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My MG ZS EV: Over 1000 km road trip experience

4th January 2022, 12:13 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

The suspension on the ZS EV is greatly absorbent in the city but a little bouncy (but way more settled than the Hyundai i20 which used to handle like a boat) on the highway.

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Prologue

We booked our MG ZS EV (Excite) in February 2021. But between various constraints, the delivery got pushed from June to August 2021. It was a very happy day when we got the car. We did have a few issues pertaining to the delivery though.

MG Hyderabad (Raam 4 Wheelers) had bungled up the delivery schedule and postponed it from 10 AM to 3 PM. Not a deal-breaker. It was only my dad who was upset. In fact, it was so bad that he decided to get the car delivered at home itself instead of the dealership. But I begged him hard saying that this was a once in 10 years opportunity (Our i20 is 9.5 years old now). He finally said alright and we got it delivered there.

Once we got the car, I found a few minor niggles. The front fender seems a little discoloured when the light hits it just right. The passenger side A-pillar plastic cover is improperly fit. But again, both of these are one of those "once you see, you can’t unsee" situations. We didn’t really persuade the dealership because they were so minor.

Fast forward a few months and the dream of an EV road trip kept becoming bigger and bigger. We had done a 2200+ km road trip in our i20 in January 2021 and I pestered my dad so hard to do it again but in an EV. But the man had a lot of anxiety and no matter how hard I pleaded and no matter how many times I told him that the max distance we would ever be from a charger was 250 km (we don’t use the AC very often and usually get around 350km on one charge). Dejected, I started looking for shorter routes. I had also thought of Mysore as the total trip would be around 1500-1600 km. He still said no partially because he wanted to visit a Sterling resort on the banks of Godavari.

A few days later, I realised that I had not checked the list of fast chargers on that route. I was only ecstatic to find out that we had 6-7 fast chargers on our way spaced out evenly for a distance of 500 km. Now, the longest distance between 2 chargers would only be around 150 km. Still, the man was not convinced.

A lot of persuasions later, he finally agreed. We decided to check out a Tata Power charger around 5 km from our house. I had heard of EXICOM charger issues before but experiencing it was a different thing altogether. We tried relentlessly for 30 minutes. 2 of the 5 times, it initialised charging but immediately stopped. Dejected, I knew my father would definitely say no.

A few days later, I asked him if we could check out a Delta Charger. This one was around 12 km from our house in the parking lot of a mall! It worked so perfectly. I was ecstatic and my dad had a whole lot more confidence in Tata Power’s charging infrastructure now. I showed him that we would be encountering only one EXICOM charger outside an MG showroom in Vijayawada and even if we skipped it, we would still have more than enough to get to the next chargers.

And so the road trip began on Dec 19, 2021. I was able to make many notes on the ZS EV in the 600 km that I drove. First, the obvious. It is insanely quick for a car at this price. MG claims 8.53 seconds but EVO India managed a 7.96-second run. This exhilarating performance is what saves lives sometimes. Needless to say, overtakes are a breeze.

Second, the car is very well insulated. When we did our road trip in January 2021, we used the AC only because of the noise. There was absolutely zero noise with the windows up and very minimal with the windows down. This means you don’t have to shout when you want to talk to other occupants making the trip a lot less tiring.

Third, the suspension is greatly absorbent in the city but a little bouncy (but way more settled than the i20 which used to handle like a boat) on the highway.

Fourth, rear-seat comfort is just about alright purely because of the knees-up position. I got a chance to check out the Astor in the showroom while we stopped to charge in Vijayawada (I’ll get to that in a bit) and did find the Astor’s position a tad bit more comfortable. If anything, the Astor has even more soft-touch material on the inside.

Our first charge stop was at Suryapet which was around 180 km from our house. Stopped for lunch and charged up. The next stop was Vijayawada only because we wanted to see if all EXICOM chargers were terrible. Big mistake! It took an hour to enter and exit Vijayawada and 30 minutes trying to (unsuccessfully) charge there. Same deal. Initiated charging but stopped immediately. At least I got to see the Astor. Our next stop was Eluru at around 7 PM so we decided to have an early dinner and resume our journey. I also spoke to a Nexon EV owner who pulled in after us. He said they got around 250 km on a single charge. We had around 100 km to go when the roads became terrible. The last 30 km didn’t have proper roads at all. Only mud. It was only compounded by the fact that there were no street lamps. We finally reached our destination by 10:20 in the night. Checked in and had some rest. We decided not to use the car during the 2 days we stayed there because we wanted a proper tour of the place (and by we, I mean my parents).

Sterling Palavelli Godavari was also kind enough to give us a plug point but damn was that expensive! We had to shell out 500 bucks for 15 units! It cost more than Tata Power’s fast chargers (total cost given in the end).

It was an uneventful drive back home after the vacation in a serene green place. While coming back, I decided to try and eke out as much range as possible. The highest efficiency I saw was 9.7 km/kWh. I was determined to get it to 10 but traffic piled up and some enthusiastic driving as compensation later saw me at 7.4 km/kWh. Hit Eluru and Suryapet for charging and skipped the dashed EXICOM charger saving us an hour. The Suryapet charger had to be reset this time around. While we were calling up Tata Power’s customer care another ZS owner pulled in and taught us how to reset it. Since we had come first, he added 10% for himself and then went to another Tata Power station 4 km from there. When we came back from yet another early dinner we found another Nexon EV waiting for the spot. We started the last leg of our journey confident of reaching home by 9:30 PM. But it took 30 minutes more because my mom spotted a shop making idols and wanted to buy one of Krishna. Reached home by around 10:00 PM.

Some notes regarding the experience

People have a lot of questions about EVs in charging stations so be prepared to answer a few.
I have heard many people in the UK saying MG is quoting the total size of the battery pack (44.5 kWh) and not the useable size (40 kWh). Waiting for comment from MG.
Range anxiety was never a thing. There are enough chargers that you can skip a few. Time anxiety is possible though. Charging is fast enough (Car finished charging before we finished our meals every single time) but with not enough stations in one location, it can be a bit of trouble. Case in point, return journey at Suryapet. Had there not been a station in the vicinity, Nexon EV owner would have had to wait a full 3 hours before resuming his journey.
EXICOM chargers are extremely unreliable. While planning a trip, keep in mind that the EXICOM charger will almost certainly fail. (Does anybody know a fix for this? If yes, please let me know)
Some people have no respect for EVs and park right in front of charging stations. Politely request them to move.
Regenerative braking is awesome. Once you get used to it, you will never want to give it up.
Carry an extension cable with you. Even though we didn’t have to use it, the peace of mind was worth it. Your local electrician can make one for you.
Range depends on the driver even more than turbo petrol. My dad gets around 360-370 km on one charge while I get around 330-340 (both in Normal and AC off).
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 the range meter is not adaptive, simply divide DTE km by 3.2 to get the 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.
Electricity is much cheaper than petrol. A full charge at home costs us Rs 180. With a monthly running of 650 km. It costs us Rs 250 to Rs 300 per month. Service costs are also much much lower. Comparable Creta costs 20L OTR. ZS EV Excite was 22L OTR (apart from 0 registration tax, no subsidies in Telangana). With current prices of fuel, we will hit breakeven in around 4 years after which we will save roughly Rs 4500 per month.
Total cost incurred for charging at Tata Power (not considering Sterling’s exorbitant price of 500 for 15 units) was Rs 1413.83 for 78.546 units.