John Luhrs felt no small amount of pride when his colleague said: “I prefer this to my mother’s Tesla”.
“This” was an MG ZS EV, the top-of-the-range EV from a marque which has turned heads round the world with its value-for-money, smart appearance and performance, not to mention its green credentials and its 7-year warranty.
Tesla may have been an electric vehicle pioneer but MG, says Luhrs, has pioneered making an electric future affordable (it has been rated the most affordable battery EV in New Zealand) and enjoyable: “I only have one complaint – and that’s the fact I have no complaints,” he says. “I am absolutely thrilled with my MG”.
Luhr, 65, lives in Rolleston, about 25km out of Christchurch where he works as a management consultant. He bought a new MG Essence in October, paying $53,990 but the clean car rebate of $8625 meant the total price paid was less than $45,365. Try buying a Tesla for that.
"It was unexpected," says Luhrs of his colleague's opinion. "He had a drive and he told me he preferred it to his mum's Tesla. I asked him if he was serious and he was; he said it just drove better."
Nor does the eye-opening end there. Luhrs hasn't yet done the maths to figure out how much he will save in petrol – it's only been a month, after all – but he's already networking with friends who own MGs and other EVs and says their experience is that they save 75 per cent of what they were spending on fuel.
It could work out even better for Luhrs. His previous ride was a 2006 Mercedes Benz E500 – a five-litre V8, a lovely car to drive but brutal when it came to petrol costs and repairs.
Also, he says, his wife rang him the other day and said the sunroof had flown off.
“There are other opportunities too,” he says about saving money on fuel. “One of the energy companies is offering free power between 9pm and midnight and, if you charge your car up on a fast charger then, you can get your fuel costs down to pretty much zero”. He bought an MG ChargeHub but, as they have only just moved house, haven’t installed it yet.
Luhr and family (wife and two teenage boys aged 16 and 13) have only just moved to Rolleston and he reckons they do 70-80km a day after the work and home trip and dropping the kids off. With a 320km range on a full battery, he only has to charge it up – with a normal three-point plug and socket – every three days or so.
"I have to say the MG has exceeded expectations," he says. "It's so easy to drive, intuitive really, and it's peppy. We drive on the highway and the motorway and in the city every day and it's quiet and so easy to use. It's also got heaps of features. I used the indicators the other day and thought, 'Gosh, that's loud'. I discovered that they sound loud because the car is so quiet and – I thought this was brilliant – you can even turn down the noise the indicators make."
He rates the cruise control highly plus safety features like automatic braking when the car thinks you are getting too close to the vehicle in front. Regenerative braking, which returns energy to the battery as the car slows is also a great feature, Luhrs says.
"We'll take it away for a couple of long trips this summer – and that whole business of range anxiety doesn't worry me: 320km is a good distance and everyone knows that if you are fully laden and doing motorway speeds, you'll chew through the range quite quickly – and there's a charger about every 75km anyway. It's a great way to travel." Other features of the MG ZS EV include:
- The Excite model retails for $49,990 and the Essence for $53,990 – but both attract the $8625 clean car rebate
- Push-button start
- Three driving modes – Eco, Normal and Sport
- The iSmart app and charging management system – allows drivers to check on battery status and to schedule charging to take advantage of cheap power prices
- Three levels of regenerative braking to aid battery capacity
- Tow rating is 500kg, fine for small box trailers and weekend work
- A 360-degree surround view camera, three Isofix points, panoramic sunroof on the Essence that takes up 90 per cent of the roof area, a boot that ranges from 359-1187 litres depending on the 60/40 fold-down rear seats, and an AC home three-pin charger.
But for the last word, let's go back to Luhrs, asked to nominate his single, favourite thing about his MG ZS EV: "It's just a very comfortable driving machine, whether you're round town or on the motorway – and it does everything I expected and more."
For more information: https://mgmotor.co.nz/models/mg-zsev/