When MG Motor announced the ZS EV in early December last year, we received little information about the pricing and availability of its all-electric SUV. Today, the British auto brand has officially lifted the veil on some of those key details. Available in the market starting today, the MG ZS EV costs Rs 20.88 lakh for the base ‘Excite’ variant and Rs 23.58 lakh for the high-end ‘Exclusive’ variant. That said, the first 2,800 customers who pre-ordered the ZS EV before January 17 enjoy a discount of Rs 1 lakh on both variants.
Being a proper electric vehicle (EV), the MG ZS EV is powered by a 44.5kWh battery that's good for a claimed driving range of 340 kilometres on a single charge. Because it's IP67-rated, the battery is resistant to dust and water (up to 1 metre depth). The electric motor that the battery is connected to puts out a total of 143 horsepower, which can launch the car from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in 8.5 seconds. The ZS EV comes with a number of AC and DC charging options. It comes bundled with a domestic AC charging kit, which takes between six and eight hours to charge the car fully from a 15A domestic wall socket.
On the inside, the MG ZS EV contains numerous creature comforts and digital aids, such as an inbuilt air purifier that works against PM 2.5 particles, a panoramic sunroof, and a large 8-inch landscape-style touchscreen display for infotainment. This display also shows the amount of carbon footprint saved on previous trips. Like many new cars these days, the infotainment unit comes with support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. The software powering it is iSMART EV 2.0, a reworked edition of the MG Hector's iSMART system. You can read more about that here.
The MG ZS EV competes directly with the Hyundai Kona Electric, which was launched last year at a starting price of Rs 25.30 lakh. In comparison to the ZS EV, the Kona Electric sports a smaller 39.2kWh battery but promises a higher ARAI-certified range of 452 kilometres on a single charge. The permanent-magnet synchronous electric motor inside the Kona Electric is capable of delivering a total of 136 horsepower. The car can go from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in 9.7 seconds. You can read more about the Hyundai Kona here.