MG5 EV 2022 electric car owner review

Jam drives an MG5 EV Exclusive (pre-facelift) 61kWh 2022.

This is Jam’s first electric car, he’s owned the MG5 EV from new and drives 10,000-15,000 miles annually. The current mileage of the car is between 10,000-20,000 miles and he achieves 200 miles from a full charge.

Why did you choose the MG5 EV?

Reliability of electric drive
zero or extremely low ‘fuel’ cost, charged at work or home.

Positives

I don’t have to go to fuel stations anymore. I just plug it in at home or at work and it’s ready to go whenever I require.
acceleration – full torque in any moment
I don’t have to warm up the engine, no need to wait to heat up the cabin or melt ice on the windscreen.
it looks like any standard car, it doesn’t have a spaceship exterior or interior.

Negatives

No Intelligent Octopus compatibility
no pre-conditioning
MG Pilot fails to keep in lane too often
it doesn’t show many technical details of the battery or its electric system.

Compared to when you first bought the car, does your battery still charge at the same rate & do you still get the same range?

Same rate, same range
around 19k mileage now.

Have you experienced any faults with the car? If so, what have they been?

After defaulting to the factory settings, the environment temperature and tyre temperature shows in Fahrenheit but it’s impossible to set it to Celsius. It’s not fixed yet.

What are the standout technological features of the car?

It’s a 2020-2022 model so it has no standout technical feature for 2024 but it knows what it has to know. (I love it’s just a car, not a spaceship!)

Tell us something people wouldn’t readily know about this electric car

I don’t think an everyday family car should have any ‘secret’ or ‘special feature’. Keep the miracles for luxury and fancy cars! 🙂

What’s the biggest or funniest myth you’ve heard about EVs?

You spend a lot of time just waiting to charge them. Actually you just plug-in and leave. Less than a minute 1x or max. 2x in an average week. It was 10-15 mins per 1 or 2 weeks with a petrol car.

What if you run out of charge in the middle of nowhere?
a) You don’t. It never happened to me in either a petrol car or an EV. It shows fuel/charge level, and beeps when it’s low.
b) Same as happens with oil-burners in the same situations. You bring or call a friend or roadside assistance with a kW generator or outdoor battery. Let’s say it’s just 3kW, so 15 mins charging gives 3-4 miles at full road speed, but in this extreme situation you can go with extra care to the closest charger.
c) If you are really in the middle of nowhere, then you can ask few kWhs from local residents.

What electric car(s) are you interested in next and why?

If it’s in the near future:

MG/BYD
Renault/Nissan
KIA/Hyundai
VW/Skoda

But I want to use the MG5 EV for many more years and the market will change in the meantime.

Do you charge your electric car from home?

Yes

Do you have a home charging unit installed?

Electricity supplier & tariff

I park on-street next to my wall at home. I have a cable charger inside the house, plugged in a standard 3-pin socket. The type 2 cable is coming through a little hole in my wall and the type 2 plug is in a little plastic box on the wall, with a few meters of cable rolled up.

I can charge at work for free, so home charging was not my biggest concern. Sometimes I have to charge at home and of course I like using cheap electricity at night for the washing machine & dishwasher too.

Until last week I had a Vevor 3-pin 13 Amp charger, with Octopus Go (9p/kWh off-peak 0:30-4:30). From this week I have an Ohme Go cable, so I changed to Intelligent Octopus Go (7.5p/kWh off-peak 23:30-5:30, and sometimes even during the day). I think both tariffs are perfect and Octopus Energy is a reliable provider with a good team.

BTW, anyone is better than OVO!

What public charging networks would you recommend to others and why?

I only charge on public chargers on my rare long trips, so I have some experience with rapid chargers.
I live in Scotland and the MG5 EV can charge at a maximum of 80kW, so I use ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) 50kW chargers mostly. But I really like IONITY and have had no problem with InstaVolt (IV) or Pod Point (PP) either.

On 50kW CPS or IV chargers I saw around 40-43kW, on 350kW IONITY chargers I got 60-75kW charging speed, which is absolutely enough for me.

I’ve driven this EV for 2 years but I’ve only had a problem with charging twice. Once when I waited for 10 mins at a 50kW charger. The other time in a well known area I found 3 different 150-350kW chargers all out of order. I also have seen fuel stations closed in my lifetime, so I don’t think this is a really big problem.

Please itemise where you’re saving money (or not) owning & running an MG5 EV

Savings:

£100-150/month in fuel
I think the servicing cost is around the same as a similar petrol car (£100-200/yr), but there will be hundreds of pounds saved in 2-4 years as the electric motor doesn’t ageing.

Losses:

PCP £390 could be around £100 higher than a similar size oil burner
slightly higher insurance charge – could be £100-200 higher than similar size oil burner.

In summary, the first 4 years have cost a bit more for the EV. It will save a fortune when the same age petrol car starts demanding repairs etc.