MG4 Xpower 2023 Review | Goodwood Test

The MG4 has caused a bit of a storm so far. It’s an affordable, spacious, family-sized hatchback EV that has enjoyable driving dynamics. It’s also extremely affordable for everything that it provides, helping MG to a rapid return to a position of regular visibility on UK roads.

But the MG badge has weight, it has competition history, it has fast sporting heritage. There’s only so far that MG could go, surely, before it has to build something for the MG enthusiast. And the MG4 Xpower is potentially that. Finally a sporting return from MG, or is it?

Well, from the outside the MG4 Xpower looks… like an MG4. There are perishingly few differences, just some Xpower flashes, bright calipers and 18 inch wheels. Other than that it’s very much MG 4 as you expect. Even the double rear wing is standard.

That’s not necessarily the worst thing that could happen. The MG4 is itself a good looking car. It has insect-like headlights into a sharp nose with big inserts for brake cooling and no grille fakery to bow to the common wishes of a heritage car buyer. At the back the full-width light bar has some delicate extra lights built into its top surface and that double wing is quite cool.

But on stats alone, the MG4 Xpower’s performance immediately begins to make up for its lower-key exterior. It’s now all-wheel-drive thanks to a second motor on the front axle. That means 435PS (319kW) and a ragged-edge 600Nm (443lb ft). As you might expect those numbers drop the 62mph sprint below four seconds, coming in at 3.8, edging into decade-old supercar territory.

But does the MG4 deliver on those numbers once you get out of the minefield world of stats and onto a road? It depends what you want. If you’re looking for stunning straight-line pace then yes, it absolutely does.

That 0-62 number might be impressive but it’s when you’re already moving and want extra motion it really becomes something. Moving from 30 to 60 is more like vaulting your body into a fourth dimension, one where your innards and skin form into one, and time and space barely seem real. It’s the kind of extraordinary acceleration you become briefly addicted to.

That’s not the only thing the MG4 can do. There’s Dynamic Cornering Control System which combines an electronic diff with torque vectoring for better traction in and out of corners. The MG4 Xpower spends most of its life as a standard rear-wheel-drive MG, with the front motor only converting from ballast to motion when it really needs to. There is just the slightest of pauses when it does kick in, barely a blink, but sometimes you can feel it progress from single to dual motor.

Alongside this digital technology are some analogue tweaks. The suspension is upgraded, with recalibrated springs and stiffer anti roll bars. The steering has been tweaked and the dampers retuned, overall the Xpower is 25 per cent stiffer than a standard MG4. With all this extra power comes extra slowing responsibility, and the brakes are now 345mm on all four wheels.

It certainly feels different to the MG4. That feels slightly lighter, slightly more rear biased than the Xpower. The Xpower is faster and can definitely attack a corner with more gusto, but is a much more serious prospect. It handles corners like it needs to, and will change direction with impressive vim as the four-wheel-drive system helps it to hug the tarmac.

But, with that second motor and more batteries it weighs nearly 150kg more than a standard MG4 and it does feel like it. You don’t chuck the MG4 into a corner if you don’t like to feel a bit of mid corner drift, as good as the Bridgestone Turanza tyres might be they're always fighting a balance between torque vectored traction and mass inertia.

It’s slightly annoying to say that this isn’t perhaps the hot hatch we had hoped for, especially given how we can wax lyrical about the standard car. But it is a very capable machine when driven, just lacking a little spark.

The MG4 has always made quite a play on being minimalist inside. Two screens, one for infotainment, one for dash, both small. One rotary dial in the centre, one button for the hand brake, and a simple two-spoke wheel. Done.

For the Xpower we now have some alcantara on the seats and metal pedals. There are no more flourishes to be found around the cabin. To an extent that does speak to MG’s no-nonsense ethos around the MG4. There's nothing unnecessary on the standard car or this. The MG4 Xpower will destroy many things from the traffic lights and they will really not know exactly how they were beaten.

The addition of a second motor comes with the MG4 Long Range’s batteries. That’s 64kWh of power provision. With the extra demands of two motors the range has dropped, it’s down to 239 miles on WLTP combined, a drop of 31 miles over the Long Range and 84 lower than the Extended Range model which was released at the same time. 

Charging is now good for up to 140kW, a rise over the Long Range model, which means the MG4 Xpower will charge from 10 to 80 per cent on a 50kW charger in 52 minutes. If you find a 140kW charger that can be dropped to 35 minutes.

Specs are an interesting mix. The seats are six-way manual adjustable but there’s climate control, mobile key, launch control, electric windows, sat-nav, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, DAB Radio and a 360 camera all standard on the Xpower. The infotainment screen, which is reasonably intuitive, is 10.25 inches and really doesn’t need to be any bigger. Wireless charging and adaptive cruise control are also Xpower standard.

Perhaps the MG4 Xpower’s biggest problem is the MG4 Trophy Extended Range. That can hit 62mph in a respectable 6.5 seconds while weighing less and managing over 300 miles of range. They both cost around £36,000.

Maybe that's a word of congratulations for the MG4 range as a whole. If you do want some innards-meddling EV performance you can get the MG4 Xpower, if you want a good family car and need the range you can go for the Extended Range.

But, is the MG4 Xpower what we really wanted from MG now? That’s a little debatable. The numbers and the ability of the standard car made us very excited to sample the returned Xpower brand. But after its straight-line abilities wore off the rest didn’t quite leave us with MG hysteria. The MG4 Xpower is a good car. It's fast and on an open road, it can inspire a raised heartbeat. But it’s missing a special something that fast MGs should have.