MG4 XPower 2024 review – the price-to-performance king

The last time the MG XPower brand name featured in a test in evo it was on the SV-R: the Peter Stevens-styled, Qvale Mangusta-based, V8-engined super-GT run by Rowan Atkinson in a Fast Fleet long-term test. Shortly before that, XPower branding also featured on MG-badged BTCC cars and Le Mans prototypes. Heady, if financially tumultuous (and slightly surreal), days.

The present-day MG brand is sailing on smoother financial waters, with the Chinese SAIC-owned marque enjoying an unlikely rebirth as a purveyor of long-warrantied, competitively priced family cars. And an EV specialist: the MG4 five-seater, all-electric hatchback is one of the most affordable electric cars on the market and fast becoming ubiquitous on the roads. It’s the budget Tesla Model Y.

Now the XPower name is back, MG Motor UK having created this new high-performance version of the 4. Performance really is high, too. Whereas the regular MG4 has a single rear motor with either 168, 200 or 243bhp (depending on trim), the XPower gains a second, 201bhp motor at the front, making it all-wheel drive. With the rear motor at 228bhp, the totals are 429bhp with 443lb of torque. This gives some brutal on-paper acceleration figures: 0-62mph in 3.8 seconds, 0-30mph in 1.7. And a still-competitive price of £36,495. A lot of power for the money. That’s cheaper than a base-model VW ID.3 (£37,430). On the other hand, it’s £9500 more expensive than the entry-level MG4 SE.

The XPower’s WLTP-rated range is 239 miles. However, on the way to and from our photoshoot we were seeing the estimated range deplete at a rate that suggested closer to 160-180 miles from a full charge. The weather was very cold, which naturally doesn’t help battery life and also necessitated driving with the heater working away, but nonetheless, this was not a confidence-inspiring drive for one prone to range-anxiety.

Seeing the indicated range drop nearly as quickly as the car accelerates is enough to put you off putting your foot down. When you do, however, it is a very quick car, no question. But straight-line performance is the XPower’s biggest strength. Sadly it’s not as much fun in the corners.

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The new front motor contributes to torque steer and steering corruption when you put the power down. The motors’ front-to-rear torque split is variable, and there’s torque vectoring by braking too; if you get on the power hard you can feel the systems at work, but it’s not a smooth sensation. The rear suspension feels quite soft in relation to the front – as you accelerate, the weight balance shifts rearward and you get the impression of the MG4 sitting down on its rear suspension – suggesting it’s been set up with a deliberate understeer balance for safety, given its potent power and torque.

These observations should be taken with the caveat of the very cold temperatures, around 1deg C for the majority of the test, so the road surfaces were far from grippy. Nonetheless, the XPower’s handling balance does indeed tend toward understeer. It’s there on turn-in but all the more pronounced under power; feeding the power in as you would in most conventional performance cars generally leads to the front washing out. Instead, the MG4 does its best work when you get it stopped, turned and fired out of the corner in a straight line, with the electronic systems preventing wheelspin. It’s not an elegant car to push hard.

It’s much more enjoyable and engaging at seven-tenths, loping along and making smooth, swift progress. It is a hot hatch in which it’s possible to cover ground point-to-point very quickly. Driven in such a way, though, its £9500 price premium over the regular MG4 begins to make less sense.

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Aside from the additional motor, changes over the standard car include the aforementioned torque vectoring by braking software, an electronic differential lock, altered anti-roll bars, wider Bridgestone Turanza tyres on 18-inch wheels and larger brakes (with caliper covers that make them look bigger than they really are). The orange calipers and gloss black trim on the lower body are the main visual changes, along with the option of XPower-specifc green paint, as applied to this test car.

The suspension is stiffened (more so at the front than the rear) but not lowered compared with the regular MG4, and it’s a high-riding car visually. Ride quality is a curious mix; a little pattery in the way it deals with minor surface roughness and small bumps, but relatively smooth in the way it deals  with larger bumps and controls the body over crests. It’s not entirely at ease with bumps under load; hit a ridge mid-corner and there’s a sense of the body continuing to move after the bump has passed.

No doubt an MG SV-R wouldn’t see which way this car had gone. But the MG4 XPower isn’t as fun as its on-paper attributes suggest. A conventional combustion-engined hot hatch would be more entertaining and, you sense, a regular MG4 would most likely be a more enjoyable (and efficient) driving experience too. The XPower’s power-to-price ratio is phenomenal, but it’s neither a rewarding hot hatch nor the best MG4.