Why should you buy the new MG S6 EV? I’ve driven it to find out
Car changing is a big deal
On paper, the MG S6 EV doesn’t do much to stand out from the crowd. But is it more than the sum of its parts? News editor Jamie Edkins has been finding out.
This is the new MG S6 EV, and it’s one of the many electric SUVs you can buy right now for less than £40,000. It needs to fend off the Citroen e-C5 Aircross, Skoda Enyaq and Kia EV6, as well as the Tesla Model Y if you up the budget by a couple of grand.
However, when you look at the stats there’s not much about the MG which sets it apart. The range and performance are decidedly average, as are the charging speeds, and unlike many MGs it doesn’t massively undercut alternatives on price either.
To find out if you should choose this car over its competitors, I’ve spent a week with the MG S6 EV – using it for urban trips, long motorway slogs and B-road blasts.
Remember, you can buy a brand new or used car right here on Carwow. And you can sell your car, too. We’re here to help you through every step of your car-changing journey.
It’s pretty anonymous from the outside, but then again so is the Enyaq and Model Y. The EV6 and e-C5 Aircross are more striking to look at, but the MG starts to come good when you step inside.
The interior looks far more upmarket than similarly-priced alternatives, and on the whole it feels pretty posh as well. I like the sweeping dashboard design, and everything in your direct eyeline is covered in soft-touch leatherette.
There are a few bits letting the side down, like the flimsy steering wheel stalks and cheap-feeling gear selector, but on the whole it leaves a more luxurious impression than a basic Tesla Model Y.
It’s not all good inside, because I had a few issues with the 12.8-inch touchscreen. The menu layout is easy to get to grips with, but I found the screen to be quite slow to respond to your inputs.
It also glitched out on me a few times while using Android Auto, pixelating the display to the point of being unusable. It did it with a different phone as well, but disconnecting and re-pairing solved the issue.
The top-spec Trophy model does come with a lot of standard equipment though. It has heated and ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, a 360-degree camera, a panoramic sunroof and adaptive cruise control, all for £41,000. To get that level of kit on a Tesla Model Y you’d have to spend £49,000, although you can get a similarly-specced e-C5 Aircross for about the same price.
The MG S6 is also one of the most practical EVs you can buy for this sort of money. The 674-litre boot beats all bar the Model Y by quite some margin, and you get a big front boot for your charging cables. Rear seat space is also cavernous, and the panoramic sunroof makes it feel light and airy in the back.
My test car did have one annoying issue though – the power tailgate wouldn’t open all the way. I checked the settings, and it was set to full height, but I always had to push it fully up.
Out on the road, the feeling of poshness you get from the cabin starts to fade. It’s by no means a bad car to drive – it’s reasonably comfortable and the controls all feel natural, but it’s not as relaxing as a Citroen e-C5 Aircross.
You get a fair amount of wind and road noise at speed, and the whine from the electric motor is surprisingly pronounced in the cabin when you accelerate.
Then there are the driver aids, which I had to switch off every time I got in. If you so much as part your lips to yawn, or just sing along to a song, it’ll beep at you with a warning saying “Do not drive while fatigued”, and you can’t press a button to dismiss the message. It keeps beeping until it’s decided that you’re no longer fatigued. I measured it once, and it beeped continually on the motorway for half a mile.
The range is decidedly average as well. I had the dual-motor version, and it’s meant to do 301 miles on a charge. Over five days and a mixture of driving conditions, I averaged 3.4 miles per kWh, which works out to a real-world range of 262 miles. That’s about the same as we got from the Tesla Model Y and Citroen e-C5 Aircross.
So where does this leave us? Well the MG S6 EV is a decent enough electric SUV. It’s alright to drive, spacious inside and the interior looks and feels lovely. It’s just not quite cheap enough to stand out against more polished alternatives.
That said, you can get some really good deals on the MG S6 through Carwow, with average savings of over £4,000 and lease prices starting from £317 per month. If you spot a great offer on this car, I see no reason not to go for it. Otherwise, I’d have a Citroen e-C5 Aircross instead.
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