Best-budget BEV
We’re starting the year in a Clean Car frame of mind: MG’s updated ZS EV has joined our longterm garage
It’s a new year and DRIVEN has a new long-term test car: the MG ZS EV. But hang on: a bright blue MG SUV with a plug . . . haven’t we been here before?
Well, yes and no. Last year we ran the MG HS EV Plus, which despite the name is a plugin hybrid electric vehicle : turbo-petrol engine with a battery pack that can power the car solus for around 60km commuting, or work with the petrol engine for hybrid operation.
This is different. The ZS is a smaller SUV than the medium-sized HS and ours is a battery electric vehicle (BEV), or “pure electric” as it’s often called: no combustion engine, just a battery and electric motor giving a WLTP range of 320km per full charge.
In truth, the ZS EV probably needs no introduction. The original model became an instant celebrity when the Government announced the first phase of its Clean Car Discount in 2021, because it was the cheapest BEV in New Zealand and therefore the easiest way to the full $8625 rebate. It became a benchmark for affordable BEVs, especially when comparing the tech to internal combustion.
Our new long-termer is the facelift model. New look inside and out, bigger battery (up from 46kWh to 51kWh) and more powerful electric motor (up from 105kW to 130kW). And yes, it’s still NZ’s cheapest BEV, starting at $49,990 — a $1000 bump over the previous model. But MG is now offering the ZS EV in two versions and our car is the flagship $53,990 Essence, which is actually a pretty good match for the old car spec-wise; that’s a nice way of saying the car has risen $4k in real terms.
But even this model maintains the ZS EV’s status as the country’s cheapest BEV, especially now the BYD Atto 3 has risen to $58,990 for the 50kWh model and $62,490 for the 60kWh.
You could go for the entry ZS EV and still be very happy. A suite of MG Pilot safety assists is standard across the range, including adaptive cruise, speed sign recognition and lane keep assistance — although blind spot and rear cross-traffic detection is exclusive to the Essence, which also has “synthetic leather” with front seat heating, panoramic glass roof, automatic wipers and wireless phone charging. We prefer the entry fabric upholstery to the sticky PVC, although the Essence’s rear cross traffic alert is a handy feature for a quiet BEV in city driving.
So, what are we going to do with our ZS EV? There will be a fair bit of weekday urban commuting to DRIVEN’s inner-city office, which is really what this car is designed for. But some members of the team really clock up the km each week (like, more than 200km per day), so there will be plenty of opportunity to put the ZS EV’s longer range and fastcharge ability to the test.
For now, first impressions are just that, because we’ve only had a few days to get familiar with the car and get started on a new year’s routine. The exterior styling revisions are polarising, especially at the front and especially in the Brighton Blue metallic colour of our car; but you can’t deny the ZS EV exudes a design confidence the previous model lacked.
Inside, the MG is much more modern and tactile, with the infotainment screen standing proud of the dash tablet-style — as is the fashion. The OS is less confusing than the previous model and the graphics more colourful and crisp, although it’s still a little sluggish to respond to commands.
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, which simplifies things somewhat. As an Android user I have discovered one annoying quirk: if you’ve been playing music on your previous journey and want to continue when you start up again, you have to connect, then pull the cable out and reconnect, otherwise you can’t play anything (not even by using the handset directly). Yes, I have a modern phone, yes, I’ve tried different cables and no, this doesn’t happen with other cars; it’ll be interesting to see whether the office iPhone users have the same issue.
To drive, it’s clear the ZS EV has aspirations to be more grown-up. The previous model would leap off the line, front wheels spinning, with very little provocation. The new one is calibrated to accelerate away in a much more linear fashion, which is good or bad depending on your point of view.
Despite that, the more powerful motor means the new model is a snip quicker than the old: 0-100km/h in 8.2 seconds.
It remains a plug-in vehicle that requires no special knowledge or acclimatisation to drive. Even the intimidatingly named trio of calibration/information switches on the centre console is pretty simple.
The Eco/Normal/Sport “Mode” button is self-explanatory, the latter noticeably sharpening the throttle response. The cheekily named “Kers” (kinetic energy recovery system, as per Formula 1!) sets the level of regenerative braking, although even the most aggressive is still pretty mild — certainly not enough to bring the car to a stop. And “Battery” is simply a shortcut to displaying charge/discharge information on the main screen.
The big test will be range, given this new model claims to offer another 57km over the previous model. But that’s to come. For now, the ZS EV remains a compact SUV with a few foibles but strong on one thing we really value: character.