MG ZS EV vs Renault Kangoo

What's the difference?

The MG ZS EV Long Range is a practical small SUV that's easy to drive and the 440km it can travel on a full charge makes it the better choice over the standard range ZS EV. The extra 120km offered by the Long Range version reduces anxiety and is truly useful in covering more ground between charging.

The asking price may seem expensive but electric vehicle batteries are extremely costly to produce and will remain so for years to come.

Remember, too, that the MG4 electric car has an even great range for the same money - the only catch is, it's a hatch and not an SUV.

It’s an honest and willing little worker and, given the much lower purchase price compared to its VW Caddy Van equivalent, is worthy of consideration if you’re in the market for a small van. Just don’t expect premium safety at this end of the market. And Renault should show more confidence in Kangoo by backing it with a longer warranty than three years. 

The ZS EV Long Range has a traditional SUV shape but with a very futuristic looking face thanks to its grille-less nose. That’s because with no radiator needed to cool a combustion engine there’s no need for an open vent or grille for air flow.

MG has used a textured plastic to subtly imitate an old-school grille to lessen the visual impact of a sheet of plastic between the headlights.

I think the effect works although the obvious charging flap could have been cleverly and seamlessly integrated into the nose, in the same way Genesis has done with the GV80 Electric. But the attempt has failed.

The ZS EV Long Range’s cabin looks premium with the sporty seats and red stitching, the landscape screen and digital driver display.

But, while the interior looks great, it feels a little low quality in places such as the vinyl upholstered seats. 

There are some ergonomic issues with the high centre armrest and the raised seating position, too.

This is a tried and tested formula that has earned the little French workhorse a loyal following, particularly in Europe. Its front wheel-drive chassis has a 2697mm wheelbase and 10.7-metre turning circle, with simple but robust MacPherson strut front suspension, rack and pinion steering, four-wheel disc brakes and a well-designed beam rear axle. This uses torsion bar primary springing supplemented by a pair of secondary coil springs for competent carrying of heavy loads.

The Compact lives up to its name with its 4213mm overall length and 1829mm width but the cabin is reminiscent of Doctor Who’s Tardis. The low seating height relative to the Kangoo’s 1815mm height, combined with its large glass areas, create a spacious and airy cabin environment with vast headroom you would not expect to find in such a small vehicle.

The ZS EV Long Range is a practical small SUV and it fit my little family of four, although my kids are both under 10 years old and not at the lanky teenager point yet.

Space on board is good, offering ample legroom for even me (at 188cm) in the second row and adequate headroom back there, too.

I like the large door pockets, the wireless phone charger, and there are two USB ports for the back seats and another two up front.

The second row also has directional air vents and dark-tinted windows. I liked the panoramic sunroof's retractable shade, too. 

SUVS like the MG ZS offer easier access than sedans and hatches thanks to the elevated ride height which means people of my height don’t need to crawl in and out on their knees.

Boot capacity is decent at 359 litres, but not enormous.  

The Kangoo’s 1270kg tare weight and 1810kg GVM results in a 540kg payload rating. However, we always quote kerb weights (with full fuel tank) rather than tare weights (with only 10 litres of fuel) in our reviews to keep things consistent. So if you add the missing 46 litres of petrol (or about 36kg) to the published tare weight, that drops the payload to just over 500kg which is still a very useful half a tonne.

The EDC-equipped Kangoo also has no tow rating, so if you need that capability you’ll have to opt for the six-speed manual version which is rated to tow up to 1050kg of braked trailer.

The cargo bay in our test vehicle is accessed through non-glazed sliding doors on each side (with 635mm max opening) and the optional twin barn-doors at the rear. These feature 180-degree opening to assist forklift access, asymmetric design (to minimise visual obstructions in the rear-view mirror) and a demister/wiper/washer on the left-hand door.

The cargo bay’s 1476mm internal length, with 1218mm between the rear wheel housings, means it can take either an 1165mm-square Aussie pallet or 1200 x 800mm Euro pallet. There’s also 3.0 cubic metres of total load volume available.

The load floor has a protective mat and three cargo-securing points each side plus two more at mid-height. The doors and lower internal panels are lined and there’s neat plastic mouldings over the wheel housings. However, there’s no cargo protection behind the passenger seat and only two tubular steel protective bars behind the driver’s, so if you’re moving lots of heavy stuff we’d recommend either the optional steel bulkhead or an aftermarket steel mesh-type cargo barrier.

Standard cabin storage options include a bottle holder and storage bin in each door, a cave-like storage cubby in the centre dash-pad and a smaller one above the glovebox. The centre console has two cup holders and a lidded storage box that doubles as an armrest. The optional overhead cabin storage shelf fitted to our test vehicle is well designed and can hold heaps of stuff.

Our test vehicle is the L1 SWB (short wheelbase) Compact Van with 1.2 litre turbocharged petrol engine and six-speed EDC (Efficient Dual Clutch) automatic transmission for a list price of $26,990. Although that’s $2500 more than the six-speed manual version, it still undercuts its Caddy equivalent (TSI 220 SWB with 7-speed DSG) by $4300, which represents a substantial 14 per cent saving on purchase price alone.

The Compact is a no-frills work-focused van, as evidenced by its 15-inch steel wheels and 195/65R15 Michelin tyres (who'd have guessed) with full-size spare, hard-wearing black plastic front/rear bumpers and side body mouldings, rubberised cargo floor mat and twin-tubular steel cargo protection bars behind the driver’s seat.

There’s minimal standard equipment as you’d expect in such a workhorse, but it does include useful on-the-job features like rear parking sensors, height-adjustable steering column, non-radar cruise control and speed limiter, rear window demister/wiper, manual height-adjustable headlights (handy when load carrying), USB, 3.5mm auxiliary jack and 12-volt accessory plugs along with a basic multimedia system including AM/FM radio, CD player (remember those?) and Bluetooth with steering column controls.

Our test vehicle was fitted with Renault’s optional overhead cabin storage shelf and twin rear barn-doors. There are numerous other factory options like sat nav, cabin bulkhead, reversing camera etc along with Business Plus Pack and Trade Pack special option packages.

The MG ZS EV has one electric motor driving the front wheels and it makes 115kW of power and 280Nm or torque.

That’s the same power as the petrol MG ZS, but more torque, so it accelerates faster. We’re talking 0-100km/h in 8.5 seconds. 

Sure, that’s not Tesla quick, but being an electric car the acceleration is instantaneous with none of the lag petrol cars have due to turbos or changing gears.

How much can the ZS EV tow? Not much. The braked towing capacity of the ZS EV Long Range is 500kg. But think of it like this: a box trailer can weigh about 250kg and a fully grown Sumatran tiger can also weigh up to 250kg.

So an ZS EV Long range can tow a box trailer carrying a fully grown tiger. That sounds impressive.

For more on what the ZS EV Long Range is like to drive, keep reading.

This Euro 6-compliant 1.2-litre petrol engine is a variant of that shared by numerous Renault passenger cars, but with more power and torque tapped at lower rpm that’s better suited to this load-carrying workhorse role. In other words, it’s not peaky and has good flexibility, but does require 95-98 RON premium petrol.

The direct-injection turbocharged four-cylinder produces 84kW at 4500rpm. Its 190Nm of torque peaks at 2000rpm yet remains close to full strength all the way to 4000rpm, which is admirable for such a small engine and highlights the benefits of modern variable vane turbocharger technology.

It also offers a manually-switched ECO economy mode and Renault’s ESM (Energy Smart Management), which allows kinetic energy produced under deceleration/braking to be recovered by the engine’s alternator and stored in the battery. Given the amount of stops and starts in a typical working van’s life, Renault claims most of this recovered energy assists in engine starting.

The six-speed EDC dual-clutch automatic transmission provides brisk acceleration from standing starts and snappy near-seamless shifting, in either auto mode or when using the sequential manual shift function.

The ZS EV Long Range has a larger battery than the standard range ZS EV and this gives it the ability to travel further on a full charge. 

The regular version is fitted with a 51.1kWh battery and the Long Range has a 72.6kWh battery which is pretty big - and that gives this an official range of 440km. 

The standard range ZS EV has a range of 320km. So the Long Range will get you 120km further which could make all the difference in whether you make it to your destination or not.

So, is 440km a lot compared to other electric cars? Well, it’s more range than the Nissan Leaf (385km) or Mini Electric (233km), but not as much as the Kia Niro (460km) and 50km less than the entry-grade Tesla Model 3 (491km).

Put it this way, the 320km offered by the standard ZS EV falls short of what I think is enough. But anything with more than 400km is truly useful and I find anything less than this can bring on range anxiety pretty quickly.

The ZS EV Long Range is fully electric and that means you’ll have to plug it in to charge it. 

You can charge up using a household power point, but it’ll take more than 24 hours to get to 100 per cent. So, a much better idea is to use a fast public charger.

A 50kW charger will take the battery from empty to 80 percent in 63 minutes using a CCS Type 2 port/plug.

As for energy efficiency, MG says that after a combination of open and urban roads the ZS EV Long Range will use 17.7kWh/100km.

I drove our ZS EV Long Range every day and used it for school drop offs, city commutes and some motorway running. And while most of the 156km I travelled was urban-based the trip computer was reporting an average of 20.0kWh/100km.

Renault’s official combined figure of 6.5L/100km looked optimistic given the dash readout was showing a 9.7 average at the end of our test, which covered just under 300km without the use of ECO mode and with more than a third of that distance under maximum GVM loading.

Our own figure, calculated from actual tripmeter and fuel bowser readings, worked out at 8.8L/100km. Therefore, based on our figures, you could expect a ‘real world’ driving range of around 630km from its 56-litre tank.

At first, the driver’s seat felt overly high and the lack of reach adjustment in the steering wheel made finding a good driving position harder.

But, the ZS EV Long Range is comfortable and easy to drive, while its size and ‘electric zippiness’ makes this little SUV perfect for narrow city streets and tight car spaces. 

Some EVs have break-neck acceleration and minimalist cabin controls which can feel weird, but the ZS EV Long Range’s cabin looks just like a regular combustion engine car’s and the motor has the same power as a petrol ZS’s engine.

That said, the instant acceleration of their ZS EV Long Range is fun and great for moving quickly out of car space, merging and overtaking when needed.

As with all EVs, passengers who are prone to motion sickness might find the acceleration and heavy deceleration a bit much. My family didn’t complain but the photographer who filmed the video above found it a bit much while looking down at his screen.

Thanks to the twin rear barn-doors we were easily able to load a 325kg weight block with the forklift, which combined with our crew of two was line-ball with the vehicle’s payload limit of just over 500kg. The rear suspension only compressed 40mm with heaps of bump-stop clearance remaining, while the nose dropped a mere 8mm.

Over a heavily patched and notoriously bumpy section of bitumen back road there was not a hint of bottoming-out and the Kangoo would not be thrown off-line or lose its composure over a variety of other roads on our test route.

This included our 13 per cent gradient 2.0km-long set climb at 60km/h. The dual-clutch automatic  self-shifted down to third gear, where the engine settled at around 3000rpm to easily pull its maximum payload to the top. Engine braking on the way down though was almost non-existent, but not unexpected given its small cubic capacity and the load it was trying to restrain. Fortunately, the four-wheel disc brakes were more than capable of compensating for that shortfall.

As a tradie’s vehicle its applications are limited by its diminutive size, half-tonne payload capacity and lack of towing ability. However, there are plenty of other job requirements for which the Kangoo could be well suited, particularly city delivery work.

Its four-star ANCAP rating was achieved a decade ago (2011) and is overdue for an upgrade. There’s no AEB and a reversing camera is optional, but you can only get that with the optional rear barn-doors and R-Link sat-nav multimedia system.

At the very least, the option of glazed cargo bay side doors should be available. Even so, there’s driver and passenger front and side airbags, rear parking sensors and an active safety menu including hill-start assist, Grip Xtend (intelligent traction control) and more.

The ZS EV Long Range is covered by MG’s seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranty. The battery is covered by a seven-year unlimited kilometre warranty, too. 

Servicing is recommended by MG at 40,000km/24 month intervals.

According to MG the first service costs $295, then the next is $810, then $295 for the third, $810 for the next and so on. That’s about $233 a year over six years which is excellent value.

The Kangoo comes with a three years/unlimited km warranty. Scheduled servicing every 12 months/15,000km whichever occurs first. Capped-price servicing of $349 for the first three scheduled services.