Join our man Tom, as he takes you on an electrifying journey through the MG ZS EV.
Discover if this budget-friendly electric SUV is the game-changer you've been waiting for. Tom's expert insights and test drive will answer the burning question: Is the MG ZS EV the ultimate electric SUV bargain?
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© Men and Motors - One Media iP 2023
Discover if this budget-friendly electric SUV is the game-changer you've been waiting for. Tom's expert insights and test drive will answer the burning question: Is the MG ZS EV the ultimate electric SUV bargain?
------------------
Enjoyed this video? Don't forget to LIKE and SHARE the video and get involved with our community by leaving a COMMENT below the video!
Check out what else our channel has to offer and don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to Men & Motors for more classic car and motorbike content! Why not? It is free after all!
Our website: http://menandmotors.com/
----- Social Media -----
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/menandmotors/
Instagram: @menandmotorstv
Twitter: @menandmotorstv
If you have any questions, e-mail us at talk@menandmotors.com
© Men and Motors - One Media iP 2023
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 Welcome back to Men and Motors and today you join me with the MG ZS EV. First impressions
00:08 of this car are rather good. It comes with a very pretty futuristic looking snout, it's
00:14 got a jacked up ride height, these lovely 17 inch alloy wheels that are not alloy wheels
00:20 but they are underneath which I'll show you very soon in this video. Bit quirky but there's
00:25 reasons behind that and I'll get into it. You get these lovely little chrome accents
00:29 across the bottom, a massive MG badge and I mean that's almost as big as a saucer for
00:34 putting a cup on but I like it, it's in your face. This is radar technology that gives
00:40 you all the collision prevention assist and all that jazz. Mirrors, nice huge roof rails
00:48 that are aluminium and stain free because some of these do go a bit tatty over time
00:52 but I think these look rather robust so you can always put them on. A massive huge panoramic
00:57 roof which I'll show you from inside the car because I'm quite impressed by it. But all
01:00 in all I think it's quite a pretty EV and from the price point this car is £33,450
01:08 which sounds a lot of money but I think it's really cheap in comparison to its competitors
01:13 where most EVs are around the £44,000 to £50,000 mark. You're getting into a battery
01:20 car for a lot less and for a lot less you would expect a lot less but this car has some
01:26 tech on it and we'll get into that when we take a look inside. As standard you get 17
01:32 inch alloy wheels but they're not alloy wheels because they've got a very very strange cladding
01:38 and once it's removed you're actually left with an alloy wheel. Now there's two ways
01:44 you can go about this, one thing I don't agree with is when you do order this car it says
01:48 on the spec sheet it comes with diamond cut alloys, apologies about the black hands, and
01:53 to me they're not diamond cut, if they just slip the word look in there then it's diamond
01:57 cut but it's not all bad, you do have to hand it to MG because especially when I grew up
02:03 getting your first car if you couldn't afford alloy wheels you'd put wheel trims on and
02:07 you could just tell them a mile off, you could tell if somebody had spent the money on cheap
02:11 wheel trims or they had the money for alloy wheels. Now if you hadn't have landed on this
02:15 video and seen me do this I guarantee you wouldn't have thought that those wheels are
02:20 plastic and it's not all bad like I say because there is some added benefit with this, if
02:25 you scuff that you can quite easily replace it and it's not going to cost you the value
02:31 of a full alloy wheel refurb but the main benefit of this is aerodynamics and that saves
02:37 battery and range. But let's face it, having these wheel trims isn't really a deal breaker
02:44 and quite frankly most people just won't even care, but I do because I'm a bit weird like
02:49 that. It just doesn't sit quite right with me having plastic trims over alloy wheels,
02:57 trims used to go over steel wheels, not alloys but I have to hand it to MG, it does pull
03:02 it off really well and unless you go poking and prodding you're just not going to know.
03:08 Boot space is rather large, it's 460 litres with a nice little cubby underneath your electric
03:14 charging cables, however if that's not enough and you come inside the car and pull a little
03:19 lever to drop the seats and you do the same on the other side, you end up with 1,100 litres
03:28 to fit me in and to be fair it's rather comfortable because there's a staggering view that way
03:32 and at night you can look at the stars through this massive panoramic roof. And whilst we're
03:37 on the subject of boot space we may as well see if this car has any frunkage and if you
03:43 don't know what I mean by that, click up here and head over to our review of the Kia EB6
03:48 to find out exactly what it is but also what my frustrations are and how it can be drastically
03:53 improved. Anyway, let's pop the bonnet and take a look and no, there is no frunkage,
03:59 it's just a lot of electrical wizardry going on so if you want to take a look, come a bit
04:04 closer. This is what would normally be known as an engine bay and with my expertise I'd
04:08 be able to point around this and tell you what does what but apart from coolant, washer
04:16 fluid and brake fluid, I literally have no idea how this works. It's just cables, ECUs,
04:25 oh we do have a normal car battery but a motor maybe? It fascinates me how that makes this
04:35 car propel at such speed. Wow. Stepping inside the car you're greeted by this lovely premium
04:44 finish and when I say premium, it is just that. I have been in far more expensive cars
04:51 that do not feel as good as this. The leather on the steering wheel and the chunkiness and
04:55 how solid it feels is fantastic. You get this lovely fake carbon look leather here and it's
05:01 not just like smooth to touch, it's actually quite soft. You get it all over the dashboard
05:06 as well and when you press it, it's very very cushioned. It feels luxurious. You've got
05:11 a lovely little grab handle down here, some really nice trim. The leather is just absolutely
05:17 everywhere and I do have to say it smells fantastic in this car. You really do get that
05:24 smell of expensive luxury and premium quality which is something that took me by surprise
05:30 because with MG being a brand that's died and revived and come back God knows how many
05:34 times and is now owned by Shanghai Automotive, I did think that the quality would be a compromise
05:41 but they really have spent the money on areas where the driver and the passengers touch
05:46 and I mean you get a 10.1 inch screen here and believe me, every inch matters. It's huge,
05:52 it's glossy, it's got a lovely feel to it and a few people have said it's rather clunky
05:56 and to be honest with you, I've had no issues with it so far. I think it's fantastic. It
06:01 does feel beautiful. One feature I really love in this car is this massive panoramic
06:08 roof and it is absolutely huge as I shall now demonstrate. If I press this button, it's
06:14 tinted as well by the way to stop the sun getting to you and you should see my face
06:18 light up with joy. Honestly, just check this, if I just slide the electric seat back as
06:24 well you'll like this. The roof is so big that you can actually get way right up in
06:30 the gods and poke your head out and just appreciate the surrounding views. You probably think
06:35 I'm trying to replicate the scene from Pretty Woman but I'm really not because that wouldn't
06:39 be legal but you get the gist. With that said, I think we need to talk about the back because
06:45 space isn't compromised in this car. Space in the back is absolutely perfect. I'm 6 foot
06:51 3 and a bit but I like to tell people I'm 6 foot 4 because as I said, every inch matters
06:55 and I do not feel squashed or squished in at all. In fact, there's loads of room to
07:00 my left with a nice ledge with your electric windows that you can control from here. You
07:05 have a USB 2 socket there and a USB C socket here with some lovely little vents to keep
07:10 you nice and cool. Armrest comes down with cup holders in. Don't really understand why
07:15 that is. I think that would be rather irritable. Maybe it's to stop you knocking the drinks
07:20 forward. I don't know. But the seats are really comfortable, plenty of room, lovely flat floor
07:24 because we've got no exhaust and no transmission going to the back with it being electric.
07:28 If you sit in the middle, it is a bit compromised for someone of my width and height but all
07:34 in all, I think it's a really premium finish and it would make a fantastic family car.
07:40 With that said, onto the road test. The numerical specifications for this automotive electric
07:46 vehicle are as follows. It has 173 bhp or 176 ps if you prefer the ps. It has a 208
07:58 ft-lb of torque. It has a 0-60 of 8 seconds dead and a top speed of 108 mph. Now, let's
08:07 face it, if you're going to buy a car like this, you're really not buying it for performance.
08:11 You're buying it for a family vehicle, something that you can go on the occasional holiday
08:15 and quite frankly, an A to B. That doesn't mean that this car isn't great though. It
08:22 is a fantastic family car. The only thing it does lack is being fun and alive. It's
08:29 not a very alive car to drive. It just simply gets you from places in comfort and in a bit
08:36 of style. But when you compare it to other EVs like the Kia EV6 or the Ioniq 6, two very,
08:42 very different cars with a very big price tag, it just feels different. The EV6 and
08:48 the Ioniq 6 are so fun to drive and I think that's because when you do flick the accelerator
08:52 pedal, you do jolt forward. In this, there's not so much, it's a bit laggy, but it's a
08:58 budget EV and it's to get you out of the world of internal combustion. With that said, the
09:05 198 mile range has been okay so far, but it is getting colder this time of year. I have
09:11 had the heaters on full blast and I have done quite a lot of motorway miles. Where this
09:16 car really comes into its element is round town. And I said this with the last one, that
09:21 is down to regenerative braking. When you simply let off the accelerator, there is resistance
09:26 put on the motors, which then uses that kinetic energy to feed the battery, ultimately extending
09:32 the range and making it far more efficient. When you go on the motorway, you simply don't
09:37 do a lot of slowing down, you just cruise. And with that, there is no regenerative braking
09:43 happening, meaning that your range does drop a lot quicker, especially if you have the
09:47 heated seat on, the heaters, the air conditioning or the radio. One thing I do really love is
09:53 it comes with Apple CarPlay. The problem is it's wired, so you do have to use a cable.
09:59 It's not wireless. It does have a wireless charging pad down here. When you drop your
10:02 phone on, obviously it charges. Big 10.1 inch surround screen, like we mentioned before,
10:07 very, very fancy. And when you want to go into the climate settings, it does give you
10:11 a 3D version of this cockpit that you're actually sat in. And if you want to just navigate
10:16 round it, you can just press the windscreen and the air comes on on the windscreen. If
10:21 your feet are getting sweaty or your feet are getting cold, you press your feet and
10:24 it transfers over to there and starts to heat your feet. I do think that is very, very nice
10:30 and it does just look fancy and premium. You have three driving modes in this car. You
10:36 have eco, normal and sports. But to be quite honest, there isn't really a difference. Sport
10:42 is a little better with a slight bit of throttle response being more agile and active. However,
10:47 the thing you do notice is the steering wheel gets rather stiff to the point where it isn't
10:52 enjoyable to drive anymore. But you can see why they've done it. If you just do want to
10:56 give it a bit of a poke, you can do. There's another button down here that says KERS or
11:01 K-E-R-S. If I had to hazard a guess at that, what that means, and I'm sure you guys will
11:07 correct me in the comments. To my understanding, I think it stands for kinetic energy resistance
11:12 service, possibly. We'll drop a comment below if you do know what it means. But that basically
11:19 controls the regenerative braking. The battery button literally just simply brings up the
11:25 display to tell you what sort of battery status you're at. Currently, we're at 25% and I've
11:31 got 39 miles left to go. It is dropping rather quick though, due to the cold weather. So
11:36 we will try and stop for a charge because it isn't the fastest thing to charge this
11:40 car. It takes around 40 minutes on a rapid charger at 100 kilowatts. That is the max
11:46 you can charge this car. You can't do it anymore. But I think it's aimed at plugging it in at
11:51 home, but it does take 10 hours to charge the battery. And that's on a 32 amp charger,
11:57 where you should roughly get around 30 miles of range per hour. Now, obviously we're charging,
12:02 it's getting expensive. For me to go and charge us at a rapid charger, I'm estimating it's
12:07 going to cost me around 40 to 50 quid. However, if you sign up to these incentives that BP
12:13 Pulse offer, Ionity, you do get discount structures. I think for BP Pulse for around a 10 or a
12:19 month, you get 40% off your charging price, which is a fantastic incentive. But with incentives,
12:25 at some point, surely they're going to disappear. And that's what worries me with EVs. I'm just
12:31 not quite ready to make the jump yet. But if you're watching this video, you obviously
12:35 are, and I'm hoping that I can help you make that decision. The MG ZS is absolutely loaded
12:42 with cameras. There's one on the front, there's one under each wing mirror. There is one on
12:47 the back and using all those cameras, it offers 360 degree view of the car. Now, most car
12:55 manufacturers that have this feature, you simply get a panoramic bird's eye view of
13:00 the car, but not with the MG. You can actually have all these different views of around the
13:05 car when you go into park up. Now, most people think that's a gimmick and it isn't quite
13:10 useful, but it really is. I should probably talk to you about the screen in front of me.
13:15 It's a rather fancy layout. On the left hand side, you have miles per hour, and you can
13:19 change that to kilometres per hour if you do go abroad. On the right hand side, you
13:23 have a percentage dial. And what that is, is how much force you are putting on the throttle.
13:28 And I've found if you leave it at 35% and don't go above that, the battery really does
13:33 last a long time. In the middle of those two clocks, you have this really fancy animation
13:39 where it shows a battery in the centre of the car. You've got the front wheels, because
13:42 this is a single motor and it's only front wheel drive. And every time you accelerate,
13:47 it shows arrows going towards the wheels. And every time you decelerate, it shows arrows
13:51 coming in off the wheels and back towards the battery. It's rather clever. Seats are
13:57 very, very comfortable. They're very soft. They're a nice place to sit. However, I do
14:03 have quite a large rear. And what I am struggling with is the side bolsters at the bottom. They
14:08 are quite narrow and they do dig in a little bit, but it's not something that's going to
14:14 stop you buying the car. I think you would get used to it over time. I drive a pickup
14:18 truck on a daily basis and that's basically just a magic carpet. So it's not really a
14:23 comparable, but it's just something that I've noticed and I wanted to highlight to you.
14:28 Seats are electric on the driver's side. On the passenger side, they're just levers and
14:33 mechanical. Again, it's not, you really have to look at the technology with that. If you
14:40 have to sacrifice the passenger's electric seat to have blind spot assist and all this
14:45 tech, then it really is a worthwhile investment. I really can't find anything bad to say about
14:50 this car. There's a few things I would change. This little thing here, everything feels premium,
14:57 that just feels a bit baggy. But other than that, it is, it's a true vehicle for 33 grand.
15:06 It's EV modern technology, minimal servicing, by the way, minimal pads, discs, brake fluid,
15:14 no oil to change, no cam belts to change. What can go wrong? Most cars nowadays come
15:20 with something called voice control and it's normally a bit pants, but if you press this
15:24 button here, you're greeted by a very, very lovely lady that likes to talk to you. Look
15:30 at this. Open sunroof. How cool is that? I wonder if she'll close it. Close sunroof.
15:51 There we go. It works. Normally voice control is really, really poor, but it seems to be
15:56 working on this car. One thing I really love in cars is a sound system and it has to be
16:01 good because your favourite song is 10 times better when you're blasting it in the car.
16:07 So to test it out, let's see what this sound system's like with a song that I hope you'll
16:13 all know. It's actually quite good. I want to spend my life with a girl like you. Ba,
16:34 to. Bababam bam bam bababam bam. Till that time has come, That we might live as one and dance with you. Bababam bam bam bababam bam. Bababam bam bam bababam bam. I tell by the way you dress, that you're so real fine. Bababam bam bam bababam bam.
17:04 Hopefully you enjoyed this review of the MG ZS and maybe it's even influenced you to actually go and make that decision and buy one.
17:11 Do us a favour, hit subscribe, hit like, drop us a comment below with what you want to see next.
17:15 But with all that said, I will see you very soon.
17:18 Oh, and click up here to see some of our archive footage of MG many moons ago.
17:25 [Music]