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1 year with MG ZS EV as my primary car: Experience with pros & cons

1st August 2023, 15:10 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

I have driven the electric vehicle across all kinds of terrains and at all times of day and night just like my previous cars and it has not let me down.

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It's been a year today since I retook the EV plunge with MG ZS EV and it’s been a wonderful year of EV ownership. The current ODO stands at 27415 km. This includes multiple long drives including drive to Goa, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kanyakumari, Coastal Karnataka and the usual weekly Bangalore-Mysore drives.

Post May I got caught up with work and many travel plans got postponed or cancelled, else would have added another 3-4000kms to the odo.

The positives outweigh the negatives and clearly, the ZS has exceeded my expectations that I had from an EV.

Positives:

Smooth, Silent, powerful and comfortable driving experience
Reduced stress levels during urban commutes due to ease of driving
Top-notch build quality, no rattles or creaks anywhere even after one year of use across different terrains
Safety features and creature comforts offered
A range of 320-350Kms with AC even at speeds of 90-100kmph
Negligible battery degradation noticed. MID still shows 400Kms without AC on a full charge in Normal mode.
MG’s customer service and service quality
Very low running and maintenance costs

Negatives:

Soft suspension setup unsettles the ride at higher speeds.
Some missing features including auto dimming IRVM, lumbar support, steering reach adjustment.
Auto wiper has a mind of its own, stopped using it altogether.
Wipers are not of good quality, already replaced them once.
Infotainment system can get unresponsive at times.

Ownership Experience:

“Excellent” is a one-word description of my experience with LightFury. I have driven the ZS across all kinds of terrains and at all times of day and night just like my previous cars and it has not let me down. In fact, whatever little apprehensions I had of using an EV as my primary car has vanished. Though I have a backup car at home, there have been no instances in the past year where I had to resort to using the backup car instead of the ZS EV.

Only issue I have faced is an abrupt warning on the MID which mentioned faults in Stability Control, ESP, Hill hold and auto hold functions. This fault occurred during my city commute. The customer care was quick to offer a flatbed tow and a cab for my return home. Since the car was drivable, I insisted on reaching home and getting it picked up from my residence. Luckily the faults went away before I reached home and have not recurred yet. Happy with the response from MG’s customer care and the service advisor.

Charging info:

I primarily charge using the portable charger which comes with the car using a 15A power supply. I have not installed the 7.2KW wall charger that MG offers with the car. This setup is more than sufficient for my needs. Given that there is no option to control the charge rate in the ZS, I typically charge it to full 100%, the slow charging from the portable charger helps in cell balancing and in maintaining good battery health.

Note on Fast charging infrastructure:

Since I bought the car, the charging infra has grown leaps and bounds. There are fast chargers on all major highways conveniently located at food outlets. Also, many hotels and resorts in key tourist destinations offer charging facilities for EVs for their guests. A bit of planning and the developing fast-charging infrastructure has made range anxiety a thing of the past.

There are many infra players in this place, both private and public companies. So far, I have had the best experience with Jio BP, Zeon, Relux, Chargezone and Bescom. Tata chargers are a bit unreliable, but others make up for it. Charging costs vary between Rs. 18-28 per KW. Since the ZS can charge at a peak 75KW, I tend to favour Jio BP chargers as most of them offer charging at 60KW.

Summary of key stats after a year of ownership.