[John Weatherley]

My car had to be put on a pick up truck and delivered to the dealer today.

I tried to charge it at a Rapid Charger. It failed to charge then would not drive due to faults.....

 

[CasperStorm]

Still one blob on the battery gauge so should have 10-25% charge in the HV battery.

Sounds fkn annoying.

 

[spark9612]

What brand of charger was it?

 

[teepee]

Please let us know what the outcome is - car fault or the charger?

 

[Spec555]

What brand of charger was it?

I second that

 

[JPCeir]

That’s awful, John,

I think everyone on here is shocked

Given other posts, did you notice the reading on the 12v battery? Bjorn has something similar happen during his 1000km challenge......

I hope you get good news soon

 

[John Weatherley]

We tried all sorts to try and recover the situation, but no joy.

It is the second time it has happened to us. The first time we left the car alone for 10 mins and it righted itself. This time, nothing would get it to recover.

On both occasions I was attempting a charge using an Ecotricity charger - both failed.

I had tried about an hour earlier to charge on a Polar charger, this also failed, but did not cause an issue with the car.

Maybe it is something Ecotricity is doing with the communication? Even so, it should not brick the car?

 

[John Weatherley]

That’s awful, John,

I think everyone on here is shocked

Given other posts, did you notice the reading on the 12v battery? Bjorn has something similar happen during his 1000km challenge......

I hope you get good news soon

Very good point about the 12V battery. As I mention, I had tried about an hour earlier to charge at a Polar charger immediately after driving there. This failed, but didn’t affect the car.

For the attempt at the the Ecotricity charger, the charger was occupied when I arrived. I had to wait for 45 mins for the charge to complete on the other car. During this time I spent a period in the car with the lights on and the radio on. It is possible that the 12V was drained a bit during this time?

I will chat with the dealer this morning and see what they think.

 

[Carty]

Very good point about the 12V battery. As I mention, I had tried about an hour earlier to charge at a Polar charger immediately after driving there. This failed, but didn’t affect the car.

For the attempt at the the Ecotricity charger, the charger was occupied when I arrived. I had to wait for 45 mins for the charge to complete on the other car. During this time I spent a period in the car with the lights on and the radio on. It is possible that the 12V was drained a bit during this time?

I will chat with the dealer this morning and see what they think.

Sorry to hear about your problem !.
I am going for a 12 Volt battery problem !.
Strange that the recovery services did not try a jumper pack on it first before flat bedding it ???.
If this is indeed the case, it should not take the dealer long to discover the issue.
Can you remember what the 12Volt battery gauge was displaying at the time of the problem ?.

 

[John Weatherley]

Sorry to hear about your problem !.
I am going for a 12 Volt battery problem !.
Strange that the recovery services did not try a jumper pack on it first before flat bedding it ???.
If this is indeed the case, it should not take the dealer long to discover the issue.
Can you remember what the 12Volt battery gauge was displaying at the time of the problem ?.

The battery meter should 50%. I think that means 12V.

I have a 12V Booster for my ICE cars. Not sure if this is okay for this problem as it just gives a boost when cranking?

 

[dk6780]

The 12v booster should allow you to restart the car if the 12v battery is low. It sounds likely that you discharged it by using the radio etc. but I'm disappointed that the DC: DC charger didn't top it up or the car turn off the "unnecessary" usage. Gen1 LEAF suffered from this and I'm surprised that MG didn't identify this as a potential issue.

 

[srichards]

MG haven't seemed to have thought through how people use the cars and may not have made sure the 12v is topped up during charging if the car is on. The Soul would give a warning that the 12v would go flat if you had it in the first accessory mode.

The leaf has two modes. Single press of power button and double press. I'm assuming the first one is a 12v only with no top up and the double press powers up much more stuff. I may have to RTFM....

Does the MG do the same ie there's a double press mode?

 

[John Weatherley]

I t

MG haven't seemed to have thought through how people use the cars and may not have made sure the 12v is topped up during charging if the car is on. The Soul would give a warning that the 12v would go flat if you had it in the first accessory mode.

The leaf has two modes. Single press of power button and double press. I'm assuming the first one is a 12v only with no top up and the double press powers up much more stuff. I may have to RTFM....

Does the MG do the same ie there's a double press mode?

I will have to Read The Flight Manual as well to determine if this is the case.

I know my I-Pace shuts the car down to prevent an issue with the 12V battery.

If that battery is at a low level, then a warning and bings and bongs would be useful.

 

[Electra Glide in Blue]

The battery meter should 50%. I think that means 12V.

I have a 12V Booster for my ICE cars. Not sure if this is okay for this problem as it just gives a boost when cranking?

The 12v battery on my 15month old Kona failed last December only .05 hour after collecting car from its 20k service. Caused by dealer? Plenty of charge in the HV battery. First callout from AA looked at car, rang his supervisor and said he could’nt touch the electrics. This despite me showing him the page in the handbook showng you how to jump start!

So he called out a second AA mechanic who used his 12v booster unit and got the car going in minutes. It took 2 hours in total to do a 2 minute job!

So I bought a 12v booster and yes it works on an EV. In fact I have used it about 10 times whilst waiting for the dealer to get a new battery in (Christmas shut down also got in the way). Its over engineered for an EV as all it needs to do is get the 12v system up to 12/13v to power the relays. You could probably get the system up with a power tool battery if you had the right clips.

 

[Carty]

The 12v battery on my 15month old Kona failed last December only .05 hour after collecting car from its 20k service. Caused by dealer? Plenty of charge in the HV battery. First callout from AA looked at car, rang his supervisor and said he could’nt touch the electrics. This despite me showing him the page in the handbook showng you how to jump start!

So he called out a second AA mechanic who used his 12v booster unit and got the car going in minutes. It took 2 hours in total to do a 2 minute job!

So I bought a 12v booster and yes it works on an EV. In fact I have used it about 10 times whilst waiting for the dealer to get a new battery in (Christmas shut down also got in the way). Its over engineered for an EV as all it needs to do is get the 12v system up to 12/13v to power the relays. You could probably get the system up with a power tool battery if you had the right clips.

I keep a booster pack in the car at all times !.
It a “Must Have” item, including the space saver wheel kit !.
The ZS EV does have a two stage push button that can be used when NOT pressing the brake pedal first.
I would get concerned if the 12 Volt battery gauge falls below centre mark on the gauge !.

 

[JPCeir]

First, John has not confirmed that this was a 12v battery problem....we are jumping to that conclusion based on other data ( incl Bjorn).

Second, if it is a 12v battery problem, then we need MG to sort out why this is happening. Is it an underspeced battery( for cold northern winters), or is the DC-DC system in some way faulty?

Third, if it’s an undersized battery, can we not just go back to the dealer to have a larger capacity one fitted? Carrying a jump start battery in the boot seems daft, imho.?

 

[JPCeir]

Manual, p237 says...

“• Do not leave the power system in an ACC or ON/READY state for long periods of time, excessive use of electrical equipment may lead to to a discharged battery.”

so MG know the risk of a discharged (12v) battery.....

 

[JPCeir]

Sorry...p137

 

[Sandy]

Questions have been asked on the FB group.

First it would be interesting to know what 12v is fitted, seems some have SAIC branded ones and some have Varta Silver.

Personally I think its the 12v too. If it was at 50% based on the gauge then its at least 50% discharged. Should show the next graticule if 12.6+v

I believe you can single press Start, which discharges the 12v only.
Double press start which enables the DC-DC and allows you to use the 12v?
And finally brake pedal push and single press of start to start the car normally.

 

[JPCeir]

Sandy,

not sure the second push enables the DC-DC converter.....unless you know different!