[Arnav612]

The electric car market sentiment has been on the rise and how! Carmakers have committed themselves to bringing about the switch with much more advanced, sorted and well packaged EVs. Gone are the days where EVs meant compromise with cars like the Mahindra E2O and Reva, and we are now witnessing the onset of contemporary electric vehicles with advanced blends of form and function.

It all started off with the Hyundai's Kona EV in 2019 where it was the first time we as a market witnessed a well rounded fully electric vehicle. Despite its shortcomings and recalls, and tales alike, it did take to impressing a lot of early adopters and converts and joined garages with much fancier cars too. The establishment of the Hyundai Kona only made way for MG's ZS EV later in 2020. The ZS EV had globally been around for much longer than the Kona, and it was easily noticeable how much more sorted it was. Better looks (subjective), better space packaging and cheaper (back then) only worked better in its favour.

Moreover, the nominal costs of charging and running an EV as a factor made a chunk of the incentive for most of the early adopters and made their way as secondary/tertiary cars into a lot of garages.

Now back to what things looked like at home around the first quarter of 2021. We had a pair of Kia Seltos' GTX+, one Grey and one White (White being older by 9 months), and our garage queen, a W205 C Class. One of our family friends showed up to a carpool in a white MG ZS EV, and so the story goes.

On stepping in things only got better. Chilled AC (even without rear vents), acceptable amounts of space, panoramic sunroof, and most of the bells and whistles. What was kinda amusing was how quiet everything was, except that nice go-kart like whine, as compared to other cars, and that's when the soundlessness shone. On further banter we learned how cheap it was to charge and maintain this thing. They had their Innova Crysta replaced with this for daily runabouts and one charge would easily suffice two weeks or so. I obviously wasn't doing any math in my head back then, but it was intriguing nonetheless.

Took the entire scene home and placed it in front of dad over dinner. As intrigued as we were, neither of our cars were suitable for sale honestly. The Seltos' were too new and we weren't replacing the Mercedes with an MG. And we gulped down the conversation with curry.

But in another day or two we ended up with a test drive. First impressions were good. We particularly liked how it blended in with the rest of the traffic with the traditional front grille unlike the alien-ish Kona. Dad took the wheel and honestly had the time of his life. EV Acceleration is much more adrenaline inducing than we think it is. And honestly, experience Korean DCTs, and two of them at that. anything's better. Rear seat was adequate, suspension was good too. We quickly checked the meter room and our garage and turned out we were good to go.

The real problem was which car to sell. Both the Seltos' were hypothecated and breaking that would mean a hit not worth enough for the ZS (or is it). And hence the topic died down again.

Covid Second Wave came and went, fuel prices were soaring high up. (I myself started cycling even more XD) Somewhere around October, the same friend met dad again. And this time dad was set on it. He said he'd sell the white Seltos (January 2020) and do whatever it takes to get the ZS. And so it happened, we went ahead and booked a ZS EV Exclusive in Ferris White. They had however stopped production for 2021 and the next lot was for January 2022, and that was fair, we agreed.

In the meantime we got on to selling the White Seltos before the year changed. An individual buyer from OLX, although after a series of negotiations and test drives, settled for a respectable price of 17.5L. You aren't the only one finding this entire sale illogical. But now the heart and mind wants what it wants.



Meet and wave goodbye to FJ

It was indeed a little saddening that it went too soon, especially given that there was a lot of time until January till we could potentially get the EV. Right after, we went ahead with the survey for the charger/meter installation and got to the society's NOC paperwork and the likes. And then we were all set to wait.

However, the January 2022 timeline was deemed delusional. On a good day in January we are called to understand that there is a facelift coming in and all 2021 pending bookings are being transferred to that car. It wasn't very surprising to me given the launch of the Astor honestly. But on the other hand I was kinda disappointed to see leaked pictures without the front grille (THAT'S WHAT I REALLY LIKED IN THE FIRST PLACE!!). We tried pulling some strings to get our hands on a 2021 car but that ended in vain. There was no clue about when the facelift would launch and we were made to wait endlessly. We still generously kept April as an acceptable target.

An idle mind is a devil's workshop. We figured we slowly started losing interest in the ZS and also were dreading the price bump to outweigh the credibility and merit of the car. It came down to an analysis, we're going to be having 3 cars, but not 1 with acceptable boot space for a family of 4. And one morning I involuntarily opened OLX to look out for pre-owned Skoda Superbs in the same price range as the ZS. And boy, there were dime a dozen.

The Skoda Superb has been a car I've admired all my life for how it "punches above its weight" and I felt there was nothing better to complete our garage at this point. A very clean December 2018 example in the drool worthy Business Grey shade came our way. It had driven just 24000 kms and everything seemed good. Warranty was extendable for 2 years more to accommodate at least one DQ200 failure. Dad took a test drive and he really enjoyed it too. But subsequently our bubble was burst. If we had to buy another petrol car why did we waste one Seltos anyway? It would be the same story or probably even more expensive given the guzzler the Superb can otherwise prove to be. And back to square one, we waited on for MG. Till the story goes on, check out this Superb!







7th March, 2022. Gods played on our team and the car launched after what felt like a lightyear of waiting. Went to check out the car in person and immediately shifted my booking from white to black. Here are my initial impressions

[Arnav612]

Now it's kind of obvious that we were expecting the end of the entire saga to be real soon. We tried our luck for March 2022 allotment to avail tax deduction before April, but apparently a lot of cars had been allotted for TD/Demo/Media and very few for customers, and that we would get our car allotted in April. Acceptable.

Now this is where things start getting uglier. Come 10th April (usually the day for allotments to go out) and our SA says that they haven't been given enough Black cars for us. 4 Black cars were given out and we were 5th in line. And so on and so forth. All condolences and excuses started cooking. We were then promised May allotment and delivery. By the first week of May we get an allotment and then our SA stops responding. On further inquiry turns out he left MG to move to Kia. All that's ok. But where's the communication beyond cutting calls? 2 days later we get in touch with a new SA and moved ahead with the disbursement and other formalities. However there was still no clarity on when the car would move from the stockyard and it was only until 26th May that we had a fair idea of a delivery date in mind.

Delivery was scheduled for 9th June 2022, and charger work started from 7th June onwards. One day for the charger, one day for meter wiring. However, the meter is yet to come and should happen tomorrow (12th June).

Take a look at the charger proudly up on the wall to catch eyeballs and intuition.

[Arnav612]

Delivery day started early. We had it scheduled for 3 pm because of dad's work commitments later that day. But the car would only be able to roll out at 4:30, with number plates installed. We agreed since mom could drive it out too. Our SA sent us app links (iSmart/My MG/ParkPlus) earlier that day itself.

I had a late night the night before and happily woke up late. LATE. so that I could avoid the entire T minus goosebump situation by a margin. A friend of mine picked us up and we headed to the showroom. The car was being cleaned and paperwork was being completed. The traditional ceremonious pleasantries took place and we lastly checked all the accessories and papers in order.

Here are some pictures !

[Arnav612]

Rolled out and how ! Already caught a tonne of eyeballs on our Prabhadevi to Bandra excursion. (I personally think it was the FU on the number plates)

Since Team-BHP has already officially reviewed the ZS EV facelift, I will only touch upon where my personal opinions come into play and give a brief summary of the charging and driving experience so far.



Things to like :

-Design. It finally looks contemporary unlike the pre-facelift. And trust me, the black really does enhance this effect. The colour scheme on the aero caps look in sync and the car in totality looks really sleek.
-Built with love. No uneven panels, or flexing sheet whatsoever. Even interior components are of soft touch or good to touch materials for the most part.
-F-A-S-T. put the pedal to the metal and get pinned to your seat in no time. Instant torque is really addictive.
-Well equipped. ICE is of really good quality and response. The screen is way more legible than before.
-Regeneration is a boon. We have kept it at level 3 consistently and on good days it reduces the effort to single pedal driving.
-LARGE sunroof. Even the glass area opens more than most cars out there. Overall a great touch for a rainy day
-Carbon fibre texture and red stitching really accentuate the entire experience on the inside.
-Front seats are very well bolstered.
-Spare wheel is a full size alloy this time around.
-Fantastic Air Conditioning. Cools the cabin in no time.
-Minimal cost of running. Over two full charges till date, we were billed a mere 580 rupees.

Things to loathe:

-Price!! At around 27.5 big ones on the road, it merely capitalises on the tech, not the package.
-Rear seat. Average at best, the backrest is too upright for my liking. The seat itself is comfortable though.
-Boot Space. But it's just about two sides of the same coin. You lose the boot, you get the spare wheel. It's decently usable, but just way smaller than the pre facelift.
-Below average camera displays. The Seltos' cameras in comparison are a million times crisper. The MG looks like Minecraft.
-215 section tyres are a lil' skinny for the kind of torque delivery. They often almost spin flat out off the line.
-Steering wheel is often deemed a little excessively vague.

[Arnav612]

The Review

As we've concluded, the ZS EV stands as the nicer of the mainstream EVs on sale in India right now. It's more sorted than the Kona, and leaps ahead of the Nexon wherein quality and opulence is concerned. On that note, lets jump into my experiences so far.

The ZS became the daily driver from the very next day. It was subject to daily 50 km duties which meant that it had to be charged about every weekend. Even though comfort wasn't the its strengths to write home about, other features like the large sunroof and soundless drives really covered up.

However, we restricted the ZS' movement to strict city limits to take no risks. With that it complemented the remaining cars in the garage really well.

Exteriors

A car usually has a universally attracted opinion towards how it looks irrespective of its colour. But the ZS is a little different here especially since it's been facelifted. The loss of the black grille is sorely frowned upon by many, and rightfully so. It made a once borderline-beautiful design look borderline-polarizing. To play it safe, I immediately changed my booking to black, so that the missing grille goes unnoticed. So, safe to say that once I got the colour right, my ZS looks like the best car on most roads.

Upfront, to elevate things a little, we opted for the embossed Morris Garages lettering. The LED lights look sinister on black and the silver accents on the lower side make things even out. The ZS is not something that would catch your eye, but once it does, you can't stop looking at it.

Move to the side, the new aerocaps follow the grey-black combo and make it look even better. The roof rails and relatively upright screen pillar make it look prominent and assertive, while the line running across tones it down to look elegant and urban.
The rear end completes the car well. Redesigned split taillamps and silver accents on the bumper to complement the ones up front really work in its favour.

Interiors:

The ZS' interiors have evolved in all the right places from the pre-facelift. The design language is clearly targeted towards a young, yet elegant audience with high quality leather and plastic, black and red double stitching, and a smart use of brushed metal. Starting from the driver's seat, the seat itself has impressive bolsters to hold you in place in max-torque conditions , but I found it taking a little longer than usual to get adjusted to the surprisingly low driving position. A lot of times I would just go, "it is what it is", coming from the upright seltos and low slung C-Class, this mix took a while.

The steering wheel is pretty much the same. Cover the logo and it looks right out of a Volkswagen. Rich quality leather wrapping, buttons for essentials and more. Behind which, the improved Multi information Display. I personally love how the speed increase is displayed around the ring, and the display as such is crisp. However, sometimes it could be too much information in too little space, and I'd rather have a bigger display for regen level and battery than for a lot of other unnecessary graphics.


In-Car Entertainment

The previous version of the ZS EV got an identical User Interface, but on a much smaller display, making it almost impractical to use at all, personally. This version's bigger display from the Astor makes things ten-folds better. All the basics like Bluetooth, USB, Navigation, Voice Commands, are present. However, nothing is a one-step process. The lack of physical as well as digital shortcut buttons deems the system unintuitive to an extent. For example, to reach bluetooth audio, one needs to press the media button, then a drop down menu to choose the source (VERY ANNOYING), and eventually BT MUSIC.

The air-con does get physical buttons. However, they are slow to sync with the display. There is a delay, and it only takes away from the experience. Man, all of this makes me miss old world buttons and knobs even more. However, all in all I am content. No one really uses the system extensively, the car is majorly chauffeur driven.


Space/Practicality:

Rear seat space is nothing to write home about, but it does an adequate job when compared with its peers. Given that my dad is chauffeur driven, pull the drivers seat forward and it's a lounge. Soundlessness also adds well to the experience. Seating 5 hasn't really been a problem either. Headroom is aplenty as well.

The boot has been lessened to accommodate the full size spare wheel. I believe it's a fair bargain. Especially since the ZS and its other EV peers see themselves as second or third cars in most garages. And come on, we allow this in cars multiple segments above.

The Drive:

In city limits, the ZS is ideal. You're never gonna miss the green light that's turning red with that kind of acceleration. Start the motor, wait for the MID to display "READY" so that you know the car is on, and slot it into D. The only downside is that everything feels very artificial (come on, allow the petrolhead that much).

Having driven the ZS for a short amount of time (before I moved to the NL), it took a lot of calculation to understand regenerative braking. I often ended up braking too much (not considering the self-braking process), but that subsequently turned into 1-pedal driving in max. regen mode.

Sport mode turns the already fast ZS even faster. It leaps forward before you can even think of it, but so does the range drain just that fast XD.

Charging:

Charging the ZS has been pretty smooth. Given that it's a strict city commuter, we use the wall mounted charger at home ONLY. It takes a charge every weekend (steals the BMW's garage privileges). When the battery level reaches 21-odd percent, multiple low charge warnings show up and regeneration becomes intrusive.

Overall costs are around 400 rupees per week = 1600 rupees per month. That's a quarter of ONE full tank of the kind of workload this car takes over. a BOON to the pocket.

Gallery :




- One that saves money, only so the other can blow it up


- An idea of the boot space. Spare wheel and tools are neatly tucked underneath


- Strictly average, or maybe below average camera quality.


- The home wall charger proudly up on the wall. Full charge takes around 8-9 hours from 20%


- Standing with its ex garage-mate


-Generous seat squab as seen


-Another shot with its fellow 5001'er



Lastly, BHPian BeemerBug_06 and I, in our respective versions of "Zero Engine Noise"

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Reviews section. Thanks for sharing!

Going to our homepage today

[Rada]

Nice review.

As a fellow ZS EV owner, I would urge you try out your vehicle on long distance drives, where it really proves it's mettle. The EV charging infrastructure is coming up fast in all states, including Maharashtra, so range anxiety should not be an issue. All it requires is a bit of planning of rest stops. Since most EV fast chargers on the highways are installed near food-courts, you can time your breakfast/lunch/restroom stops in such a manner that you do not waste time for charging alone.

All the best!

[2000rpm]

Originally Posted by Arnav612

Attachment 2390692

Off topic, but look at that beauty in the background!!

[Sangwan]

Nice to see your family also have same numbers in cars, we have 0303 on our Seltos, Thar and Triumph(now sold).

[Arnav612]

Update:

A little over one year and 11000 kms later.

I had been using the ZS extensively over 2 months when I was back home. The Monday morning after I left, dad claimed that the car refused to start beyond accessory mode. The gear selector didn't work and the car was stationed in the garage.

I assumed this would be a case of over charging since the charger was connected till way after the car was fully charged, but I have more faith in the cut-off that takes place, atleast enough to know that it wouldn't make the car so vegetative.

On summoning an MG technician with a towing van, all efforts went in vain as even the parking brake couldn't be disengaged and the car was still stranded in the garage. After 2-3 days, they managed to disengage the parking brake and rolled the car onto a towing van.

Further investigation revealed that this was owed to none other than RODENTS. Luckily, insurance had us covered and we had everything rewired in a span of two weeks. The car is now back home and chugging along as usual.

Speaking of the assistance, we expected better from MG. They took their own sweet time to send someone and were rather laidback to diagnose the problem. The ZS being the economical daily runner made a difference in its absence, where the Mercedes ended up doing daily duties while living upto its typical guzzler characteristics.



Excuse the quality. This is from the chauffeur's phone.