MG Motor 4 XPower review

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Dual-motor MG 4 shows just what a Chinese-built EV can offer an old-fashioned petrolhead: enormous power for a limited budget

Having been sidelined as a concept for some time, the hot hatchback is making something of a comeback.

While tightening emissions rules have made petrol-powered hot hatchbacks less and less commercially viable, all-electric alternatives are now emerging. Many - the likes of the Alpine A290, and the recently previewed Peugeot e-208 GTI - are from practiced performance brands, and come with high expectations. Some of these fast electric cars, however, have come right out of the long grass and taken us all by surprise.

Which is just what the MG 4 XPower did when it arrived in the UK in the summer of 2023. Back then, the idea of a high-performing, twin-motor, compact electric car wasn’t entirely novel; but one that combined fairly classic hot hatchback proportions with lots of power and speed, and an eyebrow-raisingly affordable price, certainly got our attention.

SAIC, the MG brand’s Chinese owners, revived an old MG-Rover name for this dual-motor version of the MG 4 electric hatchback. XPower was used on the regrettably doomed MG XPower SV sports car created just before the financial demise of the UK-operated MG Rover. Interestingly, however, that brand is not used on domestic-market versions of this car, which are rather more enticingly called the MG Mulan Triumph Edition (the commercial rights to the defunct Triumph car brand are actually retained by BMW, after its period of ownership of The Rover Group in the 1990s; which might explain why the car was rebranded for export sales).

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DESIGN & STYLING

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MG 4 X Power 2025 Review rear corner 4

Understanding the appeal of the MG 4 XPower doesn’t take long. It is propelled by a 201bhp motor on the front axle and a 228bhp one on the rear one, for a total of 429bhp. The result is 0-62mph in 3.8sec. That’s faster than a Volkswagen Golf R; but while the hot Golf is now ostensibly a £45,000 car, the MG can be had from £36,495.

To deal with its new-found potency, the MG 4 gets ventilated 345mm disc brakes front and rear; springs that are 15% stiffer at the front than those of the standard car, and 10% at the rear; retuned steering; wider tyres; and brake-based torque vectoring. 

Notable by their absence are a proper mechanical limited-slip diff, and a set of sports seats that hold you in place during hard cornering. You have to make do with slightly grippier microsuede upholstery. And a little curiously, MG’s choice of ‘performance tyres’ are Bridgestone Turanzas – quality rubber, just not a performance tyre in any shape or form.

The car uses the same 64kWh NMC drive battery as Long Range versions of the regular MG4, delivering a lab test range of 245 miles. It avoids the weight of the bigger 77kWh battery in the Extended Range model, therefore; though, thanks to its extra motor chiefly, it still weighs 1803kg according to the manufacturer’s spec sheet. Which isn’t a very hot hatchback-typical figure, needless to say. 

The car’s visual changes are quite limited. You need to look very closely indeed to distinguish an MG 4 XPower from a standard car. Your spotter’s guide is as follows: unique 18in wheels, gloss black lower accents, a black roof, some aluminium pedals, and those microsuede seats. The Racing Green paint you see in the photos is unique to the XPower, however, which makes matters a little easier (though it’s not the only choice available).

INTERIOR

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MG 4 X Power 2025 Review dash 9167

Inside, the MG 4 XPower is much as the standard car is: gratifyingly roomy and practical, with a good driving position - but the flimsy door cards remain, and this performance version could do with some proper sport seats. 

It’s a cabin, needless to say, without very much appetite-whetting, anticipation-building drama or theatre about it; so, if you like the sort of bright seatbelts and bold upholstery piping that hot hatchbacks generally tend to come with, you may be a touch disappointed. 

There are, at least, some shiny sports pedals about which to get excited. And, unlike the MG 4 of 2023, the car does get a rear windscreen wiper and a middle rear passenger headrest.

Some of the infotainment bugs we noted in our road test of the regular 4 do seem to have been exterminated, too. It’s still not a great system, but once you learn its quirks, it’s mostly inoffensive.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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MG 4 X Power 2025 Review front tracking 3

A final model-year change is the addition of a one-pedal driving mode, for those who prefer to drive EVs without using the brake pedal much. That’s very welcome - but there’s a delay to the retardation kicking in, which makes it harder to control precisely than it ought to be.

Not that one-pedal driving is what will motivate many XPower owners. So is this a Q-car, or a hot hatch, or something else entirely? The answer is probably closest to the last of those ideas. 

The standard, single-motor, rear-drive MG 4 actually remains the discerning driver’s choice for those who like the idea of a better-handling, affordable EV, because the XPower has lost some of that car’s dynamic sweetness. If you’re here for the kidney-crushing power, though, you won’t be disappointed.

It’s properly ‘push you back in your seat’ quick. Of course it is, with 429bhp. But it delivers this performance with surprisingly little drama or verve. Just plant your foot and go. The front tyres occasionally have a bit of trouble hooking up if the surface isn’t perfect or if the steering isn’t completely straight, however, because the Bridgestone tyres we mentioned earlier don’t exactly have the most commanding grip levels.

Other than that, all you get is ‘fast’. There are no paddles for regen control here (you can cycle the settings for that using a button instead, but it’s not as engaging to do it that way), and no attempts are made to enrich the driving experience with pretend gear ratios or spaceship combustion noises.

And that’s fine; provided that all you really want is the potential to beat so many sports cars away from the traffic lights. The MG 4 XPower’s an interesting test of how much the subjective excitement of even an affordable performance car is contributed to by factors other than outright pace. Things like a stirring engine note, and a gearbox with close-stacked ratios and a tactile manual change, might just matter more than you expect.

RIDE & HANDLING

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MG 4 X Power 2025 Review pan 5

The MG 4 XPower’s singular priority for power and speed over the kind of grip and dynamic composure you might think you’re getting becomes very apparent when you encounter some testing corners. 

Turn the stability control off and get on the power, and it’ll be the front wheels that spin up first. Four-wheel drive has rather banished the standard MG 4’s likable rear-drive handling balance. But, as much as that handling adjustability is enjoyable to some, the XPower’s more stable dynamic character may be a blessing in disguise; because if it was as quick as this with only a driven rear axle, and similar body control, it’d doubtless be a real handful.

The car’s torque vectoring is fairly clever. Leave everything on and the systems will keep wheelspin firmly in check, while nipping at the inside brakes to subtly rotate the car into corners. So this car isn’t an interminable understeerer by any means.

In terms of outright body control, however, the XPower leaves a bit to be desired. Frankly, MG Motor’s UK engineering team hasn’t done enough to make it capable of carrying the speed that it can so easily conjure up on a testing country road. It heaves and deflects quite a lot, moving around restively on its firmer springs; leans on its stability control quite frequently; and lacks the kind of tautly damped, tied down feel of a properly engineered driver’s car.

The ‘retuned’ steering doesn’t have a ton more feel; it’s just heavier in the sportier modes. Like the stiffer suspension, it might help to conjure a ‘sportier’ vibe, but it doesn’t tell you a great deal more about how much grip is left to the front contact patches; though that may be because the answer is typically ‘not very much’.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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MG 4 X Power 2025 Review front corner 8298

The XPower’s additional power comes with a range penalty compared with the standard MG 4. The combined WLTP range drops from the Long-Range Trophy’s 270 miles to 239-. 

In the real-world, the XPower’s efficiency seems particularly sensitive to driving style, because we saw everything from 2.5 to 3.5mpkWh. We’d expect a true daily average of 3.0mpkWh, and a range of 185 miles; extendable beyond 200- when you really needed to.

The problem? Well, there isn’t one, really. If you’re the rational sort who has owned EVs before, and therefore knows how much more usable range means for one than a rather superfluous amount of power, MG can sell you the MG 4 Extended Range, with its 77kWh battery and achievable 280- to 300-mile running autonomy, for an identical price as the XPower. In that sense, they’re like yin and yang.

And if you’re not quite so rational, you might well have noticed that a Cupra Born VZ costs £8000 more than this; and an Alpine A290, while it’s a much more effective driver’s car, gives considerably less power, less space, and a bit less usable range, for broadly the same outlay.

VERDICT

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MG 4 X Power 2025 Review front static 15

The standard MG 4 remains a very good electric hatchback. It does all the sensible stuff well: space, range, equipment, comfort – and value, especially. But it also shines with unusually delicate and adjustable handling. 

We would have liked to see an extension of that; but instead the XPower adds sledgehammer power, but takes away plenty in the process.

MG Motor 4 XPower news

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It’s not a traditional hot hatchback, in just the same way that a Tesla Model S Plaid is not a traditional super-saloon. MG has probably guessed that acceleration will be a bigger draw than true handling dynamism, or all the touchy-feely tactile handling stuff. 

What it has ended up with, however, is a curiously one-dimensional device whose lack of the expected mechanical grip, chassis composure, enticing cabin specification and all-round driver engagement make it feel slightly sketchy and a little unfinished to drive.

It’s amusing, for a while; if a bit half-baked.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As a road tester, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews and comparison tests, while also managing the magazine’s Drives section. Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s in-depth instrumented road tests.

He loves cars that are fun and usable on the road – whether piston-powered or electric – or just cars that are very fit for purpose. When not in test cars, he drives an R53-generation Mini Cooper S.

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tesla Roadster, Ariel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren Senna, Renault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.