MG4 vs BYD Dolphin – Which Electric Car should You Buy in 2024?
Imagine that you were looking to get a reasonably priced versatile electric compact then these two would be two of your best options in this video I’m going to compare the byd dolphin with the mg4 because they’re totally electric welcome to totally electric where I test different electric cars and we talk about
Sustainable Mobility if you’re interested in this now would be a perfect time to subscribe both of them are very very similar here in Spain the price point for the by the dolphin is €35,000 however
You can get discounts at the dealerships and they could be around 32 to 33,000 in this case for the version here called The Comfort on the other hand we have the mg4 also be reasonably priced around
35,000 now I do have to confess that the version I have here is not the €35,000 version this is the €40,000 X power version 430 horsepower four-wheel traction it’s a nice car but in this video we’re going to compare the advanced with the Comfort version because both of them are priced around
$33,000 at the dealership so when I’m going to give details about the mg4 I’m not going to talk specifically about this four-wheel drive version which is basically ludicrous so which should you buy should you get the byd or the mg4 both of them have around 60 kilowatt hours of battery and the
Mg4 has 64 and the buid has 62 however you’ll probably get around 280 to 300 km of Highway range out of both of them I’ve done Highway tests with both of these car I’ve driven them all around
Spain and to be honest the range is quite similar maybe that’s not your biggest worry either because this kind of car would typically be a city car and what you’d really be worried about is how
Comfortable they are how safe they are and how agile they are around the city are they easy to park are do they have good camera systems what about Drive assistance features what about boot space let’s check all of this out in this video sizewise they’re extremely similar the mg4 is 4
M 28 long and the dolphin is 4 M 29 basically the same however the mt4 is a meter and a half tall whereas the dolphin is a 57 and those 7 cm means that you sit a little bit more upright though the
Byd is taller it’s also less wide 6 cm 17 77 for the byd dolphin and 183 for the mg4 let’s talk about the looks starting with the byd dolphin it looks like a very very standard compact car
The only thing they’ve done to make it look a little bit more sporty is add some lines here add some Blackness around the wheel arges and black out this bit here so that it looks like
It has a more aggressive roof line if you do buy the design version which is the version one level up you’ll get a two-tone exterior so some people like it some don’t here’s a funny thing the charge
Port is in the front right hand side which is a funny location actually quite practical here in Mainland Europe because if you are parking curbside it’s on the sidewalk it’s not out on the street and if you’re charging at a Tesla Supercharger it’ll be at the front right hand
Side so as long as you park front first it’s perfect it’s not a particularly pretty car it just looks me not exciting at all in fact there’s one thing I quite dislike about the design here
Let me show you by the way if you’re interested we have a full review of the byd dolphin here on the channel called an electrix Sam where we go into an in-depth review about the US experience
Of having this car we also have a test of the mg4 a 1200 km test driving from Madrid to Barcelona and Back Again check it out now I did say there was one thing I disliked about the design of the
Byd and it is this front bumper I think it looks terrible to be honest it should have sort of ended here but due to safety recation they had to make the car a little bit longer here in Europe should
Sort of got this uh lip sticking out I don’t like it it’s nasty the mg4 looks much better especially in this super aggressive uh X power version let’s try to disregard that this paint color for example is not available unless you buy the X power version shame though it’s nice
And the mg4 just has a much better overall placing line you get the same blacked out bit here in the back you don’t even have to get the black wheel arches to make the wheels look bigger because on
This version they actually are bigger but it’s just a better shape more sporty uh in this case you get it with a uh spoiler in the back which you also do get on the um comfort version let’s
Open them up and see how much space is in the boot or in the trunk in here you’ll have 345 L and in here you got a bit more 367 L however this looks a bit more usable it’s wider so I’d
Be able to fit things that are more out of shape in there both of them has a double floor so under here there’s quite a lot of space actually I can easily have all my charging cables and even maybe
A small flat bag or something in here I do have a little bit of space a lot less beneath but on the other hand I’ve got more usable space in here both of them have folding rear seats I
Honestly don’t think there’s a huge difference in the boot space in these two 20 L is not that much but maybe if you’re the kind of person who has I don’t know bicycles and want to transport those
Around the mg4 is a little bit easier to put big stuff into here’s an annoying and silly little detail on this here cover there’s no plastic to hold it in place here so when I put it in there
It easily jumps out and if I’ve got something there then when I close it it sticks up and it covers up the window whereas on the mg4 we’ve got proper Plastics that’ll hold this one in place and
It won’t move unless you want it to so what’s it like on the inside it’s quite nice in here I’m a big guy I’m 190 or 6’4 and I still fit really really well these seats are very grippy and I
Do appreciate that got a big screen in the middle here I think it’s 13 in got another screen behind the steering wheel the steering wheel is actually quite nice and chunky the materials are very soft
This here material here is some kind of rubber plastic very soft very nice same thing on the left here I’ve got this what is this Valour I don’t know got a dark headliner only thing I dislike
About the interior is this piece of plastic here I don’t want half Plastics there where I put my arm up it’s like it’s a contact Zone make it soft and spongy like the rest of the car I don’t like
These controls down here this is the gear liver it is the fliest little gear lver it’s like twisting a nipple or something I don’t like it then we we have lots of space we got some space for stuff
Down here we got two cup holders but these aren’t American siiz cup holders you’d be hard pushed to put any thing in there which is uh of any decent size you got a phone here place for your phone and
In this trim there’s no charger on it here you have to PLU it in got another additional space down here quite big actually and and I’ve got this this is a funny little thing no it is not
An auxiliary lipstick this is a safety device on the one end I’ve got this for breaking the glass if I need to get out in an emergency and if I now open the other side of it got this this is for
Cutting uh the seat belt if I get stuck inside the car very useful I guess in that situation I’ve never actually needed one but I guess if I needed one and I was in this car I’d be eternally
Grateful for it another thing that’s very nice about this car is that this is just a very very classy dark black uh interior but it’s available with three different kinds of interiors and one of them is pink yes pink aside from the buttons I’ve got here most of the action is handled on
The screen which by the way has a party trick to it uh when I turn it on I can actually flip it to Vertical mode so if I’m the kind of person who like horizontal screens and my spouse likes
Vertical screens we don’t have to fight about it good thing about this is that I have Android auto and Android auto on this big 13in screen is a delight so I can use my phone connected with
A cable down here I can’t do it wirelessly if I’ve got Android auto or apple carplay on this one I get my full mobile phone up on 13 in very very useful and very good for driving other than
That the system is quite smooth it’s an Android based system so there’ll be additional new things you can do with it I’ve got Spotify and internet connectivity furthermore I’ve got very very nice rear view with uh cameras and parking sensors in fact I’ve got so many of them if I click on this
Button here got eight different views I even got like a three 3D external view just like it should be other than that I’ve got this little tiny bitty witty screen here behind the steering wheel the design on it is quite poor it’s just a random layout with lots of numbers and lines and
It’s hard to read it’s small there’s a thousand different text sizes two different colors which are hard to distinguish it’s not not well done but overall it’s a nice interior with good space I’m very comfortable in here and even a big guy me I could drive this car no problem whatsoever
Let’s check out the mg4 okay so inside the mg4 it’s not as nice as in uh the byd the materials in this case however are nicer because we’re in the X power version but honestly it’s a bit more
Plasticky a bit less soft and and well done I’ve got a place here for my mobile phone but honestly if I just go through a curve it’s going to fly out so it’s not the best place to put it I’ve got a
Screen here in the middle it’s only 10.25 in not 13 as in the byd I’ve got a bigger screen behind me though or behind the steering wheel and it’s nicer than the screen behind the byd it’s better
Laid out easier to understand as well colors are better on this one here however it’s a completely different story so it looks oldfashioned it’s relatively slow I mean look at this I change
It and it goes it changes after a minute no it’s not nice at all I got a gear shifter here in the middle and that’s sort of the only control I’ve got down here which is okay for me uh
It’s a circular so right goes forward left goes backward got cop holders down here I’ve got space for stuff down here got a little got a little net thing going on here and I’ve got space down here
As well so it’s more open inside here and also I can really feel that this is a wider car so it’s more comfortable for my shoulders and here I’ve got it feels like a bigger car I still got
Plenty of head space so even though this is 7 cm lower since I’m sitting further down it’s okay as well I’ve got nice space in here as well and the steering wheel to me is too big it feels like it
Should be sitting on a ship or a boat or something instead of on a small sporty car like this one the seats even in this super sporty version aren’t as grippy or don’t have as good side support as they
Do in the byd on the screen here I can also use Android auto or apple carplay if I PL my phone in with a USB um cable however it’s rather small compared to what I was used to in the other car it
Doesn’t feel as luxurious or as modern and why do they put so much bzel on it it’s got like an inch of Bessel on this screen so it looks tiny honestly the buttons here are nicer and easier to use than
In the mg4 and the controls and the steering wheel for the volume and for the cruise adaptive cruise control and the driver assistance features are also so easier to use here on the mg4 overall
I think I like the interior of the by better feels more modern and higher Tech I wonder how much size is in the back of these then okay so in the back of the byd and the seat in front of me is set to
My regular seating position my head’s touching the top here I can uh I can adjust the headrest and I guess I can Crouch a little bit down and actually I’m fine here I’ve got plenty of space
In the back actually I’ve got more space in this car than I have in many other supposedly larger cars nice materials all around USBC Port down here it’s not wide enough for three adults like me but
Only two plus a kid let’s check out the mg4 in the back of the mg4 there’s a little bit less space for me here I’ve got a little bit less knee space I’ve got a little bit less Headroom space nah it’s
Probably about the same it’s fine though I could perfectly well traveled back here I don’t think we sit three adults next to each other but almost it’s a little bit wider than uh in the byd and
You can tell here’s the thing there’s no there’s only one USB port down there and it’s a usba a port so if I was sitting here somebody next to me and both need to charge our phones we’d have to
Fight over it enough with the chitchat let’s see how these car drives I think I’ll start with the byd okay so I can plan a route it’s going to show me approximately how far it’s going
To go but it’s not really going to help me do any charging stops on the way but let’s drive this thing again I have to use this annoying little gear shifter which just makes me feel like I don’t know what I’m doing so very nice view out uh the rear
Cameras there I enjoy that oh look at that that’s very nice okay so uh let’s just get rid of this route here okay front-wheel drive and I have uh 205 horsepower you hear that
So let me just uh go through that quickly here let me stop in order to get five stars on the Euro NCAP tests nowadays it has to warn me if I’m going above the speed limit and I H it has
To automatically turn this on every time I get into the car which is extremely an annoying it’s like those cookie popups on websites that nobody cares about you have to all yeah accept whatever cookies nobody cares it just makes life more annoying this is the same thing so every time
I start the car I have to go into car menu Adas driver assistant recognize speed sign and then take get rid of this tech box here so that’s like five or six clicks I have to do in order to get
Rid of this clun clun clun which is so annoying because if I’m in a like here I can officially go 30 but if I go 31 it’s going to go cling and it’s so annoying you have to turn it off so
Now it’s off and now I can actually drive thank you European union and you know Mommy State and daddy State taking care of me huh so 150 KW or 205 horsepowers to the front wheels this means
That I will be skidding around corners and under steering as soon as there’s any R wet pavement and CU this car is very light in the front and uh it’s just too much talk too much power going
To the front wheels in those situations it’s very common for electrical cars to have this problem so it doesn’t drive very nicely in that way uh let’s see I’ve got uh two driving modes three driving
Modes I got Eco normal and Sport now I’m just going to put it in sport um just for fun I also have two regenerative braking settings so I’ve got high and I think this is the one no that’s
The music didn’t want to do that oh here we go so got high and standard so there’s very little difference between them and as you can see right now I’m not my foot is not on the accelerator and
I’m doing 17 km an hour and it’s is not stopping so this car does not have one pedal driving it’s will slow down somewhat and regenerate up to 25 kilow which is uh not a lot it’s somewhat okay
But sure could have been a lot better but driving it is okay I mean this is a city car more than anything suspension is soft and as long as it’s not raining I guess I’m okay here going the roundabouts it’s easy to spin the wheels at almost
Any speed as soon as I just turn the steering wheel and put my foot on the accelerator guess it’s kind of fun W this does not give me a lot of confidence when driving like this this is definitely a car
That you prefer to just drive around the cities not on Windy Country Roads where you know you might need to react quickly it’s mostly just for Pleasant City driving but in that it’s fine I enjoy the screen here and all the systems I’ve got here especially if you got your Android
Or Apple carplay pluged in but even without it I have spoify the map system here works very well I enjoy that it’s a big nice clear screen that I can use here the airon is fine it comes out
Of these little turbine things here and it’s clever enough to know that there’s nobody in this seat so it doesn’t turn on the air con over there which is good it is not the quietest of rid
There’s a bit of wind noise coming from one side of the car but it’s fine again it’s not something you’d ever notice if you’re driving around in uh in the city now 200 horsepowers is plenty for relatively small car like this it’s quick out of a traffic light and that’s what you really
Want it to be when you’re driving around on a city car I have blind spot warnings as well on the mirrors that’ll blink at me when I’m trying to go into Lane where that’s already a car yeah
This drive is okay and the screen is excellent one Omission on this is however that I’ll get no trip computer I can’t it won’t tell me other than you know uh how far I’ve driven on a trip but it
Won’t tell me how much energy I’ve spent or the efficiency of the car on a particular trip it’ll only give me the average over the last 50 km which is kind of fun or strange I’ve never seen that as
An emission before on a car so I can go into new energy and I can see how much energy I’ve spent over the last 50 km but not over a specific trip driver assistance features are very good actually
In this car it’s a automatic cruise control and it has a lane keep feature as well so right now the car is doing all the driving for me I do have to pay attention keep my hand hands on
The steering wheel but other than that the car is doing it which is fine it’s easy enough to control I can uh change the speed on the left hand side I can also set it to read speed signs
And AD adjust to that automatically I can adjust the following distance of the car in front of me very good system actually I enjoy it I have voice recognition in here I can say hi byd and it’ll ask
Me what I wanted to do forget about it no no I don’t want to do anything n or just I can tell it where I want to go I can put on radio I can open the windows and do other such things just
By using voice which is nice rear visibility is actually quite good in this car right now I have all the head headrests in the back up and even so I can still see quite a lot out the back of the
Car next up the mg4 okay let’s try the mg4 now this is the X power version 430 horsepowers four-wheel drive works I’m going to try to forget that and talk about it as if this was the rear wheeel drive 204 horsepowers because that has the same amount of horsepowers as the byd we
Just tried before again I have several different driving modes I’m just going to go straight to sport cuz I am in the 430 horsepower version so how can I not sorry and anyway if I were
In the 204 horsepower version I would have rear wheel traction and I would have a 0 to 100 of 7.9 seconds which is almost a second slower than the byd which is funny because the byd seems like
It’s going to be skidding around a lot whereas well let’s try on this one now the gear selector is down here I have no start stop button it just foot on the brake and it goes as you can see the
Screen here is quite a lot smaller and uh camera view on a smaller screen is a lot less useful than on the big screen in the byd steering wheel is too big W feels like I’m turning a ship I have
Driven the rear wheeel drive mg4 extensively in fact you’ll find a video about it on this uh very Channel where we’ve test driving it all the way from Madrid to Barcelona and Back Again 1,200
Km so I do know the car and I’m very familiar with it the fact that it rear wheel drive is something I do like because it’s it’s more grippy than the front-wheel drive especially if it’s a
Little bit wet it will under steer instead of over steer the over steering on there some of these front-wheel drive 204 horsepower electric car now is quite horrible the reason why this is a little bit slower 100 is probably also because there’s a little bit less torque in this car 205
Nanometers of torque whereas you’ll have 310 in the pyd but still I think I prefer the rear wheeel drive mg4 in this version the suspension is quite stiff which I like as a European I think I’m more used to like the European stiffer suspensions whereas the Chinese and even
The Americans one will be a little bit softer I guess it’s all down to taste now you will have to excuse me because I am driving this x power version so I’m going to have to put a smile on
My face sometime going around a roundabout or something cuz oh my God oh my God oh my God it’s ludicrous absolutely Bonkers oh yeah oh yeah but it’s not a fair comparison to the byd I know I know but I
Can’t help myself I think it is wonderful that mg has decided to make a pocket rucket version of the mg4 oh it’s something that so many car brands have done before now with electric cars they can
Do it again and you can put 430 horsepowers into a car that in this case with this configuration cost less than €40,000 less than €40,000 for 430 horsepowers 430 horsepowers 20 years ago was a Ferrari oh my God okay aside from the Bonkers acceleration this x power version I
Have uh several different driving modes so I can switch between a custom a snow and Eco normal and Sport the custom one I can set up different you know stiffness of the steering wheel different acceleration Etc I’ll just leave it in sport for now other than that I also have three different
Levels of regenerative braking plus one that is automatic automatic means that if I’m coming up to for example a roundabout it’ll apply more regenerative braking than if I’m just going in a straight line so it’ll adapt to circumstances which is something something that you typically
Find on high-end BMWs or mercedesbenz and it’s very nice to have it on this one aside from that I can also go into the menu set up my car configuration here and I can choose one pedal driving now as soon as I activated one pedal driving I immediately noticed that
The regenerative braking became stronger but one pedal driving is a wonderful thing with electric cars because especially these City cars or cars that are meant for touring around cities you don’t ever ever ever need to use the brake now for example I’m coming up to a roundabout
Here we just cruise up to it I just get take my foot off the accelerator and I come to a perfect stop just going into the roundabout nice it means that you don’t have to ever touch your
Brakes unless something happens that surprises you it is a much better way of driving much more comfortable and it’s addictive as soon as you get used to it you you never ever want to go back to
It and whenever you try an electric car that does not have one pedal driving you really miss it now we also have driver assistance features in this car and I activate them here on the left hand
Side of my steering wheel and you’ll see it’s the car now doing the driving for me and I can adjust the speed on the left here and it’ll keep the distance to the car in front of me and it’ll keep
In the lane you can see that it is right now uh finding the lane marks and uh and staying in the lane it works okay sometimes it ping pongs a bit sometimes it steps a bit on the line it’s not the
Best system in the world but it does work and it does mean that if I’m doing a longdistance trip I can relax a little bit more and have a little bit more of a relaxed Drive yes it’s okay I think the
One on the byd might be slightly better but quite similar the GPS is actually the same system as what I have in the byd the graphics are just worse in this one so now planed trip to Paris which is
About 1,260 km away from here so I’m definitely not going to get there without charging on the way and the car is going to calculate something for me what’s it going to do uh as you can see it shows
About how far I can go before I have to charge up again but it doesn’t actually help me with any charging points on route or anything like that it’ll find some charging points close to where I
Am right now which is not super useful compared to the fact that it could actually just find some you know on the route where it’s going so it’s much the same story as in the byd it does a little but
It’s not super helpful is it this is the third time I’m trying a lmg 4 and in the previous two it had some road noise coming from the back this one does not which is great so it could have been
Something just with those particular units I had or something that they fixed from mg at least this one is quite nice it’s quite quiet on the inside I mean it’s not I don’t hear any wind noise or
Anything I can hear road noise from the tires but it’s not too bad it’s actually okay I think it might be better than in the byd I’m not quite sure so the driving Dynamics is much better I mean
Much much better in the mg4 than in the byd and I have more settings for regenerative braking and I can even do one pedal driving I think that’s a win for the mg let’s check out the Turning
Circle test driving electrical cars in Spain what a horrible job right so if I had 33,000 to spend on an electric car here in Spain which would I buy the byd dolphin or the mg4 well the
Byd dolphin is nicer on the inside and the tech is more advanced so if if I were to drive it most in the city and never go on a road trip I might go for the BD dolphin however the mg4
Charges faster and though both of them will do 280 to 300 km of range of highway driving when I eventually have to stop and charge the byd will charge at 88 KW whereas the mg will
Charge at around 140 this means that in the mg I can do with a stop for about 20 minutes in order to charge for 200 km where as on the byd I’d have to stop for 40 minutes so if I were to
Do any road tripping on any of these I would definitely prefer the mg4 aside from that it drives better I mean that doesn’t matter to a lot of people honestly if you’re just driving around
The city who cares but if you do like a bit more of a sporty drive then I’d go for the mg4 which one would you choose mg4 or byd dolphin put a comment down below I do enjoy them especially
When they’re kind thank you very much for watching the video I hope you’ve enjoyed it look around on the channel we’ve got plenty of more videos about both of these cars as well catch you again soon ciao
In this video, Lars Hoffmann compares the BYD Dolphin and the MG4, two compact and versatile electric vehicles. He starts by comparing the prices and then goes on to discuss the battery capacity and range of both vehicles. Next, he examines the size and design of the cars, highlighting the design details of the BYD Dolphin and the MG4. Following that, he compares the cargo space and interior of both cars, including the infotainment system and connectivity. Lars also assesses the driving experience and handling of the two vehicles, as well as the assistance features and safety systems. Finally, he discusses the navigation system and charging of both cars and offers his final choice between the BYD Dolphin and the MG4.
Takeaways:
The BYD Dolphin and the MG4 are two interesting options for compact and versatile electric vehicles.
Both cars have a similar battery capacity and offer a range of around 280 to 300 km.
The BYD Dolphin has a more understated and functional design, while the MG4 features a sportier and more aggressive design.
The interior of the BYD Dolphin is more modern and technological, while the MG4 offers a more spacious and comfortable space.
The MG4 has better acceleration and more power, while the BYD Dolphin offers a smoother and more comfortable ride.
The MG4 has better loading capacity and faster charging, making it more suitable for long trips.
The choice between the BYD Dolphin and the MG4 depends on the personal preferences and individual needs of the driver.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and price comparison
01:12 Battery capacity and range comparison
02:09 Size and design comparison
03:33 BYD Dolphin design details
04:30 MG4 design details
05:29 Cargo space comparison
06:25 BYD Dolphin interior
07:21 MG4 interior
08:43 Infotainment system and connectivity
09:41 BYD Dolphin driving and handling
10:39 MG4 driving and handling
12:33 Rear space
13:32 BYD Dolphin driving experience
14:32 MG4 driving experience
18:16 Assistance features and safety systems
19:17 BYD Dolphin navigation and connectivity system
20:22 MG4 navigation and connectivity system
23:23 MG4 power and acceleration
24:46 BYD Dolphin regenerative braking and driving assistance
25:39 MG4 regenerative braking and driving assistance
26:38 BYD Dolphin navigation and charging system
27:40 MG4 navigation and charging system
28:10 Final comparison and choice
