Long term test: a final farewell to Don
Monday, 22 November 2021
MG ZS EV LONG TERM TEST
Base price: $48,990 ($40,365 after rebate).
Powertrain and range: Permanent-magnet synchronous electric motor and 44.5 kWh battery, 105kW/353Nm, FWD, 263km range (WLTP).
How far we’ve gone: 1889km.
Power consumption: 18.5kWh/100km (WLTP claim: 18.6kWh/100km combined)
What have we done lately? Given it back…
What we like: Comfortable, good value for money, hilarious performance off the line.
What we don’t like: Infuriating infotainment screen, seat height for the taller driver, icky fake leather.
After more than 15 years of doing this motoring journalism thing I have to admit that I am so used to having a different car each week (often several) that if I have just one car for more than a week I start yearning for the next one – something different, even if it isn’t as good a car.
After the second week with the same car I am actively starting to resent driving a car that I am now bored with. It’s a combination of having a constant parade of different cars and a short, child-like attention span that always makes me want the newest, shiniest toy.
That is why I have always largely resisted having a long-term test car. But the idea of running New Zealand’s cheapest brand-new EV was interesting enough to overcome that resistance and grasp the offered keys of a metallic baby blue MG ZS EV for what was initially going to be a three-month long-term test.
**READ MORE:
* MG ZS EV: the lockdown update
* Not just for learners: Street Smart teaches parents road safety too
**
The idea of living with an EV on a daily basis – commuting to the office, running about in weekends and the occasional longer road trip – would present a number of interesting challenges and no doubt produce some fascinating insights, particularly as I have nowhere to easily charge one at my home.
However, after the first week with Don (the name the MG quickly acquired after a bad joke) proved that charging just wasn’t going to be an issue for the daily commute cycle – the 263km claimed range Don packed was easily achievable, and a combination of “snacking” (ie: short top-ups on public fast chargers whenever you are near one) and a single overnight charge in the weekend (parked in my generous neighbour’s driveway, which is close enough to my laundry window for the cable to reach) was always more than enough to get me through a week that usually always saw me do comfortably more than the claimed range.
So that quickly saw what I thought would be my biggest challenge in living with an EV – dealing with charging and the associated range anxiety – completely dismissed. You have to change your approach to topping up the tank (so to speak), but that didn’t take long at all, and once I settled into a routine it was something I rarely even thought about.
But what about those longer trips?
Well, while I had several of those planned, including several mandatory trips from Auckland to Ōtorohanga (a 376km round trip) to visit family, a trip to
Taupō for a story (560km return) and, yes, even a holiday road trip, they were all firmly ruined when the Delta variant of Covid firmly shut the door on leaving Auckland.
Which was disappointing, to say the least. But it did extend my time with Don around Auckland, which was quickly where he proved to be at his most adorable anyway.
Yes, that's right, the slightly awkward small SUV – in a shade of light blue I could never quite warm to – quickly became ‘adorable’ to me by being an absolute weapon off the line.
Sure, it quickly ran out of puff after about 60kmh or so, but that belligerent off-the-line performance and impressive traction that accompanied it made the MG the perfect urban runabout that could blow away almost anything from a traffic light, particularly as it is allied to a comfortable low speed ride (albeit with a bit of short wheelbase jiggliness over broken surfaces) and sharp, responsive steering.
Out on the open roads things weren’t quite so adorable, with the soft ride and hefty battery weight compromising the handling in a predictably understeery way, but for cruising at open road speed it was perfectly acceptable. It just quickly brought you back to reality if you thought the brisk low down performance suggested sportier things.
While long distance trips were out of the equation, what exactly did I learn about the MG during our five months with it? Let’s just do it the easy way by going through what I liked about it and what I didn't like.
WHAT I LIKED
Well, the off the line acceleration was utterly hilarious (I may have mentioned that few times before…), but the remarkable ease of using and living with the ZS EV on a daily basis was equally impressive – it is an easy car to get in and out of, it has useful interior space, and it is dead easy to park and manoeuvre in tight spaces.
Build quality is what you would expect from a $40k car (highlighting the impressive value of the cheaper ICE versions) and no squeaks or rattles developed over five months of being ruthlessly thrashed away from the lights driven. I mean being driven in a responsible manner…
The steering is sharp and responsive, as well as being nicely weighted with some actual feel and feedback to it – a rarity in a modern SUV, and EVs too, for that matter – while I also found the ride to be more than acceptable.
Oh, and the audio system also produced a good sound for a budget car. But the rest of the infotainment system leads us into…
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
Yeah, the touchscreen infotainment system is a sluggish, laggy nightmare of confusing placement and tragic brainfade, despite being ostensibly sensibly laid out. The languid response to inputs is a massive frustration, often leaving me considering using my fist to interact with it instead of a finger.
Using Android Auto overcame the sluggishness of the audio inputs and the embedded sat nav taking an eternity to fire up (leading to the conclusion that the MG has a very small electric brain and my phone is better), but things like the HVAC dials also using the screen led to even more frustration – you would twist a dial to change the fan speed or temperature, then have to wait until after you had twisted it for the screen to switch to the appropriate display, only to see you had changed it too much…
Then there was the seat height – the driver’s seat simply wouldn’t go low enough for someone of my height (184cm, which isn’t massively tall…) to get a driving position I was happy with. There’s plenty of headroom, so that’s not an issue, and the driving position is still perfectly comfortable, just weirdly high. Again, it’s just a needless frustration. And while I’m whinging about the seats, the fake “leather” is as unpleasant to the touch as ever…
For a whisker over $40k (after the Clean Car rebate), the MG ZS EV represents an impressively sharp value for money option for an electric urban runabout, but one that is still more than capable of competent open road motoring.
It has its quirks and annoyances, but overall my five months with Don as largely my only form of transport was a very agreeable experience, with the almost total lack of drama when it came to keeping him charged being the single biggest revelation.
Well, that and the fact that I truly didn’t find myself bored with the MG either, and actually felt genuine regret when I had to hand it back…