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Head to Head The three cheapest EVs in New Zealand

We put the three cheapest new EVs in New Zealand up against each other to see which is the best budget baby EV on the market right now. Damien O’Carroll

Reports.

Although EVs are more expensive that ICE cars at present, the gap is closing and EVs are coming down in price as more manufacturers gear up production.

While actual price parity is becoming common in the more expensive luxury car segment, the entry end of the market is slowly getting more affordable as well.

The MG ZS EV, Mini Electric and Peugeot e-208 GT here are the three cheapest brand-new EVs you can buy in New Zealand at present.

All are well under the Clean Car Discount cut off of $80,000, meaning that all three qualify for the $8625 rebate under the scheme, making them even more affordable.

The MG is a whisker over $40k after the rebate, and the Mini and Peugeot both end up just over $51k. They also happen to be broadly similar in size, power output and performance too. The Mini is the smallest in every dimension and is the most expensive, while the MG ZS EV is, rather unsurprisingly, the largest and the cheapest.

In terms of standard equipment and quality, the two actual Europeans have it all over the considerably cheaper car with a Euro badge. The MG is well-equipped for the money, but lacks a lot compared to the others, such as any form of remote app connectivity. It also lacks the ultimate polish that the Mini and Peugeot possess, particularly around its driver assist systems and infotainment tech.

On the open road, the Mini and the Peugeot have a distinct advantage over the MG as well (as you would expect). The Mini is the obvious enthusiastic driver’s choice – it’s a Mini with its weight down low and razor-sharp throttle responses, after all, and all the good things about an ICE Mini’s dynamics apply here as well.

One upside of the Mini’s smaller battery makes itself known here too, as the extra weight is nowhere near as noticeable as the other two.

The Peugeot is almost up there with the Mini on a winding road, with a more delicate, sensitive approach to corners. The e-208 is almost as delightfully adjustable and agile as its ICE counterpart as well, except for two things: the extra weight of the battery is noticeable when you are on maximum attack and ultimately makes it a little clumsier under heavy braking, an issue that is compounded by the dead, lifeless feel of the regenerative brakes.

The brake feel is the Peugeot’s biggest stumble, feeling like the lifeless early attempts in the Toyota Prius. Make no mistake – they do work well, they just feel disappointing doing it, with little in the way of feedback as well.

As an SUV, as opposed to the other two hatches, the MG is out of its depth when trying to keep up with them on a winding road. It’s not bad, it’s just not in the right company. Its default position is gentle understeer when things start getting overlyenthusiastic, and while its lower centre of gravity definitely makes it a

better handler than a baby ICE SUV, it’s still not the keen driver’s pick here.

Its softer suspensions setup does make it the pick for open road cruising however, and while neither the Mini nor Peugeot are anything less than extremely capable and comfortable, the MG is definitely the long-range cruiser of choice. Both of the others do have better, more supportive seats, however.

Possibly the most interesting difference between the three is their power delivery – the Mini has the most power, the MG the most torque, and the Peugeot sits largely in the middle, with the least power (but only fractionally) but more torque than the Mini.

This leads to three surprisingly different driving experiences, even though the differences might seem rather small.

The Mini is the most responsive across its entire range, being quick off the line and nicely punchy as speed increases. The Peugeot is similar, but slightly slower off the line given its more linear and ICElike approach to power delivery, the torque swelling, rather than kicking in all at once.

The MG is the easy winner of the traffic light drag race though, with its considerably larger torque figure (53Nm more than the e-208 and 83Nm more than the Mini) landing all down low and all at once, meaning it belts off the line, effortlessly leaving the other two for dead.

In fact, the MG will leave a lot of things for dead from a standing start, including some serious performance cars, such is its instant punch.

That is, until it gets to around 50kmh, when its advantage is largely all over. The Mini starts clawing it back, and by 70kmh has a clear lead. The Peugeot also gains an advantage over the MG by then as well.

Which approach is better? Well, that will largely depend on how you drive and where you drive.

The Peugeot feels far more like a ‘‘normal’’ ICE car, which will hold appeal to many people, the Mini is the more athletic back-road warrior as a result of its ‘‘across the board’’ approach, and the MG is all about those quick starts from the traffic lights (albeit with more than adequate performance beyond that as well), making it the choice for city dwellers in a hurry. And it is utterly hilarious when you blow away far more expensive performance cars in a small Chinese SUV. . .

So that actually leaves the decision on which one is ‘‘best’’ surprisingly wide open.

The Mini is a fantastically fun car, packing all the build quality, contrived retro touches and sparkling dynamics of an ICE Mini, but with big torque and a lower centre of gravity, making it an utterly addictive thing to throw down a winding road. The biggest problem, however, is that you can’t enjoy it for as long as you want, thanks to its miserly range between charges.

The MG on the other hand is an absolute delight around town, with its firecracker off-the-line response and ease of use.

It has its quirks, looks quite generic, lacks some features compared to the other two and is nowhere near as well-built, but then it is more than $10k cheaper as well. As a bargain proposition, however, it is hard to go past.

But it is the Peugeot that is my pick of the bunch – fantastically fun, great looking (with that awesome interior) and packing the sparkling dynamics of the ICE 208 (that I adore), it’s really only the disappointing brake feel that takes a tiny amount of the shine off the Peugeot’s performance.

Go Electric

en-nz

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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