In partnership with Auto Trader
New MG4 EV vs used Hyundai Ioniq 5: costs
As a new car, the incredibly well priced MG 4 is one of our favourite electric models, but would you be better off buying a used example of the plusher Hyundai Ioniq 5 for similar money?...
Buying and owning
Costs, equipment, reliability, safety and security
A new MG4 in Long Range Trophy guise will set you back £32,495. A two-year-old Hyundai Ioniq 5 in 73kWh RWD Premium form is often seen with price tags of around £35,000: you can expect the condition to be excellent and the mileage less than 20,000.
If you'd prefer to buy using PCP finance, the MG4 will be £390 per month as part of a 48-month contract, with a £4874 deposit and a £16,253 optional final payment. For a 48-month contract on the Ioniq 5, we were quoted £487 per month. The deposit was the same, but the optional final payment was a bit less, at £14,770. Your annual mileage limit on both cars would be 10,000 miles.
The MG4 is in insurance group 29, and should cost around £790 to insure. The Ioniq 5, in group 34, will be pricier at around £886. You'll get a seven-year, 80,000-mile warranty from MG while a two-year-old Ioniq 5 will have three years left of its five-year, unlimited mileage warranty it received from new. Hyundai also covers the battery for eight years or 100,000 miles (whichever comes first), so you'll have whatever is left of that as well.
According to our data, both cars are predicted to depreciate at a similar rate over the next two years, with £11,280 of the MG4's value lost, against £12,550 for the Ioniq 5.
You'll find heated front seats and a heated steering wheel in either car, as well as adaptive cruise control and LED headlights. Overall, both are impressively well equipped. The Ioniq 5 does have an electric tailgate, which you can't get on the smaller rival.
Plug in the Ioniq 5 and charging from 0-100% at home using a regular 7kW wallbox will take around 12 hours. Do the same with the MG4 and it'll take 10 hours. A 10%-80% rapid charge will take longer with the MG4, though – 33min compared to 18min. That's due to the higher maximum charge rate of 232kW, against the smaller car's 135kW.
Neither model featured in our latest What Car? Reliability Survey but we can tell you how the brands got on. Hyundai placed an impressive joint fifth (with Suzuki) out of 32 car makers featured, while MG was not far behind in ninth place.
When they were safety tested, both cars were awarded five stars out of five by Euro NCAP.
Alternatives
New rivals, used rivals
A new Cupra Born is around £5000 more expensive than the MG4 Long Range Trophy, but is more practical and better to drive, with superior grip and steering. The entry-level V1 trim has a good official range, too, at 264 miles.
By picking up a used Kia EV6 you'll get an electric car that shares many of its parts with the Ioniq 5, yet has a more composed ride and better interior quality. In fact, we named the EV6 our 2022 Car of the Year. At the time of writing, used examples start at £41,000.
