NEW MG IM5 review! We drive 742bhp Model 3 rival | What Car?
Could the Tesla Model 3’s reign as our favorite executive car be coming to an end? Because the EV that I’m driving today has a longer range, faster charging, more power, and is cheaper to buy slightly. This is forget to subscribe because very soon we’ll be putting another of MG’s new electric cars, the IM6, up against its rivals from Tesla and other brands. to find out how good it really is. Now, the reason I mentioned the Model 3 a moment ago is because on price, that is the closest rival for this new MG IM5, but this is actually a bigger car. It’s more than 4.9 m long. So, about 20 cm longer than a Model 3 and not much shorter than cars like the Tesla Model S and the BMW i5, which are from the class above. And that means there is loads of leg room in the back. I’m just over 6t tall. This seat in front is in my driving position and as you can see my knees are nowhere near the seat in front there. It’s not all good news though because the floor in the IM5 is quite high and that means my knees are forced up above the level of my hips. So, it’s not a particularly comfortable seating position. It would help if I could slide my feet forwards a bit, but I can’t do that because there is no space for my feet under the front seat. That seat is very close to the floor again, at least in my driving position. But as I say, this is effectively me sitting behind myself. If someone shorter were driving the car or if I was sitting on the passenger side of the car, then things quickly become a lot more comfortable because I can then slide my feet forwards, enjoy a more laidback seating position and perhaps even take my shoes off and enjoy these thick shagpile carpets. Anyway, all versions come with this fixed glass roof as standard, which makes it feel quite airy in the back here. and headroom is just about okay. If I sit bolt upright, my head is pretty close to the ceiling, but it’s not quite touching it. And that is with the seat in its most upright position. You can recline the angle of the seat back slightly to give a more laidback seating position and also slightly more headroom. So overall, as long as you haven’t got someone tall sitting in front of you, this is a really comfortable car to sit in the back of and be driven along in. There are also these magnets on the backs of the front seats. And the idea there is that you’ll be able to buy a cover for your phone or tablet and then attach that to the back of the front seat and watch a film or perhaps YouTube when you’re being driven along. There is also a magnet on the floor of the boot here. Now, MMG hasn’t decided exactly what accessories it’s going to offer for that in the UK, but one option is a basket that you’ll be able to put smaller items in and stop them flying around the boot when you’re driving along. The boot itself is okay. Officially, there is slightly more space in here than there is in the boot of a BYD seal, but nowhere near as much as there is in a Model 3. And that’s because what you see here is what you get. Whereas in the Tesla, you can lift up the boot floor and find a huge well underneath that. There is enough under bonnet storage for the charging cable, but again, the front boot or frunk if you prefer is nowhere near as big as the Teslas. There are some positives though. So, this is a hatchback, which means it has a bigger opening down a seal or a Model 3. And if you want to carry more luggage, you can, of course, fold down those rear seats. It’s also worth noting that if this boot isn’t big enough for you, MG also offers the IM6 that is very similar to this car underneath, but it has a taller SUV body to make it a rival for the Tesla Model Y. And if you want to find out more about that car, head over to our website, wcar.com, where you’ll find our detailed written review. Anyway, I’m standing by the charging port. So, now is probably a good time to talk about how quickly you can top up the battery. And there’s some good news there because if you go for the longrange version or this performance, then you get an 800vt electrical architecture like you get in a Porsche Tyan or some more expensive Hyundai and Kia EVs. And that means the battery can be charged extremely quickly. This IM5 can accept a peak of 396 kW, which is more than any other EV on sale in the UK at the moment, and it means a 10 to 80% top up can be done in just 17 minutes in ideal conditions, although there aren’t actually that many charging points capable of delivering that much power in the UK at the moment. There will of course be more added in the future. If you go for the entry- level standard range, then that has a 400vt architecture, so it can’t charge quite as quickly. That version can accept a peak rate of 153 kW. So, you’ll be waiting around 26 minutes for a 10 to 80% charge. And that’s despite the fact that the entry- level standard range has a smaller battery. Although these things are relative because with a usable capacity of 73 12 kW hours, it’s still pretty big and it gives the IM5 an official range of 306 mi. If you go for the long range version, then that has a 96 and a half kilowatt hour battery. And that boosts the range to 441 miles. That’s more than any Tesla Model 3 can manage. In fact, it makes the IM5 one of the longest range EVs that you can buy in this country at the moment. The performance version has the same 96 12 kWh battery, but for reasons that I’ll explain later on, it has a slightly worse range of 357 mi. It’s also worth pointing out that if you go for the bigger battery, then the chemistry is NMC, whereas the entry- level car has an LFP battery and in theory that is more environmentally friendly and it should also have a longer lifespan. But what about prices? Well, as I said earlier, this is slightly cheaper than the Tesla Model 3. The entry-level standard range model costs £39,450 and crucially that means it avoids the luxury car tax in the UK. It won’t though be eligible for the forthcoming electric car grant because that is capped at £37,000 and it’s unlikely to include Chinese-made EVs anyway. If you want the longrange version, then you’ll be spending 45k and this performance adds another£35,000 to that price. So really, when you consider the range and the charging speed that this car offers, you’d have to say the IM5 seems very good value indeed. And it isn’t as though you’ll have to spend loads of money on options because there are only really two things to decide when you’re specking your IM5. The first is what color you want the outside. You get white as standard or for an extra £545 you can have this Nevice blue, Rembrank gray or black pearl. The second decision is what color you want the inside. Now, as you can see, this car has a gray interior, but you can have a white one instead. And unlike Tesla, MG doesn’t charge extra for that. So, that’s a really nice option to have. And you know what? This interior feels pretty upmarket actually. You’ve got this what looks like leather, but very obviously when you touch it isn’t wrapping most of the dashboard. And build quality feels very good as well. Okay. There are a few scratchier plastics down here and around the door bins, but overall I would say quality is roughly on a par with the latest Tesla Model 3 and perhaps a little bit better than in the BYD seal. And there’s lots to like about the driving position, too, because these seats, they’re comfortable, supportive. They’ve actually got slightly more side support than the ones in the Model 3. And you can adjust the steering wheel manually. You don’t have to faf around with these scroll wheels on the steering wheel and the touchcreen like you do in the Model 3. Although, you do have to do pretty much that exact process when you want to adjust the door mirrors. And there’s a lot of other should we say inspiration from Tesla in here too because this 10 and a half inch touchscreen the layout the operating system is very similar. Look at this climate control screen for example. If you have ever sat in a Tesla you will be instantly familiar with this. One slight difference though is I did ask MG what Ramdon is. I thought it might be some special yoga inspired experience or something like that but it isn’t. It’s actually a typo. It’s supposed to say random. Although I’m assured that will be sorted out before the first cars arrive with customers in September. Now above this 10 and a half in screen you have an enormous 26.3 in screen and some of that the left hand side is touch sensitive as well. Unlike the model 3 you get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard and you can use this screen up here to display that. The driver display behind the steering wheel is also pretty useful. Although I do find if I have the steering wheel exactly where I want it, then some of the information is blocked. But the important thing is that I can see the speed over there. Now, talking about visibility, these thick pillars here do come back quite far into the car towards my head. So, it’s not the easiest car to see out of, but that is a criticism we also have of the Tesla Model 3. And it’s only really at junctions from roundabouts that you do find yourself having to peer around those to make sure you haven’t accidentally missed something. In terms of storage, there is plenty. You’ve got this enormous tray here under this floating center console arrangement. A couple of trays here, one of which has a wireless phone charging pad. Two cup holders, and there’s also a decent amount of storage under that central armrest here. The only slight complaint is that these door bins are on the small side. They’re not only narrow, but they’re also quite shallow. So, even putting in a small bottle of water like this is a bit of a challenge. And while I’m down here, I should also point out that there are no handles to pull to open these doors. You just push a button there and then the door automatically opens. And if you’re wondering why there is no MG badge on the steering wheel, well, it’s because IM is actually a separate brand in some other markets, including China. It’s owned by the same parent company that owns MG, but it has no presence at all over here, whereas MG has more than 150 dealers. But MG has said because of where that badge is directly in front of the airbag, apparently to change that to an MG logo would have involved completely crash testing the car again, which would have cost quite a lot of money. So MG hasn’t bothered. [Applause] Now we are in the rangetopping performance version of the IM5. So it’s probably most appropriate we talk about performance first because this thing is seriously powerful. It has two electric motors that together pump out 742 brake horsepower. And MG says this can do n 62 in just 3.2 seconds. But can it? Let’s find out. Well, it is a soaking wet road and this thing has just done naugh to 60 in 3.58 seconds. So, I reckon on a nice dry day, this would quite easily do 0 62 in 3.2 seconds. But we will of course be putting that to the test when we group test this car against one of its key rifles. Now, this is the performance version of course, so it’s designed to go really quickly in a straight line, but because of all that power and because of its sticky tires, it doesn’t have quite the range of the long range. But what’s it like around the corners? Well, this is not some amazing performance saloon like a BMW M3 or something, but compared to its electric rivals. It’s pretty good. Grips well, feels light on its toes, and the steering, it’s quick, and it’s pretty precise. The only slight complaint I would have is that it does feel artificial in the way it wants to return to center. So when you’re going around a corner, even at quite low speeds, and you apply some lock, then the steering wants to return to the straight ahead position in quite an artificial way, which isn’t ideal. But as I say, by electric executive car standards, this handles pretty well. And you might imagine that being the performance, it would be extremely stiff and uncomfortable in the way that it rides. But actually, that’s not the case at all. There are some pretty nasty roads around this part of West Sussex we’re driving in at the moment, and this is dealing with them by and large very well. There is some road noise when you’re driving over some really bumpy sections of road, but on the whole, the IM5 is quite a quiet car. It has double glazed side windows as standard and active noise cancellation. And MG says that can reduce the volume inside by up to 12 dB. So, when you’re doing 70 mph, then this compared to its key rivals at least is a pretty hushed way to travel. Now, MG is very proud of the brakes in the IM5 because it’s worked hard to make them less jerky and less grabby than they are in a lot of electric cars. And on the whole, I would say that it has succeeded because they’re not perfect. When you’re going quite quickly and you want to slow down, they do feel a little bit spongy, but they aren’t grabby at low speeds, so you don’t have to think really hard to slow down smoothly, which you do do in some electric cars. So, overall, the IM5 is not a revelation to drive, but compared with the cars it’s up against, this is pretty good. It also has some pretty clever parking features. So, if you are parallel parking and you find yourself a little bit too far from the curb, rather than worrying about sorting that out yourself, you can just press a button on the touchcreen here called curbside and then the car should in theory take care of that job for you. But let’s find out if it works. Oh, we’re moving. We’re moving. I’m not touching anything. Not touching the brake. Not touching the accelerator. It’s a little bit scary because there’s a car behind. It seems to be doing it. Are we going to curve an alloy? Are we going to curve an alloy? And that’s pretty good. We aren’t quite at the curb, but we’re only about four or five inches away, I’d say. And yes, it took a bit of time, but if you’re a nervous parker, that is a pretty good piece of tech. Now, there are still some unknowns about the IM5. For starters, we’ve only driven this range topping performance version. so far, which isn’t likely to be the pick of the range. There are also no PCP offers available yet, and there’s also no Euro cap safety rating. That is expected to be announced in the next few weeks. So, we can’t tell you exactly where this fits in the pecking order against its key rivals. However, we will be testing a less expensive version of the IM5 against the Tesla Model 3 and the BYD still in the next few weeks. And given its fantastic range and its great charging speeds, we’d expect it to give a pretty good account of itself. Thanks for watching
In our new MG IM5 review we drive this 742bhp Tesla Model 3 rival for the very first time. Is it the best electric car on sale right now?
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