This missile is incredibly good value for money! Is this the best hot-hatch electric vehicle you can buy today? Paul Maric drives the 2024 MG4 XPower to see if it’s any good.
More MG content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mg
More MG 4 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mg/mg4
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Read the full review: https://SITELINK
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:21
Charging: 03:20
Interior: 04:12
Driving: 05:53
Performance: 11:06
Verdict: 13:04
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.
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#mg #xpower #review
More MG content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mg
More MG 4 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mg/mg4
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Read the full review: https://SITELINK
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:21
Charging: 03:20
Interior: 04:12
Driving: 05:53
Performance: 11:06
Verdict: 13:04
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!
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#mg #xpower #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01 So a little while back,
00:01 I owned a Tesla Model 3 Performance.
00:04 It was a little over $100,000
00:06 and it delivered zero to 100 times of under four seconds.
00:09 It was an absolute rocket ship.
00:11 Well, guess what?
00:12 Today, you can buy this here.
00:14 This is called the MG4X Power.
00:17 It's priced at just under $60,000.
00:20 And this now delivers similar straight line performance
00:22 to something like a Tesla Model 3 Performance.
00:25 It's faster than a Polestar 2 with the Performance Pack
00:28 and almost as quick as a Kia EV6 GT.
00:32 So incredible value for money.
00:34 What we're gonna do today,
00:35 we're gonna do a review of how this drives.
00:38 We've already reviewed the MG4,
00:39 so I'll run you through the interior,
00:41 but I will direct you to our other review
00:43 for a bit more detail on the infotainment,
00:45 some of the other sort of gizmos
00:46 and gadgets inside the cabin.
00:48 Today's gonna be all about driving
00:49 and seeing exactly what this is like.
00:51 If this is too expensive though,
00:52 the entire MG4 electric range kicks off
00:55 at just under $40,000.
00:56 So there is a car in there to suit
00:58 sort of every kind of budget.
01:00 And I'm really interested to see
01:01 whether this has the type of performance characteristics
01:04 I remember from my Model 3.
01:05 So if you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of this review,
01:08 you can use the time codes that are on the screen,
01:09 or if you're on YouTube,
01:11 you can scroll down and use the chapters below.
01:13 And if you haven't done so already,
01:14 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon
01:17 so you can find out every single time
01:19 we drive a pocket rocket.
01:20 Okay, let's talk about exterior design.
01:24 Actually, by the way, we've filmed a drag race
01:26 between this and a $350,000 BMW.
01:30 So when that goes live,
01:32 you'll see the link in the description below.
01:34 In terms of the design,
01:35 I mentioned in our previous review
01:36 that I actually quite like the look of this.
01:37 It's inoffensive, it actually looks quite nice and premium.
01:40 If you compare this to something like the GWM Aura,
01:43 that's got a bit of an acquired taste
01:44 whereas this is sort of nicer looking in my opinion,
01:47 but styling is entirely subjective.
01:49 So down the front here, you've got an MG logo,
01:51 and then further down, you've got a radar section,
01:54 and then a little bit of cooling there
01:55 with those active veins for the battery system.
01:58 Full LED headlights.
01:59 Come around to the side,
02:01 this is where we've seen most of the changes here
02:03 with the X-Power.
02:04 So, a bit of stickier set of tyres,
02:06 they're a set of Bridgestone Turanzas.
02:08 You've got 345 mil rotors, so a bigger rotor there.
02:11 One curious thing though, is with these brake calipers,
02:14 for some reason, they've decided to stick a cover on those.
02:17 So beneath that is the actual caliper.
02:19 This is something that Tesla is moving to as well.
02:23 I don't really understand the logic of it,
02:24 but it's there anyway.
02:25 You are gonna have a great deal of stopping power
02:28 thanks to the regen braking system.
02:30 So you're not going to be relying
02:31 as much on a braking system.
02:32 So I think with EVs, they don't really need enormous brakes
02:35 like you would on an internal combustion car,
02:37 but still, I don't love the fact
02:39 that they've gone down the path of those sort of fake,
02:41 sort of covers there for the calipers.
02:43 Outside of that, stiffness of the suspension
02:45 has been increased by 25%.
02:47 They've also retuned the steering as well.
02:49 So I'll be interested to see
02:51 whether that sort of translates to on-road handling
02:53 when we hit our ride and handling track.
02:55 You've got privacy glass,
02:56 and then come around to the back with me.
02:58 So around the back here, you've got MG4 electric.
03:00 There is no X-Power badge on this,
03:02 so you're only gonna know it's a fast one
03:03 by seeing those brakes.
03:05 You have the same spoiler that we had on the top spec
03:07 that we drove previously.
03:08 So this is here as a visual appeal
03:11 with a brake light in there,
03:12 and then LEDs on the top here as well
03:15 that are unique to the top spec and this variant as well.
03:18 Igor, if you come around to the side with me,
03:20 I'll run you through the charging setup.
03:22 So it's a bit of an interesting arrangement here.
03:25 So they don't actually use the bigger battery in this spec.
03:28 This is the smaller 64-ish kilowatt-hour battery.
03:31 It does offer both AC and DC charging,
03:34 but it does come with a compromise.
03:35 Instead of getting the longer range
03:37 that you do with the bigger battery
03:38 that's available in the MG4,
03:40 the WLTP range of this is 385 kilometres.
03:43 So this is where it differs from things like the Polestar 2,
03:45 the Tesla Model 3, and the EV6,
03:47 which all have considerably bigger batteries.
03:49 They are gonna have more range compared to this car,
03:51 but it does offer three-phase AC charging,
03:54 and on the DC front,
03:55 offers peak charge rate of around 140 kilowatts,
03:58 and then an average charge rate
03:59 of a little over 100 kilowatts.
04:01 So, and in terms of the battery itself,
04:02 it's a lithium-ion type,
04:04 which means it is most comfortable
04:06 being charged to around 80 or 90%,
04:08 and it is worth keeping in mind as well,
04:09 this offers vehicle to load as well up to 2.2 kilowatts.
04:13 Okay, so we're inside the cabin.
04:14 Like I said before,
04:15 if you do want a more detailed review of the interior
04:18 plus the infotainment and all that sort of stuff,
04:20 I just have a look at the link in the description below
04:22 where we have our full review of the MG4.
04:24 Today, I'll just run you through the highlights
04:26 so you can get an idea of what is going on in here.
04:28 So, a 10.25 inch display up the top here,
04:30 and then another screen ahead of the driver
04:32 for your critical information.
04:34 A wireless charging pad up here for your phone.
04:36 The piano black, which I'm not a huge fan of,
04:38 but stacks of storage options around the cabin.
04:41 Look, when this gets up a little bit in terms of price,
04:45 this cabin doesn't feel as special.
04:47 I mean, at the entry level at the 39,000 dollar mark,
04:49 it does feel like quite a nice cabin for that price point.
04:51 But as you start spending more money,
04:53 it doesn't feel quite as sort of polished
04:56 as some of the other vehicles in this segment,
04:57 but it's certainly not terrible in that sense.
05:00 One of the things that you're gonna find different here
05:01 on the infotainment system in the XPower is track mode.
05:04 So when you go into that,
05:05 it basically gives you a disclaimer
05:07 and allows you to run it in stage or lap mode,
05:09 where you can actually use an internal timer
05:11 to give you an idea of how you're going on a closed circuit
05:14 and how your laps are performing.
05:16 So that is a cool function,
05:18 and it's nice to see
05:19 that they have actually thought about that.
05:20 There is no sort of additional functions
05:22 as part of that, though.
05:23 You do have a launch control that I'll run you through
05:25 when we go for a bit of a drive.
05:27 But outside of that, this interior looks
05:29 very much like the regular MG4,
05:31 and that also means that in the backseat,
05:33 you have okay amount of room, but not a huge amount of room.
05:36 And likewise, with cargo capacity,
05:38 it's a little over 350 liters with the second row in place,
05:41 and it expands to just over a thousand liters
05:43 when the second row is folded.
05:44 But I think we all wanna know how this drives.
05:47 So let's go for a spin around the track
05:49 and see exactly what this is like
05:51 compared to the regular rear-wheel drive version.
05:54 Okay, we've just hit the road in the MG4X Power.
05:58 So like I said before,
05:59 I really wanted to focus on what this is like
06:02 in terms of on-road dynamics,
06:04 because when we drove the previous MG4,
06:06 it was single motor, rear-wheel drive.
06:08 It was engaging, but I thought,
06:10 what would happen if they actually tried
06:12 putting a bit of all-wheel drive through this?
06:14 And it's a pretty impressive setup.
06:15 So this whole package gives you 320 kilowatts of power,
06:19 600 newton meters of torque,
06:21 and that's split between front and rear,
06:23 150 and 170 kilowatts in terms of the electric motors.
06:26 They've even got some interesting stuff in there.
06:28 They have torque vectoring,
06:29 and they don't describe exactly how it works,
06:31 but I suspect it's a braking system,
06:33 and an electronic differential lock.
06:35 So it's a pretty sort of advanced system
06:37 when you look at those components,
06:39 because they're the types of things you're gonna find
06:40 on much more expensive sports cars.
06:42 So they have actually thought about this,
06:43 and thought about how they can make this
06:45 an engaging vehicle to drive.
06:47 Now, what does all that feel like behind the wheel?
06:49 So we'll give it a stab here.
06:51 Yeah, that is fantastic.
06:53 That really just punches you nicely in the back.
06:56 It really does remind me of like a Model 3 performance.
06:59 It has a lot of urgency to it.
07:01 Really just gives you a good kick when you hit the throttle.
07:03 So from that point of view, it's really good.
07:06 Now, in terms of economy,
07:07 MG claims an economy figure
07:09 of around 18, 19 kilowatt hours per 100 Ks.
07:13 This figure that you're seeing here is highly inaccurate,
07:15 'cause we used this car for a drag race this morning.
07:17 We've also done some of our faster driving already.
07:19 So that figure is quite high,
07:20 but I did find with the standard MG4
07:22 that it was a little thirsty
07:24 compared to other cars in that segment,
07:25 and also given its weight as well,
07:27 it was going through a fair bit of energy there.
07:29 This weighs around 1800 kilos,
07:30 so it does add a little bit of weight
07:32 when you put that extra motor on,
07:33 but it is still nowhere near the size
07:35 of some of the other vehicles that you look at,
07:37 like an EV6, which is considerably heavier than this,
07:39 because it is a bigger battery pack,
07:41 and yes, it is slightly quicker,
07:43 but you do pay for that in terms of overall vehicle mass.
07:46 Just like the rear-wheel drive MG4,
07:48 the turning circle is really nice and tight on this.
07:50 You have a brake-tone capacity of 500 kilos,
07:52 should you want to actually tow anything as well.
07:55 On the visibility front,
07:57 I can see clearly down the front there,
07:58 the wing mirrors are nice and big.
07:59 Visibility out the back is a little bit cramped.
08:01 It's quite a sort of narrow envelope there,
08:03 and the quality of the camera isn't amazing either.
08:05 So when it does come to parking,
08:07 even though it is a 360 camera,
08:08 it can be just a little bit compromised.
08:10 Now let's talk about the ride.
08:11 So going over our little bumpy stretch there.
08:14 They've done a really good job with this.
08:15 So I mentioned earlier
08:16 that they've increased stiffness by 25%,
08:18 but to me, it hasn't actually really affected.
08:20 The MG4's ride was pretty good to start with.
08:23 You will notice that it is firmer than a non-X-Power MG4,
08:27 but it's really not overly bad,
08:29 and we'll go over some of our rougher section
08:31 in a second, plus our sine waves,
08:32 but in terms of the ride itself
08:34 and the way that it feels in and around the city,
08:36 out on the highway, it's actually pretty good.
08:38 In terms of road noise, it is pretty noisy.
08:41 It's not pretty noisy,
08:42 it is just noticeably noisier in here,
08:44 and I think that is down to the tyres.
08:46 They are a sportier tyre.
08:47 They are still an EV, low rolling resistant tyre,
08:49 but they are definitely a sportier tyre
08:52 that introduces a bit more road noise inside the cabin.
08:54 Now time for our sine waves.
08:56 Do these at 130.
08:57 It is maximum legal speed in Australia.
09:00 It gives us a good idea of what the body control's like.
09:03 The normal MG4 was pretty good through here,
09:05 so let's see what this is like.
09:08 Yeah, fantastic.
09:09 That is really good.
09:11 Very impressed with this.
09:12 OK, bumpy road time.
09:14 We do this at 90km/h.
09:16 Got our condensed sine wave here as well.
09:19 Let's see what this is like.
09:21 Yeah, that is beautifully controlled.
09:23 Nice. Yeah, they've really put some effort into this ride.
09:27 That is fantastic.
09:28 And the handling as well, it is a really good package.
09:31 Now you've got a stack of drive modes -
09:33 custom, eco, normal, snow.
09:36 We'll go over to sport
09:38 and we'll see what it's like around the track here.
09:40 I can feel the throttle is instantly sharper.
09:42 That has got some absolute urgency to it.
09:46 Brake pedal feels good.
09:48 Here's our first turn.
09:50 That is so weird.
09:55 It is doing some strange stuff there.
09:57 Let me just see what it's like on this turn.
09:59 Good throttle.
10:01 So interesting. I can feel...
10:04 When I say strange stuff, it's doing the torque vectoring thing.
10:08 I can feel the torque vectoring happening as I apply the throttle.
10:13 It feels like it's actually biting
10:15 and you get that effect when you don't have a limited slip differential.
10:20 So that's so weird.
10:22 It is absolutely hammering, though.
10:25 Oh, this is insane.
10:27 Alright, back section.
10:29 Wow!
10:31 It is absolutely moving.
10:33 There's that biting feeling I'm getting again.
10:35 I think it's a mixture of the torque vectoring and the stability control
10:38 because the stability control is a little bitey at times.
10:41 It is absolutely moving on this back straight as well.
10:44 Wow!
10:46 That is ridiculous.
10:50 It's like a little hot hatch.
10:52 That is unbelievable.
10:54 Far out. I was not expecting that.
10:56 That is absolutely sensational.
10:58 Yeah, I think that torque vectoring system and the stability control
11:00 needs a little bit of work
11:02 but it is an absolute rocket ship.
11:04 That is awesome.
11:06 Okay, time to do some performance testing.
11:08 Before we get into it, I just wanted to tell you about Help Me Car Expert.
11:11 We're a big company. We've got like 60 employees now.
11:14 We keep growing. It's not just us doing video stuff here.
11:17 We have a stack of vetted dealers that are on our platform
11:20 and a lot of these guys have vehicles in stock at the moment just like this.
11:24 So if you do want to get your hands on an in-stock vehicle,
11:27 just go to Google and type in Help Me Car Expert.
11:29 It will take you to a page on our site that explains how everything works
11:32 and it's a free service of course.
11:34 Okay, so official 0-100km/h time is 3.8 seconds which is pretty good.
11:38 This also has a launch control program.
11:41 So you just basically put it into sport, hold the brake and the throttle
11:45 at the same time, wait until it dials up 66% of power
11:49 and then you unleash fury.
11:51 So we'll go from 0-100km/h and then all the way through to 120km/h
11:55 to see what that 80-120km/h overtaking time is like.
11:57 It is hot out there today so I'm going to go brake on throttle and...
12:02 Oh, nice.
12:05 That is fantastic.
12:06 All right, there is 120.
12:10 It is absolutely moving.
12:13 That is impressive.
12:14 All right, so 0-100km/h took 3.92 seconds.
12:19 That is not too bad at all.
12:21 And then 80-120km/h took 2.57 seconds.
12:25 So that is remarkably quick as well.
12:27 So that is not a bad effort.
12:30 All right, let's go back and do a brake from 100% where these brakes are.
12:34 Here we go.
12:37 Oh, they are really strong brakes.
12:40 Very good.
12:41 Okay, so 100-0, 2.75 seconds and 38.75 metres.
12:47 So really impressive stopping performance there as well.
12:51 Okay, so time to do our reverse acceleration test.
12:55 Quickly this will go in reverse.
12:57 Chirp off the line there.
13:00 There you go.
13:01 Just over 40km/h.
13:03 So that has been your first look at the MG4X Power.
13:10 Tell you what, I was so impressed with the way this performed.
13:13 It is really quick in a straight line.
13:15 It does the handling stuff really well.
13:17 It is let down by either the torque vectoring or the traction control system.
13:21 I'm not entirely sure what was biting and just causing the car to feel a little unsettled through some of those corners.
13:26 But that is hopefully something that is easy enough for them to fix.
13:29 I think the bigger thing for me though is this with the smaller battery.
13:32 Yes, it's great because you get a very fast car in a straight line for not a huge amount of cost.
13:37 But ultimately the range that you're getting isn't fantastic.
13:40 For our session today we were doing a bit of drag racing and then the fast laps.
13:44 We basically drained the battery after driving 200km.
13:47 So I think if you look at a Tesla or one of those other vehicles with a bigger battery,
13:51 they actually do a better job of giving you the extra range that you need for day-to-day driving.
13:55 But then also give you the performance as well.
13:57 So hopefully they're going to do an X-Power version with a bigger battery as well.
14:00 But the basis of this formula is great.
14:03 I would love to see a drift mode or something too.
14:05 If you've gone down the path of doing an electronic diff lock,
14:07 a drift mode would really just put the cherry on the cake.
14:11 So if you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates.
14:15 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
14:18 But until next time, take it easy.