 battery, top speed is up to 124mph and 0-62mph is down to 3.8 seconds. Despite the extra regenerative braking from two electric motors, the XPower's WLTP range is now down to 239 miles and the price is £36,495. The MG4 range now consists of five vehicles, starting with the £25,995 Standard Range car with a 218-mile range and a 51kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery. The rest of the range uses NMC lithium-ion battery technology: the £28,495 SE Long Range (281 miles); the £31,495 Trophy Long Range (270 miles), which both use the 64kWh battery; the aforementioned £36,495 Extended Range model, which uses a 77kWh battery (323 miles); and this XPower range-topper. As regular readers will know, we're still waiting in vain for a proper hot-hatchback EV and had some high hopes for this one. The figures make interesting reading, sacrificing weight, range and efficiency for outright performance and claimed improved road holding and braking. It weighs 1.8 tonnes against 1.75 tonnes for the Extended Range and 1.66 tonnes for t){kind=link}
This budget electric family car has over 400bhp, but is it fun or is it just fast? Because you can have the latter without the former
There were hints of this car at last year’s drive of the new battery electric MG4. Would there be a four-wheel drive version to supplement the rear-drive models? Well, yes, they breezily said, that’s a possibility. And a more powerful version for a chassis that could certainly take it? “Hmm, well… maybe,” came the reply.
Well, here it is: the £36,494 XPower goes on sale this year alongside a similarly-priced Extended Range version, which we’ll come back to in a minute. Note the use of the old XPower MG tuning name by SAIC, the Chinese Government-owned company which owns the venerable British sporting brand.
Note also the ultra-low price, which some might call “predatory pricing” and others mutter about dumping at under the cost of production…
With a lot more power than the rear-wheel drive models, the 429bhp MG4 XPower has a 201bhp electric motor driving the front wheels and a 228bhp motor driving the rears.