MG4 2022 Review – International

Signalling MG’s intent to pitch its new-generation EVs to a global audience, the 2022 MG4 actually hit the roads of Europe before China. But the world’s biggest auto market wasn’t far behind, and we’ve secured a drive in the car’s Chinese twin, known as the MG Mulan in the local market.

The change of name to the mythical character Mulan – who disguised herself as a man to save her elderly father from military conscription – is probably due to the number 4 sounding like the word for death in Mandarin, making it not the best of names for a car.

And like the character, this car is designed as a fighter and has some formidable rivals in its sights. They include the incoming Volkswagen ID.3, Cupra Born and, perhaps most obviously, a sub-$40,000 five-door electric hatch from BYD – based on the Dolphin (or EA1) sold overseas.

Until now, MG, like most Chinese marques, has competed largely on price. Sure, the MG4 continues with the more-for-less ethos, but this new small electric hatchback does more than that.

For a start, this is the first time we have an MG built from scratch on a dedicated EV platform, meaning rear-wheel drive and, according to the car-maker, a 50:50 weight distribution – both of which provide a good basis for sporty driving dynamics.

Unlike previous MG offerings, the 4 has far more presence with enough angles in the design to give a sports car a run for its money – a look possibly influenced by the MG Cyberster concept. It doesn’t scream EV, but it sure gets noticed, unlike the Golf-looking ID.3.

The MG4 is due in Australia in the first half of next year, and MG’s desire to maintain its position as the purveyor of the country’s most affordable EVs – as demonstrated by recent moves with the MG ZS EV – should see it closely match BYD with its upcoming hatch due mid-2023. A $35,000 start price has been ruled out for the BYD hatch, but it should still come under $40,000 at the entry level, so that’s sure to be the marker MG is studying too.

Our Chinese-market Mulan Flagship is broadly analogous with the flagship Euro-spec MG4 Trophy and, for the record, is priced at RMB163,800 ($A36,212), after government subsidies paid direct to the car-maker. In the UK, the MG4 Trophy Long Range is set at £31,495 ($56,843), while at the entry level the SE Standard Range opens at £25,995 ($46,919).

So let’s see how close MG Australia gets to the $40K marker.

As a relatively small-budget electric hatchback, the quick answer is not very much. That said, the 2022 MG4 is not as low-rent as the BYD Dolphin we drove earlier this year.

Most noticeably, all seats in the MG4 bar the rear middle seat get adjustable head restraints rather than moulded one-piece seats. And the upholstery is leather.

While the driver gets an electric-adjust seat, the passenger makes do with manual adjustment.

The lack of a sunroof also makes the interior rather dark-feeling, which wasn’t helped by the dual grey-hued interior colours of our test car. A brighter red and grey option is available on the Mulan, but this doesn’t seem to have so far been carried over to the MG4 in Europe.

On the back of the front seats are large, low pockets and on the top there’s two twin pockets which are ideal for stowing phones. Only in the rear is there an older-school USB-A connection.

The front gets two USB-C ports, but we could only find the one on the floating mount that also carries a wireless phone charging pad and drive selector.

There is a PM2.5 filtration system as standard in all but the base-model Mulan, and there is an option of a heat-pump-based HVAC system.

In addition, the MG4 supports 2.2kW vehicle-to-load (V2L) charging. Perhaps not so important on such a small car, but the side mirrors fold when locked, too.

Underlining its world car credentials, the 2022 MG4 has been tested right from the get-go under the more stringent Euro NCAP crash safety regime, rather than the Chinese equivalent, and achieved the coveted five-star ranking.

Our test car was equipped with six airbags including side curtain airbags.

On the gizmos front, there is a lane departure warning system. The instrument display has a graphical rendition of the road and surrounding vehicles. There’s also more active lane keeping assistance which we didn’t test.

The autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system gets pedestrian and cyclist detection, while other advanced driver assist safety features include adaptive cruise control and intelligent high beam assist to help avoid dazzling oncoming traffic at night.

Also of note is battery safety. The MG4 utilises cell-to-pack technology and the batteries have a thickness of only 110mm and feature zero-combustion technology.

Not only does the pack have five-fold protection, but it’s dustproof and waterproof to the IP69K standard – about the highest possible.

The most obvious tech in the 2022 MG4 is the 10.25-inch high-definition screen mounted on top of the dashboard.

European versions get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration, while sat-nav and a 360-degree camera are also provided.

MG in China uses the ‘Zebra’ operating system and voice control is done using the activation word “Hello Zebra”. This proved responsive even to my Mandarin with things like opening windows and turning on the air-con.

It is, however, not as intuitive as systems from other Chinese start-ups like XPeng and Nio, and will not take action in response to more vague statements such as ‘I am hot’. But it can support up to 90 seconds of continual dialogue.

MG4 owners can download an iSmart app which allows you to monitor vehicle charging along with other functions such as locating your car, pre-planning routes and starting the climate control before you reach the car.

Currently the dual-motor/all-wheel drive version of the 2022 MG4 is not available for purchase anywhere. So for the moment that leaves our test car as the most powerful available with its single electric motor that delivers 150kW of power and 250Nm of torque to the rear wheels.

This is the same amount of torque as lower-spec cars with a 125kW electric motor, which means that when coupled with the 64kWh battery pack the MG4 Flagship with a 0-100km/h figure of 7.7 seconds is actually 0.2sec slower than lighter entry-level cars.

The all-wheel drive version will up the metrics to 315kW and 600Nm, unleashing a whole new kind of MG4 – one that really puts the sports car back into MG with a claimed 3.8sec 0-100km/h acceleration time.

On the Chinese version, what is called Eco on European cars gets labelled as Comfort, which together with Standard, Sport and Snow make up the main driving modes together with a programmable Custom option.

In practice, there seems to be little difference between the lower two modes but Sport does give a far more responsive drive.

The long-range version of the 2022 MG4 as tested here is rated at 450km on the WLTP cycle, with city range being as high as 579km.

Certainly, on the inner-city test route used for our drive the battery charge decreased very slowly.

Standard domestic charging takes around nine hours, whereas using a 150kW rapid charger can increase the juice from 10 to 80 per cent in 35 minutes, according to MG.

Despite not being the twin-motored hot-rod version, the 2022 MG4 Flagship is quite a fun drive, with enough power around town to entertain.

Steering-wise it is light and doesn’t have any real feel, but the MG4 certainly goes where it’s pointed and being quite a small car is easy to manoeuvre. The turning circle is just 10.6 metres.

For once, braking regeneration with a Chinese EV is no cause for complaint. Select the strongest setting – via the infotainment screen only – and the MG4 will bleed off the speed down to around 8km/h, after which it coasts. This though means true one-pedal driving is not possible.

On the other hand, with the lowest setting the KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) is imperceptible. There is also a medium selection.

The MG4 remains composed and doesn’t have an overly soft suspension that’s found in many Chinese cars. However, our inner-city test route didn’t throw enough at the 4 to really test it dynamically.

Compared with that flamboyant exterior, the interior of the 2022 MG4 feels a bit barren and dingy.

Sure, there is quite a lot of space but you can’t help but feel something should be filling it, such as between the short stubby centre console and jutting-out floating drive selector.

Plastics other than the material covering the top of the dashboard are hard. There are other obvious cost-cutting measures, including no fold-down arm rest on the split-folding rear bench.

All but the tallest rear passengers should have enough space, although legroom is not overly generous. Both outboard rear passengers get a thigh support extension to the seat.

Boot capacity is 363 litres with the rear seats upright, and loading is aided by there being no sill to circumvent. The seats fold down to near flat but the parcel shelf seems a bit tricky to remove.

The 2022 MG4 ticks most of the right boxes. It’s a sharp-looking small electric hatchback delivering good range and performance.

Is it a genuine threat to the likes of the Volkswagen ID.3? Yes and no, certainly size and performance-wise they are comparable. The MG4 is also better-looking and is that bit more engaging to drive.

However, price sensitivity and the quality of interior materials will place this car as more of a competitor to the incoming Australian-market version of the BYD Dolphin.

That’s not to say the MG4 won’t be a huge success for the fast-growing Chinese brand. It should undercut the MG ZS EV – currently $43,900 plus on-road costs (or $44,990 drive-away) – by several thousand dollars, and will be a big drawcard if it slots in below $40K.

Its compact size makes it ideal as a city car, and just so long as you don’t need to transport much in the way of luggage it’s also a reasonable car for longer journeys.

As the first MG designed from scratch as an EV on a dedicated platform, the MG4 is a very good start and is definitely a move in the right direction.

It’s also a taste of what’s to come, with the MG5 sedan also heading this way next year, followed by the MG Cyberster roadster in 2024.

2022 MG4 at a glance:
Price: $39,990 estimated (plus on-road costs)
Available: First half of 2023
Powertrain: Single permanent magnet synchronous motor
Output: 150kW/250Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 64kWh ternary lithium
Range: 450km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 16.0kWh/100km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Five-star (Euro NCAP 2022)