I’ve just tested my UK MG ZS range by travelling a local motorway for 5 miles in both directions at different fixed speeds. So 10 miles at each of 50 mph, 60 mph and 70 mph. The consumption at each of those speeds was 3.6 miles/kWh, 3.3 miles/kWh and 3.1 miles/kWh respectively. So the range on a full 44 kWh charge would be 158, 145 and 136 miles at those three constant speeds. That cheered me up a bit because I didn’t think I would ever get near the advertised 163 miles. 158 is pretty close.
Excellent James. Your commitment is fantastic. For motorway cruising I would say that was excellent. This zs ev is certainly above expectations it's going to surprise alot of people. Just a note what was the cost of the trip back 😉
Range like ev from 2-3 years ago , the main reason why I didn’t upgrade to the MG was range , this confirms that it for me . Still good value for some but range at this point in time should be real range approaching 200 miles at least and charge rate seemed a bit slow considering the advertised top rate being over 50+kw
Like others have said, isn't the stated range of 160 miles for combined cycles, urban and rural? In my e-nv200 I try and avoid motorways and stick to A roads and I get much better range. This is probably due to more regen braking and less wind resistance on wide open motorways. I don't know why you would want more than 150 miles range for the average Joe anyway? Who drives that far without having a break at the services?
Phil Graham I was thinking the same thing. The range metrics like WLTP are all a combined cycle, not for long distance motorway driving. I drive my Kona EV off motorways most of the time and it exceeds the 280 mile WLTP range by about 50-60 miles.
@@michaelrch Good to know, my son is looking at the Kona and I have looked at various options, I quite like the Kia Niro but the MG also appeals to me since I tend to stop after between 2 to 3 hours and do little motorway driving. from our house to my sons is just over 300 miles the MG would need one stop and the Kia or Hyundai should manage without a stop, I would need two stops in that distance bearing in mind it involves going through a bit of hilly winding country at times. so the average speed is probably only about 50 to 55 mph.
Have just borrowed one for the weekend, and looking to replace my Rover 75 4.6 v8 for the daily commute (yes....I know, but it is fun). Clearly since 2004 technology has moved on a bit - everything is impressive, and the range doesn't terrify me (I'll be keeping a diesel 75 for longer journeys). What is astonishing is that it's all here for £21,995. Free road tax, cheaper fuel... it feels like a no-brainer I must say.
Thanks for putting yourself though that James, I have one on order. Can you do some more videos on how you set things up and what information you get on the screens in car?
Thanks James, a great tutorial in what can go tits up, that's my main fear is finding a useless charge point so I think I'll be looking to charge my mg once it hits 60% used up, thanks again.
Hi kate and James when are we going to get an update on your new MG ZS ev.ive got one on order hoping for March delivery.I think this car is fantastic value for money I have followed a few of your videos and find them very informative.To my mind if you are replacing your Tesla for the MG then that's a good endorsement regards Grahamtoyn.
Completely crazy. Imagine going to a petrol station on empty and it don't work. These chargers need to be more available, working and easily available at any time of day or night. Having to pay the extra premium over a ice car up front and these issues are puts people off in the 1st place.
Thanks James, that puts my mind at rest regarding range. In reality after a 2 hour drive I am ready for a short break so charging on a long run fits in nicely with my usual driving regime. I have had an Exclusive on order for a couple of weeks and this video has taken away any doubt, cheers.
The MG is a great car but the range is a worry. We have just returned from holiday in Brixham where we covered 700 miles with two petrol stops and averaged 57mpg. EVs have a long way to go yet. We do have solar panels so could recharge cheaply at home but we do travel including visiting friends in France most years.
Wow, that was a narrow escape. 70mph is for every car an effeciency eater. Best speed for long journeys is max 60mph. For the size and shape of car it's pretty decent rating though. It's about the same consumption as the Zoe. That runs 17kW/100Km on average. (3,67ml/kW)
I had a 1950's MG with no fuel guage just a warning light and never had a problem since the light started flashing with about 4 gallons left and stayed on at about 2 gallons, the fuel tank held 12.5 gallons.
And this is why EVs have issues in the UK - the public charging network can be a joke. a) Closed sites - i mean, wtf! How is that helpful at all? b) Cost of public charging networks, EVs only work if they're cheaper to fill up than petrol cars, some of the charging points (such as the first one James used) don't help. From my own person experience of having an IPace for a few days - the car is great and really sold me on EVs, but the charging infrastructure sucks. I tried about 3 50kw chargers before I found one that worked, if you have to rely on public chargers, you do experience that range anxiety that James demonstrated! If you can charge to 100% at home each day and not need to use public chargers, that's great. Unfortunately for non-Tesla owners, the public charging infrastructure is a real issue, Tesla however really have an advantage with their charging network. And I I really don't know why (other than cost) why MG have to go with a segmented charge gauge. Just ditch the dials and put a tft in there like everyone else! Other than that James, well done - good video and now you know how far you can push the car for range :) I'm not a fan of the ZS, but the EV Coupe they have coming out in a couple of years looks very cool.
Steve Childs If every petrol station featured a rapid charger then EV usage would be a lot less painful... time for legislation to require any location that retails petrol to have an equal number of rapid chargers to fuel pumps... electric vehicles are the easy way for the world rapidly lower carbon emissions,
@@Nobody_Famous Yes I did, but it didn't help when the DC Fast Chargers themselves didn't work. It will get better and perhaps I was just unlucky, but it was that side that let the whole EV thing down for me at that time.
@@davidorama6690 - I tend to agree, but to be honest, the car manufacturers do appear to be banding together to build a network like Tesla's for everyone else, so it should improve hugely over the next few years.
Here in Canada, one of our national gas companies (Petrol Canada) is now advertising that they have added charging stations across the country, so it's now possible to drive from the Pacific to the Atlantic in an electric vehicle. The province that I live in (New Brunswick) provides free charging at it's own provincially owned NB Power charging stations as long as you buy a charging card from them for about $12.00 per year.
To be honest I think the MG's consumption is poor, I drive a Zoe Z.E. 40 like a normal car, at the speed limit on motorways and other roads, never using ECO mode or economy driving and I average 4.13 miles/kWh. The MG is as aerodynamic as a brick which obviously has an impact.
@@JetBrink Sorry I should have said "3.7mi/kWh is pretty low", I was thinking in terms of high consumption. It's not awful for that class of car, it's just not great compared to Kona, e-Golf, Zoe etc.
@@johndouglas770 A lot depends on temperature as well as speed, the use of air-con etc whether the roads are wet and so on. Recommend you have a look at EV Database which gives you a very good handle on the variability of range under different conditions for many different EV's. Also some cars employ a heat pump which makes electricity usage more efficient. It's also true that the aerodynamics make quite a difference, but that has to be traded off against the value of internal height. Other ways of improving efficiency are to control total weight. This is to an extent a trade-off with battery size - since batteries are very heavy. BMW with the i3 (a relatively tall car) achieved this by using a carbon fibre reinforced plastic body shell - but that has been expensive to produce and it seems they will on their other cars revert to using steel because it is cheaper to produce.
Oi get the left lane when empty on a motorway and it's empty 🤣🤣 But thanks for the real world mileage been looking at the MG and the mileage real world is just shy of what I'm after from an ev, just wish it had the 200 mile range
@@antoniozerkhfaoui1918 both get the £3500 government tax break but mg works out just cheaper but not enough to worry about zoe claim january MG are out now but if order today april get car
Drove from Barnstaple to Trowbridge along the top of North Devon and Somerset. Left Barnstaple with 156 (90% charged) total of 121 miles @ 4 mpkw. 31 miles left when home(no motorways). I find having to lock the doors for the car to charge is a bit annoying, however very pleased with the car. Exclusive in blue
Thanks James. Been waiting for something like this. All I need now is the car, not even a contact from the dealer, very frustrating having to wait without delivery information.
My dealer borrowed a demo for a couple of days from a larger dealer so that the people who had paid the £500 deposit and marked him as their dealer could try it. MG have told me that they do not favour larger dealers over smaller but that is not how it seems to be going. The cars that have already been delivered seem to be only from larger dealers. It would also be interesting to know what number order the people who have already taken delivery had. Mine was quite early but I am still being told Late December.
@@mikemarriott My dealer in Cinderford actually went to longbridge to pick up their Demonstrator (and they are a small dealership). It appears part of the issue is si getting the cars delivered to the dealerships rather than availability of demo units...test drove the car Friday and confirmed the order should be here by Dec :)
@@mikemarriott Had our demo 2 weeks ago and the dealer (Marylebone) said the MG system in China is very restricted on what the UK dealers can pull off it but he did manage to find our order eventually. We were approx. 750 out of the first 1000 deposits and our car was showing as in Shanghai with Est delivery of Jan 20
Good useful stuff James. I'm one of those for whom a short range EV would do most things but had a personal "bottom line" of 200 miles at 70 mph with every device on in crappy weather. I'm revising this in the light of your video. A genuinely safe, with bags to spare, 100 miles seems possible in this car. Trip to rels in Scotland from Warrington - one stop and a destination charge does it.
James and Kate, I have been put off by rumours about early rust underneath around jack points on petrol versions of the MG ZS. Any concerns about this? Hopefully yours is completely clean underneath?
Me too - would love to be reassured about this as the car is otherwise pretty much perfect for my needs and could remove ICE from our driveway completely - would be a great compliment to our leaf30
Likewise, I am not trying to knock the MG ZS EV. I am really interested in it but worried that there may be some quality issues with early models. Check out the link below. The MG response is worrying. Photos of rust on a white MG ZS aren't what you want to see on a year old vehicle. www.mg-rover.org/threads/does-your-zs-suv-show-signs-of-rust.867271/
Petrillo123 zbornak No you won’t do any of that after a few trips. Range anxiety will disappear. I have the old Ioniq and we summer or winter consider 100-120 miles normal. We have done 140 mile trips a few times without charging. We charge up at home 9 times out of 10. Relax and enjoy...and don’t forget, you save time if you can charge up at home rather than wasting time in petrol stations :)
@John W Congratulations John, I'm sure the world will be impressed with you and your Jaguar. As you don't have an electric car none of what I have said will be of any use to you. As I don't have a Jaguar, I can't offer you any advice
Thanks for giving up your evening/morning for our benefit. Off for a second test drive later today, so hopefully get to play with the MG Pilot settings.
Thanks for this, proves to me I really need a 200 mile range to be comfortable with an EV and my commuting. Unfortunately rules out the ZS but great for people who have a shorter commute.
What was external temp, road I assume was dry, what type of ti/yres do you have, any windows open or all closed, you did have heat seaters on. Would be good to retry that on roads that were clear of roadworks as well but also with fast charger access readily available near your destination. Great test though, love to see it in summer. My Ioniq does roughly the same at the moment but it is warming up so hopefully will be better in summer.
Indeed, what was the outside temperature, and what was the battery temperature at? If he had the heater on then I guess below 10C, so the 70mph range is pretty good considering that.
Would be nice to see a ‘run dry’ test to confirm the reserve range. It sure is a pain to find a charge point closed when your getting paranoid about a flat battery 🔋
Hi. If you use Ecotricity, it quite slot, but there are many other providers who are very reliable and have good saturation in the UK. Polar, Instavolt, Engenie, Alfa Power all have excellent reliability and accept contactless payment too
Great video james. Seems that ideal.speed for the mg would be 60/65 on.motorways. amd most of the time it's hard to get above 70 anyway so your not.missing out on anything. Thanks for sharing
When I have the heating on in mine, the battery drops really fast. Lucky if I get 80 miles on a full charge with the heating on. I must be doing something wrong... Funny thing is, just charged the car up and the computer claims I have a range of over 200 miles now - ha! Never! Maybe 150 if I'm lucky.
Interesting I drive an Ioniq 38kWh smaller battery but better efficiency will easily do 140 miles at 70 mph. Also the battery gauge has many more divisions which are red to mark out the flap now zone😆. The issue with chargers not accessible or not working really needs sorting as does rip off charges😠
This us why a full BEV is not for me yet. I need to travel around 180 miles each way and I want to do that in comfort,heated seat and heater on in winter, air con on in the summer, with radio and every other modern day day to day yse age. I want to go with the traffic flow, so 80-90 MPH. even that takes six hours there and back and I don’t want to add another two hours to my journey. Until rage is made much better, then I will stick to PHEVs
Thanks James. The all-nighter is appreciated. It's rare to see you in a flap like that though! On the other hand, you arrived at a charger with plenty in reserve. The car is looking good so far. That claimed range should be achievable for most sensible drivers, and it wouldn't surprise me to hear that you can exceed it under favourable daytime conditions. Do keep us updated with your (presumably mostly Kate's) driving experiences over the next year or two. It should provide a useful reference for other ZS drivers.
Awesome video - been eagerly anticipating your videos on the ZS EV! Keep them coming! Would love a review video or just simply more videos exploring other aspects. This was what I expected - shame it didn't over delivery but that range is fine for me.
Hi James & Kate. Do you still own this car after a year? I'm thining of getting one, as we're looking at a Qashqai-sized car and I want to go electric.
Good Video! The range of 150 miles in the current climate is ok but for 2019 its rather low and this winter its not going to be good for the range so will be interesting to see your results there!
Andrew Hughes . I’m not quite sure what you mean, but I’ll reiterate, I need a car that I can keep going easily and in all places and not have to worry about refuelling when I’m in a hurry. At the moment electric cars aren’t quite there. They will come, and so will the charging points, but not yet.
Andrew Hughes . I think humanity has bigger problems than that. Look at the extractive and energy producing costs needed to run electric cars. But I can be a little smug when I say I haven’t done the most planet destroying thing, which is to produce more humans.
Hi James, I have been looking at one of these as my first EV. Do you still recommend it?. I have heard issues with rust on these cars and I have to admit it is concerning me. Also I have asked for a test drive and as yet (over a week) no one from MG has contacted me. Good luck with car, it does look good, very Jag at the front and maybe kia sportage at the rear. Nice.
Excellent, it's great to see how it copes on a long run. I want to upgrade my 30 kWh Leaf at some point for something that can get me from Worcestershire to Fife with 2 stops or less at 70ish mph in the rain at 4 degree C. This MG maybe isn't quite there, but seems close! Great to hear a Leics accent too, I grew up just up the road from Hinckley 👍
The MG would get there with two stops and if conditions were right maybe even one stop, I would find it just fine since i like to stop after a couple of hours for a break. If you really need extra range there is the Zoe which for me is a bit small or the Hyundai Kona or Kia Niro, these are more expensive than the MG but should manage one stop, certainly they all beat the 30 kwh Leaf.
Do you guys live in Leicester? We're hoping to move to Leicester early next year James and our chosen locations start at Leicester forest East along to ratby then groby finishing at anstey. Cheers
Looks a great Car, not sure your panic may have relieved people’s anxiety about range anxiety.... joking aside though like you I have enjoyed tesla superchargers and driven all over europe in my Model S with no range anxiety whatsoever, now having sold it I have been looking at a replacement, living in NorthWales we are a little more sparse for electric chargers so on that basis I wanted something with 200+ miles. One car which has really turned my head is the Peugeot e208, looks stunning and reminds me of my old 205, so I have ordered one. Fingers crossed it lives up to the hype. The MG looks a great car though, would have seriously considered it if it was 200+.
Thanks for some great videos from a guy in Denmark considering buying an MG ZS EV :) BTW Did you buy the car with an serviceplan (don't know if it's called that in english), so you pay a certain fee every month and service is included? And if so what is the price of that in GB? Thanks.
Interesting that this car charges up to 100%. If I did this run, I would probably run out of power on the return run because the Ioniq only charges to 94% on a rapid.
EV Opinion has given a few negative opinions of the mg. Looking forward to what you have to say about the car now that you've owned it for at least one month.
Thanks James, a very fair and usefull test. My MG has done 6,000 miles, I couldn't be more pleased for an OTR price of 22.5K. The new MG ZS model has a range exceeding 300miles, I don't know the price yet, this really would be a game changer if priced not too far from the last model. Love your road tests, keep 'em coming.
Can’t wait for more content on the mg. if you could address the quirks, that’d be great (difficulty of using the charge port, infotainment screen lag etc). Not sure if the lag was just on the press cars.
We hope you got your head down for a good sleep after that. Pleased to see that the MG lived up to your expectations.What was the outside temperature like ? Thanks for going the extra mile to give us the facts. Our regards to Kate.
Hi great video. How are you getting on with the charging as I understand it has no timer. Having a test drive this week but just a tad worried about charging on economy 7, don’t fancy plugging it in at midnight. Keep the videos coming 😀
So, we can conclude that unless your needs are for a small journey shuttle to and from the shops or school, owning an EV with a range of less than 250 miles means that you will be in a perpetual state of.... RANGE ANXIETY !!! and that doesn't make for pleasant motoring
TheComputec the problem is the infrastructure, not the cars. Battery size/range is overrated, compared to charging speed and access to a comprehensive charging network. Ive had a 70 mile range EV now for 4 years, and its the lack of redundancy/alternatives that causes the occasional stress. A 150 mile range car with a 100kW+ charging rate, and Rapid chargers as common as petrol pumps, and I wouldn’t worry in the slightest about undertaking 300+ mile journeys.
@@markparker5585 sorry mark but I'll have to partly disagree. The mg model in the video has a typical safe usable range of around 130 miles. If you were doing a 300mile drive that's a dual charge requirement. There are trips that I simply couldn't do unless the safe usable range was 200 miles at the very least. Not all trips have an expectation of regular service station access and even then, if the take-up of EV is exponential it will be a long time before the infrastructure comes close to being sufficient. So 130 miles just doesn't work for anybody who commutes a 120 mile average round trip and does a 6 times a year drove from UK to France.. Especially if they want to tow a trailer.
@@markparker5585 Hi Mark, for some reason i couldn't see your latest post in the thread itself just in my notifications. i did qualify my comments with "partly disagree" I'm totally with you in theory that assuming the infrastructure exists you could take on a 300M journey, but would that be without any anxiety at all? lets look at an example:- You've booked a week in Cornwall to visit your Aunty and your traveling down from manchester...Do you really want to punctuate a longish journey, perhaps at this time of year, with maybe a tutting, less than enthusiastically "Pro EV" wife, some restless kids in the car, sat at a virtually dead motorway service where the only thing open is the toilets... You have to sit there for an hour on a cold wet night, trying to explain to them that having the heater on and charging her mobile and the kids ipads will slow down the charging process, and having to explain again for the 5th time that "there will be more chargers eventually and that it really was necessary for you to zig-zag 40 miles out of your natural route otherwise you would be stranded?" the MG is a great car IF it fits your driving profile. I think its exceptional value for money IF it fits your driving profile, but it ranks alongside the Nissan leaf as a car that NEARLY gets it right We know its all going to get better but right now if you want to take the plunge from a petrol diesel to an EV there are just too many cars that tick half the boxes but not enough to get people's commitment and deposit. RANGE s the absolute factor for MY driving profile and the level of anxiety that I would be prepared to accept is 250MILES... As I dislike Tesla enormously and the Kona has a waiting list longer than The Brexit Saga I'm just going to have to sit it out like so many who would dearly love to go electric but just can't... yet Like yourself, I'm not after an argument and I welcome any insight that might soften my stance. I fully understand that in the future we all need to modify our driving patterns and behaviors but right now I need a bombproof 250mile range motorway cruiser with the ability to tow a 750KG trailer occasionally... any suggestions are welcome :-)
@@TheComputec As for the 150 mile anxiety thing, yes, I'd be fine if chargers were as common as petrol pumps. No detours would be necessary. Then again, I've had a 70 mile EV for a few years now, so maybe I'm slightly desensitised to range anxiety :). Just FYI, I don't think the Kona EV is able to have a tow hitch. I was looking into it, as my next EV will need a hitch for a bike rack. Teslas can mount tow hitches, but as you've discounted those, I think you are limited. I don't know if the iPace, the Merc, or the Audi have a tow hitch option. Way out of my price range so never bothered looking them up. Good luck though, I'm confident something will come along to satisfy your requirements in the not too distant future.
@@markparker5585 I discount Tesla's simply because I just find them very boring as cars... i've been out in a 3 and an S and the cabin is just sterile. The front ends are cheap nasty and 80's looking. I know they have the range and ludicrous mode and autopilot so the tech under the skin is fine but no wonder people are getting caught sleeping in them, the dashboard is bland... a flat slab of plastic with a token Gesture trim strip across it and an ipad in the center console. At least the kona and the leaf and the MG still engage the driver Shame the Kona can't tow. I could stomach paying an extra 12k for one as lets be honest most people don't actually "pay" the money these days they rent them and with no car tax and much cheaper running costs I could justify it compared to my £350 a month spend on Diesel but even if i could get my hands on one, the fact I can't tow means i'd still need to keep another car on the driveway with a tow bar... (rental cars don't have tow bars so i couldn't even hire one when I needed it) So the hunt goes on
Thee needs to be 10,000 rapid chargers in the OK to match the convenience of filling stations. We need 4 times as many as we have now and we need them fast.
Depends on how you count chargers. Are you counting the devices or the connectors? Have a look on Zap-Map which under its stats page will tell you on a daily basis how many there are and where. I've been following this very closely and the increase in the last 12 months has been very dramatic. Add to this that there are millions of accessible plug points at home, that batteries can often be charged at night and that the size of batteries increases range - and you come to realise that many chargers are indeed under-utilised. Many employers are also making chargers available to employees whose cars may be idle much of the time their owners are at work. Of course, when travelling long distances, rapid chargers are the preferred option and take longer than filling with fossil fuel, but for many people such long journeys are not common. A motorist covering 10,000 miles a year is only averaging just over 27 miles a day. Most modern EV's can add that much range in the course of an hour when using the relatively slow 7kW/h chargers often found at supermarkets and other shopping locations. Remember also that few people fill the car to full from being empty even with fossil fuels, so it isn't necessary to fill the car with electrons at every stop. Just imagine if you could top up your fossil fuelled car with about 100 miles of range for about £1, which you can do with an EV using a tariff such as Octopus offers EV drivers. The really important thing to remember is that most EV drivers do a very high proportion of charging at home, or at work or at supermarkets whilst they are otherwise engaged. Nevertheless, I agree we need more rapid chargers, but the shortfall isn't nearly as bad as you might think.
Great video .... I agree with Sthilboy in regards to the infrastructure ...it still needs a lot a lot to be desired ... but the car does what it says on the tin will be interesting to see battery rate of degradation after a year. I do believe that this is the best family EV on the market for its price.
