Charging Fail - MG ZS EV Tesla Supercharging 

Norway, problem with MG5 and Tesla chargeres. I have try 3-4 chargers and nothing. Mer, Eviny, Ionity, without problem.

Thank you for raising awareness on the compatibility issues. Hopefully that will put some pressure on the manufacturers to sort it out. I had the same unpleasant experience with my MG5 in Wokingham last week in March. It was the first time trying to use one of the open Tesla superchargers. I spent like 20 minutes on a heavy rain day trying to connect at 3 different charging bays. Tesla app is completely useless for non-Tesla with no contact number or information about compatibility or restrictions to specific cases. I went to Reading moto services and charging worked with no problems.

Just tried for the first time charging our first gen ZS EV at a Tesla supercharger in Dundee (open to other cars) and had the exact same experience you had. Feels like a communications issue between car and charger... but I'm no expert. I'll be interested to try another car and see if that works. A shame, it would provide a helpful alternative option.

I've had my long range in the garage lately for a few issues. The sat nav has never worked since the day i bought it. Too be fair i don't go that far to need it but i decided to take it in as there were other faults. I found that if you have a memory stick plugged in when you start the car it takes about 30 seconds before anything will work ( cameras, radio, sat nav ), plus you have to unplug the usb stick and then plug it back in so the car will recognise it in order to play music. A pain to be honest. The main problem i have is every time i get a text message the radio station goes off. It switches to the bt music station ( no music on it ) I then have to re select the radio station. I have had to switch off bluetooth on my phone to stop it happening which obviously mean i can't use the phone. Have you had this issue ? I have a Samsung phone. Cheers

There are 2 rapid charge points at Shell Ottershaw and Addlestone, both are close to J11 M25. I agree Woking is in need of many more charge points.

MG5 facelift not working in Cardiff listed as unlocked, dpd driver charging fine, took car to dealer and they would not do the updates if there is no fault.

We had exactly the same connecting issues as you described in your video when we visited Tesla Adderstone in the North East nr Holy Island in April 23 with our MG ZS EV LR TC. We simply couldn’t get it to connect and the worst thing is Tesla don’t seem to offer a help line for non Tesla owners. It’s definitely an MG comms issue with Tesla Superchargers

Hi Iain, very informative as always. I'd just like to add a general comment here in that I'm starting to find that in the 4 years I've owned an EV (Renault Zoe), the general ownership of EV's has now got to the point that it's becoming extremely difficult to get an available charging point straight off. I'm kind of lucky in a way as Gridserve have decided to put one of their forecourts right on my doorstep (just outside of Norwich) but when I use to go into Norwich city centre to park, one of the big main carparks ( Castle mall) has about 12 bays for ev charging and up until about a year ago, you could pretty much guarantee getting a charging spot, but not anymore. I feel EV ownership is really starting to bite in to the available charging infrastructure now.

My sister has a ZS EV and tried to charge at the Calais superchargers at the Eurotunnel (open to non-Teslas). She could not get a charge initiated, we tried two different "tombstones" but with no success. It seemed to be a compatibility problem with the MG. Her symptoms looked similar to yours. I was able to charge with my car (Tesla) so the site was functioning. I would love to know how this can be resolved as my sister loves doing long distance travel and would dearly love to have access to the (normally) reliable chargers of Tesla.

I own an MG ZS EV MK1 in Netherlands and I just "discovered" that I'm unable to use Tesla Superchargers anymore. I say anymore because in 2022 I was able to use them without an issue. I looked on different forums and it seems that Tesla has blocked MG from it's superchargers :|

Bought a MG ZS 2021 today in Sweden. Had a trip of 600km to get home. Tesla charger failed completely. Tried several stalls. All other chargers worked without any problems. But I only got max 35kw/h charging on all working chargers. Is there something wrong with the car?

Interesting. Also been two reports in Australia (where 5 superchargers recently opened up) of the ZS EV not working. See Plugshare entries for Narooma Supercharger, NSW and West Tamworth Leagues, NSW. No other non-Teslas reporting any issues.

In my experience, the Morrisons/Genipoint collaboration has been pretty unreliable, I’ve attempted to use a few alway with disappointing results. One particular store in Wymondham, Norwich, the CCS cable wasn’t even fitted and having spoken to a local EV driver, it appears it’s been like it for a year. So I emailed both Genipoint and Morrisons asking when it might be sorted, and both communications were completely ignored. I haven’t tried using any of the Tesla stations for my MG5 yet, as was was under the impression there was a known issue with MG’s connectivity but that may have just been in my imagination 😊 Keep the EV videos coming!

Hi Iain, that was a bit of a nightmare for you. The only Tesla chargers I've used for a non Tesla car was the facility at Wokingham. I've used it many times now as it's not far from my daughters house and I do need to charge somewhere to make it back to my place in Wiltshire/Somerset borders. Thankfully with my ZE50 and apart from the strange looks I get from Tesla owners it has never been a problem but I do feel for you. Hopefully next time it will be better.

Had a quick look at the mgevs forum and it does not seem to be a common problem. I have charged successfully at Tesla stations with my old E Niro, though sometimes had to try one or two before it worked. Have not attempted yet in my MG ZS LR. On the issue of reliability, I think England is particularly bad.I am currently in Fuengirola and within 8 km there are 8 fully functional CCS rapid chargers, plus about 20 functioning type 2 22 kWh chargers all working.

Hi Iain. I am not far from you at Saxmundham and was recently down at the Tesla SC in Chelmsford when a red MG pulled in and tried to connect but left a short while later. Not sure if it was you (there aren’t many red MG EVs around here) but I am guessing they couldn’t connect either. I did see a Golf charging quite happily at Tesla Cambridge and there was an MG that appeared to be connected at Tesla Rugby. As a Tesla owner I see the opening of the network to non Tesla users can only be a good thing. We need more EVs on the road, the pollution and stench is getting worse. Most Tesla sites have many stations and while some sites are very busy and queueing occurs (Potters Bar), more stations mean spaces clear sooner; the automatic penalty fee helps with this too. Ultimately, if the Tesla network was reliably open to other EVs two years ago I would have bought something different.

Hi Iain, I just hit the same problem at Tesla service centre Cardiff, so was able to enquire. Gloom! It appears that Tesla has discovered a handshaking safety problem with all MGs, so have disabled all Superchargers for us indefinitely ‘out of an abundance of caution’ until the problem is sorted. Very apologetic, but could not estimated how long this will take. It seems the MG port does not always lock properly while charging, enabling it to be pulled out mid-charge, which is obviously potentially lethal with 100kw kicking about. I’m getting onto MG to see what can be done. Do you have any direct contacts with MG U.K.?

Is it the fact that the Tesla app actually shows you the Charger number that will allow non Tesla’s to use, not all units at each destination!

Actually I made a mistake, just checked and there is a Tesla supercharger with 11 bays available 3 km away in Benalmadina. Not that I will be using it at 0.64€ a kWh. Four of the type charge points I mentioned are free.

I have experienced Geniepoint chargers at Morrisons in both Bridlington and Skegness on the East Coast.They are very rarely working and never seem to get fixed and when you e mail Geniepoint they never reply. If they can't be bothered to sort their chargers out why don't they let a decent reliable company come in and do the job properly.

Annoying for you. Be interested to see if you succeed at another “open” Supercharger site. ( if you were still driving your Zoe then you could have charged at 22kWh using the type 2 socket at the geniepoint at Morrisons or at the Pod point at Lidl even when the Rapid part of charger was in use - slower but not as slow as driving in congested traffic between charger sites)

I’d consider myself lucky to find chargers at Morrisons working

5:56 nice ignoring of the no entry/one way arrows there

🌈 *promosm*