The most surprising thing about the MG 4 is the price. At P 1,738,888 for the mid-trim Luxury variant—the one in Fizzy Orange—it not only undercuts its ZS EV stablemate (P 1,838,888), but achieves price parity with combustion and hybrid-powered compact cars. On the other hand, the XPower variant—the one in matte Hunter Green—is a monster with 435 horsepower and 600 Nm; priced at P 2,000,888, it’s basically a supercar masquerading as a family hatchback.

MG has achieved the seemingly impossible thanks to the cutting-edge Modular Scalable Platform or MSP. As a ground-up EV platform, SAIC (MG’s parent company), could fit a variety of motors, battery sizes, and even top hats onto the same basic skateboard. Aside from helping them achieve economies of scale, it’s also managed to give, at least in the case of the MG 4, a perfect 50-50 front-to-back weight distribution and a low center of gravity.

These attributes have been put to full use in the MG 4. There’s an element of inherent dynamism and together with the quick steering, makes for one perky, corner loving hatchback. Prod the throttle and the Luxury variant returns useful levels of acceleration. The century sprint takes about eight seconds which is plenty fast, but is gentle enough as not to rearrange your insides each time you floor the accelerator. Progress though starts to taper off quickly past 130 km/h. But, by that time, you would have passed just about every traffic imaginable and your license would have been confiscated. Even better, its athleticism hasn’t affected its comfort at all as it smoothens out the worst of Manila’s pockmarked roads.

Issues? Two mainly. The first is the way the suspension eeks out this booming noise whenever its driven over the wrong sort of surface or road (normally when a corner bottoms out). It can be quite upsetting to the point that it feels like you hit a curb or something. Second is the brake pedal feel whenever the MG 4 switches between its regen and friction brakes. The pedal will feel wooden for a moment and if you’re caught off guard, it’ll cause the car to blare out its forward collision warning.

If you really must go quicker, there’s the XPower variant. Equipped with dual motors and all-wheel drive, it decimates the 100 km/h mark in just 3.8 seconds—faster than a Porsche Taycan 4S and just 0.4 seconds slower than the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. To handle the extra grunt, MG’s firmed up the suspension and upgraded the brakes. Naturally, there are tradeoffs, but they’re not significant. For one, it won’t sail through potholes as well as the Luxury variant. Also, because the front wheels are now driven, the steering’s slightly heavier and the turning circle bigger. Oh, and more driveline noise tends to permeate the cabin.

With both variants sharing the same sort of battery: a 64-kWh lithium-ion unit with the more advanced and energy-dense Nickel-Manganese Cobalt chemistry, the Luxury variant goes further between charges with a 435-kilometer as claimed and 387 kilometers as tested mileage (6.28 km/kWh) versus the XPower’s 349 kilometers (400 kilometers claimed) figures (5.65 km/kWh).

The dedicated EV platform and 2,705 mm wheelbase equates to impressive interior room front or back. Head, shoulder, and legroom are all generous although ingress and egress is a bit hampered because of the aggressive side sill (watch out for soiled pant legs). MG’s also managed to maximize the amount of storage spaces with a cubby hold between the front seats large enough for wallets, keys, and a smartphone—a must since the USB ports are located down below and neither of these variants have wireless smartphone connectivity. There is, however, a standard provision for a wireless charger in front of the shifter. There’s also a lidded armrest console too. If anything, the MG 4 falters in cargo carrying capacity. There’s no frunk to begin with and the rear hold’s just good for 363 liters. Despite the square shape, it lacks depth requiring you to drop a part of the rear seats just to accommodate a full-sized luggage.

Ergonomically, the MG 4’s mixed. It nails the basics right—the positioning of the seats, steering wheel, and rotary knob shifter, for example. Visibility is generally good in all angles save for the rear. The small windshield and comically tiny wiper can make maneuvering through tight spaces difficult. There’s a 360-degree camera as standard, but the image is so distorted, that it’s close to useless. Sadly, designers also had to throw in needless curve balls like the lack of a starter button (the car automatically switches on when it detects a weight over the driver’s seat and switches off when the car’s locked or turned off using the 10.25-inch infotainment screen). Speaking of the screen, the menu structure and its responsiveness leaves a lot to be desired. Not only are the tabs and icons fiddly, there’s no option to increase the font size. This makes it almost impossible to read out even the basic info like range and battery remaining. Oh, and just when you think you can customize things like the regen level and MG Pilot (ADAS) system to your liking, switch the MG 4 off brings things back to its default setting. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, however, at least based on the menu. These software issues can be, theoretically at least, corrected via remote updates so here’s hoping MG Philippines does just that.

When it comes to equipment, almost nothing separates the Luxury and XPower variants. This is where you could say the MG 4 loses out versus a traditional compact car. For one, it doesn’t have features which are pretty standard on Chinese cars like a sunroof. But then, it doesn’t have things like rear AC vents or even a rear arm rest. Materials are generally alright, but upon closer inspection, they don’t all hold up to scrutiny. The seating material, especially on the Luxury variant, are scratchy and cheap-feeling. Ditto the door cards (the XPower, thankfully has plusher-feeling suede). Even the carpeting in the cargo compartment already shows massive signs of pilling and that’s in a car that’s barely done 4,000 kilometers. On the flip side, it does have a solid sound system in the form of its 6-speaker Arkamys system and there’s also a full ADAS suite too.

For all its shortcomings, the MG 4 has played its cards right. By engineering a bespoke EV hatchback (as opposed to electrifying an existing one), this MG plays up nicely on a lot of fronts—performance, space, comfort, value. With its eye-watering acceleration for not a lot of extra peso, you’d probably think we’d take the MG 4 XPower over the Luxury variant. Perhaps, if we were younger or wanted something a bit Fast and Furious. As it stands, because it doesn’t handle as well as a true hot hatch, we feel like the MG 4 Luxury is a better-balanced vehicle. 

Regardless, whether its in the Luxury or XPower guise, the MG serves up a warning shot to other manufacturers: you can design and make a great EV without making it cost too much. All in all, it puts the MG 4 in the running to be one of the best cars we’ve driven this year.