MG4 XPOWER review: electric excellence for a bargain price?

Pros

• Very, very fast. Some might call it silly acceleration!

• Supercar performance for $65,000.

• Easy daily driver.

Cons

• Hard to distinguish between the cheaper models (though that could also be a positive if you like to fly under the radar).

• The phone tray needs sticky rubber, or a bigger lip to stop your phone flying out under acceleration.

First impressions

I’m already well acquainted with the MG4. To date, I’ve spent time with all the models in the lineup, with the exception of the XPOWER.

What makes the XPOWER stand out from the rest of the pack is an extra electric motor that turns it into an all-wheel drive car. The extra motor also doubles the power to 320kW. The extra weight of the motor, and extra power impacts range. The official WLTP figures are 400km – which is 50km less than the MG4 Essence 64 with the same battery.

MG knew full well that you can’t just throw more power at a car and expect it to go properly – they’ve fiddled with the brakes and suspension, and added a differential that vectors torque between the wheels to keep you on the road rather than off it.

The main thing I noticed was the special paint job in Hunter Green (at $1,000 extra), which was very fetching, and the bright orange brake calliper covers, which hint that this model has performance credentials.

When I drove the XPOWER away from the dealership, I was initially underwhelmed, it felt like a normal EV. That is until I put my foot down. Then it turned into a werewolf!

The fun part

The brilliance of the XPOWER is in its Jekyll and Hyde nature. It’ll happily pootle around town giving you, the hapless driver, no indication that you’re sitting on a volcano.

But when you’re presented with the opportunity to open the throttle, you get to say a fond farewell to all the cars around you as you go into warp speed. When this happens, if you’ve stowed your phone in the little tray at the front of the car, you can say goodbye to said phone until you reach your destination. It disappears into the back at a rate of knots.

It's hard to describe the acceleration, but I’ll give it my best shot. All your insides get sucked back to your spine when you stomp on that accelerator. My eyes weren’t accustomed to the speed and felt like they were behind the action, rather than seeing it in real time. In just a few moments, you’re in licence-losing territory.

It’s intoxicating and serious fun. This is what the car was built to do, and I insisted on taking as many people for a ride to experience it as possible. Their feedback was highly entertaining:

“It’s giving me a facelift”

“The g-force feels like you’re in a fighter jet”.

The most common reactions though are either stunned silence or a string of profanities.

The mundane

I’ve owned performance petrol cars before, and admittedly, they can be an absolute pain to live with. My last one hated rush hour; the gear box would throw tantrums, and it felt like you were wrestling with an angry stallion. Despite their fun factor, performance cars can be exhausting to drive and cost a lot to run.

That isn’t the case with the XPOWER. It glides around town and is a very relaxing experience. It’s relatively cheap to run too. Sure, you now have the added complication of road user charges (RUCs), but electricity is still cheaper than petrol.

Despite me tapping into the ridiculous acceleration at every opportunity, my usual test route commuting between Wellington and Lower Hutt, with a trip over to the Remutaka Ranges to the Wairarapa thrown in, returned 21kWh/100km. That’s thirsty for an electric car but to be expected from the way I drove it.

Even so, that works out at about $12.85 per 100km, including RUCs. If I compare that to a VW Golf R – a hot hatch with way less power and a posted fuel economy of 8.6L/100km (which you’d never get if you drove it with any real intent) – it’d cost at least $24 per 100km.

Wrapping up

This is the best MG4, by a country mile. Purely because it’s such a hoot to drive. As tested, my (loaned) car would set you back $66,000. That’s a lot of performance for the price.

If you won’t ever use the power on tap, for sure save your money and get something cheaper, it’d be a waste otherwise. But if you want to put a smile on your dial, then the XPOWER is hard to beat.

In short, I love the power. Is this vehicle the perfect wolf in sheep’s clothing? Maybe, it’s just wearing a shiny green jumpsuit over the top too.

The vehicle was loaned to Consumer NZ by MG.