MG Motor UK S6 review

Under the body, the S6 is pretty similar to MG's 4 and S5, just a bit longer to fit a bigger cabin and bigger capacity battery. Those are generally pretty good to drive, so no surprise this is too. 

Power delivery is smooth – even the twin motor one doesn't have a silly switchblade initial accelerator action. You want the full beans? Then give your foot a proper stretch. Oh and also, make sure you're in sport mode. The eco mode constrains output to an extent that's dozy or saintly depending how you look at it.

Anyway, zero to 62mph passes in an undramatic 5.1 seconds with nary a chirp from the tyres. At motorway speeds, you've still got something in reserve for overtakes. 

The single-motor version is probably all a family crossover needs, with a 0-62 time of 7.3 seconds, and solid hill-climbing ability. Both versions, by the way, are rated for 1,500kg towing.

The brakes are strong and regeneration blends neatly into friction. You get a choice of regen strength – no paddles, but if you like to fiddle with it you can set a steering-wheel button to cycle through them. And the other wheel favourite button can do drive mode, so you don't have to dive into the screen.

Smooth power… of course, it's an EV duh. What about the corners?

The MG 4 is quite fun in a slightly untidy way. The S6 is neater and better controlled but has a bit of the same spirit. Steering is fairly quick and nicely proportional, so it's an effortless car to thread down a series of twists. 

The body doesn't roll much, and even in the twin-motor one you sense the power at the rear, so it pivots out of a corner effortlessly. The whole thing has a lighter, more agile sense than the German-origin crossovers.

The suspension relies for control more on taut springs than firm dampers, so the overall effect is a bit unsettled over bumps. But it's not uncomfortable and it takes big hits well. Also, chassis noise is muffled so you don't nice the movement so much.

And the dreaded Chinese driver 'assist'?

Ah yes, the beeps and bongs, and phantom steering and brake tugs. The [scream] difficulty of turning it off via endless screen menus. The MG 4's systems were so trigger-happy that the Consumers' Association got involved.

Not here. Everything's calibrated well enough to work smoothly on British roads, free of endless false positives. Well, mostly. We did get one speed limit indication of 110mph. And some under the real limit. That's why as on any car you might need to turn it off. And the lane warning on bendy roads. Which of course must default-on by law at each startup. 

So you just hit the ADAS menu, turn off what you want to turn off, then long-press a customise button to save that configuration. Next time you start up, just swipe-down from the home screen, tap custom, confirm, and you're all sorted.