MG4 Electric: New Competition from China for VW ID.3, Renault Megane and Cupra Born | Review | 2022

Here you see the lettering Im bien from Germany and you are watching Asia Auto Ambassador, and today I will present to you a new Chinese electric vehicle. However, the brand they are using is a traditional British brand. Here the car is – and this is the all new mg4 electric – a new compact electric vehicle that is based on the first dedicated electric car platform of mg modular scalable platform. Its called The Brand mg is already active in many European markets. They have never been gone in the UK and, if youre watching from the UK, youve seen a lot of mg4 videos anyway, already S A IC Shanghai automotive industry Corporation once bought what was left over from MG Rover, the big British car manufacturer – and they continued also In the UK, with a brand mg, they even built vehicles in long bridge near Birmingham, then they decided. Okay, the quality of the vehicles is not that good The Cars we built there, the shipped they moved the production to China, but they still have a kind of development center there. So the brand is active. Also, now in Germany, in Spain, France and the binilux and Scandinavian region in Germany, for example, Im from Germany, so I know the all the German details. Of course, mg already has 133 dealer outlets and they are selling a plug in hybrid to Electric SUVs and the mg5 electric, which is an electric station wagon. All these cars are still using ice platforms or combustion engine platforms, and this is the mg4 electric.

The first of a new generation of electric vehicles from mg its a compact car and, as you can see already from its design and format, its definitely a direct competitor to the ones of a Volkswagen ID3, the Cooper born or Renault Megan E Tec, for example, weve Got LED headlights here and a high beam assist as well. No large Grill its not needed. We have air intakes here in the front bumper for the cooling of the battery. Of course, the car itself is 4 meters and 29 in length, so its we are a compact car. Finally, not another SUV. We can present so its one meter, 50 Heights, a true compact vehicle, the reduced height, can also or has also been achieved by a new battery packaging 11 centimeters. The batteries are high only and there are two battery options available for the mg4 electric. The standard one has got a capacity of 51 kilowatt hours and the larger one 64 kilowatt hours out of these its a 60 1.7 kilowatt hours that can be really used. There will be different trim levels and here weve got the luxury trim level. That means 17 inch alloy wheels, and this has a this car – has a wltp range of 435 kilometers. So I explained to you the length and the height. You see the design of the car, I quite like the rear lights. By the way they are a bit large here, the LED Stripes, but then weve got nice LED design Stripes here on the top of these modules.

I quite like this and, of course there is a boot behind the fifth door. I open that it measures 350 liters and the luxury version due to more standard equipment and 363 liters in the standard and comfort version. Here you see the charging cables and the removable floor, but thats not really an additional storage compartment under the floor. So I just mentioned the cable and, of course, with the cable you can charge the car. The socket is here, and you can charge it AC with up to 11 kilowatts with a larger battery pack and theres a CCS, a combined charging system opportunity as well for the fast or hybrid charger, and the mg4 electric, with a smaller battery, can achieve up to 117, so 117, kilowatts of charging power and the larger battery pack is able to charge with up to 135 kilowatts. So that means roughly 35 to 40 minutes to increase the state of charge of the battery up to 80 percent. So we checked the board. We checked the design format, charging power, whats left, seating comfort in the interior lets go. My height is 1 meter, 92 centimeter. This is six feet three inches by the way and I adjusted the drivers seat into my individual seating position and still I fit quite well behind my imaginary itself, so theres enough room for the knees and the feet underneath the seat. The battery pack in the floor is quite small, its 11 centimeters high only – and this is one of the advantages of the new battery pack mg motor developed for this platform.

However, I still sit a little bit deep, but in the calf course there needs to be a compromise between seating, height and Headroom. The Headroom is quite large. As you see here, I can sit very comfortable. The seats themselves have a fabric and artificial Leather, So a region upholstery isofix, is accessible here behind all right here we see the uh where you dont see, but you can feel the isofix cassette. So this is quite easy to handle and there are a lot of practical details like this small storage bags here for smartphones or blanket chips whatever and weve got a larger storage here as well, also theres at least one USB power outlet and a storage compartment in The center console, however, there are no air vents here in the back. The Plastics and the door is well, of course, its a lot of dark plastic, but there are different material surfaces. I quite like this. It looks a little bit less boring than the panel. For example, in the Volkswagen ID3 and also here, weve got artificial leather and a nice blue contrast, stitching, yeah thats it here from the second row lets move into the cockpits. The drivers seat in the luxury version can be adjusted electrically and standard and comfort thats manual. Such as the steering wheel in both ways, so I find a quite comfortable seating position here. The backrest and the headrest are high enough. However, the seat could be a little bit larger for tall people like me, but I quite like the seating position here on the driver seat.

The cockpit of the mg4 electric looks quite modern, of course, its full digital, and it reminds a little bit of the one in the Volkswagen ID3, of course, because this is we are how the current cockpit architecture is done. In many many cars we see uh send a console with a knob here for the drive, drive, neutral or reverse drive setting and the electric parking brake. We have the opportunity to charge the smartphone wirelessly and here underneath we have a USB and USBC power, socket also for the usage of Android, auto and apple carplay. Here, two quite small cup holders and a large storage compartment. The display here on top of the center console, has got a size of 10.25 inches. Here you see the home menu. This can, wherever you are. For example, we are on the telephone menu and if you want to go back, you can either push the home button here on the touchscreen or the physically at home button. And then you go back there. The touchscreen and the display sometimes its a little bit slow on its reaction. We would need to check how this dips disturbs the driving pleasure theres a set nav in the luxury version. At the moment, the car is uh that the sat nav is not fully updated. So we cannot use it. Then we have the charging management. For example, here you see the current state of charge of 70.2 centimeters and the current range was 308 kilometers.

The wldp range of the mt4 electric with the larger battery is 450 kilometers, with 16 inch alloy wheels and with 17 inch wheels mounted here on the luxury version, Its 435 kilometers, so the fully charged battery. So this is yeah how the menu looks like, of course, Android auto every carplay I just mentioned theres a 360 Degrees, camera system uh. This is a little bit slow on its reaction at the moment here you see it um. This is also part of the luxury trim level in the entry for electric. The air condition. Menu also needs to be chosen here. Where we have it here and then you can change the temperature seat heating, so heated front seats are available in the luxury version. As a standard equipment and a heated steering wheel, however, I recommend that you use a shortcut here, its a physical button on the steering wheel, the favorite button. Then you can configure that maybe for the aircon menu, if you often want to use seat healing, for example, or yeah phone, your wife, your husband, whoever. So this brings us to the steering wheel here. Weve got physical buttons and these controllers to maneuver through the manuals. Now we see the volume, for example, can also be adjusted here. Put it back to zero and behind the steering wheel, weve got a seven inch display so thats a little bit larger than the one in the ID3 or Cooper born with. Here you see the driving assistance, current speed, state of charge and trip computer information as well.

The whole cockpit is very decent, so theres no head up display. That means we dont need a huge, cockpit, so its very low, and that also provides a good outlook to the streets. I quite like that. Also, the mirrors mounted on the doors do not distract the view to the outside. The materials are okay, of course, its plastic, and I would like to see the car in daylight the next time. How that looks like also when the car is maybe on the road for a couple of weeks, but so far it looks well done and also the finish of the materials theres one more interesting feature. This is called vehicle to load. You can charge other devices with up to 2.2 kilowatts of charging power here. The Hyundai ioni 5 Kia av60 Genesis, GV 60, also offering vehicle to load with some more charging power. But this is also here and quite interesting feature for the daily routine, with an electric vehicle. Prices in Germany started 32 000 Euros for this small battery Standard Version and then weve got the larger battery. This is roughly 4 000 Euros more with some more standard equipment and the luxury version 64 kilowatt hours and more uh spec, like the electrically adjustable driver seat 17 inch wheels and somewhat driving. Assistance such as the blind spot sensor and rear traffic assist costs, 37 990 Euros thats the exact German list price in the UK. The price is already communicated and if youre looking from abroad of course check your local entry website for prices.

That means the car is around about yeah 15, cheaper than the Volkswagen ID3 or 4 500 euros approximately and also competes against smaller vehicles in terms of pricing such as the opelo, Vauxhall, Corsa e and Pistol e208. This was my first impression. My first check of the mg4 electric test drives and more information will follow soon. I hope so that you will watch these videos then as well and, of course, that you watch all the other videos here at Asia, Auto Ambassador and if you like, the videos please subscribe to the channel, and you can also search for Asia, Auto Ambassador on Instagram. Thank you again for watching thanks to Matthias the guy behind the camera, I will go back to the stadium now, but not playing football. See you soon.