Test: MG EHS

With the fully electric ZS EV, MG is doing good business in the Netherlands, especially due to the friendly price tag. The EHS is also an excellent deal on paper. The MG is even in top version Luxury for less than 38 grand from you. Thanks to its size and proportions, the EHS looks clearly less flimsy than the ZS, but it remains a fairly interchangeable appearance. It will not stay with anyone, although it certainly looks neat and modern. It is striking that the MG cargo hold in particular is remarkably neatly finished. With about 450 liters behind the rear seat, the MG is not overly spacious for an SUV of this size, which is undoubtedly due to the hybrid technology.

on the buck
The MG also offers plenty of space on all sides, even for those who amply exceed 1.80 metres. It is nice that the feet find a spacious place under the front seat. In the front it becomes immediately clear why: the seat is quite high. As a driver you sit quite ‘on the buck’ and for the passenger the seat is even higher, because the right seat is not adjustable in height at all. Like the exterior, the interior of the MG is neat, but lacking a bit of its own style. The buttons in the center console also look a bit cheap, but other than that the quality impression is fine. It is nice to see that MG clearly wants to prevent the EHS from appearing as a ‘budget mobile’. Here and there we find unnecessary, but beautiful aluminum finish and mood lighting in a color of your choice has also been lavishly sprinkled. The fact that the SAIC product had to be economical above all is apparent from ill-considered choices and the little-refined operation of a number of components. For example, the climate control blows quite firmly, the seat heating only has one position and the radio turns on at full strength at every start. Not nice, because the sound quality of the Chinese audio system is mediocre.

quirks

Also in the development of the powertrain, here and there is thought just a little too simple. For example, the MG only drives electrically when the driver presses the EV button and not when driving away with a full battery. If that is a first requirement to get the interior pleasantly warm, it is not even possible to drive fully electric to work in the winter. The heating only works on engine heat, so an activated climate control automatically means that the combustion engine participates. This is perhaps the biggest shortcoming of the EHS, which means that it can only be used to a very limited extent as a plug-in hybrid in winter. Too bad, because at pleasant temperatures, the MG is quite far on current. MG gives up more than 50 kilometers and with 100 km/h we even came 55 kilometers away. Above average. The MG is also nice and smooth, thanks to an electric motor with a usable 122 hp. Like the 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine, it drives the front wheels via a complex combination of six physical and four electronic gears. In theory that would yield ten, but in practice it doesn’t feel that way. With the petrol engine switched on, the car waits a remarkably long time to shift, while the shift itself also takes a long time. Certainly under heavy load, the car can be heard well, but then it is also seriously smooth. It is also striking that the car switches tangibly even in pure-electric mode, resulting in a delay. The MG powertrain therefore has quite a few quirks, but also without a doubt a number of advantages. Bottom line, the strongest point of the Chinese is its competitive pricing.