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MG’s Renault 5 rival will hit roads by 2028 priced from around £22,000 and it will be fully designed in the UK.

Likely to be called MG 2, the new EV will sit below the MG 4 hatchback as the entry-level model to MG’s seven-strong EV line-up, which has been bolstered recently by the IM 5, IM 6 and MG S5.

MG UK boss David Allison mooted early plans for such a model to Autocar last year and, speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed earlier this month, he confirmed that the new EV will be priced competitively relative to the likes of the Renault 5, which starts at £22,995.

He said: “One of the things that we’ve always had is that affordable price position on EVs but we don’t have that any more. We are nowhere near the cheapest when it comes to EV sales, because so many other brands and so many other models come into that space now.

“So when I price that car, I will price it as aggressively as I can get away with and the view will be very much on affordability, very much on monthly payments.”

Allison confirmed that “fairly advanced” concepts have already been built, which suggests that production mules could soon begin testing.

Although he disclosed no technical details, it is understood that the new entry-level MG will use the same SAIC battery-electric Modular Scalable Platform as the MG 4. 

It is likely that the new MG 2 will be benchmarked against the Renault 5, which is powered by a single 150bhp motor and offers a top-end range of 250 miles from a 52kWh battery.

Allison said the sales response to the Renault 5 has shown the market for small, affordable electric cars is much bigger than previously anticipated – and therefore it is crucial to launch such a model as soon as possible.

“The Renault 5 has made the job much more important,” he said. “I’ve always felt that was the next market that was going to happen, because as Europe transitions towards EVs, inevitably the easiest way of making them more affordable is downsizing.”

Asked how soon the car will arrive, given the segment is set to expand with the Volkswagen ID 2 and its Cupra and Skoda equivalents within the next 18 months, Allison said: “I want to sell it now, but I can’t have everything I always want. I think that car is still probably a couple of years away.”

However, he was confident that this prediction can be bettered, given the speed at which MG is able to turn drawings into showroom models. 

“I think it’s very possible,” he said. “One of the things that has always impressed me very much about the way that this company operates is the speed of development.”

Allison also said the UK team will have a big hand in creating it: “Having the London design studio is quite helpful. I’ve seen some concepts and drawings of the car. It fills me with lots and lots of confidence that that should be really, really successful in the space."

On the need for a car like this to be designed in the UK, he said: “It has to be, because that car wouldn’t succeed in China.

“I mean, in a lot of Asian markets, such as Korea, you tend not to see cars smaller than a C-segment hatchback. So to try and conceive a four-metre battery-electric car that has very much a European [style] just won’t really work.

“So that kind of car, in my view, has to have a more European-centric approach in terms of styling.”

MG’s Longbridge-based engineering centre – which refines MG’s global products for the European market –will also play a role in testing and configuring the new model.

Allison said that the so-called MG2 could be a big player for the brand in other markets where it has yet to succeed. “You take Italy, for example,” he said, “the EV mix is under four per cent; it’s tiny. That’s because a lot of [electric] cars aren’t really suited to [the small/tight] Italian roads. 

“But the moment someone comes up with an affordable four metre or sub-four metre electric car, then that sort of thing should be really successful. And it’s a space we absolutely should be in; I'm very confident that when we do bring something to market like that, we will do really well with it.”

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