The MG S5 is the SUV follow-up to one of the best EVs on the road – but is it anywhere near as charming?

The MG S5 isn’t the most exciting car that the Chinese automaker has brought to Western markets in recent months, but it is probably the brand’s most important. Built to be electric from the ground up, the new SUV adds a bunch of quality-of-life improvements atop the MG4’s foundations and feels like a worthwhile attempt at shooting for mass-market appeal – or at least moreso than with the company’s massively successful hatchback, the gorgeous Cyberster roadster.

The S5 is also important for another couple of reasons – this is a car that replaces MG’s first electric model, the ZS EV, while being powered by the very same technology underpinning one of my favourite EVs, the MG4. That makes this otherwise innocuous electric SUV quite interesting, particularly to see if MG has managed to inject the S5 with the same shot of excitement that made the MG4 such a blockbuster.

The reality of the S5 is, sadly, a bit more quaint. It isn’t destined to be the practical pocket rocket that the MG4 was, which is particularly obvious when you notice that (unlike the latter) there’s no dual-motor version of the S5, nor a long-range-battery option that puts it on par with the exceptional range of the highest-end MG4. Instead MG has kept the S5 to a three model line-up (or four model line-up, including extended range options in some markets), omitting one of the things that made the MG4 so competitive with its five model range.

Being a physically bigger car with the exact same battery and motor arrangement, it’s perhaps no surprise that the S5 has less range than the MG4. It also offers a fairly beaten-down acceleration that gives it some lag before moving at top speed – something I was particularly sad about, as I loved the sportiness of the 4.

But this is all cart before the horse; there is at least a logical reason MG has done it this way. The MG S5 is designed to be a more practical day-to-day car than the MG4, more befitting somebody after a comfortable family car than a small electric hot hatch. It’s priced extremely well in both the UK and Australia, and despite having a lower battery range than the 4, it’s still particularly efficient.

Underlining all of this is MG’s redesigned interior. The MG4 has easily one of the worst interiors of any electric car on the market, with a tiny touchscreen and sparse detail, along with a fairly uninspiring instrument cluster. The MG S5 admirably upends all of this, with a much more attractive setup that’s headlined by a larger touchscreen and integrated apps like Spotify and YouTube. I personally love the fact that Android Auto and Apple CarPlay now come wireless with the car (both were wired with the MG4), as it tops off the convenience factor without the need for cables.

For the most part, the MG S5 does feel like a more polished version of the MG4 applied to an SUV frame. The operating system and user interface both feel leaps and bounds ahead of the MG4’s, which is particularly welcome given how spare these felt in that car. It’s a welcome innovation from the once-British, now-Chinese carmaker, which has long struggled in comparison to BYD when it comes to delivering a more premium-feeling experience – though to its credit, MG has rarely been undercut on performance.