Car review: MG ZS EV

MG’s electric ZX sports utility is the nearest thing to a budget-priced battery car yet, says Martin Gurdon

18 November 2019

To describe a near £22,000 car as cheap is stretching a point, but MG’s electric ZX sports utility is the nearest thing to a budget-priced battery car yet made.

MG is the moniker for a Chinese company that produces value-for-money cars with seven-year warranties that aren’t cutting edge but aren’t bad either. Now MG is selling an all-electric version of its ZS SUV, which is creating a bit of a marketing niche as a relatively budget-priced battery car.

The first 1,000 were offered here with a home charging kit with prices starting a fiver shy of £21,500 and MG sold the lot in a couple of weeks.

It actually builds its own lithium-ion batteries, which are water-cooled (some rival air-cooled designs have temporarily refused to charge when they’ve become hot and bothered after repeated top-ups). MG claims an average range of 163 miles, which isn’t fantastic, but OK for most commuting journeys, and it is claimed to cover 231 miles around town.

Some electric vehicles offer eye-watering performance. The ZS EV goes very well in a real world way, with an 87mph top speed and a 0-60 mph time of 8.5sec. Both are perfectly respectable.

There are driving mode controls labelled ‘eco,’ ‘normal’ and ‘sport’ and an energy recovery button which controls the amount of power fed back into the battery when the car slows down. At its highest setting deceleration is sufficiently fierce to make braking an occasional activity. Actually, as with other electric cars, the ZS EV is a relaxing means of transport that drives like a very quiet automatic.

Dynamically it’s competent but anonymous. Only the ride, which is a bit bouncy on poor surfaces, could be singled out for minor criticism. The battery doesn’t seem to have pinched much boot space, which is good, the seats are squishy and comfortable, there’s space for five people, with only rear headroom, which is average rather than brilliant, being a slight de-merit.

Chinese MGs were once criticised for rather low-rent interiors, but this one uses nice materials and is well made. Controls, including a large touch screen, are easy to use - a bit of a theme for this car. It’s worth mentioning that the ZS comes with a suite of up-to-date passive and active safety features.

Styling wise, it has a smiley grill and is otherwise chubbily inoffensive. The charging plug is behind that grill, and MG reckons 100 per cent top-up should take about six and a half hours. It should be 80 per cent juiced up using a fast charger after forty minutes.

The entry level ZS Excite now retails for £24,995, the range-topping Exclusive £26,995, which is still a lot less than a Kia e-Niro electric sports utility, which can cost around £33k.

I should mention that the car we tried, described as a pre-production prototype, had a hissy fit and wouldn’t communicate with a variety of charging points, but according to an MG representative, a software upgrade sorted this out, and he said customer cars hadn’t given problems.

The ZS EV is perhaps one of the most significant electric cars yet launched because it demonstrates that battery technology is coming of age and getting more affordable. It’s also a pleasant, user-friendly way to get around.

Details: MG ZS EV

Top Speed: 87mph

0-60: 8.5 seconds

163 mile range

Emissions: 0g/km

Price: £26,995

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