Styling
MG has deliberately made the XPower look discreet. Even if it's painted in the unique-to-this-model Racing Green paint (at £800, the most expensive finish of the seven colours offered for the ultra-rapid MG4 variant), it doesn't immediately stand out as a firebreather, or whatever the EV equivalent of that honorific is - 'voltexhaler', maybe? Anyway, what you're looking for if you're an avid MG-spotter are the orange 'XPower'-branded brake callipers, the 18-inch alloy wheels, a two-tone roof combination and polished trim accents on the body. And that's it. Otherwise, it's like any other MG4: a bit beaky-looking, maybe, but at least distinctive from the usual soap-bar hatchback shapes that less-established manufacturers have tended to turn out in the past, purely to play it safe. Overall, now that the basic MG4 design has had more time to bed in, we have to say we like the XPower's appearance. Quite a lot, actually.
Interior
If the exterior is underplayed, the XPower's interior is the very definition of subtlety. There's some Alcantara on the seats and door cards, and the pedals have a metallic finish, yet otherwise the cabin is exactly the same as that in any other MG4. This, again, means we broadly like it; you can tell, if you sit in the MG4 and compare it against a slightly older model from the company, like the
MG5 SW, that the carmaker is upping its game in terms of material quality and connectivity software. However, given the affordability of the XPower in general, you can also tell from certain surfaces and plastics that the car is built down to a low price, and therefore it lacks the overall polish and solid feel of a cabin from more upmarket rivals.
Practicality
Despite the twin motors, there's no sacrifice of interior space in the XPower from what you'd find in any other MG4. That means adults can sit in the back of this hatchback comfortably, while the boot is an admirable - if by no means class-leading - 363 litres with all seats in use. Some of the storage solutions up front are decent, too, although the flat ledge for the smartphone charging pad isn't the cleverest idea. There's a little rubber mat which is supposed to stop your device sliding around, but the edges of the pad are simply not high or lipped enough, so your phone will likely fly off into one of the front footwells the minute you go round a corner with any degree of vim or vigour. Bad enough in an EV in the first place, but in something laying claim to being a performance car? Hmm.
Performance
There is absolutely no problem at all with the motive power bestowed on the MG4 XPower. It has both of the most monstrous internal-combustion-powered hyper-hatches, namely the
Mercedes-AMG A 45 S and the
Audi RS 3 Sportback, comfortably covered for both power and torque - sitting 14hp above the former and 35hp in advance of the latter, while also boasting 100Nm more than either of them.
And there's also absolutely no doubt at all that the MG4 XPower feels as rabidly fast in real life as its on-paper stats might have you believe. It's actually quite startling how brutally effective it is at putting its power down. There's a small degree of scrabbling from the tyres at times, while you might detect the steering wheel marginally tugging this way and that, but in the main its four-wheel-drive system does a splendid job of keeping any of the corrupting forces of the MG4's mammoth power away from the driver's senses.
One thing it does lack for in the performance department is noise. While many rapid EVs these days are doing anything they can to simulate a bit of acoustic excitement, the MG4 XPower does nothing of the sort. If you particularly like the background whoop of meaty electric motors going through their motions, then you might enjoy what little vocality the MG has. Otherwise, dedicated fast-hatch fans will be lamenting the lack of aural fireworks.
As for range, with its mega motors supping away at the same 61.7kWh battery as the Long Range MG4 models (there's both a smaller 50.8kWh unit and a larger 74.4kWh power pack available in the regular array of cars as well), it means the XPower has the second-lowest one-shot driving capability of the entire line-up at 239 miles. Realistically, that's going to be sub-200 then, especially if you keep enjoying the XPower's party trick of trying to rearrange your facial features with its full-bore acceleration. For what it's worth, we got a reasonable 2.7 miles/kWh out of it across almost 230 miles in a week, although that electrical economy hints at how we drove the car for most of the time we were behind the wheel. And that, in turn, rather neatly brings us onto the next section...
Ride & Handling
You might have heard that the MG4 XPower is nothing more than an EV with a lot of extra potency added, and not much else. But that's not strictly true. In fact, MG has done a fair amount to this car's underpinnings in order to help it cope with the 435hp and 600Nm outputs, but at the same time it hasn't perhaps gone as extreme with the chassis spec as you might imagine.
Its Modular Scalable Platform (MSP) chassis obviously has the all-wheel drive from the twin motors to start with, but MG also sees fit to give the XPower a Dynamic Cornering Control System. This features an electronic locking diff on the back axle, as well as Intelligent Motor Control that can split torque to all four wheels as needed. Then the company revises the spring and damper rates, as well as fitting tougher anti-roll bars, all of these touches giving the suspension 25 per cent more stiffness than a standard MG4.
Even the steering and the regenerative braking have been retuned to suit the XPower's sportier nature, while the discs themselves are increased to 345mm items at all four corners, bringing the 435hp MG4 to a stop from 62mph in 33.9 metres. And, on a connected point of grip, the XPower is fitted with Bridgestone Turanza tyres that aim to improve the car's hold on the tarmac, all without compromising its rolling efficiency.
All very noble efforts, but strangely they don't seem to add up to a very satisfying, cohesive whole. In actual fact, the regular MG4s drive so sweetly that it's hard not to think this XPower is dynamically a half-step backwards. The steering might have been recalibrated but it doesn't offer any meaningful level of additional feel or weighting from what we could discern, while the uprated suspension limits roll, pitch and dive to a degree... but doesn't eradicate these characteristics entirely, so the body control feels a bit loose and imprecise for the power on offer. The brakes are OK and pedal feel is good, but while we earlier said 1,800kg is light for an EV, for a rapid hatch it's positively gargantuan and so the XPower never feels that comfortable when you're trying to scrub off a lot of (its easily won) speed for a corner.
In short, it's just not very exciting to drive, beyond that initial haymaker hit of the twin electric motors. Sure, it rides nicely enough and the rolling refinement is largely brilliant, so it's a comfortable thing to travel around in - but then so is any other MG4, and they almost all go further on a single charge of their battery pack than the XPower does, plus they're cheaper as well.
In its defence, MG has openly explained that it could have gone further with the underpinnings of its most powerful ever road car, and it doesn't explicitly refer to the XPower as a hot hatch in its literature. Instead, it calls it and its rivals either a 'high-performance electric hatch' or 'high-power hatchbacks'. And maybe that ultra-specific terminology speaks volumes about where this car has been pitched kinematically. Whatever; frankly, we were hoping for more from this MG4, given how excellent its source material is to drive. Sadly, the XPower turned out to be underwhelming, especially if judging it when you're primarily considering its technical specification.
Value
There are two ways of viewing the car for this section and, if you've read the whole review above, you'll probably guess what we're about to say. If you rate the MG4 XPower simply as an inexpensive way to smash all-comers at any traffic-light grand prix you care to stage, it's an unqualified success. If you're coming to the driving experience expecting hot-hatch-like thrills, you'll be left sorely disappointed.
For the level of standard equipment and the sheer, monumental performance the MG offers for a list price well below the 40-grand marker, you can't call it anything but a bargain. Yet it doesn't really offer any handling gains over the regular cars, which start from almost £10,000 less. And if all you need is a sharp-driving EV hatchback, the regular MG4s are going to suit you a lot better than the XPower is, when you factor in its ultimately limited one-shot driving range.
Verdict
This is such a strange car to pass verdict on. If you fall for its eye-catching headline figures - 435hp and 0-62mph in 3.8 seconds for less than £36,500 - you'll be wondering why we've been so harsh on it. By the same token, if you're a keen driver wanting a lot of reward when you're behind the wheel, then you might sample the MG4 XPower and think we've been too generous in giving it the mark we have.
In the end, it's an admirable attempt by MG to shake up the conventions of the current car marketplace, and while we struggle to think of precisely who this car is aimed at (it would seem it won't satisfy either EV diehards or hot-hatch petrolheads), it is a high-performance five-door that bravely sets its own rules of engagement. Whether or not that's an intriguing enough proposition to tempt you to part with your money to own one remains to be seen, but it's at least interesting enough to know that MG now has enough confidence to allow something like the XPower to exist in the first place. And that it does at least deliver on one of its mission statements: because it is fearsomely, fearsomely fast.
