[speedmiester]

LightFury completes one year: an update

It's been a year today since I retook the EV plunge with MG ZS EV and it’s been a wonderful year of EV ownership. The current ODO stands at 27415Kms. This includes multiple long drives including drive to Goa, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kanyakumari, Coastal Karnataka and the usual weekly Bangalore-Mysore drives.

Post May I got caught up with work and many travel plans got postponed or cancelled, else would have added another 3-4000kms to the odo.

The positives outweigh the negatives and clearly the ZS has exceeded my expectations that I had from an EV.

Positives:

• Smooth, Silent, powerful and comfortable driving experience
• Reduced stress levels during urban commutes due to ease of driving
• Top notch build quality, no rattles or creaks anywhere even after one year of use across different terrains.
• Safety features and creature comforts offered.
• A range of 320-350Kms with AC even at speeds of 90-100kmph
• Negligible battery degradation noticed. MID still shows 400Kms without AC on a full charge in Normal mode.
• MG’s customer service and service quality
• Very low running and maintenance costs

Negatives:

• Soft suspension setup unsettles the ride at higher speeds.
• Some missing features including auto dimming IRVM, lumbar support, steering reach adjustment.
• Auto wiper has a mind of its own, stopped using it altogether.
• Wipers are not of good quality, already replaced it once.
• Infotainment system can get unresponsive at times.

Ownership Experience:

“Excellent” is a one-word description of my experience with LightFury. I have driven the ZS across all kinds of terrains and at all times of day and night just like my previous cars and it has not let me down. In fact, whatever little apprehensions that I had of using an EV as my primary car has vanished. Though I have a backup car at home, there have been no instances in the past one year where I had to resort to using the backup car instead of the ZS EV.

Only issue I have faced is an abrupt warning on the MID which mentioned faults in Stability Control, ESP, Hill hold and auto hold functions. This fault occurred during my city commute. The customer care was quick to offer a flatbed tow and a cab for my return home. Since the car was drivable, I insisted on reaching home and get it picked up from my residence. Luckily the faults went away before I reached home and have not recurred yet. Happy with the response from MG’s customer care and the service advisor.

Charging info:

I primarily charge using the portable charger which comes with the car using a 15A power supply. I have not installed the 7.2KW wall charger that MG offers with the car. This setup is more than sufficient for my needs. Given that there is no option to control the charge rate in the ZS, I typically charge it to full 100%, the slow charging from the portable charger helps in cell balancing and in maintaining good battery health.

Note on Fast charging infrastructure:

Since I bought the car, the charging infra has grown leaps and bounds. There are fast chargers on all major highways conveniently located at food outlets. Also, many hotels and resorts in key tourist destinations offer charging facilities for EVs for their guests. A bit of planning and the developing fast-charging infrastructure has made range anxiety a thing of the past.
There are many infra players in this place, both private and public companies. So far, I have had the best experience with Jio BP, Zeon, Relux, Chargezone and Bescom. Tata chargers are a bit unreliable, but others make up for it. Charging costs vary between Rs. 18-28 per KW. Since the ZS can charge at a peak 75KW, I tend to favour Jio BP chargers as most of them offer charging at 60KW.

Summary of key stats after an year of ownership.



Parting Shot

[rajeshrajan]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

LightFury completes one year: an update

It's been a year today since I retook the EV plunge with MG ZS EV and it’s been a wonderful year of EV ownership. The current ODO stands at 27415Kms.

I primarily charge using the portable charger which comes with the car using a 15A power supply. I have not installed the 7.2KW wall charger that MG offers with the car.

[

Ditto.
I am at 29320kms. My city rides were probably 2k of 29k. It is my primary outstation car.
I usually leave the portable charger on for a couple of hours after 100% for rebalancing. It still shows 400km on 100% without AC and 357 with AC on.
My range has always been between 340 and 360 with AC in Normal. Mode. I havnt used eco after about 6k kms
I am glad I went for the ZS.
The only issue I have faced so far is with tpms error, which was changed free of cost as its under warranty.
Service at Mahadevapura has always been a pleasant experience.

[nidhikapoor]

Thanks for such a detailed review. I am hoping to buy this car.

Any idea if when stopped at a signal, do you need to switch it to neutral like is advised for a petrol car for long stops?

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by nidhikapoor

Thanks for such a detailed review. I am hoping to buy this car.

Any idea if when stopped at a signal, do you need to switch it to neutral like is advised for a petrol car for long stops?

No need to move to neutral at traffic stops. Auto hold is provided, this will hold the car in place without the need to apply brakes or move to neutral.

[nidhikapoor]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

No need to move to neutral at traffic stops. Auto hold is provided, this will hold the car in place without the need to apply brakes or move to neutral.

Yes even in petrol autohold is there but it puts a strain on the transmission if kept like that for long, and it's better to shift to N for long stops. That's what I am asking

[HappyRider]

In ZS EV, its programmed to apply full parking break after being on auto hold for particular period. Also, since there is no engine or transmission in EV, nothing gets strained

[wocanak]

Originally Posted by nidhikapoor

Yes even in petrol autohold is there but it puts a strain on the transmission if kept like that for long, and it's better to shift to N for long stops. That's what I am asking

I don't think in an EV there will be any strain in auto hold. But as a safety feature (at least in the Nexon Max) after 3 minutes of auto hold, car will automatically apply parking brake and shift to N. I am guessing this may be to prevent the driver from unintentionally tapping the accelerator in a long wait.

This works fine most of the time, but in many Bangalore signals you can be stopped for more than 3 minutes and if you did not notice this you will fumble a bit when traffic starts to move.

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by wocanak

I don't think in an EV there will be any strain in auto hold. But as a safety feature (at least in the Nexon Max) after 3 minutes of auto hold, car will automatically apply parking brake and shift to N. I am guessing this may be to prevent the driver from unintentionally tapping the accelerator in a long wait.

This works fine most of the time, but in many Bangalore signals you can be stopped for more than 3 minutes and if you did not notice this you will fumble a bit when traffic starts to move.

It's the same in ZS EV as well. Almost all autohold systems engage parking brake after three minutes of auto hold.

[ZSFury]

The value of auto hold in a city like Bengaluru is understated. As compared to ICE car the motor is at zero RPM, so there is no strain.

However I have used auto hold function for 5 years 60000+ miles on my 2017 Honda Civic in the US. Never once have I turned off the auto hold and the transmission did not have any issues.
Based on my understanding the auto hold is using the electromechanical valve to apply brake force when engaged. I am not certain why this will load the transmission and cause issues.

[nidhikapoor]

Originally Posted by ZSFury

The value of auto hold in a city like Bengaluru is understated. As compared to ICE car the motor is at zero RPM, so there is no strain.

However I have used auto hold function for 5 years 60000+ miles on my 2017 Honda Civic in the US. Never once have I turned off the auto hold and the transmission did not have any issues.
Based on my understanding the auto hold is using the electromechanical valve to apply brake force when engaged. I am not certain why this will load the transmission and cause issues.

The brake force is engaged and keeps the car stationary but the engine will still be trying to move the car ahead UNLESS you shift to N. That puts a strain on the transmission as well as the brake pads.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by nidhikapoor

The brake force is engaged and keeps the car stationary but the engine will still be trying to move the car ahead UNLESS you shift to N. That puts a strain on the transmission as well as the brake pads.

I don't know how ICE cars manage auto hold. I guess the engine will be going into neutral internally when Auto hold is engaged. For electric cars as there is single gear transmission and the motor is electrically controlled so there is no strain when auto hold is engaged.

[nidhikapoor]

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

I don't know how ICE cars manage auto hold. I guess the engine will be going into neutral internally when Auto hold is engaged. For electric cars as there is single gear transmission and the motor is electrically controlled so there is no strain when auto hold is engaged.

In ICE cars they do not go into neutral unless you actually do it

[speedmiester]

Update: 30000Kms completed and 5th Service:

Lightfury completed 30000kms over the weekend during our last long drive.
Since the last update, I have done two long drives of over 700kms. This included a drive to Chennai and a drive to Sriharikota. Both these long drives were covered with ease and with good efficiency.

Drive to Chennai:

This was a work trip, the drive from Bangalore to Chennai took 6 hours including a 40min breakfast stop. The ongoing road works slowed us down quite a bit post Vellore. I didn’t need to charge in between. I got the best efficiency on this drive covering 340Kms with 30% SOC left. This is with full AC and in normal mode. I charged up the hotel I stayed in Chennai and started the return drive with 95% SOC and charged up near Vellore at Zeon charger for 20 mins. This was sufficient to reach home with 19% SOC remaining. Average speed hovered around 55-56Kmph for the entire trip.

Drive to Sriharikota:

Planned a drive to witness the Aditya L1 launch. Due to paucity of time, we could only leave on Friday night to reach Tirupati early in the morning for a quick break before heading towards Sriharikota.
Drive to Tirupati took 4hrs 35 mins with a quick 5 mins break to stretch the legs. Charged the car at Relux charger in Tirupati. This was sufficient for our drive to Sriharikota and back to Tirupati. For the return leg, I used the Tata power charger at Taj Tirupati before the drive back home. Return drive from Tirupati to Bangalore took 4hr 45mins, this included 10 mins coffee break and couple of 5 mins break at the tolls. I was able to average 53Kmph for the entire trip of over 700kms. The odo ticked over the 30K kms mark during the return leg.

5th Service update:

Completed the 30000Kms/5th service today. Since this service is covered under AMC, the cost of the service was 0/-
Tried the newly opened MG service centre in Mysore road, though it’s quite far from my residence, I was able to get an early service slot here while I would have had to wait until next week at the Electronic City service centre.
Service quality is on expected lines with good attention to detail and no push for unnecessary work. I was in and out in 5 hours. The service quality has been consistent across all the 5 services and I hope it continues.
Also received a cushion cum blanket as a gift as part of MG's 100 year celebration.

The car has performing well with zero rattles and complaints.

[sumannandy]

Your experience (with a great writing style) is really inspiring. I have driven about 32500 kms in about 9 months in ev max. Electric charging infrastructure is definitely improving in South India. I however do not get as much range as you are getting. Just curious, what is the average speed do you maintain in highway and what is the regen setting. Also do you use cruise control during your drive?

[speedmiester]

Originally Posted by sumannandy

Your experience (with a great writing style) is really inspiring. I have driven about 32500 kms in about 9 months in ev max. Electric charging infrastructure is definitely improving in South India. I however do not get as much range as you are getting. Just curious, what is the average speed do you maintain in highway and what is the regen setting. Also do you use cruise control during your drive?

Thanks.
I got better than normal range due to elevation changes. Bangalore to Chennai is a change in elevation from 900 to sea level, so you will be able to get good range due to regen. Similar for Tirupati.
On the return journey, the avg consumption will be around 7.2Km/KWH.
I maintain speeds of 85-90KMPH with regen at 3, sometimes taking it to over 100 for quick overtakes. I don't use cruise control.