MOTORS REVIEW: MG ZS EV

TO say my evening drive from Peterborough back home to Rotherham in the new MG ZS EV could have gone better is quite an understatement.

It could have gone better, far better, but it could also have gone far worse and in the end it was hard not to feel that I had bonded with the resurgent British brand’s first shot at the increasingly competitive electric vehicle (EV) market.

With the help of a £3,000 MG Grant to get sales underway in spirited fashion, the electrified version of the ZS has been the fastest-selling car produced by MG since it was re-born under Chinese ownership back in 2007.

Combined with the Government’s own £3,500 ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV) grant that took the ZS EV Excite’s £28,495 starting price down to £21,995 — making it one of the cheapest EVs on the market.

MG’s newcomer might fall some five-miles short of Nissan’s 40kWh Leaf, but even at full price it remains some £3,000 cheaper and, with SUV dimensions, a 448-litre boot, ample standard specification and a seven-year manufacturer warranty, it looks well equipped it to make an immediate impact.

I can confidently report that the ZS EV is good for its 163-mile claimed range.

With its centre console’s rocker switch flicked to “Sport” it also feels good for claims of an 8.5-second dash to 62mph, with immediate deployment of 143PS and 353Nm of torque available at the prod of the right pedal.

The top speed is a modest — but still illegal on UK roads — 87mph.

So that commute back from Peterborough…

I’d just left the office when I realised that my charger hadn’t been activated…

Leaving me with all of 60- miles left from the morning’s 90-mile run down to Cambridgeshire.

My big mistake came when I assumed that the Ecotricity Electric Highway charge points at Grantham would fast-charge the ZS EV in double- quick time.

For reasons that I have yet to determine that never happened. The services’ faster, 50kW CCS charger wasn’t working and Ecotricity’s app crashed my iPhone on more than one occasion as I struggled to get the slower 42kW Type 2 to work.

And 42kW it wasn’t… In the end it added just 26 miles to the ZS EV’s range in an agonising, infuriating two hour wait.

With a properly functioning rapidcharger the ZS EV will charge from empty to 80 per cent in just 43 minutes.

I know how satisfying a quick, cheap charge can be but in this case — with no out of hours support available from Ecotricity — only the HGV drivers parked nearby are able to testify to just how annoyed I was.

In the end I left Grantham knowing that I should arrive home with 10 miles to spare if the trip computer was to be believed.

I kept my speed to around 60mph and had the sat-nav tracking my distance to home as I watched the ZS EV’s available range eroded.

With steady driving, it proved to be bang accurate. I eventually pulled onto the drive, with nine miles to spare, at 10.15pm.

The only other real positive was that, while sat in the car at Grantham, I managed to watch the whole of the Keanu Reeves action romp John Wick.

Awesome.

Anyway, back to the ZS EV.

For the money, the package is quite remarkable.

I drove the Exclusive trim version which was priced at £23,495 with the grants available at the time of driving.

Among the standard equipment is MG Pilot — a package which includes automated emergency braking, blind spot monitoring, lane keep assistance and adaptive cruise control.

A panoramic, sliding sunroof and an eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system featuring sat-nav, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone connectivity, and Bluetooth phone connectivity with audio streaming and DAB radio are also standard.

That’s a fair bit of premium kit.

The ZS’s interior plastics aren’t the most tactile, but its design feels modern and well resolved, the driving position being comfortable during my protracted late-night trauma.

That infotainment system also sports a rather bizarre astronomical design theme, with the planet Mars assuming a dominant role in the main graphics…

But it works perfectly well.

Driving the ZS EV is as effortless as any EV, just with an SUV driving position which is only available elsewhere in zero emission vehicles costing more than three times as much (Audi’s e-tron and the Mercedes-Benz EQC).

A regenerative braking system with three settings will recoup energy under what feels to all intents and purposes like a gearing system.

It can’t be set up to be as strong as the Leaf’s system — which will allow the car to be braked to a standstill without touching the brake pedal — but it does provide an appreciable level of extra control.

With its 44.5kWh battery pack spread underneath the floor panels, the ZS EV didn’t feel heavy or unwieldy.

Far from it.

I found the drive as pleasingly effortless and straightforward as any EV I’ve driven to date.

Its limited range and more budget feeling interior mean it’s not capable of de-throning the Kia e-Niro as my favourite EV.

But while you would have to wait at least 12-months for a new e-Niro, there is said to be no supply issues with MG’s offering.

While far larger European carmakers have made a song and dance about their new eco-friendly vehicles, the Chinese-owned carmaker has simply delivered.