MG ZS EV vs Toyota Corolla

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.

The final score for this review makes it look as though the Corolla is a middling effort. The scores for each individual section of the review are well considered and fair. The Corolla does lack the practicality of some of its rivals. A lack of an ANCAP rating isn’t great and the powertrain is just okay. But it remains one of the most fun-to-drive hatchbacks on the market today, even seven years into its life, and I would wholeheartedly recommend the Corolla to anyone looking for a small car. If you can forgive some of the quirks, it is a reliable, adorable, fun and efficient small car favourite. 

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.

It’s been around for a good seven years, but the current-gen Corolla hatch is still a smart design. It has a squat stance and looks as though it has sporty intentions (it doesn’t), and the head and tail-light treatment doesn’t look like anything else in the segment.

The Corolla has adorable proportions and a pert little behind in a sea of increasingly boring small SUVs.

However, in SX trim and in the ‘Sunstone Orange’ body colour of my test car, the Corolla gives off rental car vibes. Which is hardly surprising given lower grade Corollas are a favourite of rental companies.

Inside that vibe continues. This is where the Corolla is really showing its age.

There are various shades of grey throughout the cabin, with a mix of hard and soft plastics. The cloth seat trim is drab, which is a shame because some other brands have managed to make cloth cool again. Not Toyota.

The touchscreen sticks up out the top of the dash like an old iPad and the dash design is old but functional. 

There is nothing inspiring about this interior design. In saying that, of those aforementioned rivals, only the Mazda3 and the new Kia K4 have modern cabins.

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 Corolla is a small car and that is evident inside. You might bump elbows with your front passenger, but I have no problem with the front leg or headroom.

Those cloth seats might be drab but boy they are comfy, and the fronts have loads of side bolstering. 

The steering wheel has typically clear controls and looks and feels nice. 

As a more, shall we say seasoned model in the segment, the Corolla still has buttons on the dash for things like air con, but not too many. That bulbous centre stack and the centre console, however, could be better designed for the space.

As it is, the wireless charging pad is hidden under it at the far end of the console. It’s a bit fiddly to get your phone in and out. This is also where one of the USB-C ports lives.

The other one is in the central storage bin which is quite small, but also houses a 12-volt outlet. There are no other places to store things because of the rounded shape of the console, which also features a couple of narrow cupholders.

OurCarsGuide bottle had to be squeezed into the door storage cavity - only narrow, short vessels will fit properly.

That 8.0-inch multimedia screen is very easy to navigate, with logical menus and icons. However, it’s almost too basic, which is not helped by the all-white background. It could be a more engaging set-up but it’s also very hard to fault the functionality. Our Apple CarPlay maintained its connection the whole time with the car, too.

Space is quite tight in the rear, although I have enough headroom for my 184cm frame. Legroom is just okay behind my driving position. There’s more space in the back of a Hyundai i30. It’s also dark because of smallish rear windows and thick C-pillars. 

The rear seat backrest is quite upright, but, like the front seats, well cushioned.

Amenities are just average back there - there’s a weird cupholder high on the door, only a passenger side map pocket, no rear air vents and no USB ports, although you could easily use the one housed in the front central bin. There’s a rear fold-down armrest with two cupholders.

The rear seats split and fold 60/40 and they fold flat making for a better loading space.

The good news is the SX (and the base Ascent Sport) come standard with a temporary spare wheel, which is great news for a hybrid model. The bad news is, that reduces boot space to a paltry 217 litres. 

That’s off the pace of all of its key hatchback rivals, including the Mazda3 which has its own cargo concerns at 295L, and the Hyundai i30 with 395L.

The Corolla ZR hatch has more space at 333L but you only get a tyre repair kit instead of a temporary spare. 

If you’re dead set on a Corolla but need more cargo space, consider the smart looking sedan that has 470 litres.

Toyota dropped all exclusively internal combustion engine versions of passenger car models and car-based SUVs last year so the Corolla is now hybrid-only.

The grade we tested is the SX five-door hatchback which is priced from $35,260, before on-road costs. Interestingly, the sedan version, which has a much bigger boot, is $340 cheaper.

The SX sits in the middle of the Corolla range with the Ascent Sport the most affordable (from $32,110) and the ZR the priciest before you get to the fire-breathing GR Corolla hot hatch.

Direct rivals at this approximate price point include the Hyundai i30 N Line ($36,000 BOC), Mazda3 G20 Touring ($37,110), Subaru Impreza 2.0R ($35,490) and the Kia K4 Sport ($35,190), although that is sedan only for now.

You get 16-inch alloy wheels, cloth bucket seats, a synthetic leather steering wheel, auto-dimming rear view mirror, rain-sensing wipers, rear privacy glass, keyless entry and start, dual-zone climate control, USB-C ports, a wireless device charging pad, six-speaker audio, an 8.0-inch colour multimedia display with sat-nav, digital radio, Bluetooth, voice assistant and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. 

The standard features list could be described as adequate without being overly generous for the price. A head-up display (standard in the ZR) would be nice.

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.

Since Toyota dropped the petrol engine from the Corolla range, it’s a hybrid-only affair.

The powerplant is a 1.8-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine paired with Toyota’s fifth-generation hybrid system that incorporates a lithium-ion battery, which is lighter yet more powerful since the 2022 update.

The Corolla drives the front wheels exclusively via a continuously variable transmission (CVT).

It’s not the punchiest engine and could do with more poke, but Toyota does do hybrids well. 

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.

According to Toyota the official fuel-use figure for the Corolla hybrid hatch is 4.0-litres per 100 kilometres and CO2 emissions sit at 90g/km.

While the trip computer said 4.8L/100km at the end of our week, my own fuel consumption calculation came to 5.8L.

You will only need 91 RON 'standard' petrol to fill up the Corolla.

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.

Most generations of Corollas have been solid, dependable and occasionally, even fun to drive. 

My first car was a Holden Nova GS hatchback, which was a rebadged version of the seventh-generation Corolla. I loved that car. It was zippy, fun and super economical.

The same principles generally apply to the current-gen Corolla. Thankfully, Toyota’s former CEO, Akio Toyoda, insisted all models from the Camry to the Kluger needed to be injected with more fun. And he succeeded with the Corolla. So much so that they've spun off a wild GR performance hot hatch version.

The Corolla sits low to the ground and it just feels much more connected to the road than a small SUV can. Even in mid-range SX guise, the Corolla can hug a corner and there is ample grip to ensure a fun drive on your favourite winding road.

Sure, the hybrid powertrain might not set your heart racing, but it is quick enough from a standing start and it lacks the lag of some of its turbocharged contemporaries. There’s also plenty of poke on tap for a small car when overtaking.

Even though it has a sporting edge to how it handles, the Corolla SX has been tuned for comfort first and foremost and this is another area it excels. The damper set-up ensures the Corolla soaks up speed bumps, nasty potholes and whatever else our shoddy roads can throw at it. At no point in my seven days with the Corolla did I complain about a harsh bump or thud.

Steering has a mechanical feel but it is still sharp, adding to the ‘chuckable’ vibe of this hatchback.

The powertrain can be noisy when pushed and combined with a CVT auto it’s the nicest sounding engine out there. Also, the transition from electric to petrol power isn’t particularly smooth. Other carmaker’s hybrid offerings - like Honda for example - are close to seamless. 

Some road noise gets into the cabin but it’s no deal breaker.

The Corolla is currently unrated by crash safety watchdog ANCAP. It did achieve a maximum five-star rating back in 2018 but that expired at the end of last year.

Safety features are largely standard across all grades and the SX comes with auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and daytime cyclist detection, lane departure alert with steering assist, speed sign recognition, 'Lane Trace Assist', adaptive cruise control, a blind spot monitor with safe exit assist, a rear cross-traffic alert, reversing camera and front and rear parking sensors and a rear occupant alert.

It doesn’t have a driver attention alert, and it’s all the better for it.

The lane keeping aid is well calibrated and subtle in its interventions, but the adaptive cruise let the speed creep several kilometres over the set speed on several occasions. 

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 Corolla is covered by Toyota’s five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, which, given Kia, MG, GWM, Jaecoo and more have longer terms (not to mention Nissan and Mitsubishi’s conditional 10-year terms) is now officially trailing its competitors.

However, the capped-price servicing plan of up to five years costs just $250 for each service, which is incredibly competitive. The service schedule is every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs first.