MG4 EV review: Electric hatch that drives like a BMW

THIS battery-powered hatchback from China might well be the best car you’ve never heard of. In fact, the MG4 EV is not just good, but scarily so. It not only signals that electric cars now set the standard for what modern motoring should be, but that the best Chinese manufacturers have become something for everyone else to worry about.

To start with, the raw numbers are promising. The MG4 has a 201 horsepower motor that drives the rear wheels, and its 64 kilowatt-hour battery pack delivers a claimed range of 450 km.

That’s more than competitive in today’s electric vehicle (EV) market, and seriously impressive at this price point. It also means that a little more than an hour plugged into a common 50-kilowatt charger, the kind now at shopping malls all over Singapore, should see the MG4 good to go for a week.

At a glance, it’s roughly the size of a Volkswagen Golf, but here, the MG4 demonstrates one benefit of going electric, especially when a car is built from scratch that way. The compact size of EV hardware means the MG4 has a much longer wheelbase than a Golf, so it’s impressively spacious inside, especially when it comes to rear legroom.

But the real surprise is how satisfying it is to drive. It flows through corners like a BMW 3 Series, thanks to quick, well-weighted steering that makes it feel agile, and an inherent sense of balance that comes from the weight being distributed evenly between the front and rear.

The 0-to-100 kmh time of 7.9 seconds might not sound like anything special, but the motor’s instant response makes the MG4 feel perky. It also always feels ready to pull off a quick overtaking move, or blast playfully out of a bend.

If you think about it, 201 horsepower, rear-wheel drive and perfect weight distribution would be the stuff of a superb hot hatch in the combustion world. Yet it’s built into the very fabric of the MG4.

As you’d expect of an EV, it has refinement on its side, too. The MG4 is all but silent at standstill, and hushed when on the move. Even though the suspension is hard, the damping is well-judged; the taut handling is worth the firm ride anyway.

The cabin isn’t fancy, but it’s tidy and well laid out, while the dashboard feels nice and soft to the touch. A lack of ambient lighting means the interior gets very dark at night, but it otherwise manages to avoid looking austere.

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Space for odds and ends is generous, and a shelf for your phone comes with wireless charging, though the car’s acceleration was strong enough to send my iPhone flying off of it repeatedly.

The driver display is a 7-inch colour screen that’s crowded with information but is bright and clear, while the main controls are housed within a 10.25-inch infotainment screen. The graphics are crisp and sharp, but the menu system takes some getting used to (it took me ages to figure out how to turn down the treble on the sound system, for instance).

Indeed, while MG has nailed the hardware, the software is where you’re reminded of its Chinese origins.

The infotainment system is home to a bug or two – it forgot the Bluetooth link to my phone after two days, and an energy consumption graph seemed to reset itself randomly. The driver assistance systems would mistake a pedestrian for a motorcycle, see phantom vehicles around the car, or flash the wrong speed limit on the display. Meanwhile, the adaptive cruise control proved useful in a traffic jam, but felt jerkier than in other cars.

Even though MG still has some catching up to do there, it has nevertheless managed to produce an excellent car to live with on day-to-day terms. The MG4 is well-equipped (but just lacks automatic wipers, a weird omission), its boot is acceptable in size, and the air-conditioning is terrifically powerful. 

The car looks sharp, too, with clean lines and a low bonnet that hint heavily at its electric nature, and an eye-catching rear with a snazzy light bar and two mini wings atop the tailgate. Quite frankly, if it had a Toyota badge on its nose, people would be all over it.

That brings us to the MG4’s biggest challenge, which is a lack of brand recognition. As a hatchback, it’s highly competitive, given how roomy and refined it is, and the fact that it drives like a BMW.

  Yet, the rate of MG’s product improvement has been so spectacular that the brand is bound to have run ahead of public perception. That might be a problem for time to solve. But in the meantime, it might count for something that the marque is handled here by Eurokars Group, which has everything from Mazda to BMW to Rolls-Royce in its eight-brand portfolio. If you’re wary of buying an unfamiliar car, the best thing to do is buy it from a familiar dealer.

MG4 EV

Electric Motor / Layout Single / rear Motor Power / Torque 201 hp / 250 Nm Battery Type / Capacity Lithium-ion, 64 kWh Standard Charge Time / Type 9 hours / 7kW AC Fast Charge Time / Type 35 minutes 10 to 80 percent / 150kW DC Range 450 km 0-100kmh 7.9 seconds Top Speed 160 kmh Efficiency 16.0 kWh/100 km Agent MG Eurokars Price S$82,888 without COE Available Now