[WalkingBootWeather]

I've now had 3 failed attempts at charging MG ZS EV at Wetherby Services. I have at different time tried all 3 of the units at this site (2 of them on at least 2 separate occasions) and am yet to have a successful experience, although customer Services did on one occasion manage to give me a free vend.

On each occasion other cars have been successful. I'm an experienced EV driver and am generally successful on other rapid chargers.

This morning I had the latest failed attempt and again called customer services. They let slip that by far the greatest number of problems were with MG cars, followed by iPace. I hadn't told him what car I was driving before they volunteered this so imagine there is a pattern here.

My assumption is that there are some compatibility issues between some MG cars and some Gridserve chargers (or both). It might be useful if we can determine what this pattern is. Do you drive an MG and if so I'd be interested to hear of success and failures at Gridserve chargers. What model of car and version of BMS do you have?

It may be that either MG / and/or Gridserve need to apply some update, but evidence of issue may be necessary to get them to look at it.

 

[greentangerine]

I've now had 3 failed attempts at charging MG ZS EV at Wetherby Services. I have at different time tried all 3 of the units at this site (2 of them on at least 2 separate occasions) and am yet to have a successful experience, although customer Services did on one occasion manage to give me a free vend.

On each occasion other cars have been successful. I'm an experienced EV driver and am generally successful on other rapid chargers.

This morning I had the latest failed attempt and again called customer services. They let slip that by far the greatest number of problems were with MG cars, followed by iPace. I hadn't told him what car I was driving before they volunteered this so imagine there is a pattern here.

My assumption is that there are some compatibility issues between some MG cars and some Gridserve chargers (or both). It might be useful if we can determine what this pattern is. Do you drive an MG and if so I'd be interested to hear of success and failures at Gridserve chargers. What model of car and version of BMS do you have?

It may be that either MG / and/or Gridserve need to apply some update, but evidence of issue may be necessary to get them to look at it.

I've had failures using the new Gridserve CCS chargers at Donnington, Winchester South and Chievely with my MG5. At Chievely, I went to the one immediately adjacent since it was also unoccupied and that worked fortunately.

 

[Defeatedbythecat]

I've had failures using the new Gridserve CCS chargers at Donnington, Winchester South and Chievely with my MG5. At Chievely, I went to the one immediately adjacent since it was also unoccupied and that worked fortunately.

This is quite concerning considering they're all getting changed.

 

[Mostalive]

This is quite concerning considering they're all getting changed.

I saw a red mg5 at gridserve reading yesterday, charging successfully it seemed.

 

[Defeatedbythecat]

Got a new LR MG5 on the way in October and at least once a month will be relying on Services charging points to make it to the destination.

This was the first I've heard of issues with Gridserve and MG

 

[WalkingBootWeather]

This was the first I've heard of issues with Gridserve and MG

The comment by the Customer Services guy was the first I'd heard too. It is not uncommon for there to be teething problems between certain chargers\networks\cars. Generally it can be fixed with a software upgrade, but the problem needs to be identified and appropriate resolution actioned. I'm just trying to quantify the issue.

 

[Sandy]

Did Gridserve also employ all the ex Electric Highway staff? Their stock reply was "oh we've never heard of that issue before!". To every issue logged EVER! Even if you'd been on the phone to them just 30mins before at a different location.

 

[PeterG]

@WalkingBootWeather what we’re the symptoms of your failed charge?

I’ve not used Gridserve but have had niggles with other chargers as the communications pin doesn’t seem to connect properly. Symptom is cable connected, locking pin on car locks, car shows connected but not charging and charger tries to connect but fails - timing out after about 20 seconds.

When this happens I either adjust the cars angle so that the CCS head sits firmly in straight on, or hold the CCS head in firmly until the charge starts. Usually fixes the problem for me.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

@WalkingBootWeather what we’re the symptoms of your failed charge?

I’ve not used Gridserve but have had niggles with other chargers as the communications pin doesn’t seem to connect properly. Symptom is cable connected, locking pin on car locks, car shows connected but not charging and charger tries to connect but fails - timing out after about 20 seconds.

When this happens I either adjust the cars angle so that the CCS head sits firmly in straight on, or hold the CCS head in firmly until the charge starts. Usually fixes the problem for me.

I think this is the key thing, as I've had two occasions where just lifting the connector slightly at the start of the charge handshake has resolved a problem (with an I-Pace). Neither were with Gridserve/EH chargers.

My take on it (might be wrong) is that it's as above, that the CP doesn't connect properly unless the connector is lifted slightly, because the CP pin on the car plug is intentionally shorter (this is an accidental disconnect detection provision). I believe that this is something that may possible be made slightly worse with charge ports that are more vertical, as the weight of the cable and connector may tend to pull it downwards a fraction more, enough to cause the CP connection problem. It may also be that holding the connector up slightly during the initial hand shake helps the locking pin to then hold the the connector in the right position as soon as it engages.

FWIW, my wife's Zoe has never had this problem at a charger that has twice caused me to try twice to get a charge started. The Zoe connector isn't as close to vertical as the one on the I-Pace, though. This is just a thesis, I have very little hard evidence to support it, other than a couple of observations, but it might be worth trying the "push and lift" technique to see if it helps.

 

[WalkingBootWeather]

I've experienced the issue where you need to "push and lift" in order the get a connection. They tend to be older connectors with a little 'play' in them. The Gridserve connectors are new and make a positive tight fit so there was no discernible movement even when applying a bit of pressure, and I did try that.

I got a number of error messages, most commonly "waiting for power" on the charger. There were also messages about making sure the car was switched off (it was already of course), and payment declined (despite there being a healthy balance and the card working fine for transactions immediately before and after). The card payment issue may be related to there being a number of aborted attempts first, each one reserving £20.

The car displayed "connected but not charging" whenever connector was inserted.

As I say, I made a couple of attempted connections while on the phone to customer services, describing each step as I went and he assured me that the issue to do with the car and not the charger with MG followed by iPace the models that most commonly had problems.

 

[Bodgerx]

I've had failures using the new Gridserve CCS chargers at Donnington, Winchester South and Chievely with my MG5. At Chievely, I went to the one immediately adjacent since it was also unoccupied and that worked fortunately.

I was at Donnington on Saturday evening. There were two couples, one with a ID3 and another with a French plate eNiro. They struggled at both chargers to get any working.

I turned up in my 38kwh Ioniq, plugged in (no fancy hold the handle whilst connecting business) scanned the debit card and it worked like a dream, and went inside to get a Veggie whopper. Came back to 90% and drove away.

So not sure what is going on...

 

[Paul M]

I've not passed through Donington services for quite a while, when they were the old EH chargers, but worked often enough to be useful (more often on free vend than not). Have they been upgraded to the new Gridserve standard units?

 

[Bodgerx]

I've not passed through Donington services for quite a while, when they were the old EH chargers, but worked often enough to be useful (more often on free vend than not). Have they been upgraded to the new Gridserve standard units?

They have, yes.

 

[Andy Poole]

Interesting, I have owned a ZS ev for 18 months now, always charge on own 7kw charger, generally no issued. First time in over a year used a public CCS charger (Gridserve), would not 'handshake'. Tried a Shell CCS, message was immediately 'car ended charge'. On same charger tried type 2, charged but only at 7kw ish (43kw charger). Gave up and made it to London and tried another type 2 43kw, charged at 7kw max. Had 4 hour wait so I had enough charge to get back to Bristol!
Any one else had this? MG garage says they have an MG5 with similar problem. Lesson is check CCS works before you travel at range!

 

[WalkingBootWeather]

Lesson is check CCS works before you travel at range!

Never had a problem with my MG or previous EVs on InstaVolt chargers. Have had problems with contactless payment methods (Google Pay and cards), and with apps. My impression is that there are more compatibility issues with some MG cars and some chargers (in my experience GridServe being the worst) than with other marques. Pretty sure it can be resolved by software updates but it is difficult to know if the issue is with the car or the charger.

 

[motmot]

on the ID3 (owner here) CCS charging issues seem to be hardware based - where the car can't lock the cable in (you can hear the solenoid trying to engage the locking pin) - esp with MFG (and a little with Gridserve) chargers. Trick for us ID3 owners is to push the connector to the right during the handshake. Once its locked in its all fine and the charge happens. Perhaps something similar here for the MG?

 

[SHL-Kelso]

No physical connection issues with three sets of Gridserve chargers and my e-Niro yesterday during a total 450 mile day of driving.

I did experience problems with one unit only supplying 28kW even though I was under 30% SOC at the time (was the CCS/Chad unit at Lancaster North, the dual CCS next door had an ID3 successfully charging when I arrived), and two contactless cards that refused to authenticate at another location (presume both needed pin verification, and thankfully I was successful using a third bank card from my wallet).

At my first stop of the day (at Lancaster South) I had another ID3 pull up and plug into the charger next to me and did not see any evidence of issues with them starting the charge either - they plugged in, swiped their card, and the charge started for them just like it did for me.