MG ZS EV: the lockdown update

Saturday, 16 October 2021

Our poor MG ZS EV long termer has been relegated to his carport during lockdown. Next to the bins and with only a spider for company...

MG ZS EV LONG TERM TEST
Base price: $48,990 ($40,365 after rebate).

A spider seems to have taken up residence somewhere in Don during lockdown.

Powertrain and range: Permanent-magnet synchronous electric motor and 44.5 kWh battery, 105kW/353Nm, FWD, 263km range (WLTP).
How far we’ve gone: 1781km.

The MG ZS EV, Peugeot e-208 and Mini Electric are the three cheapest brand new EVs you can buy in New Zealand. But which one is best?

Power consumption: 18.7kWh/100km (WLTP claim: 18.6kWh/100km combined)
What have we done lately? Gazed sadly upon it in the carport during lockdown. The occasional supermarket supply run…
What we like: The way it charges off the line like a lunatic. Impressive comfort.

This doesn’t need to be this high. Or, at least, should be able to go lower.

What we don’t like: The seat height. Electronic brain is easily confused.

While the country has been trying to surf the wave of Delta and dealing with more lockdowns, won’t someone spare a thought for the poor motoring journalists of New Zealand – we live and breath cars, but haven't even been able to get out and go for a proper drive for ages now…

Oh, right. No-one cares… bigger problems than spoilt kids who can’t get to play with new cars and all that. Yeah, I totally get it, but at least spare a thought for poor little Don, our long-term MG ZS EV.

Don’s electrical bits have proven to be excellent. The brain that controls everything can be a bit flaky though.

After several months of being punted around Auckland like a hot hatch, the little blue fella has been sitting in my carport gathering cobwebs and a hefty layer of pollen that coats literally every damn thing around my home this time of year.

* Not just for learners: Street Smart teaches parents road safety too

* MG ZS EV facelift incoming, could be here next year

* Long-term test: MG ZS EV

The odd trip to the supermarket is all he has been treated to over the past few months, plus a vigorous wash to take care of the pollen. The cobwebs came back though. I think we have a resident spider now.

However, the lack of use has lead to a few interesting insights when I jump back into him after a long time – first and foremost; I hate the driver’s seat height.

The ZS is cursed by that irritating bit of motoring industry sleight of hand that tries to trick your brain into believing that a small jacked-up hatch is really an SUV by bumping the seat height up to give you the feeling of a commanding ride height.

I hate it in all small (and a lot of medium) SUVs, and I realised the other day that I hate it in the ZS too. It feels unnaturally high, like you are sitting on the car, rather than in it. It’s something Ford always used to do to all of its cars, for some really weird reason and, as I may have mentioned, I hate it.

Well, for the first trip, at least, then I get used to it, and it doesn’t bother me so much any more.

However, the second impression of the MG’s seating is more positive – seat height aside, I love the actual driving position and the fact that it is super-easy to find the perfect position. And while we’re on Don’s seats; while the fake leather is as icky as all fake leather is, they are brilliantly soft and comfortable.

The second, totally unsurprising insight is that I still absolutely love the way Don utterly smashes off the line – that feral, instant blast of acceleration off the line is utterly out of character for a small baby blue SUV, and utterly hilarious. Every. Damn. Time.

Get your throttle input just right and the MG digs in and blasts away from a standing start. Get a bit too eager and then there is a little howl of protest from the front tyres, and then it blasts away. Which just makes me laugh all that much harder…

I have in the past commented on Don’s relatively limited electronic brain that struggles when it comes to processing simple requests, but this time he threw a new wrinkle into things – after firing him up after a week or so of inactivity, his little brain seemed to get a tad confused as to what was going on and flashed up a message saying that the “high voltage battery wasn’t active”.

Yet everything was on and working fine. The message persisted and Don blatantly refused to drop into drive.

Applying the age-old tech fix of “turning it off and on again” (the next step is “hitting it really hard”) cleared things up, and we were able to go about our business with no further signs of whatever the hell it was that confused him so much. I guess it was kind of a similar reaction I have when woken up on a Sunday morning…

And that really has been the story of our relationship so far – a few hiccups due to our respective quirks and oddities, but generally we get along brilliantly well.

Sadly, my time with Don is almost over, with the lockdown having ruined a lot of the plans I had for him, but the time I have spent commuting in the MG I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Any concerns I had around charging due to my lack of easy access at home were quickly dispelled, and I came to realise that range anxiety around town is really only a massive problem for people who don’t actually drive EVs – you adjust your thinking so quickly, that concerns really do fade away. At least, mine did.

As for longer stuff? Well, lockdown has dented those plans, but I still hold out hope to do something a bit more road trippy yet…