Look what we got here, an MG! Most of the people know MG's from different kind of cars. As do I.
A while ago, I drove the MGB. A classical sports car, and that's probably what you know it from. Sports cars.
That was the last MG I drove. The last Chinese car I drove, because this is a Chinese car as well, was a Brilliance, is much longer ago.
It was supposed to be released here as well and it wasn't very good. That's why I was sceptical in the first place.
Don't be fooled though, because this is built by a big company. SAJC Motors, which do build a whole lot of cars.
Their goal for 2024 is to build 4.5 million cars and they have been around since 1958. Don't underestimate them. They're also doing...
lots of stuff with EV's. Today we're driving this MG, and we're going to judge it as a car and an EV.
If you look at this angle, you'd think it was a Mazda. It's kind of copy-pasted. If we look at the wheels, we can see MG has chosen for typical EV-wheels.
As you often see. They're 17-inch but they look smaller to me. It's very high up. You should use some track wideners and lower the car itself,
because that way it'd look a bit cooler. If you look at it from the side, I immediately thought of the Hyundai ix35.
This fender, this line, just the way the whole side looks. It just reminds me of the ix35, and that's not a surprise.
The factory that produces this, also built the ix35 in license. At the back, there's a bit of Mazda, a bit of Renault Kadjar, a bit of everything.
As a whole, the design is pretty good. It looks okay. It's 4.31 metres long and with that, it's right with the Hyundai Kona and the Kia e-Niro.
On the middle console we've got a few buttons, one of which called KERS. Lovely! Joking aside, KERS doesn't only mean cherry in Dutch, but...
it also stand for Kinetic Energy Recovery System. Regenerative braking as you will. It can do that in three different modes.
We've driven it mostly in Stage 3, so you're able to drive it with only one pedal. It works pretty well, no abrupt braking or anything.
Relatively progressive even. If you're able to anticipate properly, one pedal driving won't be a problem.
I'll have another cherry.
The motor in this car produces 143 horsepower and 353 Nm of torque. That's a lot, and you'll notice. When you put your foot down,
it acclerates really quickly. It does around 8,5 seconds to reach 100 km/h. A very neat value. If we look at the interior of this car,
it doesn't fall through the ice there. Nice and soft materials on the dash, a bit of hard plastic over here, but that's not a disaster.
If you buy a new Volkswagen, both panels would've been made of hard plastic. This almost looks better than a Volkswagen-interior.
Speaking of VW, a lot of buttons come from Volkswagen. The button for the roof, the buttons on the vents, as if they're from an Audi.
The operating buttons on the steering wheel are exactly the same as a Golf 6. And I could know, because I own one.
A lot of recognizing to do in the interior. The finishing of the car is good, even when you touch the stuff on the middle console.
It all feels good. The way it reacts as well. It's not been done cheaply. Decent, thought-through, good ergonomics...
Sure, some things might be different than you're used to. The lever for the cruise control is behind the steering wheel, where the 'Cancel'-button...
or the 'Resume'-button. But it's standard on there, even adaptive cruise control. Speaking of assists, it's all standardly equipped.
The front assist, adaptive cruise control, lane assist. It might be a bit enthusiastic, but it keeps the car between the lines without swerving.
Of course, it'll warn you if you let go of the steering wheel for too long. It even alerts you if you're holding the steering wheel, it gets a bit confused.
Anyway, the system works properly. Just like the adaptive cruise control, it'll keep distance neatly and you're able to set a distance.
You do notice, when you turn sharply at higher speeds, it tends to slow down quite a bit. The cruise control is connected to the steering angle.
It corners ridiculously slow. When you exit the corner, it'll accelerate quickly, but it could be annoying for the cars behind you.
Then, the equipment. Another big thing about this car, because that's what MG wants to use to conquer some market share. A very luxurious standard trim.
Everything is on here. This is the most luxurious edition available, but even the base versions come with climate control, satnav, all dials available.
The central display looks relatively simple. For the true EV-nerds, there's not a lot of dials they'd like.
On the display, you can see some of the things. The range, the energy usage, the voltage and amperes... Based on that, you're able to to...
calculate the energy consumption and loading speed. However it's pretty primitive.
Pretty simple. But, as I said, everything is on here. If you choose for a more luxurious trim level, you get a panoramic roof, a rain sensor,
leather upholstery and 17-inch wheels. And it'll only cost you an additional €2.000. That brings the total to a measly €33.000, that's a bargain.
When it comes to the seats, I would've liked it if they were tilted slightly, so my legs would have some more support.
They're big enough, the seating is fine, so no worries there. Also, the interior space is big enough.
Although my knees hit the seat in front of me, but that's because I'm pretty tall. On the other hand, the luggage space is 448 litres big.
Very decent, so when it comes to the total package, there's nothing wrong with it.
It's time to charge up, because we only have 33 km of range left. I already got an alert that we had to pull over to charge.
I wanted to find a fast charger, so I went to FastNed. That can charge up to 175 kW, and according to the MG-specs, it can get up to 60 kW.
So we have to find out if it's able to reach that speed. And it's quite of a hassle to access the port.
First, you have open this hatch upwards. Now I can't see the port. I have to bend my knees, get these things out, and plug it in.
Right, that's set. It's locked now. Let's scan my card...
On this display, we can see how much it's charged. At this moment, it's 4,0 kWh in five minutes. On the dashboard, we're able to see the charging speed.
We won't reach 175 kW, but we might reach the indicated 60 kW. The voltage is 403, times 126 amp. I'll divide it by 1.000 and it'll...
and you'll get around 50 kW it's charging right now. So it won't reach 60, but 50 is still very decent and still quite quick.
The battery pack of this car has an indicated power output of 44,5 kWh, so with that you should be able to do 200 km on a single charge,
if we're talking 20 kWh per 100 km. Maybe you'll be able to reach 250. With these loading times, you'll have to spend about half an hour...
at the charging station to get above 80%. Charging it fully will take longer, because above 80 it's slower to conserve the batteries.
If you'd keep the same speed, the batteries would easily disintegrate. Since we're waiting at the charging station, let's talk tick off the boxes.
Its strong point will be the price. Just below €33.000, which isn't a whole lot for a whole lot of car. And even as a car and an EV,
it's not bad or anything. The only thing that might be a little problem is the range. Sure, range is always a problem, but this only reaches around 200 km.
That's really tight. If they'd add 100 or 150 km to the range, you'd have a very good car for this money.
Let's be honest here, there's nothing it can't do. I think this could be a success.