It’s an MG 4 but even more affordable, so what’s the catch?
The prodigious success of the MG 4 was built on value for money, which is why its new cut-price understudy – the MG 4 Urban tested here – ought to have competitors concerned. The new model is essentially a budget alternative of the 4, similarly sized but engineered on a different platform to allow it to be cheaper, such that MG can compete in a new and growing class of impressive EVs that cost little more than £20,000. The Urban starts at £23,495, meaning it undercuts the 4 proper by £6500. Dig into the spec sheets and you’ll see that, despite this, the Urban is actually the larger of the two cars, with a longer wheelbase and, on paper, quite a bit more boot capacity. Yes, this is an odd turn of events, but potentially a cunning one if you’re MG.How does MG offer what appears to be more for less? We’ll get to that in a moment, but it comes down to the fact that, despite the name, the 4 Urban is largely unrelated to the 4 in both architecture and hardware, and is a fair bit more basic under the skin.Chief among the new car’s competitors are the BYD Dolphin and the charismatic Renault 5 E-Tech – cars that start at roughly the same price and whose existence is the reason why MG has extended the 4 range downward in the first place. Whether the Urban can be considered a credible threat to the French car in particular is something we’ll now discover.
