Well put together MG ZS
Damien O’Carroll finds out if the new cheap MG ZS EV is good value for money.
The MG ZS EV is the cheapest new EV you can buy in New Zealand, but is it cheap enough? And does cheap translate into ‘‘cheap and cheerful’’ or ‘‘cheap and nasty’’? We find out.
So let’s get the whole thing about who built this car out of the way
It does still come as quite a shock to some people that MG is now Chinese-owned and quite a relief to others that they are no longer built by the British.
That’s right – although MGs are still designed in Britain, SAIC Motor (MG’s owner) stopped production there in 2016 and the ZS actually comes from a number of different places (including the same place as almost every ute on the market in New Zealand; Thailand), but the EV is built in China.
So . . . Chinese-owned-and-built, but British-designed. Just as long as they kept the Brits away from the electrical bits, some might say. Ha! Out-dated dad-jokes are funny!
Yes, they did keep the Brits away from the electrical bits, which is probably a good thing. And, if you are about to say ‘‘but what about Chinese electronics?’’, then your iPhone would like to have a quiet word about that particular prejudice . . .
Is that a really long-winded way of saying that the ZS EV is very well put together?
Pretty much, yeah. In fact, it would probably be very fair and accurate to claim that the current crop of MGs are almost certainly the best built MGs ever.
Not a terribly high bar for sure, but the ZS EV is a wonderfully bolted together little thing with precise panel gaps, excellent paint quality and some very nice quality materials used throughout. Though this means a normal internal combustion engine (ICE) ZS offers much higher quality than its price would suggest, it translates into the ZS EV offering pretty much exactly the sort of
quality you would expect from a $49k small SUV. Which is nice.
The ZS is also wonderfully comfortable for a small SUV, with an impressive ride that only seems to have benefited from the addition of hefty batteries, without the handling taking anywhere near as much of a knock as you might expect.
OK, sure, it is a small front-drive car with big torque, so there is wheelspin – and a bit of mild torque steer in the wet – if you are too eager with the throttle, and it will err towards expected and nicely
controllable understeer if you dive into corners like it is a sports car (spoiler alert: MG doesn’t do those any more), but drive it like a normal, well-adjusted human being, and it is a nicely benign and wonderfully composed thing that won’t ever spring a nasty surprise on you.
So what about the whole electric part of it? Why aren’t you talking about that?
Because the ZS EV is so delightfully normal that it almost doesn’t matter. Yes, it has a 44.5 kWh battery that will deliver a WLTP-tested range of 263km, but it’s really only the tyre-chirping torque and silent running that will tip you off that this is anything other than a handsome (even if a lot of that is thanks to Mazda) small SUV that is perfectly suited to the urban jungle, as well as more than capable of tackling the open road when required to.
The power delivery is delightfully judged, with that big torque easily chirping the tyres but never overwhelming them, and the traction and stability control systems work beautifully well with it all to deliver a satisfying driving experience.
But it is not one entirely without flaws. The ZS EV comes impressively equipped with a wide range of driver assists, but some are a little crude and intrusive. The lane keep assist is a little too meddlesome and niggles away at the steering wheel in a particularly irritating fashion. It can be adjusted however, or turned off entirely if you prefer, and it actually stays off until you turn it on again, not just when you turn the car on again too, so big bonus points to MG for that one.
Then there’s also the MG’s irritating habit of emitting a chime or a bong and not giving you any visual frame of reference for what it is actually trying to bring to your attention, but then MG certainly isn’t alone in this irritation (looking at you, Subaru).
Then there’s the range. It isn’t huge, but you basically get what you pay for in EVs, so you’re never going to see Tesla-style ranges in this price range. Not yet, at least.
But the MG’s 260-odd kilometres (closer to around 230 in the real world) is more than enough for daily running, and plugging it in overnight one or two times a week keeps it nicely topped up.
So the big question you have made everyone read right to the end to tackle: is it worth $48,990?
That all depends on how you want to approach it. If you are specifically wanting to buy an MG ZS, then the leap from the $27,990 ask for the top-spec Essence (or even the $33,990 ZS T Essence) is quite a leap and one that will no doubt be rather hard to justify.
However, if you are coming at it from the angle of wanting to buy a $40-to-$50k small SUV and are considering the likes of the Toyota C-HR or the Mazda CX-30, then the MG becomes a very compelling electric alternative.
As mentioned, for $27,490 the ICE MG ZS offers exceptional value and quality for the money, so for $48,990 the EV version offers competitive and broadly equivalent value and quality as the petrolpowered competition.
It’s not likely to cannibalise sales from the rest of the ZS range, but the direct ICE competition will be looking over their shoulders.
Any other cars to consider?
The closest competitor to the MG in the EV sector is the $59,990 Mini Electric that offers a similar range, but less standard equipment for more money. It is an absolute blast to drive, however, but has even less real world range than the MG.
There are the previously mentioned ICE small SUVs (and there is no shortage of them), but your only other electrified options are PHEVs, like the much larger Mitsubishi Outlander ($52,990 for the entry level one), but then MG has an answer to that as well – the new MG HS PHEV that costs $52,990 and will offer up to 63km of electric-only driving.