MG S5 test drive: A refined electric SUV with industry-leading warranty

Last month, MG Motor announced plans for the official Australian unveiling of a new low-cost SUV EV, the MGS5 EV, which is a successor to Australia’s first affordable EV, the MGZS EV.

Over the last couple of days, I had an initial drive of this SUV on Australian roads to see what this affordable EV brought to the table, in a growing list of SUVs competing for drivers looking at making the switch.

From a refined infotainment system, a one-pedal drive system that worked every time, an industry-leading 10-year warranty program to the few carefully selected physical buttons on offer, the new MGS5 EV ticks many boxes for growing families or fleet operators.

On pricing, the MGS5 EV starts at $40,490 driveaway for the base Excite variant with the smaller 49 kWh battery pack. The variant I tested was the Essence 62 kWh, which had the 62.2 kWh battery pack, delivering up to 515 km of WLTP range. That’s priced from $47,990 driveaway.

From the outside, the styling is a lot more sharper over the MG ZS EV, although taking some inspiration from the MG4 electric hatchback.

The headlights and taillights have also been refreshed, giving the car a much more modern look, in line with MG’s other newer models.

Getting inside, it’s similar to the MG4 but with a bigger focus on comfort, better ground clearance, being an SUV, and overall refinement over the electric hatchback.

The seats combine vegan leather and cloth components, providing plenty of adjustment and comfort on extended drives.

In the centre, there is a new 12.8-inch HD infotainment screen, which is larger than the current MG4 hatchback. It also includes Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for screen-mirroring with an Android or Apple phone.

Underneath this screen are some physical buttons, which I found quite useful to navigate the climate, infotainment screen and hazard lights.

These complement the infotainment screen well, while reducing the number of buttons found on the outgoing ZS EV.

In the new MGS5 EV, the camera suite in reverse is quite handy, including showing the 360-degree view. Blind spot cameras also appear on the centre infotainment screen when indicating, which is quite a good feature, found on some other cars too.

Behind the steering wheel, there’s also a 10.25-inch instrument cluster that displays all the key driving and entertainment information, with customisations including navigation, a trip meter and energy consumption figures.

There is no start/stop button in the car; just getting in and using the rotary dial to shift into either driver or reverse is required.

The rear seats also offer good legroom and given it’s an SUV, it’s a bit easier to get in and out of as well.

On the road, the MGS5 EV is far more composed than the ZS EV, given it’s based on MG’s Modular Scalable Platform, which was first introduced locally in the MG4.

Following how well the architecture performed there, it’s does as good of a job with the rear-mounted 125 kW motor which is zippy enough around town while fairly planted on the highways.

MG’s smart driving pilot system has also improved, making it easy to engage and use it with the steering wheel controls.

In the initial test, the MGS5 EV averaged 15.8 kWh/100 km, which is a big improvement over the outgoing MG ZS EV, which was based on an ICE platform.

One of the big pluses with the new SUV model is that it remembers drive settings, including one-pedal driving, which is one of the best systems I’ve seen in more affordable models.

I look forward to testing this more in a long term test to see how it performs in city driving conditions as well as when taken on curvy mountain roads. 

Given the pricing of the MGS5 EV, how well equipped it is in the popular SUV segment of the market and the way it drives over the outgoing ZS EV, it could very well become the brand’s best-selling EV in the coming months.

Specifications – MGS5 EV

Riz Akhtar

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.