MG’s electric SUV has just gone on sale in New Zealand and the Chinese brand surprised the new vehicle market with a sharp price for the ZS.

MG Australasia CEO, Peter Ciao, announced at a press conference last week a new price of electric SUV at $48,990 – down $7000 from the advertised price. This makes it New Zealand’s cheapest new EV by $13,000.

The ZS EV has a range between 263- and 370km with three levels of regenerative braking. It produces 105kW of power and 353Nm of torque, charging to 80 per cent on a supercharger in 45 minutes.

It also gets a seven year battery warranty.

Ciao said that there were over 100 ZS EVs in Australia and New Zealand “with 1000 more to come soon” with expectations of 3000 sales in 2021.

So, what do global motoring writers think about the MG ZS EV? And stay tuned for an AutoMuse review of the electric SUV soon.

Top Gear

The UK magazine and website gave it 6/10.

“Don’t be fooled by the outside. This looks like the ordinary (but extraordinarily cheap) ZS, but is actually full-electric. And for a full-electric crossover, it also goes with an amazingly low price.

There are disadvantages in this approach. The ZS EV inherits, unnecessarily, the gawky front overhang of a body designed for a transverse combustion engine. Would look better on bigger wheels too.

The shortish wheelbase means there isn’t room for a huge battery. The ZS EV gets by with 44.5kWh. It’s enough for 263km in the WLTP test. But of course a smallish battery does help to keep the price pinned low, and the weight reasonable.

Broadly you’d say the ZS lives in the small crossover class. But it’s bigger than nearly all of them, and hence roomier.

Still, you’re probably thinking: electric and crossover eh? Two words that will doubtless get cheerleaders for the original MG company rotating in their grave like an MGB’s crankshaft on the red-line. But they need to calm down. Since its string-back-glove sports-car days of the 1950s the MG name has always diverted into mildly hopped-up versions of Austin and Morris saloons – MG Montego anyone?

Nowadays the name belongs to the Chinese SAIC conglomerate, so at least there’s true industrial heft behind it. The company has a battery plant capable of churning out 300,000 electric vehicle packs a year.”

Car Wow

Automuse favourite Mat Watson gave it 6/10

“Compared with the likes of the more expensive Kia e-Niro and Hyundai Kona electric, the MG ZS EV is a bit like supermarket own-brand biscuits – it’s a fine everyday choice, but doesn’t feel as special as most alternatives.

Part of this is down to the way it looks. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with the MG ZS EV’s squinting headlights and aggressive grille, but it looks almost identical to the standard ZS on which it’s based. This might be fine if you want your environmentally friendly electric car to fly under the radar, but it’s less of a bonus if you want to shout about your eco-credentials.

This low-key theme continues inside, where the MG ZS EV looks just like the standard car. You get the same simple dashboard design with its analogue dials and mix of hard and soft plastics, and even the 8in touchscreen display has been carried over without any of the tweaks you normally see in electric versions of petrol-powered cars.

As a result, the MG ZS EV’s interior feels a bit last-year compared to the cabins in the Kia e-Niro and Hyundai Kona Electric, but at least you get sat-nav and smartphone mirroring features as standard and there’s a decent amount of seat adjustment to help you get comfy.

There’s a good amount of space in the back, too, and a fair number of handy storage bins to help you keep everything looking neat and tidy. The MG ZS EV’s boot is also pretty roomy, but you’ll be able to carry more in a Kia e-Niro – especially with the back seats folded down.”

Auto Car

The UK magazine and website gave it 3/5.

“The electronic traction governance might be a little bit less delicate and more slower-witted than in the best of the electric breed, and feels more like it’s engaged in a pitched battle against torque and wheelspin than cleverly gauging traction and meting out grunt accordingly, as some EVs seem able to do.

You can, of course, quite easily throttle back a bit and still take advantage of what EVs do best. The ZS has outstanding linearity of throttle response and, although it doesn’t quite sweep into motion the instant you move the accelerator pedal, the car has evidently been tuned instead to avoid the sense of hyper-responsiveness that you can get from some EVs. It picks up pace between 30- and 80km/h with plenty of gutsiness, which then begins to decrease as you approach the national speed limit – although there’s still plenty of urgency available for A-road overtaking and motorway lane manoeuvring.

MG offers three driving modes and three separate battery regen presets, both selectable via rocker switches at the base of the centre stack. ‘Eco’ driving mode seemed, during our testing, to achieve little to boost efficiency and much more to blunt drivability, so it’s best avoided.

The battery regen setting flexibility does at least allow you to let the car coast pretty effectively when it’s smart to do so, or to drive it ‘on one pedal’ should you prefer. Both are agreeable modes of operation, although the car’s brake pedal tuning fails to make it clear through tactile feel when you’re regenerating electrical power and when you’ve progressed to involving the friction brakes.”

Car Advice

The Aussies drove it last week and gave it 8.1/10.

“Peeling out into Sydney traffic from MG’s flagship Sydney showroom for our launch drive, all the positives we associate with electric vehicles are immediately apparent.

Quick darts into side streets with a short break in traffic for example, are safe thanks to that immediate and seamless response. As stated above, the addition of the electric powertrain moves the ZS into an even more accomplished driving experience.

In short, the ZS EV feels responsive, smooth, and lag free, without feeling like a performance SUV.

Aside from the slight whirring you hear as speed increases, the cabin remains generally calm even up to highway speed. There’s some tyre noise and some wind noise, above 80km/h, but the cabin is a comfortable place to be – far quieter than an internal combustion powered vehicle.

As is the case with every electric car we’ve tested, long runs on the highway at 110km/h will start to eat into the available range, but around town, you’ll be comfortable pushing pretty close to the claimed limit.

Onto a twisty section of B-road and the bump absorption remained solid. You can feel the heft of the battery pack to a certain extent, but the payoff is that with it mounted so low in the chassis, the centre of gravity is impressive.”

Car Sales

Another Aussie journo took it for a spin.

“The electrification of the MG ZS takes a predictable course, with a giant rectangular battery pack laid over the floor of the chassis and the operational parts of the package at opposite ends and taking advantage of the traditional engine bay.

The plug-in charging port, which is the standard European CCS2 design, is located behind a fold-up panel in the grille and not in the rear guards like many of the latest plug-in hybrids.

The MG ZS EV can cope with all charging modes from a three-pin home plug, which takes around seven hours for a full charge, through to an 85kW ‘fast charger’ that will take the battery to 80 per cent in 45 minutes.

The changeover to electric concentrates weight very low in the chassis, a bonus for safety, and the battery itself is mounted in a steel safety cage. It is also made by SAIC in China, one of only three car-makers that is currently producing its own batteries.

MG Australia says it expects the EV to achieve the same five-star NCAP safety rating the ZS gets in Europe, thanks to the battery cage, and it has loaded the full MG Pilot safety suite into the car. In addition to autonomous emergency braking (AEB), it runs to lane-keep assist, rear cross-traffic alert, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control and speed assist.

The MG ZS EV is plug-and-play without many of the ‘bells and whistles’ of other electrified cars, such as a charging display panel to allow drivers and passengers to watch in real-time what is happening in the system.

It’s a minimalist approach that means there’s a single rotary controller in the centre console, identical to the selector for a regular automatic, and a couple of switches that set the (three) drive modes, (three) levels of regenerative braking and display the battery condition.

The instrument cluster dials incorporate a distance-to-empty number, although it’s very small, and instead of a tachometer there is a readout for the percentage of power being used – a bit like a Rolls-Royce.”