MG5 EV Trophy 2024 electric car owner review

Alex Pratt drives an MG5 EV Trophy Long Range 61kWh 2024 (standard spec with dash cam, sill & bumper protectors).

This is Alex’s second electric car, he’s owned the MG5 EV 1-2 years and drives 5,000-10,000 miles annually. The current mileage of the car is between 5,000-10,000 miles and he achieves a 170-mile range on average, from an 80% charge.

Why did you choose the MG5 EV?

My first electric car was an MG5 EV Exclusive and the offer the MG dealer gave me at the end of my PCP on a new MG5EV FL Trophy LR was far too good to miss! I’m very pleased with all aspects of the car except the way the range suffers in cold weather.

The amount of safety and drive-ability tech is amazing and mostly very useful. It’s also very comfortable, roomy and practical and the road holding is good. It also surprises many a hot hatch with its instant acceleration!

Efficiency i.e. the electric equivalent of mpg, is generally fine and being as I have a maintenance plan and I charge 95% of the time at home, the running costs are miniscule. I will never go back to an ICE car and with the choice and cost of electric cars becoming so much more extensive, cheaper and tech-heavy, who would want to?

Positives

Ease and enjoyment of driving
reliability and running costs at around 30% of an equivalent ICE car
at this price point, the interior is quite premium.

Negatives

The lane keep assist can be quite annoying
the plunge in efficiency in the cold weather is very disappointing.

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

The car is less than eighteen months old so there has been absolutely zero degradation in the battery performance both in charging and discharging. If anything, as I’ve now adopted the discipline of generally only charging from 20% to 80%, the overall performance appears to have improved.

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

No faults whatsoever! The car is very reliable. Sometimes the software can indicate a problem but remember an electric car is a computer with wheels so just rebooting it generally cures it immediately.
There is a phone app which would possibly enhance the ownership experience but being as it has never worked I’ve not been able to verify its usefulness…

What are the standout technological features of the car?

The cruise control with auto braking, the 360° camera and the regenerative braking (even though it is not ‘one-pedal’) are all superb! The car will even automatically keep to speed limits, if set, because it reads the speed limit signs! It also has brilliant auto high/low headlight control and the heated seats are very effective. I’ve most probably missed some things because the tech is so seamless it becomes second nature!

Tell us something people wouldn’t readily know about your MG5 EV Trophy

How satisfying an electric car is to drive, to own and how safe and reliable they are.

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

That you have to completely replace the battery pack after 8yrs at a cost of £30k 🤣🤣🤣

One of the first Tesla Roadsters after 15 years was checked for battery degradation (on original batteries that were, in battery terms, very old technology) and it still had 83% capacity!

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

I have just test driven a BYD Dolphin Surf and was seriously impressed! This is a small, affordable electric car packed with technology which drives exceptionally well. At the current rate of development, when I am ready to change my car in 2 years’ time, there will be such outstanding & affordable cars both new and pre-owned, I will be spoilt for choice!

Home charging unit

Rolec Wallbox 7kW – very easy to use and control via app. Connectivity can be a little temperamental at times but I think that’s more down to the car than the charger.

Electricity supplier & tariff

Octopus – but I don’t use one of their EV tariffs because I have solar panels and battery storage and use an export tariff which pays me for the electricity I send back to the grid. By doing this any EV charging I do during the month can work out to be free! Octopus tell me they are working on combining export and EV tariffs which could be even more beneficial for me.

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

I generally use GRDISERVE because I find the reliability and ease of use to be of immense benefit. I’ve had horrendous experiences with smaller, local companies when at holiday locations but generally the charging infrastructure in the UK is expanding and improving exponentially. I now search out other networks who are giving possibly a better overall package than GRIDSERVE.

Insurance

I was insured with LV on my first EV because they were very EV-friendly. Other major insurers at the time were overcharging because they were frightened of EVs and believed some of the misinformation being touted by the fossil fuel industry and some car manufacturers.

However, after the totally unjustifiable increases in car insurance premiums a couple of years back, the following year when other companies were quite rightly reducing their premiums, LV were, unjustifiably keeping theirs too high, so I changed to Tesco which were almost £400 p/a cheaper than LV!

I always shop around every year when I receive my renewal notice. Loyalty used to be rewarded… not nowadays, it’s exploited!

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

Insurance is more expensive because it’s mandatory and therefore the insurance industry cartel can charge more, so they do! As more electric cars are bought the premiums should come down or am I just being naive? Servicing is much cheaper and should be cheaper because hardly any maintenance is required.

By the time I pay road tax, I will have had five years paying nothing so that’s a massive saving already. Tyres and brake discs last a lot longer and pollute less. The cost of fuel e.g. electricity vs. petrol/diesel is a massive saving working out to be 70% cheaper and that’s a conservative estimate.