MG ZS EV review and buying guide

There’s a very good reason I think the MG ZS EV is the first electric car that you should consider at the moment…

If you’re seriously considering buying an electric vehicle in the next few years, the staggering upfront cost can be eye-watering if you’re a middle income earner. Let’s be honest here, EVs are for wealthier people, because they all cost over $50,000, and closer to $80,000 - when an equivalent petrol or diesel vehicle costs half that.

Except for the MG ZS EV. Say what you like about Chinese manufacturing, but half the world’s stuff is built by China, and if you’re not willing to respect that fact, you might not like this review or the device upon which you’re reading it. If that’s the case, I don’t care.

China can build almost anything, from toasters and coffee cups, to high-tech TVs, computer servers, satellites, space rockets and ships, right down to robots, lasers, medical equipment and absolutely - they can build cars.

Here’s why the MG ZS EV is one of the most important new cars on sale in Australia right now…

CAR MARKET CONTEXT

The average Australian earns $69,000 per year. The average Australian cannot consider buying an electric vehicle, which is one of the main reasons why over 95 per cent of the new car market remains combustion. Supply is also an issue, but it’s mostly price, as well as the fact there are no electric utes or 4WD wagons that fit the purpose. The LDV eT60 doesn’t count - have you seen the range on that thing unladen? Useless.

This review is not just about how the MG ZS EV functions in and of itself as a small-medium sized family SUV, but also why it is going to become the thorn in the side of every other mainstream traditional carmaker over the next few years. (Unless they get their act together, quickly.)

Let’s talk about the Japanese, South Korean and Thai-built vehicles from Toyota, Mazda, Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Nissan. They all vaguely claim they’re planning to get out of combustion and into electric vehicles. Except their first and current generationof EVs have all been expensive. Additionally, they’re all trying to copy Tesla and tease you as some money-saving, luxury appointed vehicle you could have at half the price of a premium luxury brand like Mercedes or BMW.

But that’s not the case, is it? Every electric model has sold in such tiny numbers, while they’ve continued to develop, build and sell combustion-based products - engines, transmissions, drivelines, chassis and suspension - all designed primarily to continue holding onto combustion. Why? Cost outlay and profit. These brands are trying to ‘transition’, but doing so requires far more raw materials and big, expensive batteries than they could possibly access. There isn’t enough lithium to go around.

But this raw materials/battery supply problem is also their own creation. Over the last 10 years, they’ve all been trying to copy the long-range flexing of Tesla. When they should’ve been studying what China has been doing. This is the first generation EV from the SAIC-owned MG brand and it’s a very respectable 7 out of 10 in terms of execution, quality, value, and its design meeting the requirements of the mainstream car buyer. And the dealership network is growing, not going the other way.

Let’s now take a look at why the ZS EV is the first electric car review to publish on BestFamilyCars - despite having driven almost all of the competing EV models on sale.

We’ll start with relevance…

GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT TO BUY

The first rule in business is to solve problems for consumers.

BestFamilyCars is a website designed to give mum-and-dad/parent car buyers honest reviews about how they might actually use their next new car in relation to raising a family. Your product has to be needed by the consumer. The more consumers you have, the more product you’ll sell. The food at McDonald’s is garbage compared with the quality food at a half-decent restaurant, yet there are more family restaurant businesses, with much better food, than Maccas. Yet both are profitable, although one moreso than the other.

The MG ZS EV is less than $50,000. In fact, it’s $45,000 driveaway without even negotiating. That’s an affordable vehicle. It’s in the realm most ordinary salary earners can contemplate - maybe even save for.

Having said that, most people who buy new cars today are not car people. They’re everything else people - people like you. You work, you raise kids, you pack school lunches, you catch up with friends, you take your kids to sport, you do all the normal things that normal people do. So when you actually physically drive a car, you’re also driving it in the normal way. You listen to music, you talk to your kids in the back, you watch the traffic lights, you hate parallel parking so you drive into spaces and reverse out. You stop for Maccas on the way home from work and you take the girlfriends out for lunch once a month. Sometimes you might even wash your car, and you’re constantly loading and unloading from the boot and back doors.

This real-world consumer-driven desire-based behaviour is the problem the automobile solves. It gives you the ability to travel 35km across town in less than an hour, traffic permitting. But the way in which you want to use your car, according to the EVs being made by other carmakers, is to drive Sydney to Canberra twice a day, or Melbourne to Albury/Wodonga, or Adelaide to Ballarat. Why are they doing this? I don’t know. They data is there, and even Nissan used it to promote the current Leaf back when it was launched in 2018 - I know because I was on that launch in Australia.

The average Australian drives 15,000km per year. That’s an average of 30km per day. Since many people are working from home, still, even today, that number wavers somewhat, but most people are not driving huge distances for 80 or 90 per cent of their vehicle’s life. They’re running around in circles in metropolitan east-coast areas. And yes, I acknowledge there are exceptions to the rule, the outliers in the data and the 1-in-10 usage cases - obviously they’re the minority, hence they’re such small numbers. I’m talking about the majority as far as consumer demographics are concernced. In most western countries, this tends to be the case even moreso - Europe, US, Canada, UK. Same deal.

We don’t need long-distance electric cars. We need short distance electric cars for the majority of people who drive around in metaphorical circles of varying circumferences, shapes and lengths. MG has done this. The ZS EV has a quoted maximum range of 320km. That’s perfect. That’s easily five return trips to work in a major Australian city for the average Aussie mum or dad.

When you get home at, say 6pm, stick it on charge using the standard 10-amp wall outlet (the ugly yellow boxy one the electrician installed on your garage wall or to service the verandah. In 12 hours’ time, when you’re ready to set off for work at 7am or something, it’ll probably be completely charged because it’s a much, much smaller battery than the Kia Niro and EV6, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kona Electric, the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Model 3 and whatever other EV you might be wooed by. That Polestar 2 thing - same deal. They’ve all got big batteries because they all want to claim a range bigger than their rivals.

When instead they should be trying to quote a reasonable range from a vehicle that suits your needs. This gluttony of consumeristic so-called needs is absurd. And if it doesn’t force some carmakers to adapt, they could find themselves becoming the Nokia of carmakers. Or worse: the Sony Ericsson.

What I’m saying here is, the MG ZS EV presents to you a great value package. You get five seats, you get an SUV with some ground clearance, you get adequate legroom, you get leather seats, a decent air conditioning system, you get an EV that goes like stink if you tell it to, you get smartphone connectivity AND a pretty big boot to haul around all that ancillary kid-related stuff. And you never have to stop for fuel.

But there’s a catch…

USING THE ZS EV: The boot, the cabin, the equipment - and driving it.

It’s a love/hate story with this car, because so many things are happily in the ‘good enough’ category that you can be easily impressed with what you get for the money. And for the majority of my analysis of the MG ZS EV, that’s how I assessed it.

But it does have some gripes, some foibles and some utterly frustrating design anomalies they need to fix quickly if MG is going to stay in this new car brand growth among the top 10 carmakers.

See, what the likes of Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Subaru and Mitsubishi get bang-on is usually the little 1 percent-ers that give a car polish and a quality feel, rather than just ‘good enough’. Things like positioning of indicator, windscreen wiper and cruise control stalks and buttons. The MG ZS EV has indicators on the left (not so bad, US, and EU cars do this, and it’s adaptable). The windscreen wipers are therefore on the right - still manageable, if something you have to adapt to as a new car. Then there’s the cruise control, mounted on a steering column stalk, which is growing out of trend now. But what the Japanese and South Korean brands put a lot of emphasis into is where, how, and why something is designed, located and positioned in a certain place.

MG ZS has the cruise control stalk mounted directly behind the spoke on the steering wheel, so it’s very difficult to 1. see it. 2. use it. 3. get used to it. 4. explain how to use it to others. Everybody else, except Tesla, weirdly, has moved away from these distracting and clunky steering column mounted controls. Why? Because our hands are naturally designed to sit at 9-and-3 on the wheel; it’s basic ergonomics. Our fingers, wrists, hands, forearms and shoulders - in unison with our eyes (our hand-eye coordination) doesn’t do column-mounted stalks very well, not without heavy cognitive and behavioural adaptation.

Next up is the location of the speedometre. MG has put it on the left-hand side of the digital instrument display, which also lacks an analogue gauge. Make of this what you will, it just takes a little adaptation. I drove the ZS EV in ‘Normal’ mode for the majority of my test drive, only once putting it in ‘Eco’ and once in ‘Sport’. TO be honest, I couldn’t really tell the difference in driving modes except for ‘Sport’ offering a slightly harder acceleration and ‘Eco’ being much smoother and more progressive in power delivery. I’d suggest you’ll probbaly leave it in ‘Normal’ and never touch that switch again.

The indicator uses an audible speaker sound, which sounds weird. It’s kind of obtrusive at times and you wonder ‘what’s that sound?’ only to realise. I didn’t explore if it’s possible to turn its volume down.

Door locking via the keyfob sometimes beeps the horn if you’ve left a window open or headlights on or a door not shut properly. This is extremely annoying, not only because it might scare the shit out of you, but it also announces to the whole world the car is not locked. But to be fair, it does teach you not to do that.

Reversing sensors, distance tone and graphic display are slow.

Reversing camera is average quality and prone to blockage by hanging raindrops.

The steering wheel doesn’t sit in your hand as nicely as a Hyubdai, Kia, Subaru or Mazda, whereby the junction of the circular bit and the spoke meet under the palm of your hand, but it’s curved in a way that sits neatly into the folds of your palm. The ZS doesn't sit as nicely in that fold. But it’s unlikely most people will notice or care even if they do.

Driving such a conventional-looking SUV, which happens to be electric, you have to make concessions for other drivers in slower vehicles. As you adapt to this kind of immediacy from the powertrain, there’s a good chance you will start to see ‘gaps in traffic’ or opportunities to make your move which other drivers cognitively cannot entertain. And this is potentially dangerous driving behaviour if you don’t learn to control it.

You absolutely should want and need to drive with assertiveness and intent. Ask a highly qualified defensive driving organisation like Murcott’s and they’ll tell you assertiveness is the ideal mindset for safe driving. But driving an EV means you need to keep your frustrations in check, because other drivers may not be expecting your vehicle to be positioned in certain places as quickly as they can be.

For example, those drivers who like to sit in the right-hand lane when not overtaking and doing on or below the speed limit. Stuck behind them, waiting pointlessly for them to never move back into the centre lane, you might get fed up and start undertaking via the same centre lane. But, as you gently squeeze the throttle to start that move, you can very easily slip out of their rearview mirror into their left-side blind spot as they finally do attempt to move back to the centre lane. If you’re not quick to brake, your front end could easily spin them around and cause a significant crash on the freeway.

For this and other reasons, I found using the ZS EV’s full #3 regenerative braking ‘KERS’ setting, because it has three settings for aggressiveness of this system, it means even as you start lifting off the throttle, you start recharging the battery, but also using the generator as a resistive brake application.

Having said that, unlike most other EVs I’ve tested, I did find myself still having to use the brakes from time to time. Do not go into this thinking, like the brands and other motoring media will tell you, that the brakes ‘never get used’ or that you’ll never have to spend money on replacing brake pads come servicing time. That’s bullshit. These systems still need servicing or replacing with new parts - they just might not need it as often as a combustion vehicle. But in any case, brake pads are rarely changed in a regular car anyway.

WHY THE BIG BRANDS COULD BE IN TROUBLE: Kia Niro EV versus MG ZS EV

Let’s go back to basic car buying principles here. Kia is one of the biggest brands by sales in Australia. It sells SUVs large, mid-sized and small, as well as a smaller hatch/sedan, and a people mover. No ute, no big 4WD, no commercial vehicles.

I use Kia because that brand has risen astonishingly in the last decade, from the ashes of a shitshow Aussie manufacturing dynasty. Kia sells vehicles in the $30K-$70K price range which is where most people can afford to buy. As you go up that price range, you get more vehicle - and therefore greater breadth of capability - essentially you’re getting what you pay for. But the Niro is the inverse of that. It’s higher in price, but you’re getting less physical vehicle, and directly relative to that reduction in size, is reduced capability.

Hence, the Kia Niro GT-Line weighs 1720kg, is 157kg heavier or 10 per cent more than ZS EV at 1570kg, and it offers a bootspace 840mm long and capable of a 473kg payload - while the MG can do a 434kg payload and a boot 780mm long.

While the specific numbers are less than, the MG is about $25,000 cheaper, and you get an SUV which the Australian market has said is what people want. Comparing top-spec with top-spec, that’s a 50 per cent price difference.

If I were the head of product planning at a major car company, the MG ZS EV would be keeping me up at night.

The Niro EV offers a maximum quoted range of 460km, meaning you’ll get about 420 in the real world with minimal excess weight on board and a light right foot.

The ZS does 260-320km (manufacturer-official testing standards). That’s 46 per cent less claimed range.

Niro EV GT-Line has a power-to-weight ratio of 86kW per tonne. ZS EV has 68. That’s 26 per cent less power per tonne in the MG.

So the 0-100km/h times vary, in the MG it’s 8.2 seconds, and in the Kia it’s 7.8. So the extra $25K is only getting you half a second of increased straight-line performance, and only about 90km of range which is going to be moot once you recharge your MG overnight on the 10amp wall outlet at home.

Put simply, the compromise you make getting an MG ZS EV is less than what you sacrifice spending over and above it to get the Niro EV.

And I was seriously impressed with the Niro, having driven it in EV form for a week and the hybrid for nearly three. (Supplied by Kia Australia with a full tank of fuel and electrons respectively). But the value isn’t there.

For half the amount of money buying the MG ZS EV, you get about 70 per cent of the Niro’s performance and 54 per cent of its range.

I think traditional combustion carmakers have backed the wrong horse by trying to copy Tesla’s luxury focus. They’ve rather poorly focused on the awe factor, the popularity scare, the hype generated by what even I agree has been an industry-changing brand.

But in doing so, they’ve left a gaping hole in covering the net. Big car companies should know how precariously luxury car brands teeter on the brink of failure - throughout history. More luxury car brands have fallen victim to economics than mainstream brands. Rather than being different, the car giants have tried to be better, by offering a Tesla-esque vehicle, at similar pricing or less. Meanwhile, the Chinese brand has managed to stay focussed on the bigger picture - widespread adoption.

I mean, Rolls-Royce is not the biggest car company in the world. It’s not even in the picture. Toyota is the biggest, Hyundai is up there, Mazda is up there, Ford is up there - not because they sell luxury or prestige. Because they sell cars people can afford.

Most electric vehicles are too expensive because their batteries are too big, they’ve put too much design into the interior and they haven’t appealed to ordinary buyers the way MG has. That’s why the ZS EV hits the mark where cooler, faster, more desirable electric cars talk the talk - but can’t walk the walk.

Imagine how good the next generation is going to be…