MG4 EV: reliability & safety rating

The MG4 isn’t the marque’s first electric car, but it was the first to use the MSP platform that’ll underpin every pure-electric MG launched from now on. It scores very well when it comes to safety as it was awarded the maximum five-star crash-test rating by Euro NCAP. MG’s cost-cutting did rear its ugly head during our test drive, though.

MG4 EV reliability & problems

When driving the MG4 we encountered a handful of issues, from the reversing camera going AWOL to the car refusing to go into gear. MG constantly releases over-the-air updates for the 4, but it’d be preferable if these issues didn’t occur in a brand-new car in the first place.

If things do go wrong, the MG4 is covered by a seven-year/80,000-mile warranty. It’s also worth remembering that MG's parent company SAIC churns out hundreds of thousands of electric cars for its home market in China, and electric cars are generally more dependable than their combustion-engined equivalents.

MG has some serious work to do in order to improve its reputation in the UK, though, as the brand has finished dead last out of 32 carmakers in our Driver Power best manufacturer rankings for the last two years running.

Safety

Euro NCAP crash-tested the MG4 in December 2022 and awarded it the maximum five-star overall rating, as well as 83% and 80% scores for adult and child occupant protection, respectively, plus 78% for its safety assistance systems.

Every version of the electric family hatchback comes with the MG Pilot driver assistance suite, which on SE models includes lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, intelligent high beam assist and driver attention alert. But, if you upgrade to Trophy trim, you also get blind-spot monitoring and lane-change assist among other systems.