MGS6 1000 km challenge

Summary

Bjørn Nyland completes a roughly 1,000 km road-trip challenge in an MG electric SUV, identified as the MG ZS EV in the introduction. The test focuses on journey time, charging behavior, driving impressions, and the cost of EV travel compared with diesel.

Journey and energy use

The car started at 100% charge, showing 466 km of range against a 485 km WLTP figure. Its battery is described as 77 kWh, with about 75–76 kWh usable. The display capped consumption at 298 Wh/km, even while driving quickly on a 120 km/h section.

Charging performance and compatibility

The car reached around 140 kW at its best, with several sessions showing a fairly flat charging curve. Charging was inconsistent at some sites: handshake failures occurred at a V3 Supercharger and older Tritium chargers, while V2 Superchargers and Alpitronic units worked. These issues caused delays, and Nyland recommends avoiding chargers that proved unreliable during the test.

Charging sometimes slowed after the battery reached about 45.5°C, which Nyland suspected was due to thermal throttling. He also found that the car’s battery-heating function did not appear to warm the pack as expected during the drive.

Navigation and software

The built-in route planner was overly optimistic about arrival charge and did not adequately account for the test’s high-speed driving or extra energy use. The clock also failed to adjust automatically for daylight-saving time until the separate DST setting was enabled.

Driving impressions

After several hours behind the wheel, Nyland praised the comfortable ride, decent cabin noise levels, and responsive performance. He found the software more restrained than in some other Chinese EVs, with fewer intrusive chimes, a useful trip meter showing time, distance, average speed, and consumption, and less nervous lane-keeping behavior.

He considered it one of the more European-feeling Chinese cars he had tested, though it still had some software quirks.

Time and cost

The run took about 10 hours and 40 minutes, including charging and delays. The final distance count was adjusted because the car appeared to over-report distance by about 1.7%.

Recorded EV energy costs came to about €77, including home charging. For comparison, Nyland estimated diesel costs using a Swedish price of 23.69 SEK per litre and an assumed consumption of 7 L/100 km. By that estimate, diesel would have cost about twice as much. He noted that subscriptions such as Ionity Passport Power or Tesla membership can make fast charging substantially cheaper, especially for a planned road trip.

Practical demonstrations and guidance

• Shows the in-car navigation and explains why its arrival-charge estimates should not be relied on during high-consumption driving.
• Compares charger compatibility and charging speeds across Supercharger generations, Ionity, Alpitronic, and older Tritium units.
• Demonstrates how charging subscriptions can reduce road-trip costs and compares EV charging expenses with an estimated diesel bill.

Main speaker and sources

• Bjørn Nyland — narrator, driver, and tester.
• Cost comparison sources: Charging-session and home-charging costs recorded during the test, fuel prices checked at pumps, and a Google AI estimate of 7 L/100 km for the diesel comparison.