MG 4 EV XPower Review 2025

The last time the XPower name was used on a production car was in the death throes of the beleaguered MG Rover two decades ago. It was a mad idea at a time when the company was on course for bankruptcy, even involving a supercar. Now the XPower sub-brand is back, attached to something less silly than a cobbled-together V8-powered coupe, albeit still extraordinary — a 435PS electric hot hatchback. Is it any good as a performance car? Find out with our full MG 4 EV XPower review. 

The final years of the previous incarnation of MG were downright unhinged. Despite being very much in the red and having more pressing concerns, like keeping the lights on, MG Rover in the early 2000s decided it would be a great idea to buy the rights to a low-volume Italian supercar called the Qvale Mangusta and transform it into the MG XPower SV. This striking V8-powered coupe was partly built in Italy before being finished off in Longbridge. 

There were wider — and slightly more sensible — plans to produce XPower versions of regular models in the range, including the MG ZT, but these didn't progress beyond the concept stage. The MG 4 EV XPower, then, has been a long time coming. But has it been worth the wait? We'd have to say no, not quite.

Certainly not because of any lack of straight line performance. In fact, the XPower features an almost comical uplift in power from other MG 4 EVs. There's an extra motor for the front axle to complement the existing one at the rear, rocketing the output from the 245PS tally of the second most powerful in the range to 435PS, providing the XPower with all-wheel drive in the process.

The effect on the 0-62mph time is dramatic, dropping it almost by half to just 3.8 seconds. Thankfully, MG has tweaked the underpinnings to cope with the extra shove, stiffening the suspension by 25%, making the steering a turn quicker and fitting bigger brakes. It's then clad those brakes with some of the worst calliper covers we've ever seen. 

The changes probably don't go far enough, though. Aside from its ferocious response when you put your foot down it doesn't really offer much as a performance car. It's unremarkable to drive in the corners and at times struggles with just how much power it has. 

On the flipside, if simply getting a lot of power for minimal outlay is the main priority, you'll struggle to do better than the MG 4 EV XPower, which comes in at £36,495. Getting anything as quick as this from another manufacturer is going to involve spending another five-figure sum on top of the XPower's purchase price. 

MG hasn't done a whole lot to set the XPower apart from the rest of the range, aside from those awful fake callipers. It features 18-inch wheels exclusive to this model, a smattering of gloss black accents, a black roof and... that's about it. It'll be easier to distinguish if you select the £800 matte Racing Green paint as that isn't available on other MG 4 EVs. 

The best way of thinking of the MG 4 EV XPower is as a sleeper or Q-car — hiding its performance in plain sight.

Despite all of the changes made to the MG 4 EV XPower's hardware over its more sedate siblings it still doesn't feel like the sharpest thing to drive. There's more body roll than is ideal and the steering doesn't deliver much in the way of meaningful feedback. 

It's not like it's softly set-up, though. There's a constant jiggling when you're driving around, even on smooth roads. Speed bumps need to be taken with care to prevent the action from the suspension being abrupt. 

All-wheel drive, in theory, means good traction, but after a while, you realise that the stability control is doing a lot of heavy lifting to keep things calm here. If you turn it off — not something we'd recommend — proceedings take a wild turn. 

Under full power in a straight line, the MG 4 EV XPower has a tendency to aggressively torque steer — a phenomenon where the steering pulls one way or the other when you put your foot down. If you try and power out of a corner you never know quite what will happen — sometimes the front of the MG will wash wide yet at others it's the rear which gets out of shape. It's a bit of a mess, really.

There's just the one electric drive option available for the MG 4 EV XPower with two motors — one each for the front and rear wheels. Their total output is 435PS and 600Nm of torque, enough to propel the MG 4 EV XPower from 0-62mph in just 3.8 seconds.

The top speed is less impressive at 124mph but performance EVs often don't allow you to go particularly quickly. And hey, unless you live in Germany or have access to an airfield, who cares?

Of more relevance is the acceleration, which is best described as brutal, particularly in sport mode, where the throttle is extremely responsive and putting your foot down results in a sustained feeling of being pressed against the driver's seat while the world outside goes blurry. 

Often, faster EVs seem hugely quick when accelerating from low speeds, only for that feeling to dissipate the faster you get, but the XPower feels potent all the way up to the national speed limit.

The non-XPower MG 4 EV was tested by Euro NCAP in 2022, achieving the full five-star rating. The standard safety specification is high, with lane-keeping assistance, a driver attention monitor, autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, blind-spot detection and intelligent speed limit assistance all fitted at no extra cost.

The speed assistance has one of the loudest, most annoying warnings for when you stray over what the car thinks is the limit. "Just obey the speed limit" might be your response but the problem with that is the MG 4 constantly reads the limit incorrectly, often significantly so. As per new EU rules, the system has to turn back on each time the car is driven, so get used to having to switch it off every time you go anywhere. 

You won't be towing anything particularly hefty with the MG 4 EV XPower as the braked trailer maximum is a mere 500kg.

The MG 4 EV XPower is little different in terms of practicality than any other MG 4 EV. That's to say it's not bad but not amazing either. The boot space is similar to a lot of petrol and diesel-powered hatchbacks at 343 litres, expanding to 1165 litres with the 60/40 split rear bench folded flat. 

There's a further 28 litres of storage dotted around the cabin, including a deep compartment under the armrest between the front seats and a shallower tray with a sliding lid just in front of that. Further forward of this is a pair of cupholders. Seemingly hovering above is a portion of the dash that juts out, containing a wireless smartphone charging tray, just behind the rotary drive selector.

Being about the same size as a Volkswagen Golf, the MG 4 EV was never going to feel cavernous inside but it's not particularly cramped. The front feels more than roomy enough, while leg and shoulder room in the rear are just fine.

At first, the MG 4 EV XPower's interior belies its low price thanks in large part to its stylish design. Look closer and you'll find much in the way of cheaper-feeling materials, flimsy parts plus bargain basement buttons and switches. At least you get pleasant-feeling Alcantara faux suede seat upholstery to uplift the cabin a touch. 

Everything feels like it's put together just fine, with no ill-fitting bits of trim or significant build issues. For the price, we're willing to give the MG 4 EV XPower a free pass in this regard but it is worth noting that more recent models from the brand, such as the MG S5 EV have taken a noticeable step up in the quality department. 

The 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system in the MG 4 EV XPower is shared with the rest of the range, save for one difference — it includes a track mode display. This illustrates various datasets including G-force and throttle position. Will any owners ever even use this? That remains to be seen but the XPower doesn't exactly strike us as a very appropriate track day car. 

It's a wide and not especially tall interface which results in a lot of the on-screen controls being small. The screen itself responds to touch quickly but various functions — switching between submenus, for instance — involve a noticeable delay.

It's also a pain to use for altering the climate control settings, particularly given that they aren't permanently displayed on screen as is the case for some setups. Instead you have to bring up a specific screen to change anything.

The navigation has a basic look to it but it's easy to follow. Oddly our test car's nav wouldn't give verbal instructions, even after we muted and unmuted it a few times for good measure. It's probably not a big deal for most owners who'll instead use their preferred navigation app through either Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, each of which is fitted as standard. 

The MG 4 EV XPower costs £36,495, which seems like remarkable value for money for a car putting out 435PS. Both the Volkswagen ID.3 GTX and Cupra Born VZ are each over 100PS behind yet cost around £10,000 more.

It also fares well against petrol-powered hot hatchbacks. To get that much power and acceleration potential from something running on unleaded you'd need to spend over £60,000 on an Audi RS3 or similar. 

Looking at just the power and performance figures doesn't tell the whole story, of course. The MG4 XPower isn't as well-rounded a fast car as any of those other options and it makes us wonder if the vast majority of buyers are better off ignoring it in favour of another model in the range. 

The entry-level MG 4 EV SE Standard Range is around £10,000 less than the XPower, while the Trophy Long Range is priced exactly the same as the XPower. The potential to cover more miles between top-ups seems like a more useful attribute than the ability to make your passengers feel a bit sick from punishingly fast acceleration.  

We averaged 2.9mi/kWh in the MG 4 EV XPower during our test, with the driving biased towards motorway and dual carriageway cruising. That's not too bad a figure given that EVs don't do so well sat at 70mph and given that we also made the most of the incredible performance on offer quite often.

Avoid expensive public chargers like the plague and the XPower should be cheap to run.

Also, unlike all of its rivals, it's well below the £40,000 threshold for the government's Expensive Car Supplement, also known as the premium car tax surcharge, so you'll avoid shelling-out an extra £425 annually in years two to six of ownership.

As of April 2025 all EVs are now liable for Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) at a rate of £195 a year from year two but that's a far less tricky pill to swallow.

The Benefit in Kind (BiK) rate for EVs has gone up as well but only to 3%. Therefore cars such as the MG 4 EV XPower remain very cheap to run as company cars.

MG4 EV XPower: Range and charging

The MG 4 EV XPower's combination of an extra motor and the medium-sized of the MG 4 EV's trio of batteries results in a less-than-impressive WLTP Combined cycle range on a full charge of 248 miles. Unless conditions are optimal or you're able to restrain yourself from deploying all that power, breaking beyond 200 miles in real-world driving is going to be a struggle.

That's also a long way behind the MG 4 EV Trophy Extended Range, which costs exactly the same as the XPower and will do 329 miles on a full charge. In one of those, 250 or more is a realistic target. 

A rapid charging capability of 140kW is fairly middle-of-the-road. Assuming conditions are optimal, a 10% to 80% charge should be possible in about 30 minutes. Plugged into a home wallbox, it's 9.5 hours for a 10% to 100% top-up.

The MG 4 EV XPower is in effect a trim level — and a well-equipped one at that. Standard features include:

• Climate control
• Auto-dimming rear-view mirror
• Vehicle-to-load (V2L) capability
• Heated faux leather steering wheel
• 10.25-inch infotainment screen
• Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• 360-degree parking camera
• Wireless smartphone charging pad
• Six-way electrically adjustable driver's seat
• Heated front seats
• LED headlights
• Rear parking sensors
• Electrically adjustable, folding and heated door mirrors