No drama: MG S6 EV review

The most MG MG that MG has MGed since MG became a Chinese startup that moonlights as a British heritage brand.

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There’s a certain smell to new EVs. A faintly sanctimonious cocktail of rubber, fake leather, ambition and compromise. Most of them feel like a spreadsheet got drunk, went online shopping, and ended up on your driveway wearing a badge you’ve never heard pronounced correctly.

Into this picture walks the MG S6 EV, the most MG MG that MG has MGed since MG became a Chinese startup that moonlights as a British heritage brand.

It’s a car that tries very hard not to make a fuss, which is ironic, because it’s huge.

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Not Range Rover huge. Not Bentley Bentayga huge. But bigger than anything called ‘affordable’ has any right to be. It’s an honest-to-goodness family SUV – electric, practical, and about as emotionally stirring as a weather report. And yet, somehow, that’s its charm.

From the outside, the S6 EV is a polite nod to what SUVs are supposed to look like. There are no floating rooflines. No idiotic fake vents. No aggressive ‘I’m a spaceship’ nonsense. It looks like a car drawn by someone who still owns a pencil. And a conscience.

You can almost hear the designer muttering “Don’t worry, I’ll be subtle” before adding a full-width LED strip and a front grille that looks suspiciously like a glossy IKEA breadboard.

It’s handsome in that way boxers look handsome, slightly bruised, squared off, and ready to carry things.

On the inside

Open the door and the S6 greets you with a kind of calm practical monotony that’s oddly reassuring. It’s all very spacious, very clean, very neutral. Like a car interior designed by a risk averse AI that had once visited a Volvo showroom and didn’t want to be shouted at.

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There are actual buttons for things – proper, honest, clackity buttons. This is either a minor miracle or a sign that MG isn’t entirely sure their touchscreen works. Either way they’re there. And you’ll use them. Because they’re just better. Take that, Tesla.

Material quality? Well, the seats are upholstered in something that feels like a distant cousin of Alcantara, the sort of synthetic suede you’d find lining a suburban yoga studio. It’s all very inoffensive.

The higher trims even attempt a dab of luxury with ambient lighting and a panoramic roof. A bit like putting a silk hat on a sensible aunt.

But where the S6 really earns its keep is space. The rear seats are vast. The floor is flat. There’s no weird transmission hump to fight over. You could sit three average size adults back there without anyone having to apologise for their knees.

The boot? Cavernous. You could probably lose a mid-sized Italian in there if you were so inclined.

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The details

It’s an EV, obviously. There’s a battery under the floor and some motors, one or two depending on how much you’re willing to pay. The dual motor version goes from 0-60mph in just over five seconds, which is enough to make your children squeal and your dog rethink the boot situation.

The range is officially north of 300 miles. Unofficially? Well, try driving in winter with the heater on and a boot full of ambition and you’ll start seeing numbers that look suspiciously like the contents of a good lunch bill. 200-ish miles. More if you’re gentle. Less if you’re late.

Charging is fine – not spectacular, not awful. 38 minutes from 10% to 80% if you find a fast charger, and on the move it’s surprisingly refined. Quiet. Calm. Predictable. If this car were a person it would teach geography and bring its own flask.

There’s no drama, no hint of excitement, but also no anxiety. It doesn’t leap into corners, but nor does it lurch like a seasick cow. It just gets on with things in that unflustered way that people who wear gilets often do.

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Of course, all this sense and space doesn’t come for peanuts. The MG S6 EV starts at just under £40,000, which used to be sports car money but is now reasonably priced SUV money. Go for the posh one and you’ll pay more.

This is not a car that shouts. It doesn’t brag. It doesn’t drip tech. It simply offers you a quiet roomy competent way to move five people and their various pet anxieties across the country without fuss. It’s the anti-Instagram SUV. The introvert’s Tesla.

So, is the MG S6 EV exciting? No, it’s a car for people who want a family SUV that doesn’t pretend to be anything else. It doesn’t offer thrills, make bold promises, or try to rewire your brain with minimalism and futurism. It’s just a bloody useful car.

In a market that’s increasingly obsessed with being clever, smug or strange, that makes the MG S6 EV something almost radical: normal.

Would I buy one? No. But then, I also wouldn’t own a labrador or move to Guildford. That doesn’t mean they’re not very good ideas.

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