What's the best electric vehicle for looking sensible?

An electric vehicle is an eminently sensible purchase, is it not? Especially in today’s climate with all that expensive petrol sloshing around and the market slowly but surely moving away from the distasteful burning of hydrocarbons in engines to much more palatable burning of hydrocarbons a good distance away in a friendly power station. 

They’re not all sensible buys – people have been bagging themselves fast Porsches and electric hypercars galore in recent times, what’s known as having your tax efficient cake and eating it. But these extravagances are vastly outnumbered by the likes of the Kia e-Niro, the first generation of which looks like an orthopaedic shoe. Or the Nissan Leaf, which had a face that only a mother could love, provided she had a home charging point. 

And there’s nothing more sensible on the electric car market than an MG, these days. It’s the supermarket own brand EV, the home haircut, the second-hand jeans. It’s the staycation, using the tea bag twice, walking instead of getting the bus, it’s taking an umbrella just in case. If you truly want to climb the giddy heights of looking sensible, then you want the new MG5 EV. Or possible the old one, from a reputable local dealer who offers a good warranty. 

It’s a car that TopGear.com by rights should love – we’re always telling people to ditch their oversized, overweight SUVs in favour of a good old-fashioned estate car, advice that the MG5 stretches to absolute breaking point. But just look at that rear end, with its 578 litres of boot storage up to the roof. A cavernous 1,367 litres if you fold the seats down and take your camping chairs out. 

It comes with a whole raft of safety features, and it starts at £31k. If you go for the top spec (of the two available) option at £33k you get heated seats and rain sensing wipers. The car’s regenerative braking modes are helpfully named 1, 2 and 3. And most sensibly of all, the 61kWh battery is officially rated as having a 249-mile range. That’s more range than you can throw a stick at, frankly, unless you’re an Olympic stick throwing champion.

But of course, you get to the bottom of the car and those quirky flat alloy wheels and it’s a little hint that you’re not quite as sensible as it might at first seem. Except you are, because they’re designed to maximise aero efficiency and decrease drag. 

We’re in difficult times, folks, and difficult times call for sensible people. When help comes, it’ll be ride sharing in a convoy of MG5 EVs, and it will have prepared its own sandwiches. 

Best EV for looking sensible – MG5 EV
Price: £31,995
Range: 249 miles
Engine: 154bhp e-motor
Battery: 61kWh
Top speed: 115mph
0–62mph: 8.3secs
Boot space: 578 litres 
Cost of getting it in grey: £545