[Gildarts]

What's the idea behind EVs looking like flimsy plastic toys. That front certainly looks like came out of a cheap toy factory.

[shashanka]

One has to slowly come to terms with the fact that Chinese products are not to be sneered at any more - the way Japanese, Korean and Hong Kong products were earlier. The current status quo is good - the domestic majors will have state-of-the-art EV targets to put on their radar. And more importantly, their pricing should be realistic as well. The KIA EV6 is state-of-the-art too, but it has an OTR price in excess of 60 L - with the option of an AWD version as well.

[amol4184]

Originally Posted by Gildarts

What's the idea behind EVs looking like flimsy plastic toys. That front certainly looks like came out of a cheap toy factory.

Its looking especially bad on the ZS. I too never understood the need to blank out grille on EVs. After decades and decades of identifying cars with grilles, this trend is quite unsettling to look at - almost robbing the identity of the car.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Just coming from a test drive of the car. Initial impressions are very positive.

1. I personally like the new look. Especially in black, it looks stunning. Build quality also seems to be good. No apparent red flags anywhere. Everything seems well screwed together and solid enough.

2. Super smooth drive. Far more mature and refined experience as compared to Nexon EV. In fact, it is a complete no contest.

3. New touchscreen and digital display are much improved over the previous car. Good graphics, and all relevant information is right there in front of your eyes. You don’t have to hunt for things.

4. Cabin quality is top notch, in usual MG fashion. Definitely better ambiance than the likes of Creta or Seltos or XUV700, and about par with my Jeep Compass in terms of touch and feel. Again, no comparison with Nexon EV. The difference is like WagonR vs Honda City.

5. Bigger battery promises 300-320km of real world range with normal driving. Nexon EV salespeople saying “Saar you need to learn how to drive an EV properly to get good range” can go take a hike. This one can totally be hypermiled for 400km if on a pinch. So, range is more than enough. Even for occasional out of town usage.

6. Comfortable rear bench with a well angled backrest, nice headrests and a welcome armrest. Legroom is good. Thigh support is acceptable. Not great but nobody will complain. It is not too knees up at all. Overall cabin width is similar to Jeep Compass.

7. KERS mode 1 felt just like any regular car coasting in 6th gear. Selective regenerative braking is very well implemented

8. Brake pedal felt extremely wooden. Only downer in an otherwise polished driving experience

9. Normal mode is as peppy as my Jeep Compass at full throttle. Normal mode with KERS 1 is absolutely smooth, with strong acceleration available at all time. Sports mode is bonkers insane. I am talking 530d levels of roll-on acceleration. This car can embarrass cars costing 4 times as much at traffic light grand prixes. Very impressive. I didn’t try the Eco mode.

10. The suspension is surprisingly sorted. It is definitely more settled than my Gen4 City which has just gotten new suspensions and new tires. The rear is not at all uncomfortable in terms of continuous vertical movements - it is totally fine and acceptable. I’ll say about par with Creta. I drove up to 100kmph and didn’t have any complaints, while driving as well as when sitting at the back. They have definitely changed something here, the older car was decidedly bouncier.

11. On board TPMS was reading 45psi for all four tires. Correcting to 35psi will make the ride even more planted.

12. Steering is super light and offers little feedback. Good enough for city usage. Will need a steady hand at highway speeds.

13. No engine noise + zero vibrations + well appointed cabin + instant torque = very calming and relaxing experience. Going back, the City felt very crude.

14. Overall a very impressive car, makes a lot of sense over Creta and Co for most people. The driving experience itself is worth the premium, with the negligible running costs being added bonus.

15. Salesperson had no knowledge of the base variant. Says they haven’t been trained for it and don’t know when it will be launched and with what all features. Nothing on ADAS either.

16. This new ZS EV, it’s base variant, whenever it will be launched, will be a top contender to replace my City.

[kosjam]

Originally Posted by amol4184

Its looking especially bad on the ZS. I too never understood the need to blank out grille on EVs. After decades and decades of identifying cars with grilles, this trend is quite unsettling to look at - almost robbing the identity of the car.

A battery powered car, due to inherent lower energy density of its fuel, the battery, needs every trick it can muster to extend its range, and aerodynamics play a major role in the same. Hence the blanked out grill.

As there is no engine under the hood of the car, there is no need for cooling via a large radiator. Hence the grill has been removed, which otherwise acts like an air dam and slows down the car.
The decision to use cheapo plastic is something totally different

[sunilsreenivasg]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Given that regular sanctioned residential power connections are 3 kW, the ZS EV with its 50.x kWh battery will take almost 18-20 hours for a full charge, which is impractical. So if one were to buy it, he/she invariably has to go for a higher load sanction. Did I get this right?

I may be wrong but higher load sanctions lead to increase in tariff charges as well. If that is the case, will the electric-petrol math works?

I just checked that for a 3kW home, the minimum bill is around 170 and for a 4kW home, it is around 280 in Bangalore.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by sunilsreenivasg

I may be wrong but higher load sanctions lead to increase in tariff charges as well. If that is the case, will the electric-petrol math works?

I just checked that for a 3kW home, the minimum bill is around 170 and for a 4kW home, it is around 280 in Bangalore.

A few hundreds rupees here and there simply do not matter. Certainly not to someone buying a 25L rupee car. Add to that the 5 figure monthly saving on petrol bills.

The petrol-electric math is totally in favour of the electric with this car, for anyone running 1000+ km every month

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Given that regular sanctioned residential power connections are 3 kW, the ZS EV with its 50.x kWh battery will take almost 18-20 hours for a full charge, which is impractical. So if one were to buy it, he/she invariably has to go for a higher load sanction. Did I get this right?

It really doesn’t matter. MG provides a 7KW charger that can do it in around 7 hours as well as a 3KW one. I am only using the 3KW one for my ZS. No one drives 300 kms each day. So all you have to do is plug it in at night or evening and it would be ready by the next morning. You are not going to be near zero unless you have come back from a long trip. In my case, I charge it once it gets to around 30% and charge it till approx 80%. That requires 10 hours. So if I plug it in at 8pm, it would be ready by 6am. No issues at all. So for my local driving, I charge it after 3 to 4 trips which is around once every week.

Originally Posted by sunilsreenivasg

I may be wrong but higher load sanctions lead to increase in tariff charges as well. If that is the case, will the electric-petrol math works?

I just checked that for a 3kW home, the minimum bill is around 170 and for a 4kW home, it is around 280 in Bangalore.

Compare that with a total expenditure of around Rs 8k for me in the past 6 months after having driven 20k kms on my ZS. On a petrol vehicle this would have easily topped 2 lakhs.
Note: many times you get free charging at malls, hotels and fast chargers wheras no one offers free fuel. As an example, Fortum is currently offering 45 days of unlimited free charging for MG ZS across India.

[siddharthgarg]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Just coming from a test drive of the car. Initial impressions are very positive.

Where did you test drive the car? My SA says they will receive the Test Drive Vehicle in a week at least...

[zeus_700]

Somehow MG designs doesn’t excite me. All their cars looks like big toy designs. That said the higher range is a good news for those who are looking at a practical EV. Now Tata will have to up their game and Mahindra when are you launching the XUV300 EV?

Good competition. Let the games begin.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by siddharthgarg

Where did you test drive the car? My SA says they will receive the Test Drive Vehicle in a week at least...

MG Faridabad. On Mathura Road NH2.

[lina]

Originally Posted by cool_dube

Given that regular sanctioned residential power connections are 3 kW, the ZS EV with its 50.x kWh battery will take almost 18-20 hours for a full charge, which is impractical. So if one were to buy it, he/she invariably has to go for a higher load sanction. Did I get this right?

i have been using the ZS EV since August and have run about 9k km on it. I charge it primarily at home from a 15Amp socket. The car will take 15-20 hours to charge from 0. But no one in their right minds will discharge an EV to 0 percent regularly. I drive about 30-40km a day. I charge the car overnight every 4-5 days. It is not a bother. For those who can get a sanctioned load of 7kw+, they can go for the 7kw charger.

[qaqa]

Does the Indian version of the ZS EV come with Vehicle to Load (VTL) ?

[sunny1974]

The website clearly shows both the models.
difference will be lack of 360 camera
pm 2.5 filter
electric folding side mirrors (not just adjustment)
sunroof.
no rear cross traffic alert
no blind spot alert
Rain sensing wipers.
and probably certain connected features

I dont see why they wish to sell a 20 lakh plus car with9out power orvm

These are clearly different from the overseas models which have all the safety features in base model.
Adas was the biggest disappointment as its standard everywhere in the world even in nepal giving it as an optional pack like astor would have been so simple and taken the car and experience to the next level. I feel they did this due to the range which they had to advertise as 460 km. adas eats range considerably as its not controlled by regenerative breaking in zs but through direct breaking.
ADAS only makes the car a 5 star rating. Without the emergency breaking and safty systems its different.
I wonder why they dont give wltp ranges here in India. The wltp range of this car in uk is 198 miles or about 320 km. No where close to 460 km advertised here. thats a whopping 45 % less than given in India for the same battery.
The power has been improved as the motor has been changed from 143 to 176 bhp.
However the torque has been reduced from 350 to 280 which will reduce the peppyness.
Have driven the older version for 3 days in all situations.
Will be test driving tomorrow to see the difference.

The chip shortage is making them take out the costlier version before.

The most important thing is whether the battery is LFP (lithium frssous phosphate or older lithium ion ones with co and mn.
The difference has been highlighted in the UK specs
Apparently the 51 kw battery there is LFP and the 72 kw battery is older Lithium ion .
Which means the lithium ion 72 w battery should be optimally charged from 20 -80 % to prevent battery degradation
The LFP 51 kw battery has no such memory issues and can be discharged to very low and charged fully every day without any memory or degradation.
The technical guy at the dealership coudnt clarify which out we get here . Though he said these are made for Indian climate.
Im surprised they dont have proper knowledge about their car which has been selling for two years .
This means we can get full range with the car if LFP battery but only 60 % daily range if its a traditional lithium ion battery.
The actual battery degradation can be checked within settings through obd or system though im not sure.
People on Uk forum are updating regularly about this.
Ive heard from a tesla user from USA that over 3 years his battery already has already degraded about 15% due to superchargers and frequent charging.
this means that after 5-7 years of use you will be getting only 50% of total range given now if its a traditional Lithium battery.
Can anyone confirm which battery mg is giving in India. I really hope its LFP somewhat similar to the BYD blade batteries.
Mg and other companies will only change battery if it falls below 70% over 8 years which is unlikely to happen.
However having a 50% range car after 6-7 years will kill the value of the car especially when at that time newer cars with 2 times the range will be sold.
No car company has ever given an upgraded battery to any old model.
They simply want you to buy a new car.
The math of an electric car isnt that simple.Even if you do buy a new battery after 8 -10 years it will be substantially expensive considering even the future reduced cost.
However the math of an ice car will change dramatically over the next 5 years.
Most ice cars will sell exactly like how 10 year old diesel cars are being sold off after 10 years in NCR.
Govt and technology will make if simply financially unfeasible to invest in an ice car after about 5-7 years for most people and selling them will be even harder.
Getting back to the long range version to be sold here in India doesnt seem easy due to price. you can do the math comparing it with the nepal prices.

[Naetik30]

EV experts and users - I need some advice. I have been looking to get a new car for the past year or so and cannot get my mind to settle on anyone.

I have a Hyundai Verna 2014 CRDi, which gives some amazing mileage on long drives. My usage is about 18,000 kms per year (split 50% between BLR city and highway). Highway drive is mostly between BLR and Coimbatore (about 375 kms of excellent highways).

Under 25Lakhs I cannot get a car that excites me. But have been somehow interested with the ZS EV. I was on the fence as the existing EVs could not take me from BLR to Coimbatore on a single charge and I would have had to recharge the car mid way.

Here are the questions -
1. What would be the practical range of ZS EV from Bangalore to Coimbatore or back (considering the Thoppur ghat section)?
2. Will the battery degrade soon and reduce the range? Or how long before the battery loses range (say reduces to 80% or its new car range).

I am sure ZS EV is an excellent city car. But is it practical for highways?