[yajaman99]

Extended Test Drive of the MG ZS EV



Disclaimer:
This thread is more about my experience with the EV and not a full fledged review.
This is a completely built unit imported in and not assembled in the Gujarat plant
Could not try the MG ismart app as this was a demo vehicle
Android Auto did not seem to work with my Galaxy Note 8 or Mi Note5Pro
(maybe a cable issue).


Price EX-Showroom
Excite Rs 20, 88,000/-
Exclusive Rs 23, 58,000/-

Before I dwell into the details, listed below are some Pros and Cons in my view.

Pros
Five Star NCAP rating.
Super electric motor with 142.7PS and 535Nm of Max Torque.
A very punchy Sport "S" mode.
44.5kWh battery with a claimed range of 340KM range.
Average running cost around Rs 1.15/km.
Panoramic Sky Roof.
Premium looking interiors.
6 air bags.
3 point seat belt for all 5 occupants.
Front and rear disc brakes.
Large boot space.
Integrated TPMS system.
London Eye DRL.
Internet Connected car (5G ready).
Very lively music system.
Cruise Control (did not test it out).
Voice Activated commands ( more about this later).
Powerful air conditioner.
Physical ac controls.

Cons
Long outstation trips not possible till infrastructure is in place. No idea when it would happen.
Digital Instrument panel could have been larger, but does the job.
No rear passenger armrest.
No Fog lamp or Cornering lights.
No rear reading lamps, could have been put on the sides where the grip handles are.
Front reading lights simple button system.
No Rear AC ( however i did not feel it was required).
Missing 12V socket in rear , however a 5v usb port it there.

Good Things to have in facelift model In my view (may increase price)
Auto Dimming rear view mirror (after market possible)
360 Degree camera setup
Auto Tailgate with foot release (after market possible)
All Digital Instrument Cluster

Other new EVs in the Market
1. Tata Nexon EV (sub 4 meter)


A very good initiative by MG to have such a marketing option.
This being a niche product it greatly helps advertise the EV.

So lets start in the beginning, I had previously test drove the MG ZS EV a few weeks back.
A short 30 min drive on a Saturday morning. I really liked it.
Then on the 18th of Aug a half page advertisement was in the Times of India, Bangalore paper.

Have the MG ZS EV for a day.



Wow, with a big smile on my face I called the number mentioned and spoke to the Person in charge of the EV Sales.
He was ready to provide the car on the weekday as many calls had come in for the weekend.

Hence I explained it would not make sense as I would be working on weekdays and the car would just stay parked
as this made sense he said he would check if a car can be made available for Sat 22nd.

To my luck as it was Ganesh Chaturthi and the office would be closed, so Mr. Srikant the EV Sales head, agreed to give the car on Friday night and have it picked up on Monday morning.

This gave me a 3 nights 2 days with the MG ZS EV,

Night 1: 21st Aug
Delivery of Test Vehicle on 21st by 7:30pm
Hand over process, check the car, what all accessories are there, copy of driving license.
Photo op of handing over the car key.

The Exclusive Copenhagen Blue ZS EV was handed over with a 70 charge, approx 210KM range.

Any new car brings in the crowd, friends , neighbors and a whole lot more.

I parked the EV in my parking slot. My son and I sit in and try to get the feel of what is what.
However that is tossed out the window and for the next 2.5 hours I become an extended arm of the MG marketing team.
Few of the evening walkers of the Apartment stopped to congratulate and ask the important questions, Cost, range the all famous "kitna deti hai"
In all this 2.5 hours there was two test drive by close family friends and the super silent motor was on ticking away the valuable kms

Took a nice drive with the family towards Bangalore International Airport and took a u-turn before the toll gate.

For the first night that brought the battery to 56%.
No worries I thought as there was a 16 amp socket which I could use and get 8hrs of charge from the portable charger.



Murphy's law struck and the point was not working, this meant no over night charge.

With just 56% how do I drive around for the next two days. Time to call it a night.


[
DAY 1: 22nd Aug

Woke up on Sat, Day 1 on what do to, The MG team mentioned BESCOM has setup charging Stations and we can use the ElectreeFi app.
Went to PlayStore and downloaded it.

The App showed two locations near to me, Yelaknaka and Mathikere
A quick check in the app for Yelaknaka and I see it has the CSS type charger, what i did not notice was the available count was 0.
Made my way to the Yelaknaka BESCOM office, enter the campus and find the Charging Station, however the members there said noting is working.

As this was the First time seeing a pay and use station with spiderwebs all around the cables made me believe them even though I could see the displays on.

Back home to figure out next steps, had some work till 1pm and then decided to head to Mathikere Station to check it out.
Used good old google maps and headed over.

Once you enter, on the right hand side is the EV charging station.




I quickly park, jump out of the car, open the EV charging point, pull out the CSS cable and connect.
Now I see a QR code, so what do I do ?
Pull out the old phone , open Paytm to scan the QR Code, takes me to a payment option, put in Rs 250 to test.
Money gone and I look at the 25kW charging display, no change and no light on the MG Logo, ie means it is not charging .



Hats off to the BESCOM Members there who were helpful in getting me the help I needed. They guided me to call a mobile number which was written on the pillar.
While they saw I was not getting a response they also tried their possible contacts to get me help.

Being Ganesh Chaturthi it took time to get hold of the concerned people. Once I was connected and got the instructions things went well.

How to use the Electreefi App.

1. Download the ElectreeFI app (nice name)
2. Add some money to the Bescom Wallet, our use net banking.
3. On the map search for which location has your type of charger and then head over.
4. You will see the QR Code stuck on the unit, as they are two type of chargers they are two QR code.
5. At this station CSS was number 2.
6. Do not remove the charging cable from the docking port.
7. Go to Quick Charge from the menu in the app.
8. Scan the correct QR code, in this case number 2.
9. The menu option selects how you would like to charge
a: Time Duration
b: By kWh
10. Message appears to make sure the cable is connected before you start charging.
11. Once Checked , start charging and sit back.





Yippee the MG logo was lit up and the charging Started.

[yajaman99]

Night 2 : 22nd Aug
Now with the car charged with only 7% did not give me much hope as we were just above 50%
What next, lets try the 50kW Fast charging option. On checking for availability the one on Outer Ring Road, near Whitefield was closed. The one at the Electronic City was open.
Cool this meant a 30KM drive via the city to Electronic City.
A good option to test one of the routes to my office.
The 50kW Fast charger is a private setup from Fortum, Charge and Drive.

This being an extended test drive and the Bangalore skys opening up i was able to drive in the rain and see how the car was.
Loved it, the wipers were great at all speeds.
My family in the back loved the rain falling on the magnificent panoramic sky roof.
Traffic was not bad and I enjoyed the drive.

Now with my experience in the afternoon with BESCOM I was all ready to tackle the fast charge.
1. Fortum Charge and Drive app installed.
2. Update Credit card details in app.
3. Open app and check charging station on the map
4. Select the same
5. Attach the charger to your EV
6. Select the big button which says A
7. Sit back and watch as the fast charge does its work.

The speed of charging was super fast in 27mins from 42% to 80%
From 80% to 90% took 15mins.

Screenshots from the App.




Fortum, Charge and Drive 50KW Fast Charger


The Display which shows the Mins, Battery % and the kWH charged


MG Badge lighted to confirm charging, looks pretty cool.


Cost is Rs 18.99 / min

I will be updating a comparison table in the upcoming post regarding the charging cost.

Now with 90% showing on the Fortum and 89% Charge on the car display, we decide to head to Richie Rich in Kumara Park.


A beautiful drive back towards the city.
This car is a head turner for now, at Richie Rich we had parked next to a Land Rover Velar however I could see more people looking at the MG ZS EV.

After some careful eating of snacks in the car we headed home,extremely happy and loving the car more with each minute we spend with it.

Time for Night 2 to come to an end and wait for tomorrow, Day 2.

[yajaman99]

Day 2: 23rd Aug

Wake up to a nice cloudy day in Bangalore.
Check the car for range and battery level



First trip of the day is a run to All Saints Bakery in the City with the Family.
Once again everyone enjoying the ride and the gorgeous panoramic roof.

On the way spotted a nice set of bikes rolling on Bellary Road.
I happen to be watching Sons of Anarchy on Netflix now and the bike view just put a smile on my face. Pic does not do real justice as by time my son could click the pic most were gone.



After the short visit to All Saints head back home to drop the family and head on out again to visit a friend in RT Nagar to show the car.
Once done back home.

The battery is at 65%.
Now post lunch what do we do, lets go to EC again this time via Nice road.
After 5 months i was on Nice road again. FastTag not yet enabled.
Did the customary mini photo-shoot at Nice.

Arsh, my son, enjoying the sunroof. Strict Rule only if the car is in parked mode can this be done.


When in EC, time to use the Fast Charger, this time not in the rain.



Now the car is at 81%.
Head home by doing a stop over at Forum Mall via the EC Elevated flyover.

Then back home to finish Day 2/Night 3.

Tomorrow the car would be taken back.

Today KMS covered - 300KM.

[yajaman99]

The car was handed over with an Odo of 3085 and I ended my test drive with an odo of 3385km. 300KM test drive



The red lines on the seat are the Seat Belt indicator.

This gave me a really good feel of the car and I got try out some practical things before hopefully owning my first EV.

I wanted to figure out the cost of recharging the vehicle and got the opportunity to try two external sources.
1. BESCOM 25kWDC wall box
2. Fortum 50kW DC Fast Charger.










BESCOM Station charged me Rs 26.42 for 3.3kWh which took 41mins 5sec
Fortum charger cost Rs 18.99/min as an introductory offer.
When charged for 90% the cost was:
Rs 797.58 for 21.044kWh which took 42 mins
When charged for 80% the cost was
Rs 455.76 for 14.014kWh which took 24 mins.

This is where the old saying "Time is money" makes most sense.
The faster you charge the more you pay.

Below table show the calculation based on my observations of the 3 times i have charge the vehicle. Then doing simple math to arrive at the costing
Assumptions made:
Max range with 44.5kWh is 300KM
Average Diesel price over six months.



So I am not sure if I am doing correct thing but the BESCOM 50kWh DC charges the same speed as the AC Fast charger the company is giving.
Maybe if any existing EV owners can comment about this.

Going by the costing the Fast charger should be setup along the highways at the Kamats and Empire Restaurants. This is a no brainier so people can eat and charge their vehicle. In the City it should be in the Malls.
For the MG ZS EV the car has to be locked for the car to charge

MG ZS EV Driving Performance

It has 3 driving modes and 3 levels of Kinetic Energy Recovery System(KERS)
Eco, Normal and Sports
KERS, 1,2,3


The most mileage will be when in KER 3 and Eco mode.
But if you want to feel i like driving a regular car Normal and Kers 1 just fine. SO when you lift your foot off the accelerator the car does not start braking to regenerate the power.
The Sports mode is just out of this world, once you switch to Sports and press the accelerator you are literally pushed back into your seat.
This obviously comes at a cost of your km/KWh.

For most of the time the car was in Normal mode and Kers 3 with the A/C on.
The approximate average range is 10% battery would equal to 27km to 30 km.



With an average of 7.2kWn/km would give a range of 333km which is close to the 340km rating.

You can notice the bottom row shows you the Time, Gear (P,R,N,D), KERS Level and then the Driving mode (E,P,S) and the Odometer

In Summary ,Driving this was a great pleasure.

[yajaman99]

The Interior

Top notch quality finish of the dashboard.
Lovely soft touch. This was a new level of quality for me, comparing my previous and current ride.

The Dashboard



The Seats with the white stitch pattern are premium. The same pattern runs on the arm rest.
The side A/c vents again are big upgrade for me.
The leather wrapped steering wheel to me felt a little different.
The car "Start/Stop" button is situated on the left handside.
On the right side you have the controls for the ORVM and the headlight leveler
The ORVMs get auto fold/unfold when you start/stop the car.
It looks great but somehow the feel is a miss.
All the buttons on the wheel are illuminated.
Volume control on the left hand side and MID controls on the right.



You have two cup holders in front of the arm rest.
Which leads to the Electronic Break and Auto hold buttons.
Followed by the elegant gear knob.
The storage area between the gear knob and A/C it just big enough to hold my Galaxy Note 8 without a power connector cable.
The Lower Deck , as i like to call it, has the 12V charging and two usb ports
One has to pass the usb cable from lower deck to upper deck via a slot in it.



The driver side seat gets power adjusting switches.
Without any memory function it is just a nice to have feature.
The seat is quite comfortable and hugs you when you floor it in Sports mode.




The Instrument Panel



On the Left you have the Speedometer and a 12V battery level
The 3.5" Multi Info Display (my guess is TFT display) in the middle
On the right is your Efficiency meter and the main Battery level, like a traditional E to F.

The MID has various displays which are highlighted in the following pictures.
The seat belt warning light in red, all doors, boot and hood get warning indicator.
The charging door does not get a warning indicator.








Panoramic Sky Roof

The manual control for the Sky roof.


Rear Seat

The rear seat has a center 3 point seat belt.
Next Gen TBhpian trying it out.
The rear is best suited for 2 adults and 1 kid. 3 Adults can fit depending on size.



All the window switches are illuminated in the night.
All windows get one touch down while driver side also gets one touch up.
The auto door lock option is setup via the head unit. The door lock/unlock buttons are also illuminated.



The gear knob is beautiful illuminated as seen in the below pictures.


The Infotainment unit also display the TPMS.
When you turn the AC temp or Fan the window pops up with the details. It shows the Outside Temperature also.



The Infotainment unit is a connected to great set of speakers and with the Ganna app, the sound is amazing. The feels like is is acoustically designed.

The Voice Commands
"Hello MG" or a tap on the head unit voice control icon activates.
I could not find a complete list of commands but via the help it showed the below.



The practicality of this is really good so you don not need to remove your hand from the steering wheel.
In the two days of use i felt i would say it understood 7 out 10 commands i would give. Now if this is like Alexa, it should be learning and adapting over time. However not sure, something to check on about.
Not a deal breaker.

My kid was enjoying this, trying to put on a British accent as this is MG and trying out the Open/close sunroof.

The Boot is quite larger and the base dept can be chaged.
I think quite usefull if you need to transport a wheelchair.



Missing pics and review
1. Fuse box location
2. Storage space on the doors. They do have space to hold a water bottle.
3. Cruise control Stock
4. Indept head light control switch operation, it has Auto light feature.
5. Picture of the Motor Bay.

[yajaman99]

The Exterior view







Request sensors on both of the front doors.
Little too large "Electric" Badge on the sides in my view. I can understand why.
Turn indicators on the ORVM.






Noticed the Wiper Blades cannot be pulled out. The base hits the Bonnet.


The reverse camera is located under the boot lip just above the number plate. It gets adaptive guide lines.




Another interesting thing was that in the user manual it talked about how to change the key fob battery.

[yajaman99]

Now having my existing vehicle with me during this time, ie the 2016 Creta 1.6 CRDI SX+, made me want to do a comparison.

As per the Specifications the MG ZS EV is bigger by few mms to the Creta.

Official dimension


However the Creta does look bigger.


Now with the Venue


MG ZS EV with its bigger brother, Hector.


Another observation was the ZS EV reverse camera does not seem as wide as the Cretas. The below collage has the Creta on top. You can see more on the left and right. This could be because the ZS EV has added a visual to the audio warning .



CONCLUSION

Likes:
The Performance on Tap, in S mode you skip a heart beat.
The ease of driving
The safety features and rating
Premium feel of the car
Low running cost (saving in my pocket)
Powerful Air Con
The Arm rest blends in with the cup holders/storage and gear knob. To me it is like a work of art.
For now the exclusiveness (not many on the road)

Dislikes:
Voice Commands work only 70% of the time.
Headlights could have been Led or HIDs.
The space to keep your phone, with phone getting bigger, this is a miss.
Keep the phone in the lower deck and you will keep forgetting it.
Lower deck usb ports not easily accessible.

Not Related to the MG ZS EV but all EVs.
Range Anxiety , if an urgent matter comes up and the battery is not charged.
Charging Infra around us.
Will need to monitor the Battery level, if if charging over night, what if the power is stopped middle of the night.


Would I buy the MG ZS EV after this extended test drive ?
The answer would be YES.
The extended test helped me know more about the car by myself then just reading or asking the Sales Exec.

It ticks all the boxes for me
1. I do not do many outstation trips
2. I mainly do Mall hopping on the weekends and regular visit to my parents place which is nearby.
3. When we go back to office regularly i will end up saving Rs 9000/- per month on diesel.
4. The Lease amount for the MZ ZS EV is marginally higher to my current lease amount.
5. The Boot Space is perfect
6. Easy to drive


In my scenario my Creta has 1 year left on the lease. After driving the ZS EV I am exploring options on ending the lease early. However by doing so i take a small financial hit . If i can get close to the lease surrender value i am good to get the MG ZS EV and start an Ownership Thread.

If not ,this Beauty will need to wait for 1 year and Aug 2021 hopefully I will be a MG ZS EV owner.

Once again if you are looking to pick a new car (in this price bracket) and do not do long distance Getaways I would highly recommend checking out the MG ZS EV.
You also need to consider you have the accessibility to install the Delta 7.4kW AC charger at your location. So potential buyers in Apartments need to check on the feasibility.
For me where I stay the Electric room for my block is just behind the my car parking slot.

On a closing note, Now that i am back to driving my Creta, it sounds like i am driving a truck. The 2 days of driving the silent MG ZS EV has spoiled me.

Thank you all for reading through this, once again this is not an official review as few things are missing. If you have any questions i would be happy to try and answer them.
A Big Thank you to MG India and Mr. Srikant for allowing me and my family to experience the MG ZS EV and hopefuly join the MG band wagon.


Go Green- Go EV - Go MG

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[landcruiser123]

Hi Yajaman99,
This is a brilliant review. I'm actually very impressed with MGs ZS EV - they mean serious business. Most EVs produced by the Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Honda, and Hyundai are primarily for the US market where people drive big cars. (Toyota Corolla in the US is lower in the Foodchain vis-à-vis Maruti Swift in India)

The Chinese can manufacture batteries at low cost due to their vast Lithium reserves and efficient production facilities. It is surely going to be an interesting couple of decades ahead, especially in the third world markets where we haven't seen small EVs from our favorite big brands - i.e. Honda, Toyota, and Tesla.

[DarthVeda]

Originally Posted by yajaman99

Attachment 2048133



BESCOM Station charged me Rs 26.42 for 3.3kWh which took 41mins 5sec
Fortum charger cost Rs 18.99/min as an introductory offer.
When charged for 90% the cost was:
Rs 797.58 for 21.044kWh which took 42 mins
When charged for 80% the cost was
Rs 455.76 for 14.014kWh which took 24 mins.


So I am not sure if I am doing correct thing but the BESCOM 50kWh DC charges the same speed as the AC Fast charger the company is giving.
Maybe if any existing EV owners can comment about this.

Going by the costing the Fast charger should be setup along the highways at the Kamats and Empire Restaurants. This is a no brainier so people can eat and charge their vehicle. In the City it should be in the Malls.
For the MG ZS EV the car has to be locked for the car to charge

Something went wrong on your charge at BESCOM, they charge at max. 25kw/h. I have used it for charging the nexon and it charged at 23kw/h. I got a bill of 158 rupees for an hour. It's most economically viable fast charging option. Fortum is very very expensive and they are dumb to charge by minute, If i go to charge my nexon, it can only consume 23kw/h not the full 50kw/h. They should charge by energy consumed not the time spent.

Problem with BESCOM is that...they are BESCOM It's a hit sometimes and mostly a miss most of the times, Home charging is the best option. If you setup a solar panel on top, then you are driving for free most of the time, and once offices open up, then probably can leech the electricity at office too

[yajaman99]

Originally Posted by DarthVeda

Something went wrong on your charge at BESCOM, they charge at max. 25kw/h. I have used it for charging the nexon and it charged at 23kw/h. I got a bill of 158 rupees for an hour. It's most economically viable fast charging option.

Thanks for confirming this, i too was surprised when I saw the details.
Glad to know your Nexon EV got the correct charge speed.

But like to you said BESCOM could be a hit or a miss but happy this option is available.

[coolmind]

Originally Posted by yajaman99

Assumptions made:
Max range with 44.5kWh is 300KM
Average Diesel price over six months.

Attachment 2048212

Thanks for the review.
So, if the math goes right, I understand it as no point in going for an EV as cost/km is coming down to same as a regular car unless you use slow charging! Or is the math wrong?
And struggle to find a charging doc still prevails in India.

[puntOOs]

Originally Posted by coolmind

Thanks for the review.
So, if the math goes right, I understand it as no point in going for an EV as cost/km is coming down to same as a regular car unless you use slow charging! Or is the math wrong?
And struggle to find a charging doc still prevails in India.

Consider the fact that cars wait idle for several hours at home or at work. This means you can get away with slow charging most of the time after the initial setup without disturbing your schedule or causing yourself inconvenience. For the few times when you need to quick charge the availability of such stations would matter. The price wouldn't matter much if 90% of the time slow charging works and 10% of the time you need fast charging. The other thing is pricing for fast charging will drop when competition for charging stations comes.

The struggle to charge on long drives would get solved over time as fuel stations and restaurants on highways put out charging stations.
The EV landscape is very dynamic and but it is clearly moving toward lower costs. Costs even 2 years ago are not comparable to today.

In comparison, the ICE car landscape is static. You have predictability but not much improvements either.

[yajaman99]

Originally Posted by coolmind

Thanks for the review.
So, if the math goes right, I understand it as no point in going for an EV as cost/km is coming down to same as a regular car unless you use slow charging! Or is the math wrong?
And struggle to find a charging doc still prevails in India.

Hi Coolmind, yes you are correct in math but not with the logic for not going for an EV based on Fast charge pricing.

Now 90% of the time you will charge at home using the 7.4kW Delta AC charger provided which would cost you approx Rs 8 per kW , ie 44.5 kW = Rs 356./- (Charge time approximate 8 hours as per marketing)
Not going by the 340 Km range provided, if you make an assumptions of 300km on a full charge, it will work out to 1.18 Rs/km

So while you sleep you charge the EV and add the saving to your bank account.

The Balance 10% of the time is when you may need to use the Expensive Fast Charging option.

[lifebuoy]

Fine review of the EV. However, the golden question - Would I buy one ? DEFINITELY NO. MG is an SAIC brand and I would never again buy a Chinese product, not after Galwan. Period.