MG IM5 Review & Prices

MG taking on Tesla? Isn’t that a bit like Lidl selling high-end Italian food? Well, actually Lidl does — it has its own upmarket ‘DeLuxe’ line — and it’s true for MG too, with the introduction in the UK of the IM brand.

IM stands for Intelligent Mobility and it’s actually a mash-up of Chinese brands including MG, MG’s parent company Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation (SAIC), and Alibaba, known as ‘the Amazon of China.’ None of which really matters to you, but it’s why you’ll not find any MG badges on the IM5. Instead, there’s the stylised IM badge front, rear, and on the steering wheel, which looks oddly like a 1970s ITV regional programming logo.

You’ll also notice that this IM5 saloon is aiming very obviously at the Tesla Model 3. It’s not a lookalike in styling terms, but there’s enough similarity — that low nose with the slim headlights, the sleek rear — that MG’s ambition is pretty obvious.

MG IM5: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 304-441 miles
Efficiency: 3.1-3.5 miles per kWh
Battery size: 73.5-96.5 kWh
Max charge speed: 396kW
Charge time AC: 10-13hrs
Charge time DC: 17 mins
Charge port location: Left rear
Power output: 295-751bhp

It’s obvious from the interior too, although we’d say that the IM5’s digital setup works a bit better than that of the Tesla. Yes, everything is dominated by screens, but the fact that MG has kept conventional column stalks and gear selection really helps.

In theory, you look at the big, wide screen that spans half of the dash, starting behind the steering wheel, and use the reclined, lower-down screen as a sort of control centre. As ever, when almost every function is packed into the screen — from electronic driver aids to even adjusting the wing mirrors — it all gets a bit confusing and some of the on-screen buttons look way too small and fiddly, but it’s not the worst in that respect.

There’s plenty of space, both in the front and rear seats, and loads of handy storage areas too, but while overall quality is very good, the ‘waffle-style’ grey leatherette seats do look a bit like they’ve come out of a 1990s Rover 800. That’s not a compliment, by the way.

The IM5 is a practical car, though. A lot of Chinese-designed cars sacrifice boot space in favour of rear legroom, but the IM5’s boot — accessed by a handy fastback hatch, even though it looks like a saloon on the outside — holds up to 457 litres which is decent. The ‘froot’ storage area in the nose holds only 18 litres, though, which is only just enough to swallow a coiled-up charging cable.

The MG IM5 offers two different batteries. There’s an entry level 75kWh pack, which uses robust lithium-iron phosphate chemistry, and which comes with a 295hp rear-mounted motor, and a claimed range of 304 miles. Likely to be more popular will be the 100kWh battery model, which stretches that range to 441 miles, and adds an extra electric motor for four-wheel drive and 407hp. At the top of the range there’s a dramatic Performance model with four-wheel drive, 751hp, and 0-62mph in just 3.2 seconds (although it has much less range, as you’d expect — 357 miles).

As well as being fast on the road, the MG IM5 is very fast to charge, with a maximum DC charging speed of 396kW, which allows it to do a 10-80 per cent top-up in just 17 minutes.

There’s some clever chassis tech too, including rear-wheel steering that can deflect by as much as 12-degrees when parking, so you can ‘crab-walk’ the IM5 into a tight parking space.

Check out our best deals on the MG IM5, or get a great MG IM5 leasing deal. You can also check out the best deals available on other MG models, or find a used MG for sale here. And remember that Carwow can even help you to sell your old car when the time comes.

The IM5 is, as you’d expect, almost identically priced to the Tesla Model 3, with only a few hundred pounds and a handful of miles of range separating the two (the IM5 is fractionally cheaper, but the Tesla goes 20 miles further on a charge). Bump up the spec to the long-range four-wheel drive models, and the IM5 takes a decisive advantage — £5,000 cheaper but with 50 miles more range. The IM5 is also much-better priced than the likes of the Polestar 2 or the VW ID.7, although the Polestar 2 is more fun to drive, and the ID.7 is much, much roomier.