Yes, it’s still just a hybrid, but nifty new MG3 supermini hatchback is hard to beat on price
The MG3 Hybrid+ supermini. It says a lot about the mess we’re in over electric cars that so many people are buying a petrol-hybrid instead
I was driven to the airport in Portugal this week by a hard-working taxi driver in an electric MG MG4 hatchback when, inevitably, the talk turned to cars.
On hearing that I wrote about cars (God bless us) he, predictably, asked me to name my favourite car. I told him I didn’t have one. The chat went on and on – mostly about electric cars.
He drives from 6.30am to lunchtime and then does another slog until late evening. His mission is to be a millionaire while still young enough (he was in his early 30s) so he can enjoy life.
Helping him along the way, he said, will be a new Tesla Model 3 and a couple of larger cars operated in conjunction with his business partner.
But, for now, it would be the MG4 earning the money. Despite the big mileage, the car was in pristine condition and a prime example of how to keep a vehicle: it was clean and tidy. I had loads of room in the back seat.
He used to have a petrol car. It cost him around €300 a week for fuel. With the MG4, his bill has been slashed to between €80 and €100.
It’s not just that he is saving/making money; he is doing so with something that hasn’t cost him anything in repairs yet and he was single-minded about how well the car was serving him. Happy man. There were no half measures. He complained about a poor charging infrastructure but accepted there were always going to be fears about the purchase and use of a battery electric vehicle (BEV). It was accepted and he got on with it.
Why am I telling you all this when I’m supposed to be reviewing a hybrid, not fully electric, MG3 Hybrid+ supermini hatchback from the MG range?
It’s just that it got me thinking about how simple it all felt: buy an electric car and get on with it.
If only there was as simple a way of persuading people here to opt for a BEV. What is it going to take? More and bigger incentives and millions more poured into a creaking charging network?
Or more likely, heavier taxation on petrol and diesel? Really, it is all about mindset at government and public level. It’s as if we’re waiting for someone to take the plunge before we get our feet wet.
Ultimately something has to give or we will end up relying on a trickle of sales and an ever-widening gap between purchases and targets set by government for the number of EVs on the road.
Or maybe we’re better off with the Irish solution to an Irish problem (though we are not alone in the fall-off in buying new BEVs).
There is nothing wrong with the partial solution: hybrids. They are helping people take a halfway step.
It says a lot about the mess we’re in over electric cars that so many people are buying a petrol-hybrid instead.
It makes perfect sense, with so much confusion about, and negativity towards BEVs, that buyers are hedging their bets.
They don’t want to take a chance on a full-electric vehicle. Not just yet anyway. Not until someone who can, does something. But when?
The biggest winner as a result of all this has been Toyota which has long claimed that having an electric motor and a petrol engine on board at the same time is the most effective way to get around.
They have struck gold with the decision to stick with hybrid, though their ranks are being, or about to be, expanded with the arrival of BEVs too.
Others see the benefits of hybrids. And one of them is the MG MG3, reviewed here. Being a supermini, it is a rival for the Toyota Yaris (easily the biggest seller in its class) and the Mazda2 for example.
As you are probably aware, MG is now Chinese-owned and is creating quite a name for itself – especially its focus on pricing (from €22,995 for their new hybrid) and fairly lavish equipment levels.
Believe me, you’ll get very little for around the €23,000 mark these days. The Yaris hybrid starts at €29,770.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well finished it was on the inside; yes, some of the plastics, particularly those low down, felt a bit cheap.
But what do you expect from a car costing as little as this?
My test car had a straightforward dash with clear graphics on the 10.25in ‘floating’ touchscreen; there was good seating, a quiet transition from battery to engine power (a 3spd hybrid transmission) and a lot of space.
It didn’t deal with bumps and lumps on the roads particularly well and the boot isn’t great.
But it is a smart-looking motor from the front and came across as a more-than-confident runaround.
The Yaris is more accomplished but at €22,995, it is hard to beat the MG on price.
Both cars make it difficult to switch to full electric. We need more examples like my taxi driver to inspire a breakthrough.
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