MG4 Urban (2026 - ) Electric review

The MG4 Urban is longer than a VW ID.3 for about the price of the smaller Renault 5 – MG is literally offering a lot of car for the money. Combine this with generous equipment levels and an official range of up to 258 miles and the MG4 Urban looks even more appealing. Judging by our test drive the MG4 Urban should be pretty efficient, too, with our range-topping Premium Long Range test car showing an impressive 4.2 miles/kWh during our short test drive. If you can charge at home using a dedicated EV energy tariff running costs will be minimal. However, the MG4 Urban can only receive DC charging power up to 87kW, so on longer journeys it won’t be the quickest EV to top up on the go.

MG has a mixed reputation for reliability and in the latest survey by What Car? it retained its title of least reliable brand overall. However, the MG4 Urban is an all-new model built on new foundations, so consider this a holding score for now and we hope MG has learnt from its previous mistakes. On a more positive note, all MGs are covered by a seven-year warranty which should offer some peace of mind.

All MG4 Urbans come with the full MG Pilot suite of safety systems which includes emergency braking, lane keeping assistance, adaptive cruise control and a speed limiter. Plus, MG even throws in blind spot monitoring as standard which is one of our favourite features and many other manufacturers will reserve it for their range-topping models only. MG also gains credit for its MG Pilot Custom mode which allows you to save your preferred safety setup to a shortcut so you can easily turn off any functions you find overly intrusive. That said, we didn’t think the MG4 Urban nagged us too much with unwanted bings and bongs.

While you may expect a car with ‘urban’ in its name to be a pocket-size runabout, the MG4 Urban is longer, taller and wider than its MG4 sibling, making it particularly roomy in the back. Three adults should have enough legroom for short journeys with the flat floor giving the middle-seat passenger little to complain about. Headroom is decent, too. Then there’s the boot, which is an impressive size with a substantial extra storage compartment under the floor. This is like the ‘Gigabox’ you'll find in the Ford Puma Gen-E, but the MG's underfloor space is not as large or waterproof. Upfront is spacious and you sit slightly higher than other hatchbacks for a good view of the road ahead. You’ll want to look outside of the car as much as possible because the grey interior is very dull and austere with none of the fun flourishes you’ll find in a Renault 5 or Fiat Grande Panda. While this doesn’t directly impact comfort, the constant rumble of road noise and firm ride – which are particularly noticeable over rough surfaces – make for a less than zen experience.

Like other MG models, the MG4 Urban comes with plenty of standard kit. To keep things simple there are just two trim levels: Comfort and Premium. Comfort models come with a seven-inch digital driver display, a 12.8-inch central touch-screen, climate control, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, sat-nav, a reversing camera and vehicle-to-load (V2L) so you can use the car’s battery to charge other devices. Meanwhile, the range-topping Premium version gains ambient lighting, a wireless phone charger, an electrically adjustable driver’s seat, a heated steering wheel and heated front seats. We particularly like the addition of the crisp 360-degree view which puts Renault’s camera system to shame. There are a few physical buttons for volume and fan speed, and the touch screen is responsive and simple to navigate despite the lack of snazzy graphics.

Unlike the MG4’s rear-wheel drive the MG4 Urban model sends its power to the front wheels. The standard range MG4 Urban has an official range of up to 201 miles, while a longer-range version with fractionally more power and a bigger battery, claims to do up to 258 miles between charges. We drove the latter which was nippy around town and could easily zip up to motorway speeds. There are four pre-set drive modes which vary the steering and power delivery, plus an additional Custom mode for your own configuration. We didn’t notice a huge amount of difference between modes and were quite happy to simple stick to Normal which, while not especially engaging, offers a decent blend of acceleration and steering weight. We like the choice of regenerative braking grabbiness, though, allowing you to change between low, medium or strong, ‘one-pedal’ driving. We were also pleasantly surprised by the adaptive regenerative braking mode, which did a decent job of judging braking strength based our surroundings.