Living with the MG ZS EV
August 13, 2021
Categories:
Can an MG ZS EV work for your family?
- Comfortable, practical interior with enough room for a young family
- Plenty of safety features to protect your precious cargo
- Interior materials hold up well under family use
I’ve reached the three-month mark into my 2021 MG ZS EV long-term loan, and I’ve come to appreciate the MG as the quietest member of my household.
For this review, I’ve chosen to delve into the ZS EV’s family-friendly credentials, given we are nearly halfway through another school term – sigh – the MG has become well accustomed to requirements of the daily run.
To recap – the car on test is the single-spec, MG ZS EV is powered by a 105kW/353Nm electric motor that drives the front wheels only. With a 44.5kWh battery, the MG delivers a WLTP-certified driving range of up to 263km.
Okay, that’s the numbers out of the way, on to how the MG has held up under the labours of parentage.
Charging the MG overnight, just like I do my phone, fills the electric tank to full, offering up 232km on the digital display (without accounting for the gains from regenerative braking).
Daily, I do the school drop-off, which is a 9.4km journey, then on to the CarAdvice office in North Sydney, adding another 28km to my commute.
On the way home, I do the same route in reverse, which leaves me with approximately 150km in reserve when I pull in my driveway. Add on to and from soccer once or twice a week, another 20km per trip. Worst-case scenario, when I get home, I have just under 100km left.
When getting out of the car, I plug it in and leave it on until we head to school in the morning. This leads me to say I have found a full charge is more than enough to get through my daily driving in the MG. And if your family life is similar, I would guess it will be ample enough for you too.
An important point for me with the MG ZS EV is the interior not only presents nicely, but held up under rough family usage as well. After shoes scuffing leather seats, half a soccer field being dragged through it, and sweaty (and always curiously sticky) boys occupying its confines, a quick whip around with the vacuum and a damp cloth rapidly removes any signs they were there at all.
The wide range of safety features are all working as they should so far. I particularly like the speed assistance system, as the acceleration of the MG is near enough effortless thanks to the electric motor that you don’t realise how quickly you reach 60km/h. A quick ding from the system keeps you in check, which can be adjusted to the speed of your choosing.
So far, I have spent most of my daily driving in ‘Eco’ mode, which is the highest setting for regenerative braking. The MG defaults back to ‘Normal’ every time you turn it on, which I think should be the Eco setting – to make full use of the technology on offer here – but one touch of the mode button switches it to my preferred driving mode.
This article originally featured on drive.com.au and can be viewed here.
