Considering a ZS EV

[Valdez]

Hi, We’re looking at getting a second hand ZS EV as the second car, we’re in the UK. We currently lease a Tesla Model Y as the main family car so no stranger to electric driving, but have some questions about the ZS EV to see if it’s suitable for us. I don’t plan to get another Tesla and will probably get a smaller car for driving to work, and as such the ZS would be the family wagon. Sorry for the barrage of questions, but I’m keen to hear about real life use of the car.

Looking at a long range 2021 model (Trophy Connect) with the pano roof. The battery is only a few kWh less than the Tesla, and in summer I get about 3.5 miles/kWh at a constant 70mph, or easily exceed 4 miles/kWh at a more leisurely 55mph. How does the MG compare in this regard?

We do fairly regular trips from Sussex to Scotland, about 500 miles - Model Y can do this in two charges in summer or three in winter driving at the speed limit, total time on charge is about 50 mins so fits in well with toilet breaks. How does the ZS do with charging performance? The charge speeds are obviously lower on the ZS, but curious if it can maintain peak rate to a higher SoC as a result?

Watched some reviews from when the new version ZS was released a few years ago, entertainment system looks a bit slow and clunky - is it better now? Would probably use CarPlay. Does it still get updated fairly regularly?

One pedal driving / regen braking etc. I was a bit surprised to find the MG4 does not “save” the driver settings for one pedal driving. Is the ZS EV the same? Do you really have to go into the menus every drive? On the Model Y it’s always one pedal and max regen, and regen happens on the accelerator pedal only with the brake pedal being friction brakes only - it’s very natural and easy to drive. I understand the ZS EV uses blended braking where some regen and some friction braking happens with the brake pedal?

Any issues with using the Tesla Supercharger network? Assume it won’t ever plug-and-charge? I really don’t want to send more cash to Tesla, but the superchargers are just so easy, cheap and reliable.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JohnV6]

I have bought a new ZS EV Trophy long range for £23k. I get it next week.
MG have various videos on the cars hidden on their website.
This one might help https://www.mg.co.uk/mg-always-with-you

 

[peterseddon]

The ZS doesn't have one pedal driving, it will slow you quite quickly on level 3 but it will not totally stop the car. Cruise control will follow the car in front and stop you if it stops but does not use regen to do this. On the motorway after a double pull on the CC stalk it does a fare job of staying central in the lane, but nowhere near as good as the Tesla autopilot. Make sure all the various control modules are updated to the latest version as especially the infotainment software is glitchy.

 

[fred12345]

I'll answer few points I know but I would also recommend reading as many posts on this forum as you can - just remember that posts are mainly "problems" (most of the time not really!), happy people hardly ever sing praises.. Mine is second hand SR Trophy. Love it. Not keen on the outside looks that much but kids say it looks cool so what can I say ...

Looking at a long range 2021 model (Trophy Connect) with the pano roof. The battery is only a few kWh less than the Tesla, and in summer I get about 3.5 miles/kWh at a constant 70mph, or easily exceed 4 miles/kWh at a more leisurely 55mph. How does the MG compare in this regard?

At constant 55mph in summer you should definitely get more than 4 but not sure about constant 70 mph speed - I try to go slower until I lose it so can't say what the average would be. On one drive of about 100 miles, I got about 4.3 m/kWh see below (some 50mph speed limits on M25 but also some faster and suburban driving, average speed reflects this)

Range loss in Winter

Watched some reviews from when the new version ZS was released a few years ago, entertainment system looks a bit slow and clunky - is it better now? Would probably use CarPlay. Does it still get updated fairly regularly?

Entertainment system is fine, not instant reaction but not any noticeable issues, fine for me and I'm not very patient with those things... mind you, everyone's got their own preferences so people complain about this or that but if you use CarPlay (I use wireless dongle for Android), you won't care about infotainment system. It's not updated OTA but might be when you service the car.

One pedal driving / regen braking etc. I was a bit surprised to find the MG4 does not “save” the driver settings for one pedal driving. Is the ZS EV the same? Do you really have to go into the menus every drive?

My ZS is always on REG 3 which is the highest regen option and it stays there when you turn the car on and off. The only thing that reverts to NORMAL is driving style, I just flick it to ECO most of the time... ZS is not one pedal driving but quite close to it, works for me, it will slow you down to I would say 5mph in urban drive (?); you still have to use normal brakes. I personally prefer it that way.

, and regen happens on the accelerator pedal only with the brake pedal being friction brakes only - it’s very natural and easy to drive. I understand the ZS EV uses blended braking where some regen and some friction braking happens with the brake pedal?

No regen on brake pedals, only on accelerator.

Any issues with using the Tesla Supercharger network? Assume it won’t ever plug-and-charge? I really don’t want to send more cash to Tesla, but the superchargers are just so easy, cheap and reliable.

Some models are fine on Tesla, some not. Try before you buy or arrange that they fix it for free. Mine works fine. Out of 3 Tesla charges, only once I had a bit of "delay" - same charger used day before without any problems, next day that same Tesla charger took almost 5 min to get going.

 

[Sir John]

Efficiency is clearly not the ZS's strong point. At 70 you can expect 3.2 miles, on German motorways at the top speed it is 2.1 miles. Charging is very slow with 85 kw/h peak and about 50 kw in average going from 10% to 80% = it takes 45 minutes. ACC only uses physical brakes.

 

[hmadsen]

We have a Tesla and has also just taken delivery of a 2025 MG ZS EV LR Trophy connect.

We previously owned a similar 2022 ZS EV LR Trophy connect.

The car does not do full One Pedal Driving, it slows you down.....Not as strongly as the Tesla and stops regen braking at about 5-10 miles per hour, you do need to use the brake every time you need to stop completely.

We got a fairly good deal on a brand new car, they seem to be trying to empty the stock, due to a new model arriving sometime this year, so we are happy with the ZS EV, but it IS going to be hard to go from a Tesla to an MG ZS EV.

Efficiency is not as good as the tesla, not least of which, atleast in winter can be attributed to the fact it has no heatpump so relies on resistive heating. What that means is, it will use 3-4 times more electricity to heat the car, compared to a heatpump equipped car.

That being said, at the price, this car is truly a gem, it is clearly a "Cheap chinese car" but most people dont need "the best of the best" when it is their "Car number 2" as this tend to do less miles than the other one.

Here the ZS EV would be a massive upgrade as it replaced a 2012, Corsa 1.0

 

[Valdez]

Ok, thanks folks, really good info, especially @fred12345 - exactly what I was looking for.

 

[BrianG]

I am on my second ZS, the first was a 2019/20 car which had all the software issues which were fixed. The Pano roof is a nice touch and I was a little sad to loose it when I swapped to a new Mk2 SR car. I am disabled and the charge point became difficult.

My observations are that the cars are pretty rugged and very cheap to run. We have a good dealership in Southampton and servicing has been cheap and done whilst I wait.
The range achieved will vary a lot depending on temperature and speed and in winter you will find that the GOM gives you a very pessimistic range at starting off which improves once the car has done 30 miles and the battery warmed up.

The mark 2 version is 4% more efficient than the original and 3.5 miles per kWh should be achievable at about 70 mph, if you can lift your foot off just a shade there is quite a saving at 65 mph where 3.8 miles per kWh or better is achievable. I have had better than 5 on hot days driving steadily at about 50-55 mph.

The regen braking is fine it just does't bring the car to a full stop.

I am no fan of the lane assist etc; in Hampshire we have too many roads without proper markings and a fair few single track roads.

The headlights are excellent.

The radio system is good in my opinion but I am not into the assisted driving or SatNav - I know the UK like the back of my hand. The radio does pull in the stations from a wide area.

I haven't done enough rapid charging on my newer car with the LFP battery to be able to add much but it was pulling 60 kW on a warm day when I had run it down to 25%.

The car interiors are built to a price but back 25 years ago we would have been impressed. The upmarket marques have ruined peoples attitudes on what is suitable for a family car... easy to wipe children's soggy chocolate biscuits off most surfaces and otherwise a really good car. The motoring press were ruthless with their comments back in 2019, but it is we happy customers that have had the last say in this. We have bought more MGs than Volvos in recent years and apart from Tesla, MG have done more for electric motoring in the UK than any other brand.

 

[Rutsy]

Hi, We’re looking at getting a second hand ZS EV as the second car, we’re in the UK. We currently lease a Tesla Model Y as the main family car so no stranger to electric driving, but have some questions about the ZS EV to see if it’s suitable for us.

So far as superchargers are concerned: obviously you'll only get access to those that are available to non-Tesla; given the year you are considering the car will likely need a software update to be compatible (chargeable c. £150 if you have to pay); no plug and charge on superchargers; and you won't get the charging speeds you're probably used to on the Model Y. I get a max 85kW on my ZSEV, but usually about 50kW.

 

[Chris H]

Watched some reviews from when the new version ZS was released a few years ago, entertainment system looks a bit slow and clunky - is it better now? Would probably use CarPlay. Does it still get updated fairly regularly?

Well, I'll probably differ from many of the posts above. I bought my 2024 Trophy Connect in July, so had it nearly 6 months so here's my 2p worth:

In my opinion, the UI was designed by an 18yo intern who has never driven a car. It's probably the worst I've seen in a long time.
The touch takes half a second to register, which, combined with the tiny icons means that if you try to increase the temperature, say, and it doesn't change so you go to tap it again and find that it did register the first time but just took ages to respond so it's now up by 2 degrees so you have to turn it down again. Meanwhile your eyes have been off the road for several seconds. Having the physical buttons is a bonus so in this case you can increase the temperature using that instead but touch response is dreadful.
The radio! Goodness, where do I start with that? Want to choose a radio station? Then you press the large centre box, fine. But then you have to locate and press the tiny EPG icon (about 5mm square) which then presents you with a grid of dozens of identical light grey oblongs with white writing. The largest text on each of these oblongs is about 3mm high and uselessly tells you the multiplex name. The actual station name is in tiny, tiny text about 1mm high and there are about 100 of these boxes you have to scroll through to find the right one. Try to find a station when you're driving and you'll end up in a ditch. When you do eventually find it you can mark it as a favourite. BUT - the left/right channel selector on the steering wheel doesn't go to the next favourite but to the next random alphabetical channel to the one you're on. So to select the next favourite station you have to do the same as the EPG, except find the almost identical 5mm icon to bring you to the favourites screen, again with identical grey boxes, 3mm multiplex name and 1mm station name. At least there are fewer of them.
On the main screen the time and outside temperature is in tiny text at the top of the screen, which disappears along with all the other climate touch controls when you switch to Android Auto.
There are some automatic features:
Auto high beam headlights. This works the reverse way of other I've had, where it auto-dips from main beam if something is coming. In the MG it auto-high beams and most of the time it works fine. When the weather is wet it malfunctions - auto high beaming at random times blinding other drivers. I turned it off, along with almost all the other auto features which don't seem to work very well.
It supposedly has voice commands. You say the trigger words to activate it and nothing happens, so press the voice activation button on the steering wheel. After 5-10 seconds you get a visual prompt on the screen asking what you want to say, then fails to recognise anything you do say. Literally any of the list of 50 or so commands I have never managed to get any of them to work. The SatNav has 2022 maps loaded in a 2024 car and they don't auto update (Teslas do) despite it being a 'connect' model with active data connection. The garage won't update the maps and there appears to be no official way to do it, though you can search these forums to find a way to download the 18Gb file, unzip it to a USB drive, edit the contents then somehow keep the car switched on for the hours it takes to update. The main car software doesn't auto-update either (Teslas do), it has to be done by a dealer who in my experience won't bother unless to fix a specific problem.
The range in my standard range vehicle is pretty poor. In summer I could get about 150 miles at 60mph despite the display saying 180 before I set off. Now in winter the display is showing 140 mile range at 100% charge, so probably only about 120 in reality.

The ACC works very nicely though.
It's cheap.
It's no Tesla.
If I could go back 6 months I'd make a different choice, probably a 2nd hand Ioniq 5, iPace or Tesla.

 

[Nicko]

I have had my trophy connect long range for 2 1/2 years now. I went on a hundred mile trip on holiday with the wife and a large dog in the back. Left with 100% arrived with 68%. The car is always on normal with regen 3 and I was doing 60 to 65 most of the way on the motorway. The car has it niggles with the entertainment system but I still have a smile on my face when driving.

 

[fred12345]

I'm quite happy with mine (touch wood); excellent value for money EV and as with any other car, some things are great some less so but overall