MG ZS EV - 72.6kWh Facelift

Was actually in with my local MG dealer today. Told be October for an Exclusive.

If you're gonna wait that long, may as well wait until January.

We were looking at the MG ZS as well and were really impressed by it. 3 weeks ago we were told October at best and probably January for delivery. Went to our local Kia garage and test drove a second hand eNiro - they told us they had 3 unallocated eNiro's coming in and when we did the numbers with him it was only € 600 more for the eNiro versus the ZS. MG were giving very poor trade in values. Ordered last Saturday and should have it next week once the SEAI grant goes through.

He got a great deal - I know it went up € 1,000 at the end of January. We were quoted an on the road price of € 37,900 with metallic.

We had a trade in - your cousin probably got cash discount. Kia gave us €2,500 extra on trade in which really helped close the gap

ZS has gone up to 36k. Eniro has also gone up to 42k.

The kicker is the trade in, if the Kia dealers will give you 6k more for your trade in then it makes the price isn't the deal maker.

I'd still go for the MG, you are getting a car that is matching the 50-70k cars spec wise. But what that says is that the premium versions of the ID4 and inoniq 5 are just adding 15k EV tax.

Why not? If you look at the spec on the MG. Glass sunroof, MG pilot, blind spot warning, cross traffic warnings, vehicle to load, 360 cameras.

Looking at the ID4's spec you have to go all the way up to the ID4 family at 58k to come close to the MG's spec and you still don't get vehicle to load or a 360 camera.

Same with Ioniq 5. You would have to get the premium plus at 54-65k.

I'm not saying the MG is a 50-60k car. I'm saying the ID4 and Ioniq 5 are about 15k over priced.

Now I'm unsure whether I made the right choice with the ZS or whether I should have bought 4tonne of kerrygold?!

No it's not. It's 15% above its WLTP range. You can do that with pretty much any car out there in those circumstances. Petrol, diesel or EV.

Hyundai Ioniq 28kW (the original) was hypermiled to well over 100% above its WLTP range. That is a hugely respectable result

But you are giving up a lot of nice extras to move to a very basic inoniq (spec wise, it's still fancy). Vehicle to load, leather seats, panoramic sunroof, and the extra battery size/range. Along with a bunch of other less big ticket items.

You could make an argument that the buyer may not care about any of those items which is fair.

But if that is the case, I'd turn that argument around and say before they buy the base inoniq 5 they should look at the base Standard range MG which is a similar spec ( smaller battery, the fabric seats and no sunroof) and only 29k. They would still get the V2L that is standard across all models.

The inoniq 5 might be nice, but is it 10 grand nicer? I guess that is a matter of taste.

That's my point if you don't care about the extra's in the top spec ZS then why would you buy it? Go for the €29k version that is still higher spec than the €39k inoniq 5 and comes with the same 7 year warranty.

Take that €10,000 you save and stick a nice big solar panel on the roof.

You might be thinking of the old one (the one with the charge flap that folds up). That is a real "budget" offering and feels like it. I think that was a very low range it had a 42kw battery and the range was something silly like 220km.

The 2022 facelift model is much better.

The facelift Standard Range one has a 51kw battery and a WLTP of 320km. Which is decent for €29k (The long range €37k one does 440km).

The inoniq 5 does do about 40-50km more but it has a 58kw battery so you would expect to get a bit further.

The SR hasn't officially launched here until march which might be why it's not up on the site yet.

They only started arriving in the UK in the middle of this month and I'd say they are all being snapped up.

Just on the subject of the warranty, MG are matching the Kia warranty on any of the new EVs as far as I know, i.e. 7 years or 150k km. So while I'm not commenting on the general ownership experience, on paper the warranty point is moot.

FWIW, I test drove all of the MG (Exclusive), e-Niro and Kona over the last few months as a result of both myself and another family member looking to go EV. In the end I went with a second hand (barely, it's a 212) e-Niro as the price was right and it was available, and family member is going for the Kona as they want the (marginally) smaller body, and it's in stock sooner. The MG was a nice car, and if not for the delays the family member might have opted for it, but personally I wasn't a fan of the following:

• Over reliance on screen-based controls. This may be me, but both the Niro and Kona, while you can do a lot through the screen, have a more physical buttons that are easier navigated while driving that either are standalone controls, or shortcut navigating the screen. The MG struck me as trying hard to emulate what I've seen of Teslas, but the UX was a bit cumbersome. What buttons were present didn't seem entirely reliable in response either.
• The regen braking controls were off the steering wheel, down on the centre console. Not a deal breaker, but I preferred having them closer to hand as paddles, as you'd potentially vary the level based on road type and not want to have to reach down to do that.
• The 360 camera. Again, this probably takes getting used to and/or learning to use it right, but during the test drive it seemed to flash up randomly when making turns, but not for long enough to be really useful.

Overall I'd say the MG package is very good and has a lot of headline features, but for me it was let down a bit by simple things like the above, even if there's an element of subjectivity to those.

A newer cheaper MG or a newer cheaper something else? If you wanted to cancel your LR and go for a short range when that arrives then they might do that. But if you wanted to cancel the MG and buy a VW from a different garage they prob won't.

Generally, deposits, are non-refundable unless otherwise stated. The garage will have to put the order in with MG and if you pull out they are left with a car. Now they will likely sell it in a flash so they might be generous. in this instance.

You could say to them that the deposit is tied to them delivering for Feb 2023. At least if they try to push it out again you could ask for your money back.

But in all honesty, prices are only going one way. Everyone seems to be either reducing the spec or increasing the price or both.

I doubt any company would soak up a €10k difference in price if the grants were taken away.

Definitely the lower range one. You will have to stop from Dublin to Cork to charge for sure. You're saving about €1500 by buying from Northern Ireland in this case so you would have to be sure it is worth it for you.

That's true, only drive to Dublin maybe twice a year at most.

Same as everyone else I'm looking at the cost of petrol at the moment.

Herself took my leaf the other day and saved maybe 13 euro on petrol vs the electricity cost.

She prefers being higher up in the eclipse so I'm just trying to figure out what my options are.

Seems to be a fair bit of stock coming into the UK with some wait times reduced. Bigger market I know but here's hoping.

I decided to get a used petrol japanese import instead. Don't want to wait for one long year and also been hearing some horror stories from EV owners about the various issues at charging stations. Ireland doesn't seem too prepared for this whole EV thing.

Doesn't bode well for October deliveries if true.

There was a batch due in March '22 that is now June '22.

There was a second Batch due in April '22 that was moved to August/September, and that might now be Nov '22.

After that, it is anyone's guess. It will be 2023 anyway. The lockdown in China is not going to help.

Well since ours was due in October, fair to say we've moved into 2023 unless they are filling ships later on. No point asking the question at this stage in any case.