Miraz Jordan

For various reasons we bought a brand new electric car before we meant to. The car is an MG 4 Essence 64.

That led me to doing a lot of research and learning in a hurry. I'm still learning and I'm still hazy about some things.

Here are some random notes:

• Sort out insurance and payment as with any new car.
• The car has an app. Sign up and set up a login. Can my partner and I both use the same login? Should we? Should we have separate logins? Is that possible? Who knows!
• Does the power company have a special EV plan with reduced rates for overnight charging? Our company (Genesis) does, but they needed to know the new numberplate before they would put in a work order. Then they advised a delay of up to 2 weeks. In fact, the EV plan came into effect more quickly. Genesis also have their EnergyIQ app that we already used. That will now include the new plan.
• Sign up with the public charging network (Chargenet for us). Sort out a login and download the app. See above re questions about whether my partner and I share the login etc (also unknown). Chargenet also have a special relationship with Genesis. Our public charger use will now appear on our power bill.
• How far will an EV go on a charge? It's really complicated (as it is actually with a petrol car). Take what the manufacturer says and subtract a bunch. Factors like how you drive, wind and weather, use of the air conditioning, hills, traffic, speed, all play a part.
• Read about WLTP Explained: Simplifying Range and Efficiency: The WLTP is a global vehicle testing system that predicts fuel economy, emissions, and electric vehicle range. Tip: WLTP is a standardised test that allows cars to be compared to each other but which has no relationship to real-world driving.
• Electric cars come with a trickle charger. As a general indication of what a trickle charger can do: if we plugged it into our normal garage power point it would take well over 24 hours (maybe even 36 hours) to charge the car from 0% to 100%. Also, the trickle charger is sometimes offensively called a granny charger — both sexist and ageist!
• Organise a home charger. We went with Evnex, a New Zealand company who make a smart charger that costs round about $1400. We also opted for Evnex to both supply and install. I'll bet this also has an app which needs a login etc.
• Chargers (and electricity) are complicated. We learned that our garage, 50 metres from the house, has an insufficient power supply to allow us to use the Evnex charger at its full capacity. That means the installers have to run more cable and do electrical magic to boost the supply. That caused a very steep increase in price. The Evnex smart charger will allow us to schedule charging times and will charge the car overnight. In future, if we, or a new owner of the house, were to install solar panels, the Evnex charger can interact with them.
• Batteries and electricity are complicated. I'm still learning. It seems it's a bad idea to charge the car beyond 80% unless you plan a long trip. Charging can happen at a trickle or at a decent speed or fast. I have the impression that lots of high-speed charging can harm or degrade the battery.
• This is very useful: EV Beginner's Guide (2023).
• There are different kinds of chargers. I'm utterly bewildered: Type 1, Type 2, AC, DC, CHAdeMO, CCS. I looked in the car manual to find out what type to have the Evnex people install for us.
• This is useful: A Comprehensive Guide to Public EV Charging | ChargeNet.
• The first time I used a public charger I needed an extra 15 minutes or more to figure out what I was doing and how to do it. I suggest charging for the first time at a location and time where you aren't under pressure.
• If you happen to buy an MG 4 hustle over to Jerry Pan's YouTube video series: MG4 Tutorial - Owner's Manual, User Guide, Complete Feature Walkthrough, Every Function Explained. It's a no fuss, comprehensive, incredibly useful series.
• I wished I'd watched Jerry's video about charging before I was in the position of panicking about how I couldn't remove the charger from the car at the end. Tip: the car doors needed to be unlocked.
• Oh, Kiwis: Road User Charges (RUC). Electric cars are exempt at the moment but we may have to start paying from April 2024: Waka Kotahi. It's because we're not paying at the pump like everyone else.

We had 2 cars before buying this one: a 20 year old Mazda MPV. It had pretty much no smarts. We also had (and are keeping) a 7 year old Mazda CX3. In the CX3 the GPS works well, windscreen wipers automatically come on when it rains, blind spot alarms let you know when there's a vehicle or pedestrian you might not see. It has cruise control. It hooks in to your phone's contacts and things like audio books.

After a few days with the MG 4 and Jerry's videos I've discovered that this new car is actually more of a computer on wheels. It's a very smart car indeed. It can boop and beep with the best of them. (Tip: if the horn sounds when you lock the car a door or the boot might not be fully closed.)

It has features like monitored tire pressure, things to stop you drifting out of your lane, cruise control that keeps your distance from a car in front whose speed is varying, different options for how the car will drive and how much battery is being used, and how much power can be recovered from braking.

It spots speed signs and shows them on the display. I'll love that as I never know what the speed limit is when I'm in unfamiliar territory — I just blank on speed signs, I think. Headlights switch automatically between dip and high beam.

Loads of other capabilities too. 🚗

In brief: features, on features, on features, mainly linked in with what must be some pretty oomphy computer power.

I expect to write more about the car, but this brain dump may be helpful to someone.

Somehow switching from an older petrol car to a brand new EV is a much more major change than you might think at first.

A few years back I helped a former client switch from a 12 year old Mac to a brand new Mac. Probably there were at least 10 OS upgrades she'd missed. She was totally freaked out as everything was different. It was a massive change for her.

This switch to a brand new EV feels like that for me.

I'm working my way through the superb video series: MG4 Tutorial - Owner's Manual, User Guide, Complete Feature Walkthrough, Every Function Explained - Jerry Pan - YouTube. No blurble, no junk, 'just' a really clear explanation of all the features.

Incredibly useful. 👍

I was so glad I tried my first ever use of a public charger at 7 am after dropping friends at the train station. Had no idea what to do! Had to move the car a few times to get the charger to reach.

Blundered through, then was unable to remove the charger handle…

FAQs advised unlocking the car. 🤣

3 new apps: now we have a brand new MG 4 Essence 64 EV I so far have apps and accounts for: the car itself, the EvNex home charger (not yet installed), the ChargeNet public charging network. Aaargh!

Gulp. Handed over a chunk of our retirement savings today for the EV I collect tomorrow. It'll reduce our annual CO2 emissions and we'll be saving a heap on petrol.

It's goodbye to the now 20 year old petrol guzzler I've driven the last 7 years.

I'm upgrading to a 7 year old Mazda CX 3.