[Rada]

Originally Posted by das_ren_auto

Recently did my first long trip from Mangalore to Trivandrum. Started with 84 % SoC from Mangalore and reached Kozhikode after 9.5 hours (you heard it right) with 0% SoC.

Please do not do this. If an EV runs out of charge on the highway, all you can do is wait it out until road side assistance arrives and this can be anything from an hour to couple of hours, depending on your location.

And especially on the stretch you were driving through, there are ample EV chargers - Kasaragod, Nileswaram, Kannur, Thalassery...to name a few. So I am rather surprised that you decided to risk it and drive all the way through to Kozhikode without charging at all!

Anyway, all's well that ends well, I guess!

[pdhansoia]

1000 Kms in a week and the first toad trip
Mumbai to Trimbakeshwar
CAR - MG ZS EV

Test of patience

After a long and uncertain wait of seven months, I got a call from the dealership that the vehicle is available and if I would like to take it. I don’t think I was in a mood to say no and immediately accepted to take the car. SBI immediately approved the loan and my wait was over. Got the ceramic coating done on the car for shine and saving from the scratch marks. And all set for the first road trip.

First road trip on EV

My first road trip on the newly acquired MG ZS EV and the only planning I did was charge the car overnight and read a review of someone doing the trip on a Mahindra E2O with a much lesser range. It was just a week with the car and I was getting around 350 km range in the city driving. I was very confident that Trimbakeshwar and back, a distance of 305 kms will be a cake walk. Even if I have to charge in between, the highway will have some charging infrastructure and a slight top up will be easy and comfortable.

We started the journey at around 7:00 am. There was slight traffic in getting out of Mumbai and as soon as we hit the highway it was a smooth ride. I was looking for a charging place where we could eat. Not that I needed to charge the car. It was more to explore the infrastructure. Finally we stopped at about 9:00 am for breakfast with no charger. Food was simple dosa’s and chai. Not very good so no recommendation of the restaurant here. Now that we were refreshed I decided to check the acceleration and cruise control, it was awesome. The car is fast and has abundant torque right from the get-go. We sailed through Kasara ghat but lost some charge during the uphill climb. The road on the last stretch after we got off the Nasik highway was not very good and we lost time. Though I didn’t go beyond 80 kmph but I was not doing anything to preserve the car battery except driving on ECO mode. AC was on throughout the journey. We reached Trimbakeshwar around noon and then had some issues in taking the car till the temple. The locals wanted money. After a lot of reluctance I gave money and a local guided me to the parking lot next to the temple. Being a weekend, the temple was very crowded and the queues were long. We decided to go for paid darshan as the queues were shorter.
Note: Ticket counter closes at 12:30 for lunch break. They said one hour but it opened back in 30 mins.

Return Journey and Range Anxiety

Came back from the darshan, sat in the car and set the GPS to home and the battery showed -3% at destination. It meant I will not be able to reach home without charging in between. It was around 3:00 pm when we started back it was very hot. AC was ineffective in ECO mode. I had to switch to NORMAL mode and the battery status dropped to -5% at destination. I started to look out for chargers on the way back on the map. First option that my map showed was a detour to Nasik and I didn't want to do that. I also had great faith in Kasara ghats that I will regenerate some energy. To be cautious I kept switching between ECO and NORMAL mode. The ghats did help me regenerate and I got a buffer of about 8%. But this didn’t stop me from a lookout for the charging stations. The GPS kept asking me to go to Nasik. We stopped at a food court for some late lunch but no food for the car. After sunset I drove without AC for about 30 mins and some economical drive of 10KM/KWh I had a buffer of about 10% that would take me 30 KM extra. At this time, I stopped looking for chargers and decided to head home and see what happens (charger at Kalyan was a backup though). Took a wrong turn for Kalyan and finally reached home with 8% battery left.

Had heard a myth that EV cars performance drops when the charge runs low. I would like to state that at 8% charge the car was running on full performance. I got to experience it but would not suggest people to go so low on charge. Also I figured after the journey that the integrated map on the MG doesn’t show all the available chargers. I have now installed the plugshare app. It also has functionality for planning a trip with required charging breaks. Few more trips are coming up shortly.
Mumbai to Bhimashankar - 187 KM
Mumbai to Manipal - 835 KM
Mumbai to Indore - 566 KM

[das_ren_auto]

Originally Posted by Rada

Please do not do this. If an EV runs out of charge on the highway, all you can do is wait it out until road side assistance arrives and this can be anything from an hour to couple of hours, depending on your location.

And especially on the stretch you were driving through, there are ample EV chargers - Kasaragod, Nileswaram, Kannur, Thalassery...to name a few. So I am rather surprised that you decided to risk it and drive all the way through to Kozhikode without charging at all!
Anyway, all's well that ends well, I guess!

When I started from Mangalore my plan was to make the first charging stop at Zeon,Hilite Mall ,Kozhikode. But due to unanticipated delay on the highway I could not reach there.Hence took a detour to MG Kozhikode which is quite far from Highway. Only two stops are required for Mangalore - Trivandrum stretch and without AC it may reach with one charging stop at Thrissur.

[wocanak]

Originally Posted by pdhansoia

...
It was around 3:00 pm when we started back it was very hot. AC was ineffective in ECO mode. I had to switch to NORMAL mode and the battery status dropped to -5% at destination. I started to look out for chargers on the way back on the map. First option that my map showed was a detour to Nasik and I didn't want to do that. I also had great faith in Kasara ghats that I will regenerate some energy. To be cautious I kept switching between ECO and NORMAL mode.
...

Are you sure AC ECO mode and drive ECO mode are fully linked? In the Nexon, when you switch to ECO mode the AC get switched to ECO but you can turn AC back to normal mode while still being in the ECO drive mode. AC can also be independently set to ECO mode in City or even Sports mode. Basically they are both independent and switching to ECO drive just sets AC to ECO for convenience.

[shrey220]

Originally Posted by pdhansoia

AC was ineffective in ECO mode. I had to switch to NORMAL mode and the battery status dropped to -5% at destination.

AC in Eco mode works best if the bottom vents and top vents near the windshield are turned off. Try keeping only the centre vents on from the infotainment centre. I haven't had cooling issues after I figured this out.

[shyampsunder]

Found a neat trick in the car to run air conditioning during DC fast charging.

While we know that turning on the car while the car is charging is not recommended, I wanted to figure out a solution to avoid sitting in a sweltering car while it is charging.

After scouring the UK forums for an answer, it looks like there are three modes for the car's power on state.

1. Press the start button without brakes applied. You will see an orange light come up. This enables basic usage of the car like power windows etc.

2. Press the start button again without brakes applied. You will see an green light come up. This turns on the air conditioning but without turning on the motor. At this point, the entire vehicles is powered by the 12V battery. So running for extended periods on this mode will drain your 12V battery.

3. Press the start button with brakes applied. Car goes into ready state with motor turned on. This is the mode that is not recommended during DC fast charging.

The trick is to put the car in mode 2, where the green light on start button glows but car is not in ready mode. During DC charging, the 12V battery is charged as well which I was able to monitor through the driver's screen. The air conditioning works as usual.

I don't know if this works while the car is AC charging though. Also, I felt that the air conditioning doesn't work when the car is put in the same mode while it is not charging. I believe it runs only the blower to prevent exhausting the 12V battery.

Would love to hear if others use this as well.

[HappyRider]

Is there a way to keep the charging status display on dashboard always on while charging. What I noticed is once we start charging it shows the display for few seconds but then turns off. To see that status of charging we either have to see check in mobile or pause charging by opening the door. It would be good if we can check the status of charging without having to unlock the door.

[rajeshrajan]

Originally Posted by shyampsunder

The trick is to put the car in mode 2, where the green light on start button glows but car is not in ready mode.

Going to try this out on my next DC charging.
Thank you for sharing this.

[shyampsunder]

Couple of updates:

1. Looks like all new ZS EVs getting delivered don't have the rear seat belt reminders anymore. While I personally don't like it, I am guessing many would be happy to know this. Apparently, a lot of feedback has gone to MG about this.

2. For those who are living in South India and use the Zeon charging network extensively, they are doing a test run for supporting the "Autocharge" functionality in the CCS-2 standard. Some European charging networks like Fastned support this. Zeon will be the first network to roll it out in India. It's basically plug-in and the charging will start without RFID or App. MG ZS EV supports this. Those interested can reach out to Zeon customer care to enable this.

[das_ren_auto]

Originally Posted by shyampsunder

Couple of updates:

1. Looks like all new ZS EVs getting delivered don't have the rear seat belt reminders anymore. While I personally don't like it, I am guessing many would be happy to know this. Apparently, a lot of feedback has gone to MG about this.

Affirmative.Not available in my EV that was delivered on Dec 3.

[praveen4839]

Originally Posted by shyampsunder

Couple of updates:

1. Looks like all new ZS EVs getting delivered don't have the rear seat belt reminders anymore. While I personally don't like it, I am guessing many would be happy to know this. Apparently, a lot of feedback has gone to MG about this.

Thank for letting me know! I was breaking my head and the service center people's head too . They have no clue that this feature was there and it not there now.

[HappyRider]

Originally Posted by shyampsunder

2. For those who are living in South India and use the Zeon charging network extensively, they are doing a test run for supporting the "Autocharge" functionality in the CCS-2 standard. Some European charging networks like Fastned support this. Zeon will be the first network to roll it out in India. It's basically plug-in and the charging will start without RFID or App. MG ZS EV supports this. Those interested can reach out to Zeon customer care to enable this.

That is a very good news. Hope all CPOs try this out. The hassle of app and mobile data network issues should go away. I just hope Zeon expands more into Telugu states. They only have 3-4 locations in TS and AP together.

[praveen4839]

Originally Posted by ankitsingh7

I have tried a stick on spoiler. Lets see how it goes.

Can I know from where did you get this from? And I had gone on a dusty road and there is a fist full of mud which has got accumulated in the cervices of the boot.

[shrey220]

Originally Posted by shyampsunder

1. Looks like all new ZS EVs getting delivered don't have the rear seat belt reminders anymore.

It doesn't ding for rear passenger seatbelts, but it does notify on the MID, right?

[shyampsunder]

Originally Posted by shrey220

It doesn't ding for rear passenger seatbelts, but it does notify on the MID, right?

It doesn't for me ding or show on the MID when rear passengers are not wearing the seat belt