MG MG4 2025 review: XPower long-term | Part 2

I know that convention with these things demands I make you wait until the very end of this long-term dispatch before making the point I’d really like you to take away with you. 

But who has time for all that these days? So here’s the rub: I wouldn’t drop the $59,769 (drive-away) MG is currently asking on the MG4 Xpower. 

It’s not that I didn’t like it. It’s more that, the higher you climb up the MG4 ladder, the less sense each model seems to make.

I’m on record as being a fan of the most affordable model, the Excite 51, which is currently around $34,990 drive-away. As a cheap(ish) runabout EV, it’s a very strong proposition. Enough range to get you through the working week, well-equipped at that price point, and with way more instantaneous power underfoot than in a city-focused ICE car.

But I now think the true sweet spot in the MG4 range is likely the second-cheapest model, the Excite 64.

It’s not as fast to 100km/h as the XPower (7.2s versus a lightning quick 3.8s), but it will travel further between charges (450kms versus 400kms), and in real terms, and in the way the power delivered, the cheaper MG EVs do not feel slow. Both share the same 64kWh battery, by the way, but the extra grunt of the XPower saps the juice faster than in the Excite 64, 13kWh/100kms versus 15.2kWh/100kms. 

That range matters, too. Arguably more than anything else in EV land. My wife and I are often shooting down the South Coast for a weekend away, and I can tell you there were several occasions where an extra 50kms would have come in very handy, even if for little more than safety buffer.

The 400kms on offer in the XPower (less, obviously, if you spend your time on a freeway) will happily carry us from Sydney to Jervis Bay, for example, which is about 180kms and 2.5 hrs from our place. But it won’t carry us back again without recharging.

Plus, the Excite 64 is $45,115 drive-away. And that’s a lot less than the XPower. About a cool $15k less, in fact.

And I suppose that’s the point. For mine, the XPower just doesn’t feel like a near-$60k car — even if that price point puts it almost exactly on par with a petrol hot hatch like the VW Golf GTI. The cabin materials are mostly no better than the cheaper models, and nor is the cabin tech, and bug bears that exist in all the MG4 models still exist here.

I’ve ranted before about the get-in-and-go functionality which is just mind-twistingly annoying. It takes ages to engage, and often requires several stamps of the brake before you can get moving.

And once you’re on the move, the suspension feels like it’s been tightened up to 11, which is grand when you’re twisting your way up a mountain somewhere, and much less so when you’re bouncing over expansion joints in a bridge near you.

That said, the power is absolutely ridiculous, and the all-wheel-drive grip helps get it out of the tyres and into the tarmac. The steering is also nice and direct, and satisfyingly heavy in Sport mode, and the XPower feels entirely competent — if not massively engaging — in corners, too.

But to be honest — and to be fair, I’ve sailed past 40 now, so I’m officially old — I found all the go-fast stuff a bit grating towards the end, and without the emotional payoff to make a bit of discomfort worthwhile.

Yes, the acceleration is ridiculous, but I’m not sure that’s enough to convince me. It’s not a truly engaging and enthralling performance car (though to be fair, I can’t think of too many EVs that are), and so why not get a cheaper one with more driving range, and make do without the zero-to-100km/h highlights?

After a couple of months behind the wheel, that’s certainly my position.

Acquired: December 2024

Distance travelled this month: 645km

Odometer: 8283km

Average energy consumption this month: 17.5kWh/100km