Company life with our MG5 electric car
We cover quit a lot of ground and quite a lot of miles at EatSleep Media.
In 2022 alone we did a lap of Wales, went to Belgium, Poland, Germany and Latvia. We travelled as far as Newcastle Upon Tyne, in England, oh, and we went to Qatar for the World Cup!
Where we can, we use public transport, but it’s not always the best option, either because of a lack of public transport, timings which don’t suit us or, more likely than not, because we’re carrying a lot of equipment with us - cameras, lenses, microphones, lights, road sweets etc.
Recently we took delivery of a brand new, electric MG5 from Nathaniel Cars, and we’ve been putting it through its paces over the past few months.
Our Nathaniel-supplied MG5 outside Chelsea Women’s training ground on the outskirts of London. Credit: EatSleep Media
Because it’s an estate, it carries all our stuff, and because it’s electric, we feel like we’re doing more of our bit to save the world! Or, at least, reduce our carbon emissions.
It is also spookily quiet! Unnerving at first, especially when you’re not even sure it is switched on until you move off, but you get used to it and, we have to say, silence really is golden!
We deliberately wanted an electric car after our experience in 2021, when Nathaniel lent us two electric MGs on our FC Cymru tour of Wales for the Football Association of Wales.
We were a bit reluctant at first. Hardly any of us had any experience with electric vehicles, but the experts at Nathaniel assured us that, with the extended range of the cars and the fast-developing network of chargers, we would never be left without electricity and stranded at the side of the road.
There were teething issues, of course. While the charging network in north and south Wales is growing rapidly, mid-Wales is still something of a not-spot.
But with the range of the cars, we were able to reach north Wales and charge in time for the next leg of the journey.
Cardiff to Gloucester and back, with charge to spare. Easy. Credit: EatSleep Media
The downside of electric charging is of course the time it takes to charge the battery. But as long as we planned ahead using Zap Map or other tools to identify where we could charge and how long it would take us, we could build that into our schedule.
Our team found one or two novel ways of passing the time while the cars charged. Winter Olympian and commonwealth athlete Mica Moore kept on top of her fitness, while others watched and ate chocolate biscuits, for example!
So when it came to considering company transport again, we had no hesitation going back to Nathaniel to see what they had on offer.
A couple of things we’ve learned early on:
Make absolutely sure you know what sort of charger you need to stop at and how long you will be there. A couple of times we turned up to a charging point not realising it was quite a low-power one which meant we’d be there for quite a while.
Have a backup charge point in mind. Sometimes you’ll get to where you think you’re going to charge up only to find the charge point isn’t working or it’s already being used. This is becoming less of a problem with an expanding network but we’re not quite there yet. The number of chargers are growing but so are the number of electric cars.
Be careful of the cost of rapid chargers. More power means more convenience and more money for that convenience. Recently, we charged the car at a rapid point in Cardiff and paid more than £50!
About the price of a tank of petrol, but still, it was quite a shock, pardon the pun!
Last year, similar rapid chargers cost us around a tenner. Energy prices have increased of course, as has demand for electric cars. But on balance, we still think it’s cheaper to own and run an electric car than petrol or hybrid version.
That may change of course with the UK Government adding road tax to electric cars for the first time.-vans-and-motorcycles-from-2025/introduction-of-vehicle-excise-duty-for-zero-emission-cars-vans-and-motorcycles-from-2025
I’ve mentioned it before, but it is really worth saying again, the silence is spooky ,but you get used to it and really start to enjoy it!
Where we always have to be careful is the number of miles left on the battery.
MG claims a range of 250 miles for the MG5. In reality, we’re getting around 200 miles per charge.
Factors affecting the range include simple things like the number of passengers and amount of luggage.
Nathaniel assure us the range is doable and have offered to lend us their electric car guru to take a look at what we’re doing and how we can reach that magic number.
We’ll post an update when we’ve done that and had time to run a comparison.
Last year, a team from Nathaniel tried to drive an electric car from Cardiff to Qatar. The electric car to Qatar was a wonderful idea and we were happy to lend our support to it.
Each day, the team posted photos and videos of their progress as well as one or two star names they met along the way.
Sadly though, they didn’t make it to Qatar. Not because the car wasn’t up to it. Nathaniel reported getting 280 miles out of the brand new MG4 they were using for the trip.
They didn’t make it because of bureaucracy. Saudi Arabia does not allow right hand drive cars on its roads. Qatar’s only land border is with Saudi Arabia. So the journey ended at the Jordanian / Saudi Arabian border.
The type of driving you are doing is also a factor, as it is with other cars. Lots of braking and accelerating will drain the battery faster. But it is much happier cruising at a consistent speed on a motorway.
The temperature can also have an affect. If you’re thinking that’s nonsense, keep in mind the MG5 has a feature to keep the batteries slightly heated to improve charging times and capacities.
The offset of course is that it uses power to heat the battery, so there is a trade-off.
As the battery runs down, the range can become a little unreliable. A couple of times we’ve been caught out thinking we have ‘x’ amount of range left on the car but it has quickly dropped to ‘y’ which has caused some nervous moments.
But we have never, ever run out of battery and been left stranded at the side of the road.
The TL/DR version is this.
Pros:
We like our MG5 - as a car it is comfortable, practical and no fuss.
The cabin is a nice place to be and it is equipped with many toys you would expect in a modern car.
The range allows us to get to quite a lot of jobs within a decent radius.
It easily swallows all of our kit.
For longer journeys, as long as we plan charge locations and durations into our schedule, we can manage just fine.
Cons:
The network isn’t there yet - there are plenty of not-spots, particularly in rural areas.
Reliability and availability of charging points can cause issues - we’ve turned up to find out they are already taken and thereof out of action for at least an hour, or they’re simply not working.
Multiple charge networks mean multiple accounts with different providers, although there are apps beginning to bring all of these into one place. A lot of charge points also accept ordinary tap to pay cards.
With rising energy costs, charging costs are rising too. The quicker the charge time, the higher the price.
All in all, we are very happy with our MG5. It gets the job done with little fuss and hasn’t yet let us down once. And did I mention how quiet it is!
We’ll update on the blog with our progress and experiences. We also need to figure out how much carbon we are saving. We’ll keep track of that as well.