2024 MG4 Long Range (inc. 0-100) electric car review

CarExpert

This has been a review A LOT of you have been asking for. It’s the all-new 2024 MG4 Long Range 77 and Paul Maric wants to see what it’s like to drive. Sorry about the wet conditions!  Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More MG content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mg  More MG4 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mg/mg4  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:59 Interior: 03:00 Infotainment: 04:47 Safety Tech: 06:58 Practicality: 07:47 On the Road: 11:12 Performance: 18:15 Verdict: 20:47  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #mg #review #mg4

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Are you excited by electric cars or thought of electric cars but not excited

00:05 by some of the price tags you're seeing? Well, this could be the answer to that. MG, they've

00:09 just released this. It's called the MG4. It's actually one of the most cost-effective options

00:14 if you do want to get yourself into an electric car, and it's brand new as well in terms of

00:18 the platform. So, this is called the Essence. It's the top-spec version. It's priced at

00:23 just under $56,000, but if that's too expensive, the entire range kicks off at a little under

00:28 $40,000, which I think is pretty good. This is going to compete with things like the Volkswagen

00:32 ID.3 when it arrives in Australia, the Cupra Born. It's that size of vehicle. It's also

00:37 rear-wheel drive as well, so it gives you a bit of an idea, and the GWM Aura as well,

00:40 which we tested previously. Today, we're going to do a detailed review of this car, so if

00:44 you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes that

00:48 are on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below,

00:52 and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon so

00:55 you can find out every single time we drive an Aqua Blue car.

00:59 Now, let's talk about design. Actually, before we do, it is bloody freezing here, so sorry

01:04 if you hear some rustling from my jacket. This is very blue, and you do have a number

01:09 of colours to choose from, and I love the fact that there are some exciting colours

01:12 to choose from as well. They're not just all boring colours. The optional colours are $700.

01:17 Now, this car in person looks fantastic. It really just has a really cool vibe to it,

01:23 and unlike the GW Amora, which to me is a bit of an acquired taste, this on the other

01:27 hand looks a little bit sportier and a bit more sort of upbeat, if you will. So, MG logo

01:32 down the front there, you've got a little scallop here on the bonnet. Looks like it's

01:36 housing a big V8 engine or something. Full LED headlights with auto high beams. Now,

01:42 if you have a look down here as well, that's where your indicator is, and then you've got

01:46 these matte black aero elements down the bottom with a little radar sensor there in blue as

01:51 well. Now, whip around to the side with me. Around here, you've got yourself a set of

01:54 18-inch alloy wheels with aero covers as well for efficiency. A little bit of piano black

02:00 on the side here, and that theme actually continues inside the cabin as well on the

02:04 wing mirrors too. You've got a black roof as well, which I think looks good. That black

02:08 section down the side looks great as well, so it has a rising belt line as it comes along

02:11 there, and then it tapers off again as it comes towards the rear. Privacy glass, and

02:15 then come around to the back with me. Now, this is probably my favourite part of the

02:19 car. Have a look at this. You've got twin spoilers wrapped around that boot lid there,

02:23 which I reckon looks pretty cool for, you know, an entry-level electric car. A little

02:27 light built into there as well. I love this LED light as well, so it wraps around the

02:31 side there, but this particular spec also has LEDs up the top here as well that light

02:35 up too, which I think is cool. MG4 electric badge under there as well, then a diffuser

02:40 down the bottom. It's quite a narrow window, so I'll be interested to see what that's like

02:44 when we go for a spin. Now, let me know what you reckon about the design. Do you think

02:48 this looks good, and what do you think about the price point as well? I think I'm quite

02:51 impressed with where they've priced it at. Let's hope that it sort of drives and does

02:56 all that sort of stuff great as well, and it isn't just the price that is sort of entry-level.

03:00 So we are inside the MG4. This is what the key looks like. You've got lock, boot, unlock,

03:08 and then on the back you've got the MG logo. Now, there is no push button to start this.

03:12 All you do is just put your foot on the brake, and then it comes up saying ready to finish

03:17 dealing with the car. You just get out and lock the door. Now, sounds good in theory,

03:22 but it's not the best system in the world because, like we've had today here, you get

03:27 out of the car, you go do something, but it just stays running. So the wipers will keep

03:31 going if it's raining, the heater will keep running, it just continuously drains the battery.

03:35 If you look at other vehicles that have similar systems, like a Model 3 for example, once

03:39 you get out and close the door, everything switches off. So I would much prefer that

03:43 system where it just powers down. But anyway, just a minor thing they can fix with software

03:48 update down the track.

03:49 Now, just in terms of the design. So I love this big screen over here, the screen ahead

03:52 of the driver, that's all really nicely laid out. I just wish it was a bit more colourful.

03:56 You know, I mean, the outside of the car is so colourful, and then in here it's just so

03:59 bland and very dreary looking. But anyway, the styling is subjective. And then piano

04:05 black, I really don't like piano black. It's got little scratch marks and stuff. It just

04:09 marks so easily, and then it's impossible to keep clean. And this car's virtually brand

04:14 new and it's got these scuffs all over it. So that's going to be very hard to fix. But

04:18 anyway, outside of that, what are your touch points like? So nice in the centre there,

04:23 not too bad on the door. How soft are they? We've got our durometer, we've tested the

04:27 main surfaces in this cabin. If you want to see how this car compares to other cars that

04:31 we've tested before, have a look at the link in the description below.

04:34 Now, what about your build quality? What's that like? It all feels really nice and solid,

04:39 no dramas there. This is what the door sounds like.

04:48 Now let's talk infotainment. So central to the cabin is this 10.25 inch display, high

04:53 resolution screen, quality of that is really nice. But you can see there that when I'm

04:58 flicking between it, it can be a little bit laggy at times, and it's found that really

05:02 strange. You've got a brand new sort of infotainment display and then it's a little bit fiddly

05:07 to use at times. That even comes down to things like the physical buttons. They've got a couple

05:12 of key buttons down here, but ultimately to change temperature, for example, you've got

05:16 to go into this menu up the top and while you're driving as well, like try and get these

05:21 buttons. Yeah, it's just a little bit fiddly. It would be nice to see some physical switches

05:26 and buttons there.

05:28 Built into this system is your EV information, so for charging and also discharging. And

05:35 this is also where you'll control your vehicle to load functionality. So you can actually

05:38 power other devices from this vehicle's battery, which I think is a fantastic feature and it's

05:42 really cool to see. Then you have your connected services as well. So it actually comes down

05:47 to radio too. So if you go into the radio menu, you have not only AM, FM and digital

05:52 radio, but you also have online music. So you can hook up your Amazon Music account

05:56 here to stream online music, which I reckon is just a fantastic feature.

06:00 And outside of that, it's all pretty straightforward. You have a user manual built into here. You

06:04 have the ability to connect to the car remotely. So it is a pretty comprehensive system. I

06:09 just think it could be just a little bit quicker in terms of its functionality.

06:13 Now I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like. Both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are

06:17 wired. So this is Apple CarPlay here. You can see it takes up that full screen. No dramas

06:22 there flicking between those menus, just a tiny, tiny bit laggy. And this is Android

06:27 Auto. Nice big display there and also easy to navigate as well. Let us know if you want

06:32 us to do another Apple CarPlay v Android Auto comparison too. Get one of those lined up

06:38 with iOS 17.

06:39 Outside of that, on the screen ahead of the driver, you have the rest of your controls.

06:42 I love this. It's a small enough display, but it gives you all of the critical information

06:46 you need. So you've got stuff like your battery state, your driving range, information about

06:50 the semi-autonomous systems, and you also have other critical information like how much

06:55 power you're consuming and which drive mode it's in and that kind of thing.

06:58 Now what about your safety tech? So you have autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian

07:03 and cyclist detection. You've got an auto-dimming rear vision mirror. You've got a blind spot

07:07 monitor built into the wing mirror. You have radar cruise control. You also have a traffic

07:11 jam assistant that will stop and go when you are in traffic, effectively keeping a set

07:16 distance between you and the car in front. You have rear cross traffic alert with auto

07:20 stop. You've got rear parking sensors and a 360 camera. I'll show you what that looks

07:24 like.

07:25 Yeah, look at the quality of that. It's actually terrible. So you can't even see what's on

07:29 the suitcase there. That's the top down view and it is just super, super low quality. So

07:34 yeah, I don't know. That probably needs a bit of work. Given this is a brand new car,

07:39 it would have been nice to see a higher quality reverse view camera there.

07:43 And it's what the horn sounds like.

07:47 Moving on to practicality and we'll start off with your connectivity. So your phone

07:51 can sit here on the wireless charger or alternatively you can whack it down here because down here

07:56 you've got a USB-A outlet, USB-C outlet and a 12-volt outlet as well.

08:02 Storing your drinks. So my little coffee cup fits nicely down there. No risk of de-lidding

08:07 which is good news. Can also then fit a normal size bottle in there without any problems.

08:13 This bottle can fit inside the door too. We'll try a big bottle as well, see how that goes.

08:19 Fits in very nice.

08:20 Now in terms of other storage, you've got this centre console here that's really nice

08:25 and deep. You have this centre section as well with a little sort of garage door on

08:30 it. You've got a glove box over here that's small and then you've also got a sunglasses

08:35 holder up the top.

08:36 Let's talk about your comfort and we'll start off with your climate controls. So you only

08:41 have single zone automatic climate control but outside of that you do have seat heating

08:46 for the front seats and a steering wheel heater as well.

08:49 So front seats are actually pretty comfy. So you've got a sort of fabric section in

08:52 the centre and then this leather material on the outside as well. Seats are electrically

08:58 adjustable for the driver so you can go forwards or backwards. Your backrest can go forwards

09:02 and backwards and then you can also lift the back of the seat. The passenger seat is entirely

09:07 manually adjustable. In terms of your steering, it is manually adjustable for both tilt and

09:13 reach.

09:14 And have a look at this steering wheel, what a fancy looking design. And on our reach test

09:19 all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.

09:22 Now second row, what's it like? Knee room isn't great, toe room is also not great. Head

09:27 room isn't too bad.

09:29 In terms of your other Cresa comforts, you've got slots here for your phone, map pockets,

09:33 you've got a single USB-A outlet. No air vents here unfortunately, also no centre armrest

09:39 as well. But you do get ISOFIX points on the outboard seats plus top tether points as well.

09:45 And then you've got bottle storage inside the door too.

09:49 Now our window test, does the window go down all the way? It's auto up and down. Look at

09:55 that, winner, excellent.

09:56 Now cargo space, what's it like? Let's open it up. So you've got just over 350 litres

10:03 available here with that second row in place.

10:05 Show you what it's like with our bags in there. So laptop bag, suitcase, we'll see if that

10:11 goes long ways. Nope, it goes sideways and that fits in.

10:17 Now you do have a little bit of extra storage. So the charger is in here, actually a super

10:21 light charger as well compared to a lot of other vehicles. So that's good to see. Under

10:25 here you've got a little bit of extra storage there along with a tyre repair kit as well.

10:30 So no spare tyre.

10:31 If you do want to expand the space a little bit, you can drop the second row. So you get

10:36 rid of your cargo blind and then you can drop your second row. Push that out of the way.

10:42 That expands the space to a little under 1200 litres.

10:46 Now before we go for a spin, let me run you through the battery and charging. So this

10:51 is your charge port. So this has a 77 kilowatt hour battery. It's a lithium ion NMC battery.

10:57 NMC is nickel manganese cobalt. Three phase AC charging is available and then on the DC

11:03 front it'll do up to 150 kilowatts and it peaks at around 140 kilowatts. WLTP driving

11:08 range of a little over 500 kilometres as well.

11:13 Okay, so we have hit the road in the MG4. It is unfortunately sopping wet today, so

11:21 we're not going to be able to do anything too exciting, but we will see how it all goes.

11:26 So yeah, look, EV, quiet when you set off, which is great news. I did notice when we

11:31 were driving though at lower speeds, you do hear some noises coming from the motor in

11:36 the rear, so it doesn't seem to have as much sort of padding as some of the other competitors

11:39 in this segment. Not the end of the world, but just something I sort of noticed. One

11:44 thing I did notice as well is that when we drove this car at the launch, they've since

11:47 added a single pedal driving mode. So I'm actually really curious to see what that's

11:51 like. You have different regen modes, you've got low, medium, high and adaptive. And let's

11:56 just see what this single pedal's like. So I'm just sort of slowing down now. This should

12:01 come to a complete stop as part of that. Nice. Yeah, that all feels really good. No dramas

12:08 there at all. Okay, very impressive. And that came as a over the air update, which is pretty

12:12 cool.

12:13 Now, what is powering this? Well, it's got the 77 kilowatt hour battery, then it uses

12:18 a single electric motor on the rear axle. So that makes 180 kilowatts of power and 350

12:23 newton meters of torque. That's pretty much exactly where you want to be for a rear wheel

12:27 drive car. And let me explain why, because at the moment when it's wet, if you do come

12:33 to a complete stop and then get on the throttle, you can hear it's constantly fighting the

12:40 loss of traction there. So any more power on a rear wheel drive vehicle like this and

12:44 you're going to have issues with traction constantly when it's wet. So it's right where

12:47 it needs to be. And that offers you a zero to 100 time of a little under seven seconds,

12:52 which we're going to test very soon as well.

12:54 And what does all that feel like behind the wheel? Well, when you get sort of stuck into

12:58 it, it sort of pushes you back in the seat nicely. It just reminds me of a Tesla Model

13:03 3, if I'm honest. It just feels exactly like that when it comes to acceleration. It's really

13:07 quite nice and brisk and not over the top. It just feels very gradual and effective in

13:13 the way that it deals with itself. And this top spec version also has more power, the

13:16 lower variants that have different battery capacities actually have less power. So it's

13:21 good to see this has just a bit more oomph.

13:23 Now let's talk economy. So MG claims a combined average of around 17 kilowatt hours per 100

13:29 k's. We're sitting on 22.2, so not exactly the best economy in the world. A little surprised

13:36 by that. I think that could just come down to the type of driving we've been doing today.

13:42 But I don't know, I just think that that's probably a little bit high for my liking.

13:46 If you do look at other competitors in this segment, they're sort of sitting around the

13:49 14 or 15 kilowatt hour per 100 k mark.

13:52 Probably the thing that has surprised me the most driving this around is the ride quality.

13:56 It is fantastic, both in and around the city and out here on the sort of highway. It actually

14:01 just soaks in bumps nicely. They've put a lot of effort into making sure that it is

14:05 a civil car to drive, and that's exactly what you need if you do compare it to something

14:09 like a Model 3. The Model 3 is so harsh in comparison to this. This is just that perfect

14:14 balance. Now let's see if that stacks up when the speed does pick up. We're going to push

14:18 this up to 130, which is maximum speed limit in Australia, and also the speed that we attack

14:23 our sine waves at. The whole purpose of that is to see what the body control is like if

14:28 you're doing something like an overtake out in the country. Dial the speed up here. Alrighty,

14:35 so there's 130. That's excellent. They've done a really good job of that. Very, very

14:43 impressive. Okay, so bumpy road time. We do this at 90 k's an hour. This simulates the

14:50 worst road in Australia, and it gives us a really good feel for what this is like across

14:56 choppy sections of roads. We've got a condensed sine wave here to see what this is like. Yeah,

15:03 nice. They've done such a good job with the ride. I'm really, really impressed with that

15:08 even on this stretch of bad road. Now in terms of road noise, there is a bit of road noise

15:13 that comes into the cabin. The damping isn't fantastic. It's not over the top, but you

15:17 will notice it when you are driving on course chip country roads, and it sort of tends to

15:21 be a little bit noisy inside the cabin, but not the end of the world. And this is how

15:25 it went up against our calibrated sound meter. Now let's talk drive mode. So we've got Snow,

15:31 Eco, Sport and Custom. I'm going to pop it into Sport mode. We'll see what that feels

15:35 like around our track. So it is very wet, so unfortunately I'm not going to be able

15:39 to do anything interesting here, but let's see how we go. Alright. This is actually a

15:49 little bit of fun. Alright, yeah look, it is tucking in nicely. He'll roll onto the

15:54 throttle on this back straight section. Yeah, nice. It's actually got a lot of legs. It's

16:00 interesting, once the speed picks up, it doesn't sort of fade away like a lot of electric vehicles

16:04 do. It's still actually quite keen to keep going. Brake pedal feel isn't too bad either.

16:10 Yeah, it's actually not too bad. I actually thought this was going to be just completely

16:14 different to this. MG has really come a long way since the MG of old. Like it is, it's

16:21 actually really surprising. So yeah, like I said, unfortunately it is very wet out here

16:25 at the moment. So we don't really have a great deal of traction, and I am keen to come back

16:30 here when it is dry, and in fact I'm actually quite keen to drive the all-wheel drive car

16:35 there they're bringing to Australia as well. I think that'll be an absolute rocket ship

16:38 out here. I hate this though. There are no auto wipers, which is the most bizarre thing

16:44 in the world. Yeah look, so from a handling standpoint, it's actually, it's really not

16:48 that bad. It's quite impressive actually. In terms of visibility, so I can see clearly

16:53 down the front of the car there, the wing mirrors are nice and big. Visibility out the

16:56 back isn't very good. That window is very narrow and the seats are huge, or the seat

17:00 tops are huge where the headrests are, and they really sort of interfere with vision

17:03 there, so that could be a little bit better. Now time to test the semi-autonomous systems

17:08 here. So I'm going to get this up to 70, which is the speed we test all of this stuff at.

17:14 The whole idea is we use our bowl here to get just a bit of a representation of what

17:19 this would be like on an open road and how well it'll keep itself within the lanes. So

17:24 we'll try it in each of these lanes and see how it performs. So it's just a lane keeping

17:29 assist and it doesn't seem to have a lane centering function at all. As a result of

17:35 that it can be sort of a little bouncy in terms of where it goes. OK so we'll just test

17:39 it in this first lane as we approach. It sort of pulses the car back into the centre there,

17:45 but it's not actually keeping it within the centre. So yeah, it's just a lane departure

17:51 avoidance system as opposed to an actual lane centring assistant. One thing I am a fan of

17:58 is the turning circle. It's around 10.5 metres and it means that you can just dial in lock

18:05 and it turns on a dime. It is genuinely impressive. Very happy with that, and if you do want to

18:12 tow, you have a brake towing capacity of 500 kilograms. OK, performance testing time. Let's

18:18 chat Help Me Car Expert first. So Help Me Car Expert is basically a Google term. You

18:24 go to Google, you type in Help Me Car Expert, it'll take you to a webpage. That webpage

18:28 will connect you with the dealers we have on our platform. Car Expert's a big company,

18:32 it's not just us doing video out here, and the dealers that are on our platform are there

18:36 to help you find a car that's in stock and also get you the best deal on it as well.

18:40 So Help Me Car Expert, go to Google and have a look at that. Now MG claims a 0-100 time

18:47 of 6.5 seconds, so it is absolutely drenched at the moment. So we'll see how we go. I might

18:53 actually turn off traction control first to give that a shot. We'll go all the way through

18:58 to 120 and then if that goes pear-shaped, we'll give it another shot with traction control

19:04 on. So here we go. Alright, 100 and 120. Alright, come to a stop. Let's see what that's like.

19:28 Alright that actually felt nice and quick, so 0-100, 6.52 seconds, so pretty much bang

19:33 on the money and in completely drenched conditions as well, which is pretty good. And then 80-120,

19:40 4.63 seconds. That's actually really good as well. Shows you that it has a stack of

19:44 mid-range there even though it does taper off when it speeds up, so that is bloody good.

19:50 OK, now our stop from 100. It is so wet out here at the moment, so we will see how we

19:56 go. Alright, here we go. OK, so 100-0, 3.82 seconds and 51 metres, which is pretty much

20:09 exactly what I was expecting here in the wet. Yeah, look, if we do get the MG4 back at some

20:15 point when it's dry, we'll do another break from 100 to see how it goes, but unfortunately

20:19 can't help the weather conditions. And now, our reverse acceleration test. Let's see how

20:37 we go. Alright. Nice. Yeah, 43 kilometres an hour. So, MG4, is it the affordable electric

20:53 car we were hoping for? Yes, it is, but just not in this spec, I reckon. I think this is

20:57 a little bit too close to Tesla Model 3 money and I think the Tesla Model 3 is a better

21:01 vehicle, but at the entry level or in the mid-spec, that is where this becomes really

21:06 good value for money. You've got rear-wheel drive, so it's fun to drive. You've got a

21:10 decent amount of range and it comes with all the bells and whistles you'd expect in this

21:13 day and age. So, let me know what you reckon in the comments section below. Are you looking

21:17 for an electric car? Have you test-driven this? And if so, what did you think? I'm keen

21:21 for your feedback. If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share

21:25 it with your mates, and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press

21:28 the bell icon. But, until next time, drive safely.

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