MG Marvel R – Back to Basics

MG Marvel R Luxury

€46,485

MG had a particularly good year last year with 2,180 cars sold. As the only MG model at the time, the ZS EV was fully responsible for this. This year, with 976 cars, sales have so far slowed down for MG, despite the fact that two new models have been added to the range with the plug-in hybrid EHS and the electric Marvel R. The MG 5 will also be added next year. With a starting price of €46,485, the Marvel R is more than 10 grand more than the base version of the EHS and costs €13,500 more than the ZS EV. With that price, the Marvel R comes into the water of a car like the Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric, which from now on is in the price list from €44,995 as a 231 hp strong front-wheel drive.

Does the standard equipment of the MG Marvel R justify its high price? To start with, the Luxury has two electric motors on the rear wheels that together deliver a power of 180 hp and 410 Nm of torque. This allows you to zoom to 100 km/h in 7.9 seconds and to a top speed of 200 km/h if you keep the power pedal against the floor. The range of the Marvel R Luxury is 402 WLTP kilometers. Charging is possible at the charging station with a maximum charging speed of 11 kW and at the fast charger up to 94 kW. According to MG, you can theoretically fill your battery from 5 percent to 80 percent with power in 43 minutes. The Marvel R also has a heat pump.

Above the Luxury is the Performance, which has an extra electric motor on the front axle. This variant has a system power of 288 hp and 665 Nm of torque and you can zoom to 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds, but you do have some range. The WLTP value is 370 kilometers, 32 kilometers less than the Luxury. For that extra speed and four-wheel drive you have to tap something: the Performance has an additional cost of €5,000 and comes out at €51,485.

Uniform appearance

MG is not very generous with images of the basic version in the configurator. Now you don’t have to, because apart from the chosen paint color, Marvel R’s do not differ from each other from the factory. For example, the Marvel R always rolls on the 19-inch alloy wheels shown. It is standard painted in the color ‘Prism Blue’, but at no extra cost you can choose from ‘Pearl White’, ‘Pebble Black’, ‘Concrete Grey’ and ‘Night Watch Grey’. So it won’t be very colorful. The windows have a glossy black frame as standard and the side mirrors are also always painted black. Remarkably enough, the roof rails and the accents in the front and rear bumpers are silver-colored.

MG Marvel R

The Marvel R is always equipped with LED lighting at the front and rear, with both light units having a continuous light bar across the width of the car. At the front of the Marvel R, the actual headlights are one floor below the daytime running lights. The rear lights do on the other hand very Audi-like, both in terms of shape and layout. The headlights always have a light sensor with ‘Intelligent High Beam Control’. A rain sensor is also standard. To make parking easier, the Marvel R has front and rear parking sensors and a 360-degree camera. Other standard treats include keyless entry, electrically folding side mirrors, an electrically operated tailgate, a panoramic roof and privacy glass.

The only option

The summary in the previous paragraph already shows that the Marvel R is quite good in its stuff. That theme continues in the interior. The seats are covered with black leather as standard, but as an option you can opt for a beige interior for €1,000. That is also the only choice you have when configuring a Marvel R Luxury. With the Performance, in addition to these two options, you can also opt for a brown interior, which costs €2,000. In that case, your seats are covered with a combination of leather and Alcantara. Another difference between the equipment of the Luxury and the Performance is in the audio system. As standard, the Marvel R has a nameless unit with 8 speakers, in the Performance you get 9 Bose speakers.

MG Marvel R

Apart from that, the Luxury and Performance inside do not differ. Both versions have a 12.3-inch digital instrumentation in front of the driver’s nose and a 19.4-inch touchscreen in the middle as standard. It runs the iSmart system from MG, which also supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. To further enhance the interior, there is mood lighting under the moldings in the doors. The driver’s seat is also electrically adjustable with memory positions and both front seats are equipped with seat heating and ventilation. The climate control can be divided into two zones.

A rich standard equipment is not complete without a whole range of safety systems. Fortunately, this is not lacking in the Marvel R. Adaptive Cruise Control with Traffic Jam Assistance, Front Collision Warning, Lane Keep Assistance, Traffic Sign Recognition, Rear Traffic Alert and Multi Collision Braking and Blind Spot Monitoring are all available at no extra cost. All in all, you can’t really speak of a ‘Back to Basics’ with the Marvel R. For the starting price is an exceptionally complete car on the sidewalk where you can hardly or not tick options. Think about that at Volvo.