MG4 Reviews from various online publications

[siteguru]

Yes - he's an idiot. I watched one of his vids about servicing costs - ranting that the service cost of his EV was extortionate. His EV? A Porsche Taycan - with Porsche service costs. As if that's representative of EV servicing.

 

[Rolfe]

He's got quite the following among people viscerally hostile to the concept of EVs so he's probably grifting a fair bit from it. I just thought it was hilarious.

I don't think his Porsche has a particularly long range either, which isn't the greatest choice if you want to do a lot of cross-country driving in a hurry. On one video he was saying that only Teslas were a viable choice, because of the charger network, but then he started dissing Teslas too, I think on the grounds of looks. Poseur.

 

[tsedge]

There were similar people around when the first cars came out. Better to stick to horses, especially with the extensive network of stagecoaches and inns and hardly any filling stations!

 

[Ian Key]

I was going to make a comment but he's not worth it.

 

[tsedge]

And when trains came in people thought you'd die if the train went too fast!

 

[Rolfe]

There were similar people around when the first cars came out. Better to stick to horses, especially with the extensive network of stagecoaches and inns and hardly any filling stations!

At one point he was saying that EVs would only be practical when the charger network is a lot more developed, which is a reasonable viewpoint if you're looking at it from the point of view of someone who needs to fuel up in a hurry and get going again. It's a viewpoint that envisages that at some point in the future EVs will be practical.

But then he went on a rant about how they're no better for the environment than ICE cars are, citing among other things cobalt in batteries and that electricity is produced using fossil fuels. He was quite emphatic that these cars are not the future! All these hypothetical people trading them in and switching back to an ICE car and so on.

 

[Rolfe]

And when trains came in people thought you'd die if the train went too fast!

That was a weird one. The people who were saying that the air would be forced out of your lungs and you would die if you went faster than (I think) 35 mph had almost certainly travelled faster than that on horseback with no ill effects.

 

[tsedge]

At one point he was saying that EVs would only be practical when the charger network is a lot more developed, which is a reasonable viewpoint if you're looking at it from the point of view of someone who needs to fuel up in a hurry and get going again. It's a viewpoint that envisages that at some point in the future EVs will be practical.

That's a common view but misplaced because with an EV many people get a filling station at home which means filling up is a non issue for most journeys.

Yes, people constantly on the road or who cannot charge at home need lots of places to charge, but this is a minority of people.

But then he went on a rant about how they're no better for the environment than ICE cars are, citing among other things cobalt in batteries and that electricity is produced using fossil fuels. He was quite emphatic that these cars are not the future! All these hypothetical people trading them in and switching back to an ICE car and so on.

That's a reasonable argument although they do enable cleaner power generation. Cobalt is fast disappearing and in any case the main argument for EVs is that they are a better product, not the environmental case.

 

[Archev]

There were similar people around when the first cars came out. Better to stick to horses, especially with the extensive network of stagecoaches and inns and hardly any filling stations!

Aye and tailpipe emissions were no use for rhubarb cultivation.

 

[Rolfe]

That's a common view but misplaced because with an EV many people get a filling station at home which means filling up is a non issue for most journeys.

Yes, people constantly on the road or who cannot charge at home need lots of places to charge, but this is a minority of people.

That's a reasonable argument although they do enable cleaner power generation. Cobalt is fast disappearing and in any case the main argument for EVs is that they are a better product, not the environmental case.

What seemed to be going on was that he was ignoring the fact that an EV is spectacularly convenient if your daily mileage doesn't exceed what you can replace overnight (it's especially good for me as my nearest petrol station is nine miles away), and considering only the situation where the driver wanted to do a long cross-country journey as quickly as possible.

If that latter requirement forms the bulk of your driving you probably shouldn't be considering an EV at the moment. But for how many people is this true? Not many, I'll bet.

When I decided to get an EV I realised that I would be slower on long journeys because of the time it would take to recharge the car, but I was happy to trade that off for the great day-to-day convenience of beginning every day with a "full tank".

The absence of cobalt was one of the reasons I favoured the SR battery on the MG4. The environmental case is that they will accept electricity from any source - hydro, coal-burning, nuclear, wind and wave, solar, whatever. So as overall electricity generation is switched to more environmentally sustainable sources, the cars keep pace effortlessly.

 

[KH11]

What seemed to be going on was that he was ignoring the fact that an EV is spectacularly convenient if your daily mileage doesn't exceed what you can replace overnight (it's especially good for me as my nearest petrol station is nine miles away), and considering only the situation where the driver wanted to do a long cross-country journey as quickly as possible.

If that latter requirement forms the bulk of your driving you probably shouldn't be considering an EV at the moment. But for how many people is this true? Not many, I'll bet.

When I decided to get an EV I realised that I would be slower on long journeys because of the time it would take to recharge the car, but I was happy to trade that off for the great day-to-day convenience of beginning every day with a "full tank".

The absence of cobalt was one of the reasons I favoured the SR battery on the MG4. The environmental case is that they will accept electricity from any source - hydro, coal-burning, nuclear, wind and wave, solar, whatever. So as overall electricity generation is switched to more environmentally sustainable sources, the cars keep pace effortlessly.

We don’t do the trip up Scotland without stopping for a comfort break and a coffee anyway so that’s not an issue for us once we have an electric car we will just have to factor in our stop being one that has a rapid charger.

 

[Rolfe]

When I was working in Sussex I would sometimes leave work at 5.30 or six and make it to Lanarkshire before midnight. This was in a Peugeot GTi6, and before that a Fiesta XR2. I would literally stop long enough to fill the car with petrol, once, and get going again. 440 miles or something like that.

If that's your game, an EV isn't going to be a great choice. But for normal motoring I totally agree with you.

What this guy was doing was highly inefficient. His car didn't seem to have a great range in the first place. He had multiple stops that often didn't get him a lot of charge, and he didn't make best use of the time he did spend. At one point he used a granny charger for a few hours. I'm not making this up. He wasn't heading for the ultra-fast chargers next to fast-food places, he was using the type 2 and then having to stop again. When he did find an ultra-fast charger he moaned that the cost was more expensive than filling up with diesel.

He should never have considered an EV. He has the wrong driving pattern, and also the wrong temperament. He wants to do things the way he's always done them instead of thinking about how he should change his routine to suit the vehicle.

 

[siteguru]

When he did find an ultra-fast charger he moaned that the cost was more expensive than filling up with diesel.

But it's not ... an expensive ultra-rapid charger is similar p per mile as an ICE vehicle refuelled at local (off-motorway) filling stations. Factor in motorway services fuel prices and an EV is still cheaper.

 

[Rolfe]

He was talking about diesel and as I've never had a diesel car I don't know - doesn't diesel go a long way on one tank, so could he have been right about that?

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

There were similar people around when the first cars came out. Better to stick to horses, especially with the extensive network of stagecoaches and inns and hardly any filling stations!

There were filling stations literally everywhere along the roadside, the very origin of "graze charging".

 

[siteguru]

He was talking about diesel and as I've never had a diesel car I don't know - doesn't diesel go a long way on one tank, so could he have been right about that?

My previous car was a diesel Insignia, for which I kept MPG and p per mile records for 5 years ... I was speaking from experience.

 

[Rolfe]

Thanks!

 

[siteguru]

Yet another award:

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Yet another award:

MG are going to need a bigger mantel.

 

[Ian Key]

Or wider office doorways to get their heads through