Geoff Wiki

Yes it is normal that when a petrol engine is running that the voltage will be higher because the petrol engine is supplying electricity. But it is not normal that the charge is that low before the petrol engine is running. It means the 12v battery is lower than it should be. Ther can be many reasons for that.

The way a Plug in Hybrid works could be slightly different. I have one.

I tested our car with a multi meter and with the car switch off the 12v battery has a certain voltage. But with the car switch on in EV mode, without the petrol engine running the voltage is much higher. Which I assume is because the 12v battery is being charged from the big EV battery.

It also could be that the petrol engine can be started even though the 12v battery would normally be to low to start the petrol engine. This all assumes ther is enough charge in the big EV battery to supply enough power to the 12v battery.

I would imagine ther would be a point where the 12v battery did not have sufficient charge to run the electronics to enable the car to operate at all.

A lot of this is supposition on my part.

I did prove that the 12v battery does not get charged while the Big EV battery is being plug in charged. I don't see the logic in that.

Brian Beardon will most likely delete this reply because he is or was part of a dealership or has some relationship with dealerships, and appears not to want consumers to know their legal rights.

Under Australian consumer law, if you have issues with a vehicle and they're not fixed within the original amount of time say six weeks, or l you have constant minor issues, then it becomes a major issue and your entitled to a full refund or replacement vehicle

Rather than “go elsewhere” I suggest you tell the dealership about Australian consumer law and say you want either a replacement vehicle or a full refund.

Quote the text on the ACCC website if necessary.

https://www.accc.gov.au/

We have the PEHV model bought as a demo with only 50 km on it in 2024, accourding to the VIN it was built in 2022.

“How the automatic gearbox behaves (smoothness, responsiveness, any lag etc)”

It has a 10 speed automatic gearbox. 4 for Electric and 6 for petrol. Most of the driving we do is in EV mode around town. In that mode it does not change from 1st to 2nd gear until about 80 km/hr. So it rarely changes gear, so super smooth. Response is something you have to experience to appreciate it. With electric engines you get maximum torque as soon as you put your foot down.

In EV mode if you are accelerating hard ther is a lag when changing from 1st to 2nd. But when not accelerating hard you don't notice the lag. Also you don't notice it in Auto mode.

In EV mode ther is no lag when changing from 2nd to 3rd. I have no idea what it would be like going from 3rd to 4th because I have never driven it that fast. I guess it would be over 160 km/hr.

The EV motor does over 7000 RPM when it changed up gear. Other than looking at the tacko, which you have to go to one on the multiple dash board screens to see, you would have no idea it is spinning that fast as ther is next to no noise or vibration. So super smooth.

When in Auto mode and both the Electric and petrol motors run at the same time (sometimes they don't) the gear changes are smooth with no lag at all. At least to the speeds I have driven it. I would have no idea which of the 6 gears it is ever in because ther in nothing that indicates it.

The Acceleration in Auto mode when both motors are running at the same time is the best of all the MG HS variants as shown in the 0 to 100 Km/Hr Stats.

Full EVs don't change gear. I get the impression the PHEV has so many gears so as to synchronise the two engines.

“Real-world fuel economy (petrol vs PHEV)”

Most of the Driving we do we use Zero Petrol because the trips we do are usually less than the battery range. The electricity consumption on those trips varies depending on how we drive. But we often get the quoted EV range of 63 km.

On trips longer than that, the petrol consumption depends on when we switch back and forth between EV and Auto mode. When we first got the car I used to completely deplete the EV battery and it would seamlessly switch to Auto mode. More recently I have found that I switch to Auto mode as soon as I get onto a freeway or highway and then switch back to EV mode when I'm in traffic. That overall uses far less energy.

I can quote miles per gallon that look fantastic but don't take into account electricity consumption. Because you're using two different types of fuel the only way to no about consumption is to work out the combined cost per unit of distance traveled.

I cant compare a petrol only HS with our PHEV

“How good the EV/plug-in range is, if you have that variant”

The range is very close to that quoted, in our case 60 Km. However at the point when the battery is fully depleted, we still have what ever range is in the petrol tank. With our model it only has a 30 something litre petrol full tank. But we have got 3,874 kms out of that because we mostly use the EV mode so using Electricity rather than petrol.

“Reliability: any recurring faults, annoying niggles, software/in-vehicle tech issues”

Most of the faults with the car have been intermittent. Most likely caused by software.

The biggest software issue involves towing our caravan when the EV battery is fully depleted and driving up long steep hills. The petrol engine does not change down gear soon enough and changes back up gear to soon. I recon that whoever wrote the software did not take into account the EV battery being flat when towing up long steep hills. Non towing does not have that issue.

“Service (how often, cost) and parts availability - is it easy to get spares, how long do they usually take, how expensive? ”

I don't get MG to service our car, I get the local mechanic to do it as it is substantially cheaper. I also don't have the car serviced as often as recommended by MG because the petrol motor hardly gets used and ther in nothing to service on the electric engine.

I have not had to purchase any parts so have no idea about cost and availability.

I read, on this group, that the later model HS PHEV is far superior to our model. If that is so, then even better

I no that the idea of this Facebook group is to share information about MG HS cars but often an easy source of information about MG Cars is to put the Question into Google. Often now the Google Gemini artificial intelligence will answer the question with a lot better explanation than most of us can give.

If the Google AI does not answer your question you can google Google AI or Google Gemini and go to the AI and enter your question ther. Make sure you include the words MG car in the question.

A benefit of that method is that you can ask follow up questions without having to repeat the original question. Like you can ask, tell me more about that.

You may be amazed at how sophisticated artificial intelligence is

RThe UK standard is not fuel consumption. It is mileage. How many miles can be traveled on a given amount of fuel. The metric system, is fuel consumption. How much fuel you use in a specific distance traveled.

With a PHEV fuel consumption figures make no sense because 2 different types of fuel can be used that have different unit purchasing prices.

A better indicator is cost per distance traveled. But I don't no of any car that shows that. Most likely because it requires additional inputs and the energy industries don't.want you to no such things.

It's also extremely difficult to determine the true unit cost of electricity because those you purchase it from usually charge you a supply charge. Typically so much per day. Mostly that is ignored when in EV costings. But it is increasing in price more than the kw price.

Then ther is the relevant factor. Car fuel/energy consumption is the least expensive part of the cost of operating a car. The most expensive item is the loss of resale value.

In our case the first year of ownership fuel/energy cost about A$0.06 a km but loss of resale value cost about A$0.60 per km. Thats a 10 factor difference.

At one point in my life I worked as a cost accountant. But I dont like admitting to that.