The MG4 EV features Apple CarPlay, but you may find that it simply does not work.
Technology has truly found it’s way into every aspect of our lives, and whilst sometimes that can lead to greater convenience, it can also lead to complexity and frustration! Much is the case with the unreliable CarPlay functionality of the MG4 EV.
In this post I’m going to show you how to quickly (and cheaply) fix Apple Car play connectivity issues in the MG4 EV, by simply purchasing a specific lightning cable.
TLDR: Buy this cable, it fixes car play.
- The Anker Advantage: Join the 80 million+ powered by our leading technology.
- Enhanced Durability: Improved construction techniques and materials make a cable that lasts 12X longer than the norm.
- MFi Certified: Each cable contains a unique, verified serial number and an authorization chip issued by Apple to ensure 100% compatibility with any Lightning device.
- Superior Performance: Each premium nylon-braided cable is optimized for use with Apple devices, providing the same charging speeds as stock Apple charging cables.
- What You Get: Premium Nylon-Braided Lightning Cable (3.3 ft), welcome guide, a lifetime warranty and our friendly customer service.
Table of Contents
What is CarPlay?
Apple CarPlay is a really convenient function that allows you to access driver relevant functionality of your phone whilst in your vehicle, and is increasingly being featured in more and more vehicles.
The MG4 EV is currently the 2nd bestselling Electric Vehicle (EV) in the UK and features wired Apple CarPlay.
Wired CarPlay is the more basic (cheaper version) of CarPlay and only works when your phone is plugged in directly via a lighting cable, which you would think would make it more reliable than the more expensive wireless version. However that doesn’t seem to be the case with the MG4 EV!
Issues with MG4 EV CarPlay
There seems to be major issues with CarPlay in the MG4 EV. If yours is anything like mine, or a plethora of others users on the MGEV forum, you might have found that CarPlay either doesn’t work at all or it is very temperamental.
At first, I tried using (an official) Apple USB C to lightning cable, using an USB C to USB A adapter as (annoyingly) of the two USB ports in the MG4 EV only the USB A port supports CarPlay functionality, indicated by the below icon;
After what seemed like an age, my phone launched into CarPlay mode and seemed to be working fine in the car, unfortunately this only lasted a few minutes before it disconnected and then just wouldn’t connect again.
I thought the USB C to USB A adapter was probably the cause of my problems, so I tried using a (brand new) USB A to lightning cable, it didn’t work at all! Upon first plugging it in, I would receive a pop up notification on my iPhone, but it disappeared almost as immediately as it appeared and no matter how many times I plugged and unplugged it, restarted the iPhone it simply would not connect.
At this point I was ready to give up and give Android Auto a go, until I found the solution.
How To Fix Apple Car Play In the MG4 EV
Over on the (excellent) MGEV forum, user reported that he had found a specific cable that fixed the connectivity issues, great I thought, let’s give that a try.
Unfortunately, this cable happened to be from a VW main dealer (why!?) and cost a fortune!
Fortunately, like myself, seemed to be a bit of a cheapskate and took a punt on this specific Anker Lightning Cable and reported that it too worked and fixed the connectivity issues. Numerous other forum members then also proclaimed that this cable also fixed their issues too! Needless to say I immediately purchased the cheap Anker cable and awaited it’s delivery.
I too can confirm that in my vehicle the Anker Lightning adapter fixed CarPlay connectivity and it is working perfectly.
- The Anker Advantage: Join the 80 million+ powered by our leading technology.
- Enhanced Durability: Improved construction techniques and materials make a cable that lasts 12X longer than the norm.
- MFi Certified: Each cable contains a unique, verified serial number and an authorization chip issued by Apple to ensure 100% compatibility with any Lightning device.
- Superior Performance: Each premium nylon-braided cable is optimized for use with Apple devices, providing the same charging speeds as stock Apple charging cables.
- What You Get: Premium Nylon-Braided Lightning Cable (3.3 ft), welcome guide, a lifetime warranty and our friendly customer service.
Conclusion
It’s bizarre that CarPlay doesn’t seem to work with an official Apple Lightning cable and it really shouldn’t be this difficult to resolve.
Hopefully this issue can be resolved with a software update, however for less than £10 purchasing the Anker lightning cable seems like a reasonable cost for the convenience of CarPlay working every time.
