MG has officially launched one of Australia’s most affordable EVs – one of the first and few priced below $40,000 – in what promises to be one of the most significant moments in the local transition to EVs.
MG has morphed from its original British image of sporty open-top coupes for the Oxbridge set, and under Chinese ownership is focused on the budget end of the car spectrum.
But it’s proving a success – in July, MG was the sixth best selling brand in Australia and the MG ZS was the third best selling car, and the best selling SUV, beating out the Tesla Model Y.
Only around 10 per cent of the MG ZS sales in July were fully electric – the rest were hybrids of fossil fuel cars – but the difference with the MG4 is that this is built on an electric only platform, MG’s new Modular Scalable Platform (MSP), which is to be the foundation of the new generation of electric MGs.
That’s what makes the MG4 – in the words of MG Australia executives – a “game changer”. Already, it’s attracted great interest from the public, with pre-orders of more than 1,000, and MG hopes to sell more than 3,000 by the end of the year. That would make it one of the best selling EVs in the country, after the Model Y, the Model 3, and Atto 3.
The big interest is in what a sub-$40,000 EV delivers to the customer, because in Australia this is the first time we have seen one.
From the outside, it looks sleek. Photos may not truly do justice to its angles and curves which make it stand out from any other MG in the lineup. It features Continental EV tyres which helped with the grip on a wet day.
Getting inside, it felt like a real step change in terms of materials when compared to previous MG vehicles. The shaped two-spoke steering wheel was quite comfortable with various soft-touch materials found along the door trims.
There were also more functional buttons on the steering wheel which made it easier to adjust things on the go.
There were also piano accents found throughout the front cabin which give it a good contrast to the other materials used in the front seating area.
A floating rotating dial gear selector is found in the centre, providing many more spacious storage areas not seen on many other EV models in the market today.
Given the exterior dimensions of the car, some may think it might be cramped on the inside but on the inside, it felt very spacious. This point alone highlights the advantages of going to an EV-specific modular platform.
Moving onto the infotainment screen, it’s a reasonable size and has Android Auto/Apple Carplay as standard. I got to test wired Android Auto and it worked as you expect it with maps and music apps working seamlessly.
Along with the larger screen, there is a smaller screen behind the steering wheel which shows all the main vehicle status information such as speed, drive modes, battery status, regenerative braking settings along with safety and cruise control.
The rear seating was comfortable with good legroom for adults. Passengers in the back seats also have access to good storage space in the door pockets along with unique front seat pockets to store smaller objects.
After checking the interior out, shifting to drive to hit the motorways around Sydney was easy. As long as I had the key with me, the car did not need to be powered on, unlike previous MG vehicles.
That also made it very easy to get going with. As long as the screen behind the steering wheel said “Ready”, Drive could be engaged on the floating console.
The ride of the MG4 was very smooth with suspension handling most bumps with ease. It felt sporty so it didn’t have the floaty suspension found in many models on the market that are geared more towards comfort. I found it the right balance between comfort and handling for Australian conditions.
Features like the cruise control were easy to engage and lane keep assist worked well too on highways.
Driving around suburban roads and highways, the MG4 offered a pleasant experience with good soundproofing and minimal road noise at most speeds. Once it got to 110 km/h on some motorways, there was a bit of noise but that’s expected at those speeds.
The range on the MG4 was pretty accurate on the variants I tested and hovered around 17 kWh/100km in the real world which mainly included highway driving along with spending a shorter time on a few suburban roads.
Pricing-wise, the MG4 starts at $38,990 before on-road costs for the 51 kWh variant before topping out at $55,990 before on-roads for the Essence variant with a much larger 77 kWh battery pack.
All-in-all, the ANCAP five-star rated MG4 is a big step up in the affordable EV space, ensuring more options for current and future EV owners. It has a lot to offer, regardless of the variant and with unique colours also on offer, it’s bound to turn heads.
See also: MG4 to launch “hot hatch” version of low priced, “game-changer” MG4
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.