MG ZS BEV, 44kWh

DrPhilG

https://www.drivingelectric.com/mg/zs

Nice looking car, similar to the e-Niro and Kona, but is rumoured to be hitting the UK at around a £25k price point.

God only knows what availability will be like of course, although I've heard 700 for the UK in the first allocation.

tedpan

Looks identical to a CX-5

Shefwedfan

Who owns MG these days? didn't it go bust a few years back?

I always liked the little hatch they had out a good few years ago. Showing my age.

They always had a nice exterior look about this, could be interesting option if they can supply.

tedpan

Shefwedfan wrote:

Who owns MG these days? didn't it go bust a few years back?

SAIC Motor Corporation
(China, state owned)

copeyhagen

that's pretty decent for a 25k sterling starting point

mr chips

Goes on sale in September in the UK. If it really does come in around the £24k mark and the range really is around 170 miles (as per above article) it should be a game changer - more spacious than a Kona/Soul/Zoe, not far behind the range of the 39 kWh variants of the Kona/Niro but substantially cheaper. AFAIR the new Ioniq will have similar range but for a lot more money. If I were in the market for a new car at the moment, I'd be looking at this before pretty much any other EV.

https://insideevs.com/news/356936/mg-dealer-network-uk-handle-electric-vehicles/

stimpson

The build quality of the Chinese made MGs has been very poor. I wouldn’t spend my hard earned cash on one.

ewj1978

tweet :https://twitter.com/MichielBarendse/status/1147191008914022400

MG spotted charging at Fastned. 85kWh CCS, 270km WLTP. Around €30k in Holland.

Mike9832

Nice car

Pity not coming here, price looks competitive

unkel

€30k is a very good Dutch base price, as there are no subsidies on EVs over there. VAT is 21%, so this car should be under €26k here, which would make it the best value EV in this country. That is also fairly consistent with the UK price of about GBP24k in the link in the OP

Car looks good from the front. Not so much from the side. This one was also spotted in the Netherlands:

ewj1978

Niro sized?

ewj1978

ewj1978 wrote: »

Niro sized?

To me it seems to be a virtual clone of a hyundai ix35 from about 2012 so probably similar in size also. Liquid cooled battery and the charging rates sound excellent especially when considering the price.

fastrac

If I was testing an electric car I'd look for somewhere more challenging than Holland.

Mike9832

Will be £21,500 for the first 1000 customers

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/fully-electric-mg-zs-will-only-cost-ps21500

Seriously good offer

How much is vrt/vat etc if we were to buy it?

Would it come out at less than €30,000 all in?

Sterling is a 90 cent now

stimpson

Mike9832 wrote: »

Will be £21,500 for the first 1000 customers

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/fully-electric-mg-zs-will-only-cost-ps21500

Seriously good offer

How much is vrt/vat etc if we were to buy it?

Would it come out at less than €30,000 all in?

Sterling is a 90 cent now

No VRT. 23% VAT unless it's <6 months AND 6000km on the clock.

EDIT: €29,403 on transferwise.com

You should be able to claim back the UK 19% VAT after registration to Ireland if you pay the VAT here.

Matqo

I presume these won't be sold here in Ireland, what would be the best way for one to get a new ZS EV to Ireland?

icom

A quick review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXEtN17xy7s

Very impressive.

Shefwedfan

Matqo wrote: »

I presume these won't be sold here in Ireland, what would be the best way for one to get a new ZS EV to Ireland?

Buy it in UK and drive it over

zoom_cool

Or go to Northern Ireland there is MG dealers in the North

icom

zoom_cool wrote: »

Or go to Northern Ireland there is MG dealers in the North

One dealer in Tyrone and 3 others in the Belfast area.

https://www.gregmitchellmotors.com/mg/new-cars/zs-ev/1033/

rivegauche

A review from Whatcar

DrPhilG

Back seat seems huge. Or maybe that's just because I have an i3.

When your own is so small everyone else's seems massive.

*cough...

unkel

GBP21k and a free home charger. 262km WLTP range. Similar in size to eNiro and also in the same mid size ever so popular crossover segment as the Niro and Qashqai. That's surely an attractive proposition to many people in the UK. Boring looking to me if I'm honest, but most cars in that segment are and they have never appealed to me

Wonder what pricing will be like over here.

Mike9832

unkel wrote: »

Wonder what pricing will be like over here.

Is it coming here?

unkel

Good question. I was presuming it was.

mr chips

GBP £21.5k is a much more aggressive starting point for pricing than I had hoped for, and the reviews above seen to be quite positive in terms of both the driving experience and the build quality. While I've never been a fan of the SUV/crossover format, as a route into usable EV ownership this one looks very promising and I could see myself in a used example a year or two from now. The only caveat is that the steering wheel adjusts for rake but not reach, which is a weird omission these days and could make or break it for me in terms of living with the car. The position of the steering wheel would have to be just right - otherwise I'd end up with backache if I had to stretch to it or else cramped legs from sliding the seat far enough forwards to avoid stretching. Daft to leave out such a basic feature. Otherwise, the only other thing I'd be interested in is a longer range version (200+ miles), but I haven't seen anything to indicate such an option will be on the cards.

unkel

That price is only for the first 1000 customers though. But they will be getting a good deal, that's for sure.

Matqo

icom wrote: »

One dealer in Tyrone and 3 others in the Belfast area.

https://www.gregmitchellmotors.com/mg/new-cars/zs-ev/1033/

That sounds like the most logical way to do it, I have however asked and was told I'd need to be a UK Resident in order to reserve (mainly due to the grant situation)

Has anyone been in this situation before? If so I'd love to hear what one could do to in regards to this.

krissovo

I see MG are extending the offer for an additional 1000 units, no free charger with the next batch but still looks great value.

unkel

Kate reviews it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4xOMHblj8A

Summary: a very decent, great value, very practical family EV. Top of the range model just GBP23k. Charging disappointingly only at 55kW on Ionity - it is supposed to be 85kW. Bigger boot than eNiro. 0-60 2s quicker than the official figure of 8.5s, so bit of a pocket rocket

James and Kate are selling their Tesla Model S and they are replacing it with the MG!

DrPhilG

unkel wrote: »

James and Kate are selling their Tesla Model S and they are replacing it with the MG!

Is this not the second or third car they've made that claim on?

unkel

Not that I'm aware. They only put their Model S up for sale a few months ago. I'd say the will go ahead with this if they can sell their Tesla. But I feel their timing might be poor as the country is going to see a big infllux of brand new Model 3 soon, which I reckon will bring the prices of used Model S down.

ELM327

DrPhilG wrote: »

Is this not the second or third car they've made that claim on?

Yeah, it's their "go to" line on their videos


To be honest, I still watch their videos only if it's a car I'm interested in, but I disregard any "opinions" they express after they tried to claim the leaf40 didnt rapidgate - without showing the screen.

charlieIRL

Are these available yet? I'm 99% certain i met a UK reg one near Sligo on saturday.

DrPhilG

ELM327 wrote: »

Yeah, it's their "go to" line on their videos


To be honest, I still watch their videos only if it's a car I'm interested in, but I disregard any "opinions" they express after they tried to claim the leaf40 didnt rapidgate - without showing the screen.

Exactly. I can't remember which car, but I've definitely seen them claim before that they were going to swap their Tesla for whichever car they were reviewing at the time.

And yes they lost all credibility for me during the early days of rapidgate. Totally undermined their impartiality.

unkel

Yeah that was really bad. I remember several of us giving out hell about it at the time. Do you think they are sponsored by (some of) the EV manufacturers when they do reviews? If so that would be pretty bad

They don't do many reviews of EVs, but when they do one I usually watch it

But I wouldn't trust their impartiality like I trust that of Nyland

DrPhilG

There was definitely something fishy. I lost faith with Jonathan Porterfield for the same reasons.

He had his 40kWh Leaf for a few weeks and I asked about rapidgate, he firmly denied its existence, claimed he had no issues with multiple rapid charges.

Myself and a few others were very vocal on speakev.com about it, having driven the car and encountered it, and lo and behold Jonathan then took part in the infamous race with Kate & James and went viral with their big news that the rest of us had been saying all along.

Old diesel

I'm not intending to defend James, Kate or Jonathan here.....

BUT.......

1) if Porterfield was deliberately trying to cover up Rapidgate initially - I dont think he would even have had the infamous race in the first place. And worse - he was live tweeting and periscoping during it.

2) have never had any dealings with Jonathan Porterfield in my life - but everyone who has seems to think the sun shines out of his backside. People who bought cars off him with their hard earned.

3) Did he get it wrong in the early days - YES - but I don't believe he intentionally set out to mislead anyone. The race shows us this - he didn't need to do a race at all.

DrPhilG

To clarify, my annoyance with Porterfield was different from K&J. They seemed to have known of the issue and deliberately concealed it.

With JP I'm not accusing him of skullduggery but either way he totally dismissed the claims. Whether that was because he didn't want to believe it, or because he hadn't sufficiently tested it, doesn't matter.

He's a prominent voice for EVs in the UK and swept a huge problem under the rug. Then didn't even have the manners to put his hands up and admit he was wrong.

Old diesel

Should add that rapidgate didn't really help their reputation as reviewers - the race video was merely them catching up with what was already known which isn't great.

Are other reviewers better - yes.....

I'm not saying they are good.

But this idea that they covered up for Nissan or deliberately set out to mislead is just horse manure imo.

DrPhilG

Old diesel wrote: »

But this idea that they covered up for Nissan or deliberately set out to mislead is just horse manure imo.

So why did they deny its existence without showing evidence?

I only had the car for a day and was able to show photos of the car on its second rapid, showing a 1.5hr estimate to 80% from 20%

Proper reviewers like J&K should have been able to show mileage, percentages and stops with a second rapid being as fast as the first.

Old diesel

DrPhilG wrote: »

So why did they deny its existence without showing evidence?

I only had the car for a day and was able to show photos of the car on its second rapid, showing a 1.5hr estimate to 80% from 20%

Proper reviewers like J&K should have been able to show mileage, percentages and stops with a second rapid being as fast as the first.

To me if there was a cover up on the go - we would never havd had that infamous race at all.

Their initial pre race experience implied to them that they didn't have a 2nd charge issue.

Why they took that as reason to say the problem didn't exist i don't know.

But it's important to note that Jonathon actually BOUGHT that Leaf used for the initial test and the race.

Why you'd want to cover up a fault on a car you literally just bought is frankly beyond me but there we are.

If Jonathan and James found what we now know is rapidgate during the 370 mile test - that's the one you say they didn't show up the dash on - then as an initial discovery there are two immediate possibilities......

1) a charger is faulty - another L40 youtuber actually blamed this on his first rapidgate incident......

2) there's a flaw on the new Nissan Porterfield just BOUGHT.

We know the latter is now the case..

Cars can have design or manufacturing issues so the need to cover up here isn't apparent to me on a car that was BOUGHT from Nissan

irishgrover

I've been keeping an eye on this. There is plenty of good stuff in the car. However there are some issues that would cause some concern...

• No Climate control - air con yes, but you cannot set a specific temp
• No pre-heating - presumably becuase there is no CC - potential big impact on winter range.
• No app - there is confusion wrt the car being installed wit hthe required module or not. In some markets it has an existing app. So it could be a case of an english version of the app not being available but being relased later. Or it could be that there is hardware missings (ala ioniq)
• No reach adjustment on the steering wheel - just up and down
• Lack of clarity on battery capacity information. It may or may not give actual information on what % battery is left. If I;m going long distances I don't want to rely on the GOM. I want to see % batt left and current driving efficiency (both real time)
• No heated steering wheel - would be nice, especially considering lack of cabin pre-heat.
• Unknown efficiency
• Questionable MG quality, not specifically in terms if EV components, just generally, bodywork, rust etc

There are still plenty good stuff, especially in higher end model

• Good price
• Great tech
• Very good reviews
• Good size

k123456

Its a largely excellent car at a great price. One concern I would have, is reports of Rust on the non EV MG Zs's . Anti rust warranty is very limited

slave1

They have reinstated their reduced pricing in the UK, you can have one for £22k and up for UK folk...

https://mg.co.uk/mg-zs-electric/

unkel

Which at GBP21,995 makes it the cheapest EV for sale in the UK. Let's be honest, it's only a mediocre car but it is a bit of a bargain. Bigger, better specced yet cheaper than a Zoe!

I have said for a long time that the world needs more cheap low end EVs. Next a €15k Dacia Sandero EV with a 25kWh battery please!

charlieIRL

Haven’t Renault an EV for China only which is under €9k? Might see a few of them imported.

krissovo

charlieIRL wrote: »

Haven’t Renault an EV for China only which is under €9k? Might see a few of them imported.

Would be nice but I doubt they will ever get EU certified or even tested. Could make a nice donor for a beetle conversion....... Hmmm

unkel

charlieIRL wrote: »

Haven’t Renault an EV for China only which is under €9k? Might see a few of them imported.

Yes unbelievably cheap, but won't be conform the safety regulations of the western world. Safer than the moped it replaces for its Chinese owner though.

KCross

unkel wrote: »

I have said for a long time that the world needs more cheap low end EVs. Next a €15k Dacia Sandero EV with a 25kWh battery please!

While I agree with your sentiment, would that car be a success though? It would likely have brutal range relative to whats on the market today.

It would suit loads of people I know, but I'd still wonder whether the market would actually bite at that car. I'd say you'd get the inevitable "Im not buying that when the cheaper petrol equivalent can go four times the distance"

I'd say the min battery size needs to be 35kWh usable from this point forward. How we get those down to €20k is the big issue and I've no answers for that. Its possible it will "never" happen and people have to start looking at TCO rather than RRP and tax new ICE cars out of it to bridge the gap.