MG HS Plus EV Essence (2021-2024)

An affordable PHEV, but I'd prefer a full EV instead – The MG impressed me more than I thought it could. Stand outs were the fit and finish of trim pieces, the panels and the accuracy in stitching. The car feels like a solid product, matching its toned exterior design. My biggest gripes were first found around the driver’s side door handle, which managed to get stuck open on multiple occasions. In addition, the lag of the screens was a little too much to bear at times.

The infotainment system crashed when making a phone call via Apple CarPlay, and it took far too long just to load up the inbuilt maps, which didn’t even look all that impressive.

Also, MG should have taken the time to fix the grammatical errors found in the warning messages in the driver’s cluster that translate directly from Chinese to English.

Starting from $48,690 drive-away for a plug-in hybrid SUV, it’s an attractive proposition for many looking to move away from pure petrol/diesel-powered vehicles.

Our tester was the more expensive ‘Essence’ trim, priced from $51,690. You get a few more creature comforts, but they’re not entirely necessary. However, they’re a nice touch if you’re willing to upgrade purely for comfort and aesthetics.

On par with Kia, the MG HS Plus EV comes with a 7-year/unlimited kilometre warranty.

MG calls their capped price service program ‘Precise Price Servicing’ with intervals being 10,000km or every 12 months, whichever comes first.

There's a 7-year battery warranty too. And servicing will cost just $2,822 over this period (according to MG’s website).

On electric power alone, you have that traditional EV calmness when puttering around town or in traffic. Whenever you or the car decide to use it, that 1.5L turbo-petrol motor is obvious once engaged but not all that intrusive. Despite packing a more advanced equaliser, audio from these speakers is a little subpar. The audio could be clearer and the bass would sound a lot less ‘muddy’ too.

Even with carrying around a battery pack, it’s extremely easy to smoothly operate the MG.

The brakes feel extremely soft, as if you’re pushing your foot into an orthopaedic pillow. It’s not a bad thing, but it is far from MG's sports car origins.

Under EV power alone, the MG isn’t all that fast. It’s quick to deliver its instant torque, but it’s no Tesla by any means.

It’s calm and collected in delivering its electrons to the road, unlike some other EVs which love to claw for traction.

As a front-wheel drive car, even in the rain, it’s composed and feels planted when putting power down. Once that 1.5L four-cylinder jumps in, you really start to pick up the pace. The combined power is 189kW and 370Nm - plenty of power for an SUV this size. You can get just over 60km of pure electric range from this 16.6kWh battery pack.

0-100km/h is claimed to be 6.9 seconds. Not too shabby.

Power is fed through a 10-speed automatic, which performs flawlessly.

Shifts were hardly noticeable, and relatively seamless. It’s exactly what you’d want in a car that’s intended to get you from A to B as comfortably as possible.

Through corners, the MG feels a little big for its wheelbase. It feels like the body is hanging a little bit over the wheels, creating a more obvious lean and tilt when moving through faster and tighter bends.

The claimed combined fuel consumption is 1.7L per 100km.

I saw figures around the 5-6L per 100km mark. However when utilising that battery, I enjoyed many kilometres of 0L per 100km consumption. EV consumption figures were around the 15kWh per 100km level.

Charging up this battery via the provided charger using a traditional household outlet in the garage allowed me to get a full charge overnight. The battery does drain pretty quickly but it charges just as fast, which is great for the school pickup, when heading to work or for a short trip to the shops.

As MG have packed all of the key interactions of this car into the centre screen, there aren’t a whole lot of buttons. It’s not exactly minimalist, but it does look clean.

Alongside the flat bottom steering wheel, sportier seats in this tester add some much needed visual flair with their combination of suede and faux leather.

A 12.3-inch display for the driver does feel very 2022, and the layout makes the most of the screen, making it easy to read and interact with.

The interior design isn’t exactly stunning, but it is very functional.

There’s 451L of boot space available with the seats up, and there’s a small space under the boot floor for the charger if you need to bring it with you. A flat load floor makes it easy to lug things in and out. Seats fold as a 60:40 split. I'm a little disappointed with that, as I always prefer 40:20:40 in SUVs. But it does give you a decent 1275L of total usable space.

What really stood out for me was just how easy this car was to live with, whether it was the ability to purely run off electric power, reduce the number of times I visited the petrol station, or just how comfortable it was as a daily driver.

The MG HS is an ideal pairing for someone who doesn’t want their car to take away from their day to day life.

Sure, it’s not the MG we remember, but it’s a refreshing offering in a world of rising costs. It offers real value for money with a splash of luxury. Mix in the efficiency and accessibility of an EV drivetrain and it’s hard to look past as a daily driver.

Although, that screen lag needs to be sorted out in an update, because it’s what’s really holding this car back from reaching its full potential.

*Disclaimer - I work for ProductReview as their independent car and motorbike expert. I borrow new cars and motorbikes from manufacturers and owners to review. I am not paid or incentivised by these brands to post reviews. I write and create content to provide insight and information about any new or used vehicle I can get my hands on.

great all rounder – so far the car has lived up to all that was promised , its got good power and it does the EV milage it states 63 km its perfect for the trips to work and around so far my fuel saving have been great, you do need to be diligent about charging it in between trips its mainly my to and from work car love the 360 camera , love the internal sound when running on EV it so quiet music sounds so good , its pilot feature is hard to trust but has not let me down at all, love this car , 2yrs on and still very happy with my choice my fuel usage is at 1.2 ltr per 100 km , the only upgrade i would like is my apple play should be blue toothed not cable reliant ,and that's how hard its been to find fault with this car