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Avoid unnecessarily long parking at charging stations with the MG iSMART app

12-10-2022
If you need to fill up a petrol car at a fuel station, but the fuel pump is occupied, you just have to wait a few minutes before it’s your turn. This is not yet the case with an electric car. Despite the fact that EV charging speeds continue to develop, a charge point may be occupied for quite some time. Especially in areas where charging stations are scarce, you don’t want to keep one occupied for an unnecessarily long time, right? MG has a perfect solution for this.

It’s an unwritten rule to allow the greatest number of EV drivers to have access to the charging network. If you leave your EV plugged in when it isn’t needed, you monopolize the charging station and potentially prevent someone else from charging.

Unsurprisingly, a fully charged EV occupying a charging station is one of the biggest annoyances among EV drivers. At many charging points, you can tell by the colour of the light whether the car is still charging or whether the battery is already fully charged.

To help prevent this, an increasing number of charge point operators will charge you an additional rate per minute from the moment the battery is fully charged, also known as an ‘idle fee’. So if you leave your EV at a charging point for an unnecessarily long time, it can be quite expensive.

There are also charging points in Europe where you don’t even pay per kWh, but for every minute the car is connected to the charging point. You certainly don’t want to stay there longer than necessary if you want to keep your charging costs within limits.

MG iSMART smartphone app

MG offers a convenient solution to prevent you from unnecessarily long parking at a charging station and therefore having to pay additional costs. Depending on the version, each pure electric MG model is equipped with the MG iSMART or iSMART Lite connectivity system. In both cases, the system provides a connection to the MG iSMART smartphone app, which allows you to remotely control various vehicle functions and check certain vehicle information.

One of the features of the app is that you can easily check how much energy the battery still contains, and how many kilometres you can drive with it. And the great thing is: this also applies during charging.

With this feature, you don’t have to go to the car to find out whether the battery is sufficiently charged. The app even indicates the exact time when the battery is fully charged, to make it even more helpful. With the MG iSMART app, you know exactly when it’s time for you to return to the car, finish the charging process and make way for the next EV driver to charge.

Want to know more about the MG iSMART app? Find out everything you need to know here.

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