2025 MG HS Trophy PHEV v 2020 Skoda Superb iV Sportline PHEV

[aerofurb]

Just a few thoughts to compare my current 8000 mile old '2025' MG HS Trophy PHEV against my previous car, a 2020 Skoda Superb iV Sportline PHEV. I don't have any experience of the new Superb iV with the 70 ,mile range.

Remember that driving a PHEV is different to a 'normal' single fuel car, be it diesel/petrol 'ICE' or pure EV. In my opinion, to make it work for you depends on your mission profile. Ideally, you need to be able to charge at home to get cheap rate electricity and run it as much as possible on the cheap EV power, ie most of your trips within EV range. If you charge at a public charger, it is probably the same cost per mile as running the ICE. When I bought the Superb, work was 5 miles away and I had a regular weekend trip of 110 miles and back. So it was brilliant for the work trip and ideal for longer journeys. When my job changed to either a 100 miles a day or 40 miles a day, the Superb with its average 30 miles EV range wasn't so perfect - for me.

I also believe that you need to be more involved with a PHEV to get the best out of it. My standard routine is to use EV power whenever possible, only charge from home (unless it's free!), normally use EV power below 40 mph (aerodynamic drag at higher speeds does reduce the range significantly) and end up getting home with a depleted battery. This means a bit of monitoring of the best power source to use. The Superb would charge the battery to what ever level was required but that is at a serious expense of ICE MPG. Remember, ICE and EV displayed range is an estimate only, based on how you have recently been driving the car.

I had the Superb from 4500 miles (ex dealer demo) and 6 months old. The car was great - well built, looked great and went very well. It had 'electric' shocks and I found it a bit too wallowy in normal mode but much better in sport mode. The ride however was pretty hard with low profile tyres. EV range was about 27 miles in the winter time and up to 33 or so in the summer. Combined when on a long journey using both ICE and EV, the average MPG was high 50s. That said, the Superb took EV equivalent use to be 300 mpg.

As far as tech went, it's what is now quite old technology with the ICE driving through the EV motor and then a 6 speed DSG (auto with clutchless sequential gear change if you want to) gearbox through the front wheels. The ICE and motor combined gave about 215 hp and was quick. It would spin the front wheels with the EV torque when puling out from junctions - the MG does as well but not as badly.

The 2025 HS PHEV is poles apart with the technology in the drive train. You need to research parallel and series hybrid power, as it does both, with two motors plus the ICE. Also look up the sister car Roewe D5X DMH (dual motor hybrid) as there is more info on the drivetrain for that than the MG HS PHEV.

The ICE is mainly a battery charging range extender (via one motor/generator) but also drives the wheels. Total power is 305hp or so - a lot more than the Superb and it is noticeably quicker.

The HS has a two speed gearbox and from what I can workout, it always uses EV power to pull away (more torque) to leave the ICE element to only drive directly at higher speeds. You can sometimes feel the gearchange at around 2500 ICE rpm but when in EV mode, I have felt a gear change.

The HS has a default EV equivalent mpg of 99.9 mpg and despite that, the average trip MPG is around 70+ - same use as with the Superb. EV range is given as 75 mpg and I reckon you can expect in normal mixed driving to get 65-70 miles. The ICE tends to kick in with around 6 miles of estimated range left - I presume to ensure there's EV power available for standing starts. I've had 60 miles in a day with mixed driving from town to country roads, to 55 mph A roads etc, some at night and with the heating on.

The range is affected a lot less on the HS then the Superb with the heater running. The heater and aircon on the HS are electric. Hot air is available within a minute or two of driving, much better than the Superb.

The handling is really good and not far off the Superb despite the height of the HS. The ride on the standard shocks is better than the Superb in either suspension mode - no doubt helped by sensible sized sidewalled tyres! The HS is much quieter than the Superb in EV or ICE mode. Overtaking acceleration in the HS is very impressive, as is the standing start acceleration with no gear changes - it just goes! On both, when accelerating hard, the ICE will kick in, even when in EV mode.

The fit and finish is excellent on the MG. The (red) paint I have is flawless - much better than the Superb (also metallic red) and seems more hard wearing than the Skoda which chipped easily. The interior - alcantara in the Superb was nice but the mock leather seats in the HS are extremely comfortable. Loads of space in both cars. My Superb was a hatch and I now have the bootmat in the HS - same width, HS is about 7" less front to back but had more height. Leg room is immense in both!

The Superb was extremely reliable. I've had a couple of actual defects with the HS - the wipers failed at 200 miles and initially it wouldn't charge. Both were sorted by the supplying dealer. I now have the common (no doubt software-induced) lack of road speed limit recognition and cruise control. Car is going back in in two weeks time. Bit of a pain but that's the modern world we live in - software bugs! The Superb wouldn't allow Car Play to work half the time which was a right pain.

People are often commenting on MG residual value. Probably, they don't realise how much all cars depreciate! The Superb new was £43k list price. At 4500 miles/6 months it was mine for £32k from the dealer. At a little over 4 years old and 60k miles, the trade in value was £14k....

What do I miss? The headlights aren't quite up to the LED full matrix style of the Superb and I do miss the cornering foglamps after having it on 3 Skoda Yetis and the Superb. I can't really think of anything else, so that's clutching at finding something! But it has other stuff like 360° camera so it's not all bad.

In summary - zero regrets in going for the MG. As a company car, it's great on BIK as it has more than 69 mile EV range and I hated having to run the ICE for 7-8 miles on my shorter daily journey in the Superb! The new Superb iV is £48k - lovely car, but that's a lot of money over the MG which in Trophy form in red is just over £35k (and I got nearly 10% off list). I could only drive the non-PHEV HS when I ordered mine and my PHEV was one of the first in the UK. I love it!

 

[Dean3452]

Hi
I have now been the owner of the HS PHEV for 4 weeks.
There is something I find really strange that MG are insisting is normal.
I charge the car up to 100% every day.
When i take it on the motorway cruising at 70 it usually sits at 2200 rpm in HEV.
But alot of the time, particularly when the car is warm the ICE jumps up to 3800rpm.
MG say this is because the engine is now charging the battery. Even though the battery is still at 80%.
Does your car do the same. I am losing the will to live trying to find out what is actually normal.
Cruising on a motorway with the engine screaming in the background doesn't shout enjoyable driving.

Thanks

 

[aerofurb]

Hi

As per my answers to your questions on your previous thread.

D

Thread 'Over revving at 70mph'

May 6, 2025

Hi. I bought my MG HS PHEV 4 weeks ago.
I started to have trouble when driving on a flat or slight decline where the engine in HEV mode would sit a 3000rpm.
Even when letting go of the accelerator the engine would not change gear.
I have since taken the car back to the main dealer who reconfigured the software. Who immediately informed me the gearboxes are very lazy and not much good.
This didn't install me with much confidence about the MG Brand.
They have informed me that the car now, will have to learn my driving style ??, and that the car would perform even worse for a short while...

• Dean3452
• driving style gearbox mg hs revving
• Replies: 20
• Forum: MG HS 2025 Plug-in Hybrid Forum

 

[HStrophyPHEV2025rc]

First of all, wanted to say a big thanks to the OP (aerofurb) for such a great summary of his experiences. In fact, that post was one of the main reasons why I had the confidence to 'take the plunge' and purchase my own HS Phev Trophy (Hampstead Grey) 10 days ago. Really helpful 'real world' feedback that I found invaluable.

So in the spirit of that really helpful post, here are my thoughts (10 days into owning the car).

Specifically, I shall compare my current 3,500 mile '2025' (6 months old, 74-plate) MG HS Trophy PHEV against my previous car, a 2017 Nissan X-Trail 1.6 diesel N-Vision (4WD 7 seater). The MG is my first EV/PHEV car.

My "mission profile" is very similar to the OP's. I will only charge at home to get cheap rate electricity. In numbers terms, the vast majority of my trips are short, so they run 100% on the cheap EV power (within EV range). However, I do drive a 150 mile round-trip journey to/from work twice a week, which naturally is over the (theoretically 75-mile) EV range.

Similar to the OP, my standard routine is to use EV power whenever possible, only charge from home (specifically, overnight using off-peak tariff), try to use EV power wherever possible (especially driving in the town, where it is superbly efficient) and when using long (>75 miles) journeys, always aim to end up getting home with battery on 0% (i.e. showing 0 miles on the dashboard).

• In theory this means changing the settings of the car (as you are driving) to switch to the relevant power mode (pure EV, or hybrid "HEV")
• However, in practice I find I hardly ever need to change the settings of the car (just leaving the default mode seems to work out just fine for me!).

I had the X-Trail from 12,500 miles (ex rental car) and 12 months old. The car was great - well built, looked great and the diesel efficiency (especially on motorways) was outstanding. It had its drawbacks (slow to pull away from junctions, noisy engine, generally drove like a tractor!) but I absolutely loved it. Low cost servicing, no real mechanical issues, and it was still going strong when I traded it in with 121,000 miles on the clock. As for MPG:

• The X-trail's overall MPG (based on the previous 30,000 miles or so, at an average of 35 MPH) was 44.6 mpg
• The most recent mostly-motorway (average 45 MPH) trip averaged 59 mpg

As mentioned earlier, my trip to work is 75 miles there, 75 miles back.

• first 5% is town (<30mph, plenty of lights and queues)
• middle 90% is motorway (steady 70mph, very little variation)
• final 5% is town (<30mph, lights and queues)

When I drove that last week (in my new MG) I set off with 100% electric charge, and configured the car to pure EV mode. At around 57 miles into the journey (doing 70mph on the motorway), the EV range had dropped to 0%. At this point (and at no point earlier!) the petrol ICE kicked into life. The transition was incredibly smooth - I could not hear or feel any change, I merely saw on the dashboard the ICE power/rev-counter increase from 0 to 2000rpm or so. It was incredibly impressive, and just what I wanted to happen.

On my return journey I set off with 0% electric charge, and the car (naturally) configured itself to be HEV mode. During the course of the journey, the ICE topped up the EV's battery slightly, so (when working out the mpg used on pure-petrol journeys) you have to take into account the display's MPG and then add/adjust it for how many extra miles it had added to the EV battery range, before you get the overall 'effective' MPG
=> On this 'pure petrol' mostly-motorway journey, I calculate that the MG HS's overall MPG was 49 MPG

For the record, both journeys (to/from work) were made without air conditioning on, or the heating.

On the topic of electricity/petrol cost, here are some real-life figures I have made:

• I have an EV tariff (from EDF) which gives me off-peak (12am-5am) electricity at 9p per kWh
• I bought a 10 amp 'granny charger' from a branded/trusted manufacturer, because of safety concerns from using 13amp 'unbranded' granny chargers. In 5 hours, I can add approx. 50% charge to the car

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
=> So I get approximately 35 miles for £1 (using off-peak electricity) in my MG

• If using peak (e.g. middle of the day) electricity, and this rises to 35 miles for £2.84
• Compare this to my X-trail diesel where 35 miles would cost approximately £4.25 (based on 44.6mpg)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Of course I can't travel all my journeys on pure EV, but if I guesstimate that 50% of my 15,000 miles per year are via electricity, then (ballpark) I reckon I'm saving £900 per year on fuel. Even if I knock off a little for the fact that (on long motorway journeys) my X-trail diesel was super-efficient, it still is going to be at least £750 per year (and over the likely 7 year ownership, that's over £5,000 even with conservative calculations). That's a big saving!

The performance of the MG is out of this world. It's impressively fast on pure EV, but if you add the petrol engine too (by enabling HEV mode) it's outstanding. I was a bit worried that the ride might not be great, but in fact it is excellent. Really smooth. It's noticeably better than my old X-trail over the potholes of my town. The HS is night-and-day quieter than the X-trail in EV or ICE mode. In fact, driving is such a pleasure nowadays, so calm and serene. When accelerating very hard, the ICE will kick in, even when in EV mode. However, so long as you just want 'reasonably quick' acceleration, it will remain in EV mode and yet still be very satisfyingly quick off the lights.

The fit and finish seems excellent to me, but you have to realise that I have had fairly basic cars in the past. The X-trail was full of hard plastic, so the MG is a revelation. That said, I am worried about the long-term with this 'soft' interior - will it be as long lasting as my old 'tractor' interior? One thing that the MG does show is plenty of finger marks. The black piano plastic and the large screens do show finger marks which slightly irritated my wife, but I've been able to ignore it ;-). The (Hampstead Grey) paint does not look as impressive as the red (which is lovely), but I deliberately chose grey because I prefer to 'blend in' (not stand out). I love it! The overall exterior/door/boot 'build quality' does seem a step up from the old X-Trail. It seems 'chunkier/heavier' and I like it. The mock leather seats in the HS are extremely comfortable. In fact, they were the first thing about the car that gave me the 'wow' factor when I actually looked at one for real in a garage. Loads of space inside, because it's so wide. In fact, this is a negative, and almost put me off the HS. It's a few cm wider than my X-trail, and you can tell this when parking it. The 360 camera makes it easy to park, but that does not make the spaces any wider, so you have to trust your neighbour not to door dent your car. It's also a few cm shorter than my old X-Trail, which I feel is a shame. I guess it's better for aerodynamics though. I'm 6'1" tall and the good news is that I do not feel like I have to 'duck down' to get in. In other words, I do not miss the extra height of the X-trail - the other things more than make up for it.

Overall, the X-trail was extremely reliable. That said, in its final few weeks/months I felt like something was 'about to go wrong' so I was glad to get rid of it at 121,000 miles on the clock. I have only had the HS for 10 days, but I can say that I have had one minor problem, and a few niggles.

• Out of probably 50 journeys (so far), at the start of one journey the entire 360 camera screen was solid green. I then drove a mile, parked, and again the 360 camera showed a block of green (when parking). 1 hour later, I got back into the car, and the 360 camera worked perfectly. The problem has never reoccurred since. Google tells me that others have seen this before, and seems to occur on hot days. Luckily it is rarely hot in the UK, so I am not worried long-term. I think this will be a once-in-a-blue-moon problem
• One day the car sat on my driveway all day, and throughout the day it was impossible to use the phone iSmart app to change the configuration of the charging. Specifically, I just got 'timeout' and 'failed' errors. Since then, it has more or less worked perfectly (although a little slow to connect). I believe that this is likely caused by the car's onboard eSim phone having difficulty finding a phone signal, to connect to the internet. Again, I am not worried long-term, because I rarely need to use the iSmart charging configuration functionality (I just leave it set to charge between 12am and 5am)
• The 'speed limit reader' system occasionally misreads signs. Reasonably frequently I find myself in a 30mph zone, being told that I should slow down because it has (somehow) read a number '15' somewhere, and therefore thinks it is a 15 mph zone. But the warning 'ding' is not annoying (quite pleasant) and it soon changes to 30 so no problem really
• Very occasionally the 'infotainment' central screen has done something 'surprising' when I expected it to do something else. Can't really explain it better than this. Again, no biggie, just get the impression that there are a few software bugs
  • That said, I am more impressed with the infotainment system than I thought I would be. Specifically, I was worried that having few 'physical buttons' (e.g. for temperature control) would be a problem. However, the 'home' physical button (which resets the infotainment screen back to the main screen) works brilliantly, and so I can easily always access temperature controls. So this is not a worry for me

Before buying, one of my biggest concerns was MG residual value. I agree with the OP that all cars depreciate a huge amount, therefore (so long as the original price of the car was modest) there is a limit to how much it can depreciate! My strategy has always been to purchase an approx. 1-year-old 'untrendy-brand' car, then keep for 5-7 years (driving approx. 15k+ miles per year), and then sell expecting very little back.

• The list price for my MG HS Trophy PHEV is approx £34,500, but there are brand-new deals out there for approx £31,500. I purchased mine as a 6-month old ex-demo with 3,000 miles, at £27,500.
• The X-trail new was £32k list price. At 12,500 miles/12-months it was mine for £18.5k from the dealer. At 8 years old and 121,000k miles, the trade in value was £4.5k
  • => The Nissan X-Trail lost £2000 per year
• My previous Peugeot lost approx £1200 per year
• My earlier Vauxhall lost ~£1000 per year

What do I miss from my old X-Trail?

• We rarely used the 7-seats, but 1 or 2 times a year we do make short ( <5 miles ) trips with 6 people in the car. We'll just have to do 2 'shuttle runs' from now onwards
• It was narrower, and therefore easier to park in tight spaces. I managed to avoid any noticeable door dents in 7 years, but I doubt I'll manage the same in the MG
• The X-Trail was taller too, and there is a very slight-but-noticeable reduction in drive height. Not worth worrying about though
• The biggest change will be loss of 4WD. Although rarely used, we did sometimes drive onto muddy fields and/or drive through light snow. We will have to be more cautious now

Also, I also do not like the 'barge board' (running board) on the side of the MG. I have once tripped on it, while getting into the car, and it is slightly annoying to ensure you miss it when stepping out. However, not a showstopper.

In summary - zero regrets in going for the MG. My only concern is long-term reliability. If it can make it to its 7th birthday with no big issues (just tyres and brakes etc) then I will be incredibly pleased. I love it!

 

[aerofurb]

Excellent write up - it put mine to shame! It's really good to get some genuine factual feedback noted, I believe, as there are too many trolls out there who skew the truth, especially on some social media platforms! I'm not saying MGs are faultless but facts are everything.