MG MGS5 (2025 - ) Electric review

Not only is the MGS5 cheap to buy, for a sizeable EV, it’s also easy to buy because you’re not bamboozled by trim levels and an enormous options list. There are just three models to choose from: a base model (SE) with a smaller or bigger battery (49kWh or 64kWh), or a top spec car with the bigger battery only. Paint colour is the only cost option, so the most you can pay for an MGS5 is about £34K. That’s not far from the starting price of a Kia EV3 or a Volvo EX30, although those particular cars do feel more “premium” than this. And you can also get sizeable EVs that are cheaper, like the Citroen e-C4. Still, there aren’t many cars with an electric motor that feel this big, well-equipped and high-quality for this sort of price.

The jury is out on this one because the S5 is brand new, but it is built using a lot of the same bits as the 2022 MG4. Unfortunately, that seems like a less-than-ideal collection of parts, because the MG4 doesn’t have the best reputation for reliability. In a 2024 survey by a popular car magazine in which they asked “what car” is the most reliable EV, the MG4 came out dead last. MG as a manufacturer was deemed least reliable overall too. Still, the MGS5 isn’t just a rearrangement of MG4 parts. Much of it is new or updated and no doubt improved, so we can hope for much better. That said, in our particular test car, at low speed the brakes were wailing like Bob Marley’s band although… at least they weren’t, ahem, jamming. And it took us about 30 minutes to make Apple CarPlay work. They’re both things that you’d want to see your local MG dealer about. The warranty is very good, though, at seven years and 80,000 miles.

The big Euro NCAP safety warehouse where they smash new cars into various things hasn’t had an MGS5 as yet. But we can glean a few things from the related MG4, which received a five-star score. Its highest individual marks were for adult and child occupant safety, too. It bodes well, particularly as the S5 has loads of safety equipment as standard, including a big central airbag as one of its seven, and a bundle of prang-preventing active safety systems called MG Pilot. It includes stuff like blind spot monitoring, driver fatigue monitoring, emergency auto braking, speed limit warning and lane keeping assist. But because MG knows that a lot of these systems, which are required by law, can be intrusive and annoying in real life, they can be turned off easily with a single button press. We like this.

The S5 is as comfy as you’d want it to be. It’s spacious front and back (including plenty of headroom, partly because the underfloor battery pack is only 11cm thick), the steering is nice and light, the brake pedal is easy to use smoothly (not always a given in an EV), and the driving position is very adjustable. Short or tall, broad or not-so-broad, you’ll be okay. The suspension is slightly on the firm side, and you’ll feel it thump when you hit a pothole, but it’s a massive improvement over the MG ZS which, even when fresh out of the factory, wobbled over the road like a 300,000-mile taxi. There’s far less wind and tyres noise in this thing as well. And while the S5 never feels quite as sophisticated and outright refined as a Kia EV3 or a Renault ScenicE-Tech, it’s very close. And it’s a league above the ZS in basically every way, but especially the huge uptick in cabin quality...

MG must have realised that just being cheap ain’t enough, because you’d never get into an S5 and assume it’s a budget car where ZS absolutely felt like it was. The dashboard textures are varied and interesting and soft touch – the suede phone charging panel on between the front seats is especially nice – and the standard twin screens are large and high definition. Loads of time and effort has evidently gone into making the S5 feel good. The rotary drive selector and the stereo volume dials have proper weight to them, the infotainment software is easy to use, and the screen is responsive, so you’re not distracted by furiously jabbing at it on the move. A top-of-the-range Trophy spec car is complete with such luxuries as an electrically adjustable driver’s seat, heating for your bum and hands, and a hands-free tailgate. The wireless phone charging didn’t work in our test car, mind – another thing to mention to the dealer. But because the base (SE) model is well-equipped (nav, air con, rear parking camera, alloys, big touch-screen… you can even unlock it and pre-heat it with your phone), we’d say that’s enough – assuming you can live with the car’s lower battery range. It's practical too. Its 453-litre twin-floor boot dwarfs the Volvo EX30's rear hole, for instance, and there are – according to MG – “33 storage and practicality features”. Although they could have counted all the USB ports individually for all we know. And one of the 33 isn’t a front boot. Disappointing for an EV, that.

MG claims best-in-class performance from the S5 owing to its 228 horsepower electric motor. And it is quick. It gets to 62mph in just 6.3 seconds, which is quicker than a Golf GTI was in 2020. It never FEELS that quick though, partly because all the power is only available in Sport mode, and because there’s a real delay in the accelerator response in four of the car’s five driving modes. It’s clearly been engineered for smooth progress, and it’s in stark contrast to the “on/off switch” feeling you get from most EV accelerator pedals. But this, along with aerodynamic work, and efforts to keep weight down, and five levels of brake energy regeneration (which, frustratingly, are accessed on the touchscreen rather than with steering wheel paddles), do help make the S5 quite efficient. The 49kWh version does “up to 211” miles on a full charge, while the 64kWh model ekes out near enough 300, officially. Cut those numbers by 20 per cent for a more realistic figure. It charges up quickly enough too – you can rapid charge either version to 80 per cent full in well under half an hour.