MG MG4 Urban review: Small EVs should be more like this for one reason
MG’s MG4 Urban is largely devoid of character, but it has a place for everything
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[SINGAPORE] To the purists who bleat that small cars must be charming and characterful, I give you the MG MG4 Urban. Unlike, say, a Mini Cooper (electric or otherwise), the MG isn’t cheerful to drive or even to look at. But it’s as practical as a Tupperware container, which is sometimes what you want if you’re going to drop S$184,888 on a car and a Certificate of Entitlement.
That money buys you a compact five-door electric hatch from a brand that outsells BYD in Europe. It has a 54-kilowatt-hour lithium iron phosphate battery and a claimed range of 405 km. DC fast charging juices it up from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in 30 minutes, and in my time with the car, real-world consumption came in well below the official figure of 15.5 kWh/100 km. The 135-horsepower motor delivers a 0 to 100 kmh jog in a leisurely 9.6 seconds, but the responsiveness of the electric drivetrain does at least make the car feel lively.
Eurokars EV backs the battery with a 10-year warranty and includes 10 years’ free servicing, with a five-year warranty covering the rest of the car. If you ask me, that should make this Chinese car a lot less of a headache to own than any British MG ever was.
Beyond the zippy roadsters that feature so prominently in the brand’s history, we know that MG still knows how to do fun cars – the MG4 hatchback, which the Urban supersedes here but not elsewhere, is rear-wheel drive and genuinely engaging to drive, the kind of electric hatchback that aims for the heart of any keen driver.
While it shares the “MG4” label, the Urban is a different creature altogether, built on different (and new) underpinnings. It offers front-wheel drive and a torsion beam rear suspension in place of the multi-link setup the MG4 hatchback uses, two engineering choices that maximise space.
The Urban does have some small car agility, it’s easy to see out of and it can pull tight turns, so it isn’t horrible to drive. It’s just that its tyres don’t grip particularly well, the steering is ponderous and laconic, and the whole experience is more sedating than sensational.
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What it really wants to seduce you with is prodigious practicality. The boot offers 480 litres, expandable to 1,364 litres with the rear seats folded, which is a lot for a small car. Ninety-eight of those litres live beneath the boot floor, enough for a small folded stroller and more.
As a matter of fact, much of the thinking that defined the Urban happens in unseen places. It uses cell-to-body battery construction, which integrates the individual cells (from battery giant CATL) directly with the car’s structure. That reclaims space a conventional battery pack would take up, which is one reason there’s enough headroom for full-grown people in the back.
Above the battery cells, there is a fire barrier rated to withstand 1,200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, which is long enough to be the difference between an emergency and a tragedy. The engineering consideration extends to the front suspension mounting points, which sit lower than usual, bringing the bonnet line down for better forward visibility.
Being Shanghai Automotive’s export-focused brand, MG takes pains to include physical switches, and the Urban is all the better for it, with a user-friendly yet uncluttered dashboard. Other nice touches include ventilated front seats, a glass roof (with a roller shade), a powered tailgate and a 360-degree parking camera.
You do see where things were built down to a cost, though. The switch for the tailgate feels glued-on, the intermittent wiper setting offers no actual interval adjustment, and the odd spelling mistake appears on the 12.8-inch touchscreen. Bizarrely, the screen display doesn’t switch between day and night modes automatically.
All told, you could spend less than this and end up with something that offers more charm (the GAC Aion UT comes to mind), but the MG4 Urban feels more like a car a responsible adult would consider. By and large, charm is for people who don’t have strollers.
MG MG4 Urban
Motor power/torque 135 hp/250 Nm Battery type/capacity LFP / 54 kWh Charging time/type About 8.5 hours (11 kW AC), 30 minutes 10 to 80 per cent (DC) Range 405 km (WLTP combined) 0 to 100 kmh 9.6 seconds Top speed 160 kmh Efficiency 15.5 kWh/100 km Agent Eurokars EV Price S$184,888 with COE Available Now
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