2024 Best Small Electric Car $40-50K: MG4 Excite/Essence 64

Browsing beyond base grades is an Aussie pastime, but does increasing your budget by $10K change our choice of best small electric car?

Beyond the $40,000 barrier the MG4, BYD Dolphin, and GWM Ora all offer more range, equipment and colour choices that their cheaper variants covered in our Under $40K category. On paper, that makes each model more complete.

Nissan’s ageing Leaf is priced from $50,990 to just miss this category's cut-off, which leaves us with just three main vehicles in the segment starting with the Ora Extended Range ($45,990 plus on-road costs).

Compared to the cheapest Ora model, it scores a larger 59.3kWh NCM lithium-ion battery with the same 126kW/250Nm front-mounted electric motor. Known as the Funky Cat in the UK, its endearing styling lives up to that promise with vibrant colours to capture a bit of Mini’s pop-car magic.

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That image comes at the cost of practicality, however. Despite similar exterior dimensions to the Dolphin and MG4, the Ora’s boot is small and the rear seat is tight.

Its funky velour upholstery doesn’t feel that classy and the driving position is compromised. The higher-spec Ultra (still under our $50K ceiling at $48,990 RRP) gets a heated steering wheel, power tailgate, sunroof, power driver’s seat, and heating/ventilation and massage functions for both front chairs.

The Ora offers a smooth ride around town, although the calibration of its acceleration, brake pedal and steering could do with a little bit of work. It’s not the sort of car you’ll want to drive great distances and feels best suited to light-duty urban work – in that sense, it’s not a complete vehicle.

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BYD’s Dolphin suffers from a similar fate. Soft springs and dampers, vague steering and unpredictable handling mean it’s best kept as a suburban companion.

This makes the $44,890 Dolphin Premium’s 87km extra WLTP range and faster DC charging compared to the Dynamic base model largely moot.

And the base car already has a heat pump, heated seats, adaptive LED headlights, a 360-degree camera, wireless smartphone charging, and vinyl upholstery so the Premium’s only real upgrade is multi-link rear suspension. And in our testing, we didn't find the different suspension to be particularly sophisticated on the road.

There’s no upgrade to the Android-based software that runs through a vast 12.8-inch rotating touchscreen or other interior features for the $5800 extra charge. Outside you’ll be able to spot the Premium with different two-tone paint options and bigger 17-inch alloy wheels. The upholstery matches the technicolour paints, which some will find fun and funky.

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The result is a small car that feels at its best value in base guise rather than dearer, longer range Premium. (The hotter Sport variant was cancelled before it even had a chance to land.)

With a more accommodating rear seat and larger boot, the Dolphin jumps ahead of the Ora for desirability.

Today’s MG bares almost no resemblance to the one that constructed iconic sports cars and the bonkers Metro 6R4 Group B special. The MG4 proves that a passion for vehicle engineering remains in the now Chinese-owned company.

The brand offers two trims in this price bracket: the $44,990 Excite 64 and the $46,990 Essence – both driveaway figures after MG dramatically cut prices across in range in late March in a move to nationwide pricing.

Both use a 62.1kWh battery and have respective WLTP driving range figures of 450km and 435km.

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And they both extend the appeal of our favourite electric small car, the Excite 51. The Excite 64 adds more range; the Essence 64 further adds equipment.

The Excite gets a little more range than the Essence thanks to 17-inch alloys and lower rolling-resistance rubber, which also give a bit more cushion to the ride.

The MG4 is as spacious as a Volkswagen Golf in the rear seat and boot and it has a great driving position, even with the base Excite’s manual-adjust seats. The specification is complete with few frills. It also drives beautifully on the narrower tyres, with an adjustable rear-drive chassis that has hints of excellent British small cars of old.

Power is plenty adequate (150kW/250Nm) up to 100km/h, though on motorways and highways efficiency does suffer. It’s still more capable of dealing with Australian back roads than the other two cars here.

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Additionally, the MG4’s DC rapid charging is comfortably the fastest at 140kW, allowing it to race from 10-80 per cent charge in 28 minutes.

The BYD takes 40 minutes for the same interval and the GWM a fairly glacial 50 minutes at public infrastructure. Both have 80kW peak DC charging rates.

The real question is, which MG4 is the better trim? The $2K-dearer Essence adds a six-speaker stereo, roof spoiler, wireless phone charging, vinyl-accented upholstery, power driver’s seat, 360-degree camera, rear cross-traffic alert, blind-spot monitoring and one-touch windows.

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All nice-to-haves, sure, but going up to the 18-inch alloys equipped with Bridgestone Turanzas does introduce a little more ride harshness.

Also, in having more contact patch, the Essence loses some of the Excite’s handling delicacy.

Sales figures show the higher-spec Essence is more popular with buyers and, given its extra comfort and safety equipment, we can see why.

But with the more affordable price tag, plusher ride and marginally more engaging chassis, there’s no need to move beyond the Excite when looking at an MG4. We’d save the money and put it towards fitting out your home with charging gear.