MG4 review: A deep dive into one of Australia’s lowest cost electric cars

The MG4 hatchback first launched here in August last year and immediately became one of Australia’s best selling electric vehicles.

It finished fourth on the 2023 EV sales charts with 3,134 units, behind the Tesla Model Y (28,769), Model 3 (17,347) and BYD Atto 3 (11,042).

For a brief period after launching, the MG4 was Australia’s cheapest new electric vehicle, initially priced at $38,990 plus on-road costs. The title of Australia’s cheapest EV has since changed hands multiple times between the MG4, BYD Dolphin and GWM Ora as these rivals battle it out with price adjustments and discounts. 

MG’s latest price move in March was a return to nationwide drive-away pricing across the MG4 and MG ZS EV range, resulting in cheaper prices for all MG4 variants.

An MG4 now starts at $39,990 for the Excite 51 and tops out at $59,990 for the XPower. Current driveaway prices and WLTP driving range for the MG4 range are summarised in the table below.

I spent a week each driving an entry level MG4 Excite 51 and top-spec XPOWER and learnt many interesting things about this car. Read on to find out how these two vehicles compare.

Excite vs XPower design and interior

From a distance you might find it hard to tell MG4 variants apart as the exterior design changes are subtle. Get up close and you can start to spot the differences though.

The roof of MG4 Essence, Long Range and XPower variants are painted in a pearl black finish contrasting against the body colour, and they have a twin split spoiler located on top of the hatchback.

Wheels also grow from 17 inch to 18 inches in diameter when stepping up to the more expensive MG4 variants. The XPOWER gets 5-spoke alloy wheels without aerodynamic wheel covers like the others. This means you can clearly see the orange brake calliper covers, but it does come with a small range penalty.

At night the rear of the XPOWER stands out with a cool looking horizontal tail light design and LED pattern on top of the hatchback lip. In comparison, the same part of the Excite hatchback is simply painted black and the tail lights do not extend past the corners of the car.

Stepping inside, these two MG4 interiors are very similar, with seat functions and materials being the main difference I noticed. Cloth seats in the Excite 51 are manually adjustable and felt comfortable enough, even during longer drives. XPOWER seats are electrically adjustable, heated and covered in PU leather and Alcantara.

Between the front seats is an open area with a shallow covered storage space and two cup holders.

There is also a deep centre console covered with a nice padded armrest. Depending on your height and seating position, your knee might bang on the gear selector so it would be nice if MG made this smaller and/or padded as well.

Rear seat passengers travelling in an MG4 miss out on creature comforts, something worth noting if you are planning long trips with more than two people.

There are no air-vents or cup holders in the back, only a single USB-A charging port. The back doors open wide and the seat is fairly spacious though, my mum and two teenagers had no trouble fitting in.

Additional XPOWER features include metal XPOWER pedals, map pockets and two smaller phone sized pockets for rear seat passengers.

Comparing spec-sheets for all MG4 variants, Essence and Long Range receive most of the same upgrades as the XPOWER apart from the orange brake cover callipers and exclusive Hunter Green Satin $1,000 paint option.

Cargo space and towing capacity

Boot space in the MG4 Excite is a respectable 363 L, extending to 1177 L with the rear seats folded flat. Under the boot floor you will find a tyre repair kit and safety triangle, but no spare wheel.

Unfortunately, the underfloor area isn’t deep enough to store the charging cable bag so this takes up space and tends to slide around as there is no velcro or straps to hold it down.

Essence, Long Range and XPOWER boot space is marginally smaller at 350 L / 1165 L due to the boot floor being raised, making it level with the hatchback opening.

This seems like a strange decision as it reduces available space and does not really add much value in my opinion. The short bonnet on the MG4 leaves no room for a front trunk (frunk) either.

If you need to tow a small trailer or carry bikes, all MG4s are capable of towing up to 500 kg braked or unbraked. MG lists the towbar kit on their website for $899 plus fitment cost, or third-party options are available such as the EV Stealth Towbar for $800. 

Buggy infotainment

Built-in navigation, connectivity and voice controls are not included with MG4 Excite variants, although this is not necessarily something you will miss. I found the XPOWER navigation system had issues that made it unreliable. It showed me weird routes and estimated travel times that were much longer than other mapping services, even when using toll roads.

Navigation also stopped tracking the vehicle location soon after entering underground motorway tunnels, appearing as though the car was stuck in place.

This meant it was useless for knowing when to take an exit or change tunnels and the arrival time kept growing longer while stuck. The system did pick up the right location after exiting a tunnel though.

The central touchscreen also froze on me while booting once, fixed by holding down the home button. Hopefully MG can address these issues with future software updates as there are some nice features if they work well. For example, you can watch videos stored on a USB stick or create a WiFi hotspot in vehicles that have built-in connectivity via a SIM card.

Speakers in the MG4 are just OK, moving from a 4-speaker setup in Excite to 6-speakers in Essence and above. They lacked bass at low volumes but sounded better once turned up a bit and when streaming audio rather than listening to the radio. All variants include DAB and FM radio although no AM radio. 

Wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are supported and almost essential if you want to navigate somewhere with directions. Thankfully this worked reliably, as long as you wait until the infotainment system boots up before plugging in your phone. The USB-C port did not work with my Pixel phone, which appears to be a known issue, it worked fine on USB-A.

Fun and zippy driving experience

The MG4 driving experience is a highlight. There is no start/stop button so it’s quick to jump in and drive after pressing the brake pedal and selecting a gear on the rotary dial. Even the base model Excite 51 is a fun little car to drive around while the XPOWER is a bit wild, more on that later.

If you want to use one pedal drive, it must be enabled through the screen each time the car is started. You either need to wait for the infotainment system to finish booting or change settings on the screen while driving. It requires a press of the car icon, followed by toggling the one pedal drive option. 

For some reason the Excite infotainment system would default to the MG Pilot section in the car settings, so it required an extra press every time. It’s not clear to me why one pedal drive preference is not saved between drives when other settings like auto high beam and adaptive cruise control settings are persistent.

One pedal driving in the MG4 is well tuned although I noticed a couple of issues that MG could address. Occasionally while stopped at traffic lights the car would jerk slightly, which was disconcerting especially on a hill. There was also a slight shuddering feeling as the car slowed to a stop, potentially something to do with how the brakes are applied by the car.

While on the subject of one pedal driving, it is worth calling out the Excite 51 kWh LFP battery has an extremely small buffer with 50.8 kWh usable capacity. This is great for maximising range but means the car drives differently every time you charge to 100 %. Regenerative braking starts off very weak and one pedal drive cannot be selected until the state of charge drops to 90 %.

At just under 4.3 m long with a tight turning circle, the MG4 was a breeze to drive around the city and park anywhere. Excite variants include a backup camera whereas the others come with a 360-degree view as well. All MG4s show distance from objects down to the nearest centimetre which is something I have not seen on many other cars apart from Tesla.

On paper the MG4 Excite 51 takes 7.7 seconds to hit 100 km/h, so it will not shove you back into the seat like some other EVs. However, it still feels zippy enough and easily beats most petrol cars off the lights. Being rear-wheel drive definitely helps too, as it has no trouble utilising all of the power available and corners well.

The all-wheel drive XPower on the other hand feels too powerful, like the drivetrain is mismatched with the suspension and tyres. Tyres scrabble for traction when launching from a standstill, even on a flat, dry road. The XPOWER also struggles to put power down out of low speed corners, fighting against traction control and torque steer. Maybe better tyres would help.

There is no denying the XPower is quick and while it certainly does push you back in the seat, it picks up speed differently to other EVs I have experienced. There is a noticeable delay when pressing the accelerator before power kicks in and builds up in a way that feels unexpected for some reason. I think this is why the XPOWER feels a bit wild at times.

In terms of driver assistance, all MG4 variants come with MG Pilot which includes key features like adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking. More advanced MG Pilot in Essence and above adds blind spot detection, rear cross traffic alert, door opening warning and lane change assist. 

Adaptive cruise control worked fine, adjusting speed for surrounding cars without issue. Lane centering needs improvement as it occasionally drifts to the edge of the lane and sometimes turns off completely without warning. Other systems behaved themselves for the most part and I did not find them too intrusive or annoying in the MG4.

When it comes to energy consumption, the MG4 was reasonably efficient as you would expect from a small hatchback. Driving around the city averaged 14.0 kWh/100 km in the Excite 51 while a highway test consumed 16.2 kWh/100 km. MG4 XPower city consumption was higher at 15.8 kWh/100 km. Wind noise at highway speeds points to some aerodynamic improvements being possible.

My figures for the Excite 51 equate to a driving range between 300-350 km depending on your speed. I spent most of the time driving in normal mode and saw consumption for some trips dipped into the 12s and 13s. If driving carefully in eco mode you could definitely use less energy than I did and even possibly exceed the WLTP driving range.

Charging and ownership

All MG4 variants support vehicle to load (V2L) providing up to 2.2 kW of power which is game changing for an EV in this price range. MG sells their V2L adapter for $250, whereas the portable charging cable for standard powerpoints is included. The MG4 charge port is located on the rear passenger side, making it ideal for kerbside public charging stations.

Charging speeds vary depending on the battery size, summarised in the table below. Points of difference are a slower maximum 88 kW DC charging speed in the Excite 51 and 6.6 kW AC charging for all variants apart from the Long Range which gets 3-phase 11 kW AC charging.

EV trip planning is now included for those MG4s with built-in connectivity, through a recent software update. Software updates are performed manually, not over-the-air (OTA) by the way. Based on my experience you might be better off using third-party apps like Plugshare or A Better Route Planner if navigating through a phone connection. 

MG offers one of the longest warranties on their cars, with 7 years and unlimited km covering the vehicle, battery and paintwork. Warranty distance is reduced to 160,000 km for commercial or fleet use though, so rideshare drivers or couriers will not be covered after travelling this far.

Service intervals for the MG4 are every 40,000 km or 2 years. MG offers fixed price servicing through their dealers that alternates between $296 and $907 ($962 for the XPOWER) for each service. According to the MG website, the only difference for major services is replacing coolant and electric drive transmission fluid instead of checking and topping them up as necessary. 

Conclusions

Overall, the MG4 is a well built EV that is great fun to drive. Including V2L capability in a car that starts from under $40,000 hopefully encourages all EV manufacturers to follow suit. The issues I experienced with buggy infotainment and one pedal drive niggles could all be fixed through future software updates from MG, eliminating the major negatives of this vehicle.

The XPOWER is quick but feels like a one trick pony as the suspension and handling let the performance aspects of the vehicle down. If longer range or upgraded interior features are on your shopping list, then one of the middle variants could be the sweet spot. Fellow contributor Bryce Gaton recently tested the MG4 Essence 64 so look out for his review coming soon.

Table of the key specifications for the two MG4 variants tested is below, full specifications are available on the MG website. Excite, Essence and Long Range variants are here and the MG4 XPower details can be found here.

Tim Eden

Tim has 20 years experience in the IT industry including 14 years as a network engineer and site reliability engineer at Google Australia. He is an EV and renewable energy enthusiast who is most passionate about helping people understand and adopt these technologies.