Australians have been waiting for an affordable electric car. Now, MG has delivered. But is it any good? We recently drove a UK-spec MG 4 to find out.
There was a brief moment when the MG 4 held the title of Australia’s cheapest electric car. But that title lasted just three days before the BYD Dolphin undercut the MG 4 by a hundred bucks. Neither car had turned a wheel in anger in Australia.
In fact, neither car is available yet in Australia, their respective manufacturers only opening the order books in June. The MG 4 will arrive in showrooms in August, with a price tag of $38,990 plus on-road costs, while BYD says the Dolphin will be available here before the end of the year. It’ll be priced at $38,890 (plus on-roads), an amount BYD says is pure coincidence.
Coincidence or not, it’s clear there is a battle raging for the nominative title of ‘Australia’s Most Affordable Electric Car’. But with just a hundred bucks splitting them, the battle for the hearts and wallets of Australians will come down to how the cars feel to drive.
On that front, we’ve had an early taste, recently spending a day behind the wheel of the MG 4. To be clear, MG Motor Australia has stressed the car we’ve driven is a UK-specification model, in Australia for evaluation purposes. Expect some tweaks ahead of local deliveries in August.
The MG 4 – and later the BYD Dolphin will too – represents a watershed moment in the Australian new car landscape; the first electric cars to be priced under $40,000 (before on-road costs).
It’s a hatchback, the size of a Toyota Corolla or Hyundai i30, and it doesn’t try to dazzle with its EV-ness brilliance. Instead, the MG 4 looks and feels like a regular hatchback that just happens to be electric. And on that front, it’s a little gem.
| Key details | 2023 MG 4 Excite 51 |
| Price | From $38,990 plus on-road costs |
| Colour of test car | Camden Grey Metallic |
| Options | Metallic paint – $700 |
| Rivals | BYD Dolphin | GWM Ora | Nissan Leaf |
How much does the MG 4 cost in Australia?
The MG 4 range comprises four variants. At the entry point, the MG 4 Excite 51 is priced at $38,990 plus on-road costs. It’s fitted with a 51kWh battery capable, it’s claimed, of delivering 350km of driving range.
The MG 4 Excite 64 is priced at $44,990 (before on-road costs), and that extra spend nets you a 64kWh battery array and a claimed driving range between charges of 450km.
Next in the line-up, the MG 4 Essence 64 asks for $47,990 plus on-roads. While it, like the 64 Excite, features a 64kWh battery, its driving range is slightly down at a quoted 435km, the result of carrying extra weight thanks to additional equipment.
Topping the line-up, the MG 4 Long Range 77 is fitted with a 77kWh battery good for a claimed driving range of 530km. It’s priced at $55,990 plus on-road costs and comes loaded with equipment and niceties.
Our full rundown of the equipment list of every variant of the MG 4 can be found here.
How much space does the MG 4 have inside?
We’ve got our hands on the entry-level MG 4 Excite. As previously mentioned, the car we have on test here is a UK-specification model, so any final assessment will have to wait until Australian-spec cars start rolling through the Drive garage.
At first glance, it’s pretty basic in the cabin, with cloth seats and plenty of hard plastic, but the uncluttered look and feel of the cabin are fresh and contemporary.
The seats, while trimmed in nondescript cloth, are comfortable and supportive enough for longer stretches behind the wheel.
Storage amenities up front include a pair of cupholders, a shallow cubby in the centre console with a sliding lid and a deep central storage bin. The door pockets up front can accommodate regular-sized water bottles, while ahead of the gear selector, a handy tray is the perfect home for your smartphone.
The second row is on par for the hatchback segment, certainly in terms of space. Toe room (the space under the front seats) is a bit compromised, but knee, head and leg room are all good. And thanks to its electric drivetrain, there’s no pesky transmission tunnel into second-row foot and leg room. That’s a plus.
There’s a distinct lack of amenities in row two, however. There are no cupholders, and no fold-down armrest, while the door pockets would struggle to accept even a smaller water bottle.
Boot space is rated at 363L, expanding to 1170L with the second row folded away in 60:40 split fashion. That’s down on the Hyundai i30’s 395L/1301L, or a Nissan Leaf’s 405L/1176L, but significantly bigger than the best-selling Toyota Corolla’s 217L, and ahead of the GWM Ora’s 228L/858L.
| 2023 MG 4 Excite 51 | |
| Seats | Five |
| Boot volume | 363L seats up 1170L seats folded |
| Length | 4287mm |
| Width | 1846mm |
| Height | 1504mm |
| Wheelbase | 2705mm |
Does the MG 4 have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto?
Our test car was fitted with the 10.25-inch touchscreen MG Motor has stated will make its way to Australian-delivered cars.
It’s fitted with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, even in the base model, although you’ll need a cable to connect. There’s no in-built satellite navigation across any of the four grades, while we won’t know until launch whether DAB+ radio will be fitted as standard across the range in Australia.
The touchscreen itself is sleek, its widescreen format blending in nicely with the rest of the dash design. Likewise, the resolution is top-notch while responses to inputs are quick and accurate. Which is just as well because the touchscreen houses almost all of the MG 4’s vital functions including climate controls, which we’ve long maintained should have their own separate physical buttons and switches.
A smaller 7.0-digital instrument panel ahead of the driver projects a host of critical driving data. It can be toggled through a number of screens to show a variety of driving and energy data.
It also mimics, in part, Tesla’s set-up, with an animated display of traffic, showing cars in front and to the side of you. It’s surprisingly accurate, although we’d posit it would be better used showing traffic behind the car rather than the traffic you can already see out of your windscreen.
Is the MG 4 a safe car?
While Australia’s safety body, ANCAP, is yet to assess the MG 4 hatchback, its European counterpart, Euro NCAP, awarded the MG 4 a five-star safety rating in 2022.
It scored 83 per cent for adult occupant protection, 80 per cent child occupant, 75 per cent vulnerable road user and 78 per cent for its safety assist systems.
MG Motor Australia has indicated all locally delivered cars will be fitted with lane-keeping assist and lane-departure warning, adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking with cyclist and pedestrian detection, a driver attention monitor, and intelligent high beam assist.
Further, the Essence and Long Range variants are equipped with rear cross-traffic alert, door-opening alert, blind-spot monitoring and lane-change assist.
It’s a bit of a shame some of these key safety items are reserved for models higher up the MG 4 food chain and not standard across the entire range. Still, something has to give to come in under that psychological $40K mark and MG has opted for some safety items. It’s not alone in this regard.
Is the MG 4 energy-efficient?
If the MG 4 is to succeed, and if electric cars are to succeed on a scale we in Australia are yet to embrace, then the questions of price, range and energy consumption need to make sense.
The sub-$40K MG 4 is starting to answer a lot of those questions.
MG says that even in its most basic trim, the MG 4 has a claimed driving range of around 350km from its 51kWh battery array. And straight off the bat, that’s a realistic number.
After taking delivery, I plugged the MG 4 into our 7kW wall charger here at Drive HQ to top up the battery. It didn’t take long to recharge as it only had delivery kays on it, and when fully replenished, an indicated 381km of range was showing. A good start, then.
The news gets better. After a day behind the wheel, over a variety of driving conditions – from inner-city traffic to 100km/h on the motorway, and even a quick and spirited fang on one of our preferred fang-tastic stretches of road – the MG 4 returned an indicated 15.6kWh per 100km of energy usage. MG, for its part, doesn’t provide a consumption number, not yet anyway, but from past experience, 15.6kWh is a good return.
MG says the battery can be recharged from 10–80 per cent in around 40 minutes on a 50kW fast charger. Using a home wall box will take longer. MG says the maximum rate of charge is 88kW (DC) and 6.6kW (AC).
Our short time with the MG 4 didn’t afford us the time to test various charging options. We’ll report back once we’ve had the MG 4 through the Drive garage for a week.
Energy Consumption – brought to you by bp
| Energy Efficiency | Energy Stats |
| Energy cons. (claimed) | TBC |
| Energy cons. (on test) | 15.6kWh/100km |
| Battery size | 51kWh |
| Driving range claim (WLTP) | 350km |
| Charge time (11kW) | 8h 35min (at 6.6kW max AC rate) |
| Charge time (50kW) | 40min (10–80%) |
| Charge time (88kW max rate) | 31min (10–80%) |
What is the MG 4 like to drive?
The most affordable MG 4 in the line-up is also the least powerful. But don’t take that to mean it isn’t brisk. It is.
The 51kWh battery feeds a 125kW electric motor driving the rear wheels via a single-speed automatic transmission. Acceleration from 0–100km/h takes, according to MG, just 7.7 seconds.
It certainly feels spritely moving away from standstill, that delicious dollop of instant torque only EVs can seem to muster making for a sharp and smooth getaway.
Sure, it’s not Tesla-like in its acceleration, but it doesn’t need to be either. Instead, getting away from standstill is smooth, linear and entirely predictable, all while feeling pretty effortless. That’s the underlying nature of electric cars, their effortless nature making for a relaxed time behind the wheel.
Around town, the MG 4 drives just a like regular hatchback, albeit one that is a touch quieter on the road, and with a shade more zip moving away from the traffic lights.
It’s when you want to merge onto a freeway, the run from the 70km/h on-ramp and onto 110km/h to ease into the flow of traffic, that really highlights an electric car’s proficiency, the MG 4 surging ahead with predictable ease.
The steering is very direct and can be switched between Light, Normal and Heavy, each setting noticeably different. After playing around with the settings a little bit, we settled on Normal, although Heavy did offer a touch more tactility.
The MG 4’s suspension tends towards firm, although not uncomfortably so. Sharper hits, such as speed humps, do result in some wallowing as the 1655kg hatchback settles back on its suspension, while minor road rash and imperfections are telegraphed back into the seat of the pants. It’s not the most refined suspension set-up we’ve ever ridden on, but it is for the most part within acceptable levels of comfort.
There are several drive modes to keep you entertained. Ranging from Eco that dials throttle response down a touch in the hunt for economy to Normal, which is as it says on the box, the default setting, and Sport that ratchets up accelerator response noticeably.
There’s also a Custom setting where you can tailor things like steering and accelerator response to suit your individual style.
MG says there are also four levels of energy regeneration – low, medium, high and adaptive. This system, as it does in many electric vehicles, harvests the electric energy created either during the act of braking or coasting.
MG claims that single-pedal driving – where it’s possible to never use the brakes, instead letting the regenerative function bring the car to a standstill – is possible. But we found that even in its most aggressive ‘High’ setting, single-pedal wasn’t possible. In mitigation, that may have been the result of our test car not being Australian-spec ready.
| Key details | 2023 MG 4 Excite 51 |
| Motor | Single electric motor |
| Power | 125kW |
| Torque | 250Nm |
| Drive type | Rear-wheel drive |
| Transmission | Single-speed |
| Power-to-weight ratio | 76.5kW/t |
| Weight (kerb) | 1655kg |
| Spare tyre type | TBC |
| Turning circle | 10.6m |
Should I buy an MG 4?
MG Motor Australia has seemingly read the room. Australians, anecdotally at least, have been clamouring for an affordable electric car, one with a starting price below that psychological $40,000 mark.
MG has listened, certainly with this entry-level MG 4, which is priced at $38,990 before on-road costs. That translates to around $43,000 drive-away, give or take a few hundred bucks depending on the state or territory you live in.
That’s within reach of a large cohort of new car buyers, especially buyers who have been holding off on making the switch to electric based on price.
For those who take the leap, they’ll be rewarded with a hatchback that does everything expected of a hatchback. Easy to drive, with a modicum of performance that won’t leave the car gasping for air, coupled with a spacious cabin and boot big enough to hold the weekly shop, a pram or the general accoutrements we accumulate over our daily lives and drives.
That its energy consumption came close to matching the manufacturer’s claim is also commendable and, we’d argue, a vital factor when it comes to purchasing an electric vehicle.
While we spent a day behind the wheel, the nature of our test car (UK specification) means we’ll hold off on scoring. That will come soon, when we spend a week with Australian-delivered cars, providing us with a better insight into what Aussie buyers can expect.
But, what we can say is that the MG 4 will tick a lot of boxes for a lot of people looking to an electric motoring future. Affordable, fun to drive without being silly, and with a comfortable and spacious interior for the segment, there’s a good chance this little hatchback is the car that brings electric vehicles into the mainstream.
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