Extreme Measures
IT’S A FIREBALL IN A STRAIGHT LINE, BUT IS THE MG 4 X-POWER MORE THAN A ONE-TRICK PONY?
IF YOU’VE BEEN keeping tabs on the MG 4 X-Power, you might be aware of one rather controversial addition to the Chinese-made, British-badged 320kW all-paw hatchback: bright orange clip-on caliper covers straight off wish.com, described as “orange ‘X-POWER’ brake calipers”.
For the hot-hatch purist, this kind of peacocking is the absolute antithesis of the genre, but should a vehicle be judged entirely on one marketing choice? Absolutely not.
The X-Power could be a diamond, especially given the praise that’s been heaped on the regular MG 4. Plus, the X-Power is good value. If you’d told us 10 years ago that an electric hot hatch would be able to sprint from rest to licencelosing speeds in 3.8 seconds, all for $59,990 (before on-road costs), and without sacrificing niceties such as a 10.25-inch touchscreen with smartphone mirroring, we’d have laughed you out of the room. Something has to give. Our hunch is that, like the braking situation, MG may have glossed over engineering excellence in favour of headline figures.
This is the MG 4 flagship, the most expensive of the lot, and it’s virtually identical inside to the regular Essence trim aside from some orange stitching on the seats. There’s also the hero satin-finish Hunter Green paint hue you see here. The Essence is luckily already packed with standard kit such as 18-inch alloys, LED headlights with auto high-beam, a connected phone app (with charge scheduling, HVAC controls and more), voice control, wireless charging, a 360-degree camera, and a 7.0-inch digital instrument cluster.
Like any hot hatch, the MG 4 X-Power benefits from its donor car’s great packaging. There’s plenty of room in the back for at least two six-foot adults and there’s a well-sized 350-litre boot with shopping-bag hook and light (though no spare tyre).
In the front, there are nice packaging touches such as a deep central cubby, covered storage area, netting (that’s great for keys or garage buzzers), two cupholders, grippy door bins, and a rubberised wireless charging pad ahead of the rotary shifter, complemented by USB-A, USB-C and 12-volt charging points.
The comfortable front seats are trimmed in a mix of suedecloth and faux-leather with manual controls (the passenger does without height adjustment) though they aren’t supportive enough for a sporty vehicle. The Cupra Born has sexier buckets that hug and reassure the driver through corners – MG has missed a trick here. Generally, the cabin vibe is subdued for such a grunty little car, with only orange stitching telling you that this is The Fast One. The standard car’s Allegro-esque quartic steering wheel remains (it’s great in the hand), as does the slow-to-respond, buttonless start-up rotary gear selector.
MG’s tech interface is fine but we noticed the X-Power’s software looked a little older than our latest experience in Excite/Essence trims. It lacked persistent climate controls on the home screen and we found voice control to be essentially unusable. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto work through a wired connection with neat little cable tunnels running up to the rubberised pad near the shifter, and the six-speaker audio is an improvement over the Excite’s four-speaker system.
The MG 4 X-Power is largely an understated transformation into a performance car. Not a bad thing if the money’s been poured into making this hatch a serious driver’s machine, of course. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case – starting with the tyres. They may be wrapped around sportier-looking 18-inch alloys but in truth are identical to the Essence’s rubber: 235/45R18 Bridgestone Turanza T005 EV touring tyres. Not the kind of high-performance rubber (such as a Michelin Pilot Sport 4S) you want for enthusiastic driving or track days.
They struggle to put all the MG’s grunt – 150kW front and 170kW rear electric motors, totalling 320kW/600Nm – to the tarmac, even with all-wheel-drive grip, ‘intelligent motor control’ torque vectoring, and an electronically controlled limited-slip differential.
We couldn’t match MG’s claimed 3.8-second 0-100km/h acceleration time. Our best effort had the VBOX showing 4.1 seconds with 0-60km/h (the traffic light grand prix) coming up in just 2.1 seconds.
It’s hard to complain about acceleration that rapid when things feel relatively controlled, save for some front axle
Unsurprisingly, the Bridgestone Turanza touring tyres struggle to put all 320kW to the tarmac
scrabbling and a bit of old-school steering corruption. Speed is one thing but a true hot hatch should be dripping with handling prowess and chassis feel. A great one will instil enough confidence in the driver to be able to match the speed of much faster performance cars on a technical backroad.
Yet, despite MG fitting new springs, anti-roll bars and changing damper characteristics to stiffen the suspension by 25 percent, the X-Power is very much overwhelmed by grunt.
The steering has no more feel than the standard car’s, despite requiring less lock (2.6 vs 2.9 turns lock-to-lock) so it’s still hard to judge grip levels. Tip the X-Power into a tight off-camber bend and one of two things will happen. With the right amount of trail braking, the car will roll and settle on its outside rear. This is good, and you can then use the throttle to steer out, though there’s not enough roll support to make this feel controlled – that 1800kg suddenly making its presence felt.
Barrel in a little too quickly, or pick up the throttle too soon, and the X-Power’s short-travel pedal lightens the front end and knocks the car into scrappy understeer. The sensation is only amplified in damp conditions. But the ride quality is good on bumpy roads, so MG hasn’t ruined the hatchback’s utility by making it too stiff. And there are also useful customisable buttons on the steering wheel that can be set to adjust drive mode and regen’ braking power on the fly.
Brake feel isn’t noticeably improved over the regular MG 4, with single-piston sliding calipers clamping 345mm ventilated front rotors. We’d appreciate a more solid pedal feel, though retardation proved adequate with our VBOX recording a 36-metre 100-0km/h stop.
The X-Power isn’t a bad steer, but it could be so much better. We’d have preferred revised front-end geometry with more castor and camber to improve steering feel and grip, a better steering calibration, and higher-quality (even adaptive) dampers – perhaps provided by Sachs or Bilstein.
As it stands, the regular rear-drive MG 4 offers a more delicate and rewarding driving experience than the heavier, faster X-Power. MG had an opportunity to spiritually revive BMW’s E81 130i hatch for an electric age. But instead, it listened to the corrupting call of power when it came to developing the X-Power.
Fitted with the mid-size 62.1kWh NCM lithium-ion battery (marketed by its gross 64kWh capacity), the twin-motor X-Power is rated at 385km driving range in the WLTP cycle, against 435km for the Essence and 530km in the 77kWh Long Range. It charges quickly for the class with 140kW (DC) peak speeds – verified on a local rapid charger – promising 10-80 percent recuperation (39 to 308km of driving range) in 26 minutes.
The banal brake caliper covers don’t make this a bad car, but they are a perfect allegory for the X-Power experience. Instead of addressing the shortcomings of the Essence for performance driving – lifeless steering, flat seats, and low tyre grip – MG has thrown in an extra motor and nearly doubled the power. It doesn’t even have stickier performance tyres.
Looking at it away from the hot-hatch purist lens, the X-Power doesn’t make much more sense, either. It’s fast but you rarely get to indulge in that pace. The extra power and added weight mean its driving range is compromised and there’s little sense of occasion as you step inside. If you’re looking for a rewarding and athletic electric vehicle under $65K, the Cupra Born does a better job, and if you want the optimal MG 4, we’d lean towards the $4000-cheaper Essence 77kWh.
MG has come a long way, very quickly. Building a convincing performance EV might just have been a step too far.
The ride quality is good though, so MG hasn’t ruined the hatchback’s utility by making it too stiff