance tyres the dealer put on it.

turns out there is a setting termed ‘dead reckoning’ and you turn that off, reset the display (hold down home button) and it’ll then work perfectly. Apparently dead reckoning just uses the mobile cell location for positioning rather than gps.

This does sound crazy.  My first car with built-in satnav (Prius) had dead reckoning but that was only to back up when you lost GPS signal. It was based on speed and turning angle – very useful in tunnels.

Regarding long term granny charger use – bear in mind that some sockets can get hot and melt when using 10A for a long time. There’s a new British Standard for sockets to be used for EVs, they are cheap as chips and a cinch to swap (for a qualified electrician or competent DIYer) but worth doing.

Do they get to wash their hands? I’m told that delivering 230v +10%/- 6% is a legal requirement.

This is what they fobbed me off with back in January after being reasonably helpful on previous occasions, so thanks for the link which I will point them at when they reply to my latest complaint:

I have investigated the interruption on 30 January 2024 and would like to advise that these interruptions that last a few seconds are the result of an automatic device, called an auto re-closer opening and closing during a brief clashing or short circuiting of conductors, caused by variety of reasons including adverse weather conditions, trees, wind borne items, birds and squirrels coming into contact with the overhead equipment, or the beginning of a permanent fault on the high voltage network.

This style of fault restoration is greatly appreciated by the vast majority of our customers because it reduces the actual time off supply to a few seconds. Prior to their introduction it was necessary for us to send an engineer out to physically close a fuse in a sub-station in order to restore electricity supplies. Whilst the introduction of such equipment does not prevent supply interruptions entirely it does limit the disruption and minimise the time taken for restoration to occur.

The fault could not have been predetermined by the company, Nevertheless, regardless of how much we protect, and maintain our equipment, faults may still occur. There will always be circumstances beyond our control, which can affect the electrical network.  However, I would like to assure you that there are no issues with the running of the network.

– Adaptive cruise control is great! Esp once you realise how to turn down the min distance.

Be watchful of the automatic cruise control at all times as it can suddenly brake hard for no particular reason, I have the MG HS Trophy DCT and the car will brake hard if there is cows running in the fields adjacent to the road or for seemingly random reasons or for road markings which is not what you want on the A75 with a truck up your arse. It’s been back to the dealer twice in the two months I’ve owned it for checks but they can’t find anything, compared to my previous motability vehicle VW Tiguan DCT the MG is an utter piece of shite to drive. Probably why I’ve only done <400 miles in 2 months.

^^^^

That definitely sounds faulty, I’ve two MG EVs and the only time the auto-emergency brake thing has ever kicked in has been at a particular roundabout with a layout that does look like you’re going to drive directly into the side of a car in the lane next to you.

“Regarding long term granny charger use – bear in mind that some sockets can get hot and melt when using 10A for a long time. ”

Ok will look into that. It should be ok as I had the garage wired up as a workshop two years ago. Got the electrician to put in fatter cables and a 32amp breaker to allow continuous 5kw use (wood working stuff).

And with that, the Polestar is now lowered 😎🤣

The fronts were a complete faff as you literally need to have the shock compressed to be able to remove the lower ball joint.. a combination of muscle power, a trolley jack under the hub, and lots of swearing, and I managed it! It took a few hours (genuinely) to work the ball joint out, and then back in after the coil swap!

Swapping coils was dead easy, even with the classic ‘widowmaker’……!

Forts ride out and…. It feels pretty nice..not at all harsh (the Eibach springs are progressive..)…

What with the carbon spoiler, tinted rears, and now lowered… Time to hit the streets of Hove eh…

Braaap braaap

DrP

Why on earth would you want lower suspension with the roads like they are???

Looks nicer… Handles better!

Fun little project too!

DrP

Regarding the comments above concerning the Ioniq 6. It’s been shaped that way for efficiency. Same as the Teslas. They may not look pretty to some eyes (I like them) but they are very efficient, especially at motorway speeds.

To me,  that super streamlined shape is part of the appeal of running a Tesla because I know it’s been shaped to get the best out of the car. (I do have an orange full sus though, so I’ve always been  function over form).

I would also be happier running the Ioniq 6 or an EV6  rather than the brick that is the 5. Maybe tastes need to alter to factor this in – some of the BYD cars are shaped like this  also.

I’m an Ioniq5 driver and love it, but the economy is dreadful. Luckily it still has plenty of range and my IO electricity means cheap charging 99% of the time.

Ioniq 6 looked and felt like a much nicer car inside, in the showrom at least.

I’ve heard a few people say the efficiency on the ioniq 6 is terrible compared to the 5.

Why’s that then?  Looks like it should be much more efficient based on the stream liner styling compared to the mg maestro styling of the ioniq 5

What do you mean by dreadful? What is your overall miles/kwh say over a year?

Almost everyone I know with an Ioniq 5 is scraping 3mi/kWh at best with most seeing between 2.6 and 2.8 as an average.  Not great.

Now that it’s warmer weather, I’m getting 3.7 in my Ioniq5, that’s now with AC on, heater in the cooler mornings. Fairly normal driving (mix of rural, motorway and occasional heavy right foot/giiggle factor on slip roads.)  If I ‘hypermile it, or at least my half hearted attempt, I can easily get it up to 4.2m/kW.

I dropped my efficiency in the Leaf from mid 4s to mid 3s by taking kids to school in it. Queueing traffic with the heating on 22C versus open roads with the heating on 18.

If you’re going slowly the heating takes the same power, but that gets used against far fewer miles. So those numbers seem plausible for busy traffic but something is surely wrong if that happens on the open road. Lots of people on the Ioniq groups are getting 4.

I’ve heard a few people say the efficiency on the ioniq 6 is terrible compared to the 5.

I don’t see how it can be. It’s the same drivetrain in a more aerodynamic body.

Browsing ‘real world ‘ efficiency reports for the Ioniq 6 returns some highly variable results. Some are poor, but some rigorous tests are pretty good.

This is what they fobbed me off with back in January after being reasonably helpful on previous occasions, so thanks for the link which I will point them at when they reply to my latest complaint:

That stinks, and it’s the kind of thing that makes me despair about the whole EV project in the UK. What if a garage said you can’t fill your car from our pumps. First there’d be uproar, second you can just go to the garage next door. We EV owners don’t have a garage next door.

It may be that the sort of people driving a particular model tend to be a bit heavy on the pedals.

dantsw13Full Member
I’m an Ioniq5 driver and love it, but the economy is dreadful. Luckily it still has plenty of range and my IO electricity means cheap charging 99% of the time.

Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s a great car and I do like the way it looks and the way it’s packaged. But I feel it would be the wrong choice for me because it doesn’t look like an efficient design, so I would feel it’s a bit compromised out on the open road.

I don’t see how it can be. It’s the same drivetrain in a more aerodynamic body

I have the same drivetrain and get low 3’s m/kWh in the winter and high 3’s / low 4’s in the summer. Bloke in our office with an EV6 gets about  the same.

Both single motor / RWD versions with the smallest wheel sizes  though.

Suspect that the poor efficiency figures reported are from the fire breathing, dual full size motor 4wd versions with  big pimp-daddy rims driven in the style of people who would naturally gravitate towards that sort of  spec…y’know, jet plane pilots and such like..

DrPFull Member
Looks nicer…

That the curve of the wheel is no longer concentric to the curve of the arch and fender flare makes my OCD twitch…

DrP your polestar does look trick, I like.
When the come and take away the Niro in September I’ll be trying to make the numbers work, if not my current replacement is looking like a top end megane e-tech (buying, the lease was a good was to test my first EV)

Hmm, looks like the Ioniq 6 is only available with 20″ rims and 245/240 tyres. That might have something to do with it. You can get Ioniq 5s with 19″ rims and 235/55 tyres.

Absolute madness that they don’t at least offer smaller rims.  It would be the easiest way in the world to add a fair few miles to the ‘up to’ range number.

Mine is sat on 20” 255 pilot sports… that might have some effect.  honestly when all things are considered it makes hardly any difference to my life. It’s on charge topping up to 80% every other day. When we need a longer run, then the realistic 250miles (min) is more than enough. If I need longer (return trip to London) then it would be literally an extra few mins charge at a HPC.

Mine is sat on 20” 255 pilot sports… that might have some effect

I went from 255/35/R19 front and 285/30/R19 rear on the Merc with ‘performance tyres’ to 255/40/18 all round with ‘premium’ tyres and I gained 10-12% in efficiency.  Fine if it works for you but it would be nice to have the choice.

I’ve seen a couple of Ioniq 6’s in the last few days. If you’re after a car that says ‘I’ve got money but no style’ then this is your car…

I just looked them up.  I think it looks great! Like some old 1970s Citroen or something.

Never seen one in real life though.  But if anyone here has got one that they dislike, feel free to drop it off round mine, I’ll be happy to look after it for you…

I gained 10-12% in efficiency.

That’s incredible, like offsetting the extra drag from a bike rack, more even!

That’s incredible, like offsetting the extra drag from a bike rack, more even!

Yes, previously I’d be doing well to get 50mpg, now I can get 55-57 easily and I have seen 59, all on steady motorway runs at 70.  The older wheels were very open designs though which create a lot of turbulence, so I consider this a worst/best case scenario. I don’t think most cars can gain that much on wheel changes.  That said, the new tyre/wheel combo is still quite big and low profile so it’s probably not the best case.  It’s also possible that other things changed in the car duing that time i.e. I did longer trips and ‘cleaned out the engine’ or something.

I think that we’re going to go for a Kia eNiro. Lots at around 15-16k on 70-21 plates. Look like a great range…..we did test drive one a few years back and liked it, think it was the smaller range one though.

I’ve got four years funding for a PhD starting in October, and EV charging is currently free (hopefully it stays that way!).

Just need to make sure that the sums add up…been doing bangernomics in recent years.

Have you also tried Hyundai Kona, being the same underneath?

My wife prefers the look of the Niro, I’m fairly ambivalent myself. I might have a look to check prices though.

Are EVs really much heavier than their ICE equivalents?

They may be the same underneath but the Kona and the Niro are quite different on internal space. As a slightly awkward the analogy the Kona is a Fiesta while the Niro is a focus.

Hm.  Ioniq 5 prices have now gone down enough that changing our two current cars for one would save us £150/mo.  Two year old cars are now around £21k

@DrP are those Poledancer roof bars you’re using? I was looking at Thule wingbars but they seem to a) be more expensive and b) clamp on rather than use the proper mounting point bolts.

What sort of impact are the bars and bike racks having on your efficiency?

Interesting article, Molgrips. If you consider axle weights which are the main factor in road damage I’d argue it’s even closer. There’s a much more even weight distribution with an EV compared with most ICEs which have a much stronger front axle bias.