If you’re going to be away from home on holiday or for work and you’re planning to leave your car at home, at an airport carpark etc for several weeks or months then you need to take precautions to make sure your car will be drivable when you return.
I asked MG Australia what their advice would be for an MG EV owner who is going away from home for several weeks and their ZS EV or MG4 will be parked in the garage during that time.
Is there any recommendation for the main HV car battery percentage level to leave the car at while parked long term eg 60%, 80%, 100%?
MG recommends keeping the HV battery charge level between 50%-80% when parked for an extended period.
Is there any recommendation for the 12V battery eg disconnect it before leaving for a trip longer than X days?
MG says it is fine to leave the battery on for 15 days. Longer than that, it is recommended to disconnect the 12V battery to prevent it going flat.
EDITOR: Be very careful when doing this and if you’re not sure how, ask a car mechanic or friend who is familiar with how to do it safely.
When disconnecting while parked long term disconnect the negative (-) terminal only. Warning: don’t touch the negative and positive terminals at the same time.
Will MG EV owners be able to use iSmart app to access the car and check on its condition every few days or does that not work if the car is turned off for more than X days?
Yes they can. However, if you disconnect the 12V battery, then the car is unable to communicate with the cloud, thus meaning you then can’t use iSmart.
Readers report that this hasn’t been their experience.
They say (at least with the Australian ZS EV) the car goes to sleep after a couple of days and the app remote access stops working.
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