Accessible News

Top storiesNew ZealandPoliticsBusinessEntertainmentSportsWorld

Long term test: MG ZS EV

Wednesday, 23 June 2021

Now that New Zealand’s cheapest new EV has just got considerably cheaper, it seems like the perfect time for a long term test.
Now that New Zealand’s cheapest new EV has just got considerably cheaper, it seems like the perfect time for a long term test.
Meet Don. Yes, really, but there’s a good reason for the inappropriate name.
Meet Don. Yes, really, but there’s a good reason for the inappropriate name.
Look closely – you’ll see the source of the terrible dad joke that led to Don’s name...
Look closely – you’ll see the source of the terrible dad joke that led to Don’s name...
MG's new ZS EV has arrived and it is carrying an even sharper price tag than previously expected.

I am not the sort of person who names their car. I have never really understood why people do it, and always involuntarily grimace when someone refers to their car by a name. Kind of like the way you can't help but laugh when a cat gets scared by a cucumber.

The ZS’s interior quality is up there with cars much dearer. What about the rest of it?
The ZS’s interior quality is up there with cars much dearer. What about the rest of it?

I once owned a yellow 1979 Mazda 626 that I called a wide variety of names, usually when it did something wholly unexpected and, I always suspected, intentionally malicious, but that is about as far as it has ever gone. After all, anthropomorphism is a cognitive bias, everybody knows that.

But as the result of a terrible dad joke I made when I picked up Stuff Motoring’s latest long-term test car, a name for it has lodged itself into my brain and won’t go away.

A plan around charging the ZS EV has been hatched, but will it stick? We will find out.
A plan around charging the ZS EV has been hatched, but will it stick? We will find out.

**READ MORE:

* Five things: the best Clean Car Discount deals

* Road test review: MG ZS EV

* MG's sharp priced EV gets even sharper

* A plug for the pleasure of driving an EV in 2019

**

So to that end; meet Don, Stuff Motoring’s long-term MG ZS EV test car.

Many questions are probably swirling through your head after those opening paragraphs – Why a ZS EV? Why long term? Why the hell are cats scared of cucumbers? Isn’t suspecting your car is intentionally malicious anthropomorphism anyway? And, most importantly, why Don?

Allow me to answer those questions in a nice bullet-point format:

Anyway, now that we have solved the cat thing, the MG ZS EV has been a strong seller for the brand since its launch, that attractive entry price of $48,990 being a big drawcard. But now that the little SUV qualifies for the Government’s new Clean Car Discount of $8,625 it will cost you only a whisker over $40k, which makes it even more compelling.

We here at Stuff Motoring have long been fans of the small ZS SUV since the MG brand relaunched itself in New Zealand with it in 2019, being particularly impressed with its build and material quality for the money asked.

That strong starting point has meant that the more expensive all-electric version had a bit of a leg up on the competition – the ICE ZS was always a car that was easily comparable with cars that sold for around $10k more, so while the EV now asks around $13,000 more than the equivalent ICE ZS top-spec Essence model after the rebate, it puts it smack up against the pricing of equivalently equipped ICE rivals like the Toyota C-HR Limited hybrid (or the smaller Yaris Cross Limited hybrid), Ford Puma ST Line and Honda HR-V Sport NT, all of which are in the high-$30k to low $40k range.

The ZS is a small city SUV that will normally spend most of its like pottering around in urban environments (the EV even more so), so we will be doing that with it; using it to commute to and from work every day – a 17km round trip – as well as other normal, everyday running.

And also the exact opposite of that, with a number of longer trips out of Auckland in store for the baby blue MG.

An added wrinkle in the long term EV plan is the fact that, unlike our previous long term EV tests handled by David Linklater, I don’t have anywhere that is particularly convenient to charge one at home – my car port is too far away and has no power outlets near it. I do, however, have a friendly car enthusiast as a neighbour, and his driveway runs down the back of the block of flats I live in, right past my laundry window and close enough to run the charging cable to the car.

He is more than happy to let me park the car in his driveway to charge overnight, but I am conscious of not abusing his generosity, so at this stage my aim is to charge it overnight at home (on a 3-pin plug) once a week and then ‘graze’ (plug in whenever there is an opportunity, such as at a mall car park), which should theoretically be enough to keep me comfortably in the 20 to 80 per cent charge range for my weekly commute and weekend activities (which mainly includes sleeping, admittedly not a high-travel exercise), with the occasional high-speed top up at a public station if needed.

Will this work? I have no idea, but that is the plan. And that is the reason for a long term test – this plan could work, or it could drive me nuts. Another plan could emerge as I get used to the MG’s range. Or I could become like a used import Nissan Leaf owner and spend all my spare time hovering around free chargers in McDonalds car parks, yelling at anyone who stays plugged in too long or dares to stray further than a few metres away from their car.

I doubt that last one, but who knows? Maybe that is what long term EV ownership turns you into. I suppose it’s just one more thing to make me angry, though, like people who buy Jeep Wranglers and never take them off-road, those stick figure family stickers and all the pretend vents on a Kia Stinger.

Regardless of whether I get angrier or not, living with an EV on a longer term than our usual week-long road tests will be an interesting exercise and one I am looking forward to. Stay tuned for regular updates.