[sreeharipv]

9. The lower spec Excite does not show State of Charge in %. It shows it only as 8 bars (each bar = 12.5%) or distance to empty. It says 320 km in Normal with AC off. Since range meter is not adaptive, simply divide DTE km by 3.2 to get percentage. Weirdly, it shows the % while charging up. This is purely crippling the software to differentiate higher and lower models and it is disappointing that MG did this.

Man that's just infuriating. I was thinking the excite variant is good value for me as I don't care for sun roof (I don't have children so I can stick them out of the sunroof and drive around.. alas.. ) and Internet was already inside the car through my phone. I would be very furious to find out about this after I had already taken the delivery. This isn't a feature that they I could've paid much attention in the short test drives because they mostly give you the higher end variant for TDs and I had never have a sales person tell me about this omission.

[flanker]

Originally Posted by sreeharipv

Man that's just infuriating.

The excite gets the no iSmart and different infotainment hardware which it shares with the version in UK. The exclusive gets a completely different hardware for the infotainment system. Even in exclusive, the battery percentage is only displayed in the infotainment system.

Is it easy to fix? Maybe so. Unless there is some other technical reason why this information can't be routed to the infotainment system with older hardware.

[brt_mhn]

Originally Posted by sreeharipv

I could've paid much attention in the short test drives because they mostly give you the higher end variant for TDs and I had never have a sales person tell me about this omission.

I myself made that observation after delivery. And yes, it is very surprising that the SA did not tell us about it at all. If you think of it, it’s actually a good opportunity for them to make a deal for the Exclusive. It is unfortunate.

Originally Posted by Shivam

When you charged up during lunch, I assume the car still had about half of total charge. How long does it take from empty to full on a fast charger?
With the hotel charging, how much was the charging time? Did they have specific point or just a regular plug point?
In case of a dry up situation, what was the contingency measure?

Thank you! The car took around 40 minutes to charge up to 100% from 50ish % at Tata Power’s 25 kW charging stations. Since I didn’t notice any slowing down of charging rates at the end (Nexon slows down quite a bit from what I’ve heard) you can safely assume that a full charge will take around 80-85 minutes.

However, if you find a 50 kW charger like Fortum, Zeon or EESL, it takes only 40 minutes from 10-100% (from personal experience)

Regarding charging at the resort, it was a standard 15A socket. Didn’t really measure the time as we plugged it in overnight and it was done by the time we woke up in the morning. But 20-100 at home takes me around 15 hours with a regular 15A socket. Haven’t got the wall box installed as load needs to be upgraded from 3 to 8 kW which can be a costly affair due to you know what.

[Tokengrip]

Thanks for the write-up. I recently had the chance to experience all this while driving my dad's excite ZS ev from Madikeri to Bangalore. I live in Bombay and it was my first long drive with the car after having taken it for a few short drives during my trip home. My dad has had the car since July and has driven it for about 5000kms.

I decided to not hold back with regard to how i would drive the car and started the journey with 92% charge which equated to 305kms real range as per the cars MID. I would generally find myself reaching max speeds between 100 - 120 during the first leg between madikeri and Mysore owing to single lane traffic. What i liked a lot is how fast you could get back to your crusing speed after having slowed down. But my accelerations were generally almost full throttle and this took a toll on the battery. Madikeri (home) - Mysore( MG motor India) is 115 kms and I reached with 55% battery left. Did a quick 20 min fast charge from the TATA EZ 25kw charger and the car showed 78%.

This is where it gets interesting. We were traveling to Bangalore via the Hassan road and as soon as we hit good roads it was really hard to control my urge and there were instances of reaching some very illegal road speeds. Soon we pulled up for lunch and I checked how far it was to home in Bangalore. It said 110 kms and the cars MID was showing 132 kms of range.!! Cue frantic searching for chargers on the plugshare portal.!

As luck would have it, a TATA 25kw charger showed up at a hotel 4 kms down the road but in the opposite direction of our destination. We immediately take off only to reach and find that this single point charger has just been plugged into a Nexon ev that wasn't going to move for the next 45 min atleast. We decide to take our chances, so we find a u turn spot and come back to where we were at earlier. So again 110 kms to home and MID now showing 123kms.!

For this leg we keep the car at a steady pace between 85-100kms per hr. I back off the throttle everytime i touch 100 kms and all accelerations are gentle. We steadily make progress and I keep checking the difference between actual and MID to ascertain if we are going to make it. At 50 kms range the car starts giving you warnings to plug in. We reached home with 17kms to spare as per the MID and I was very impressed with how much you could extract from the car if you cruised at an average speed of 90 km/hr.

On his way back, my 72 yr old dad doing the return leg solo, decides to be extra brave and see if he can reach home without charging while trying to maintain an average speed of 90 kms/hr. I ll let the video end this write-up. It was only about 7 kms away from home so he managed to get help quite easily. It did take him an eternity to get 5% charge before moving. We all had a good laugh about it the next day.!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=YMDrUwSKc68?feature=share

[anandavinash]

Originally Posted by brt_mhn

Hello everyone. This is my first post on team-bhp. I shall leave no stone unturned to ensure that I am a worthy member.

Thanks for the details. This surely makes a good case for the electric car. Do your parents find getting in and out of the car easy? This is now a big factor for my parents as sedans are not the easiest for them.

[brt_mhn]

Originally Posted by anandavinash

Thanks for the details. This surely makes a good case for the electric car. Do your parents find getting in and out of the car easy? This is now a big factor for my parents as sedans are not the easiest for them.

My dad is 5ft 10in and my mom is 5ft 4. They can both walk in comfortably but then again, both of them were fine with the i20 as well and both are slim without any back issues.

Thanks

[sukhbirST]

Congratulations on your new car and long drive in EV. The place you visited - Dindi is really beautiful and enchanting. Looks like famous back waters of kerala. Am at kakinada but not been able to visit it even once. Feel motivated now and big thanks for the same. Kindly put some photos and route pse.

[brt_mhn]

Originally Posted by Tokengrip

I decided to not hold back with regard to how i would drive the car and started the journey with 92% charge which equated to 305kms real range as per the cars MID. I would generally find myself reaching max speeds between 100 - 120 during the first leg between madikeri and Mysore owing to single lane traffic.

Seems like you had a hell of an experience. But yes, constant acceleration though fun, does take a toll on the range. I maintained a steady pace for quite a bit using cruise control (which interestingly, as per my observations, cuts power requirement even further.)

Originally Posted by Shivam

In case of a dry up situation, what was the contingency measure?

Call RSA maybe? Or request locals for a plug point. But both can be avoided just like planning in a regular ICE car. You don't randomly run out of petrol/diesel do you?

Thanks

Originally Posted by sukhbirST

Congratulations on your new car and long drive in EV. The place you visited - Dindi is really beautiful and enchanting. Looks like famous back waters of kerala. Am at kakinada but not been able to visit it even once. Feel motivated now and big thanks for the same. Kindly put some photos and route pse.

Thank you! But man, I'm really sorry. I didn't take many photos apart from those of the car and it at charging stations. Complete digital detox while staying with nature!

Apologies

[Shivam]

Originally Posted by Tokengrip

On his way back, my 72 yr old dad doing the return leg solo

..
https://Youtube.com/watch?v=YMDrUwSKc68?feature=share

Hats off to your dad!
The video seems to be private and not able to access.

[sukhbirST]

Originally Posted by brt_mhn

Thank you! But man, I'm really sorry. I didn't take many photos apart from those of the car and it at charging stations. Complete digital detox while staying with nature!

Apologies

Understand the break with nature at its best. Anyway you are welcome again and kakinada can be included.

[Tokengrip]

I maintained a steady pace for quite a bit using cruise control (which interestingly, as per my observations, cuts power requirement even further.)

That's a great observation. Definitely something to check out in the future.

The video seems to be private and not able to access.

In case of a dry up situation, what was the contingency measure?

Hoping the video link works now and should answer your second question also. Coorg is quite remote and RSA isn't going to save you besides there are stretches where there are just no houses.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=fYrpEFvwsD4?feature=share

[brt_mhn]

Originally Posted by Tokengrip

Hoping the video link works now and should answer your second question also. Coorg is quite remote and RSA isn't going to save you besides there are stretches where there are just no houses.

https://Youtube.com/watch?v=fYrpEFvwsD4?feature=share

Damn. Must have been very scary. No lights, deserted road, God! I swear I would have freaked out but seems like your dad handled it like a champ!

[Shivam]

Originally Posted by Tokengrip

https://Youtube.com/watch?v=fYrpEFvwsD4?feature=share

Wow.. Reminds me of the viral video of Stranded Tesla owner looking for gas (for his portable generator)

[prasanna_indaje]

Originally Posted by Tokengrip

As luck would have it, a TATA 25kw charger showed up at a hotel 4 kms down the road but in the opposite direction of our destination. We immediately take off only to reach and find that this single point charger has just been plugged into a Nexon ev that wasn't going to move for the next 45 min atleast. We decide to take our chances, so we find a u turn spot and come back to where we were at earlier. So again 110 kms to home and MID now showing 123kms.!

This route has two chargers now.
1. Tata Power at Hatna - Hotel Vaishali
2. Zeon at Yedeyur - Hotel Paakashaala

Both are ~10 kms apart.

[Tokengrip]

Tata Power at Hatna - Hotel Vaishali

This was the one we attempted to top up at. They have only a single point though.

Just saw the Zeon charger on plugshare. Missed this completely when we were looking for charging points. Thank you for that.