MG ZS News

MG has confirmed local pricing and specification for the non-hybrid versions of its new-generation ZS small SUV range.Due in local showrooms mid-next month, the three grade ZS range joins the two-level ZS Hybrid+ line-up introduced late last year.Representing 45 per cent of the brand’s more than 50,000 sales in 2024, the ZS stands as the best-selling small SUV in the country, and the compact five-seater’s continued popularity is critical for MG’s ongoing success in Australia.And with new competitors arriving almost by the day and price reductions rife its cost-of-entry and standard specification list are all important.Drive-away pricing for the ZS Excite begins at $26,990, rising to $29,990 for the Essence and $31,990 for the Essence Turbo. Big jumps from the old car's bargain basement $22,990 entry point.The Chery Tiggo 4 Pro becomes the new affordable SUV king at $23,990, drive-away, as the ZS looks to challenge the GWM Haval Jolion, Mazda CX-30, Mitsubishi ASX, Subaru Crosstrek and Toyota Corolla Cross.The Excite and Essence are powered by a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine sending 81kW/140Nm to the front wheels, while as the name implies, the top-spec Turbo Essence picks up turbo-petrol power for an impressive 125kW/275Nm.Official combined cycle fuel consumption for the non-turbo models is 6.7L/100km, with the turbo returning 6.9L/100km.All models feature MG’s ‘i-Smart’ safety suite, alloy wheels, sat nav and a reversing camera as well as Android Auto / Apple CarPlay connectivity as standard. The ZS hybrid received a four-star ANCAP safety rating.Rim size steps up an inch on each grade, starting as 16-inch for the Excite, 17s on the Essence and 18s on the Turbo Essence. A 10.25-inch multimedia display in the Excite grows to 12.3-inch in the upper models, which also pick up a 360-degree HD camera view, synthetic (PVC) seat trim rather than cloth and six-way power-adjustable heated front seats.2025 MG ZS pricingPrices listed are national drive-away

Australia clocked a record number of new-car sales in 2024, proving once again how diverse our new-car market really is.

Australia’s top-selling car and the top-selling brands for 2024 have been revealed and it’s been yet another record year of sales.Last year, Australians bought 1,237,287 new vehicles, which represented a modest 1.7 per cent upswing compared with 2023 sales. It was enough to make it the biggest year of sales in Australian history.Utes and SUVs continued to dominate with just one passenger car - the Toyota Corolla - managing to remain in the top 10 best-selling models list.Almost 700,000 SUVs were sold in the calendar year compared with 270,000 light-commercial vehicles and just over 203,000 passenger cars (hatchbacks, sedans, wagons, sports cars and people movers).The top-selling model for 2024 was the Ford Ranger, repeating its 2023 win, despite a slight dip in sales to 62,593 (-1.2%).The Toyota RAV4 had its best sales year and came pretty close to toppling the Ranger, but had to settle for a still-impressive second place with 58,718 units, closely followed by its HiLux stablemate on 53,499.The Isuzu D-Max was the only other ute in the top 10, landing in fourth place with 30,194, and rounding out the top-five models was the Mitsubishi Outlander.Making up the rest of the top-10 models were Ford’s Everest, the Corolla, Mazda CX-5, MG ZS and the Kia Sportage. Check the tables below for all the figures.Toyota maintained its dominance in the industry, leading the charge with 241,296 sales, which is 12.1 per cent ahead of last year’s total.As expected, Ford leapfrogged Mazda to nab second place with a healthy 100,170 units, helped mostly by those solid Ranger and Everest numbers.Mazda dipped a little in 2024 (95,987) but remained well ahead of fourth-placed Kia on 81,787, while Mitsubishi (74,547) capped off the top-five brands.Hyundai (71,664) only just missed out on a top-five position, trailing Mitsubishi by 2883 units.MG also took a sales tumble but still stayed firm with 50,592 (-13.3%) for seventh place, while Isuzu continued to punch above its weight in eighth spot, recording 48,172 sales with just two models on sale.Nissan managed to make some gains in 2024, landing in ninth place with 45,284, and China’s GWM is now firmly a top-10 player having grabbed tenth spot with 42,782.The Chinese giant kept Subaru and Tesla out of the top list, with Subaru collecting 40,604 sales and Tesla sliding by 17 per cent to 38,347.The Model Y also just missed out on a top-10 spot for model sales, with 21,253 finding homes, a drop of 26 per cent.Despite the bumper sales year, the automotive industry’s peak body is forecasting a gloomy outlook and taking a swipe at the Federal Government’s New Vehicle Emissions Standards that kicked in on January 1.“While overall consumer preferences remain clear with SUVs and Light Commercial vehicles continuing to dominate the market and especially the top ten sales, many vehicles in these segments are either difficult or expensive to decarbonise. This will prove to be a significant challenge in meeting the extremely ambitious targets of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) which began on 1 January 2025,” Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries Chief Executive Tony Weber said in a media release.“The industry is responding to NVES by increasing the range of zero and low emission vehicles on offer. However, a continuation of current customer buying preferences will inevitably lead to the accrual of substantial penalties under the Government’s new scheme, which will create price inflation within the new vehicle market.”

What makes a car important? Depending on the brand, important can mean a lot of different things.It could be its profitability or maybe it’s the new technology it will bring or even a new image it could create for a brand.So picking the most important new models from Australia’s biggest brands isn’t always easy, but looking ahead to what’s headed our way in 2025 one common theme emerged - sales.It seems obvious, it’s important that the models each brand offers sell, but in the case of these five there is an extra layer of importance beyond just the volume they will or won’t do.To say the Ranger is important to the success of Ford Australia is an understatement. Sales of the ute account for more than 60 per cent of its total volume, and that’s before factoring in the Everest SUV spin-off.Ford has put a lot of money and resources behind this new plug-in hybrid version of the Ranger, knowing that it needs to cut its fleet emissions as the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) is introduced in 2025.If Ford can get its marketing and sales staff to successfully push the Ranger PHEV it sets the brand up for a bright, lower-emissions future. But if they can’t, it could become a very expensive white elephant for the brand.Toyota hasn’t said too much on the record, but all signs point to a new RAV4 arriving by the end of 2025. The popular SUV usually has a six-year lifespan and the current iteration was launched in 2019, so in theory it’s time is up.What will we see from the new RAV4 - will it be more of the same or a shift upmarket like we’ve seen with the CH-R? The former is far and away the most likely, although don’t be surprised if inflation drives the price up slightly, as the RAV4 has become the brand’s bedrock passenger vehicle.There is a possibility it will follow the Camry and go for an all-hybrid line-up, but that would undoubtedly drive the entry-price up and Toyota is probably hesitant to do that if it can be avoided. It should have enough hybrids to help offset its HiLux and LandCruiser sales under NVES.Why is a small car so important in 2025? Especially when Kia is set to launch its all-new Tasman ute? Well, because of sales.The K4 is the replacement for the Cerato which, despite all the hype around SUVs and utes, is still Kia Australia’s second best-selling model (behind the Sportage SUV, of course). If the more polished-looking K4 carries a significant price rise, though, that could dent its market appeal and leave Kia with a sudden drop in its overall volume.Small cars like the Cerato and Toyota Corolla still do decent volumes, in large part because they are affordable and appeal to a sizeable number of people that don’t want a bigger car. Pricing the K4 right will be the most important challenge for Kia Australia in 2025, regardless of what happens with the Tasman.This new baby of the Hyundai family is due in the early months of 2025 and will bring with it a lot of expectations and new hope. While we’re still waiting for official details (at the time of publication) the speculation is it will carry a sub-$40k price tag. That would be a big deal for Hyundai in its fight against the influx of affordable electric small cars from China - such as the GWM Ora, BYD Dolphin and MG4.But more than that, the Inster needs to draw a younger audience to Hyundai. The brand has deliberately ditched its ‘cheap and cheerful’ image for a more premium range. But there’s no doubt many current Tucson, Santa Fe and Staria drivers probably had an Excel or Accent in their past.The Inster is unapologetically youth-targeted, so if it can be priced right it could be critical in reviving Hyundai’s chances with a fresh audience for years to come.The Chinese brand may be proudly celebrating its improved new generation of vehicles, including the recently launched ZS Hybrid+, but the reality is its volume aspirations are tied to affordability. Which is where the rest of the ZS will play such a crucial role when it arrives in early 2025.While the hybrid offers a good value package, its mid-$30k price range is a big step up from the sub-$25k entry-level ZS of old. Introducing at least two (but preferably three) sub-$30,000 models will be crucial to maintaining the ZS as the best-selling small SUV in the country.

ANCAP has released a raft of new scores for eight new models which have landed in Australia this year, with some notable new entrants falling short of the maximum five-star rating.

The Toyota RAV4 hybrid topped sales charts again in November, but it isn’t likely to take the number one spot from the Ford Ranger this year.

MG already confirmed it’s working on a ute, but before that arrives the company will unleash a wave of new models in 2025. 

Nobody likes being called cheap, even when it’s meant as a compliment.MG has been one of the fastest growing brands in Australia over the past decade, built predominantly off the back of its most affordable models, which undercut their more established rivals from Toyota, Hyundai and Kia. The brand is in the midst of a massive product offensive, which will include at least eight new options for Australian buyers by the end 2025, and it is starting to move itself away from its ‘cheap’ image.MG wants to become known for offering ‘value’ propositions, which has already begun with its new-generation MG3 and HS SUV and continued recently with the launch of its new ZS.The ZS is the brand’s best-seller, but rather than leading with its cheapest models it has decided to launch with its new ZS Hybrid+ variant. It starts at $33,990, well above the out-going, petrol-powered ZS, which was just $22,990 for the cheapest option.MG Motor Australia chief commercial officer, Giles Belcher, is confident the brand won’t take a backwards step, sales-wise, and is confident customers will be won over by the improved quality of the MG products.“Well, the quality and the technology in the cars is generationally different to the vehicles that they're replacing,” Belcher said.“With that there is an increase in the price but it's still the best value and that's where the value idea comes from. In each segment we still want to represent the best value car in that segment.“Now you know value means different things to different people, but if you have a look at the pricing of the MG3, the ZS hybrid, what you get in the car and the price it is, it just represents,  we believe, the best value in the segment. And that's kind of Peter vision for every segment we compete in is to offer the best value car. And that's not just price now, it's  the technology, the performance, the quality, the fit and finish, you know, the whole package. That's where we believe the product sits. And we believe once people experience it they'll agree.” Belcher also pushed back on the notion that buyers were focused on only MG’s cheapest model grades, claiming the brand has had good sales success with its more expensive variants.“I probably can't give you exact percentages, but we've always had a healthy mix of high grade vehicles in every particular model,” he said.Despite this shift and the potential to price some buyers out of the MG range, Belcher said he was confident the Chinese brand will continue to grow its sales in Australia in 2025. “Look, at the end of the day, the market decides and the consumers decide. We believe that the range we'll put forward will be successful; as probably everyone does when they launch a new car,” he explained. “But we firmly believe that it'll be successful. And again, it's about the education and the experience that people have when they first step into the car or sit in the car. Proof of the pudding will be, you know, in the 12 and 18 months time as to how successful we've been in that education.”The brand’s sales are likely to be helped by the arrival of the rest of the ZS SUV range, which will include more affordable petrol models. MG Australia’s head of local product, Akshat Ahuja, wouldn’t confirm if the brand will be able to bring in a variant below $25,000, as it currently has, but said the company would make sure it has cheaper models.“From a product point of view of course the cars are getting expensive and all that, and as Giles said, all our new upcoming cars, they are way more advanced, the fit and finish, the technology and everything,” Ahuja said. “But when we look at the particular model, the variant line-up, we always try to aim for the entry cars as well, the price point cars that also provide good value. So you might see ZS, like what we have seen today, $36,990, but we'll also have petrol ZS that will sort of be around that price point. And we'll attract the buyers who would be wanting a price point car.”

MG has launched its new-generation ZS small SUV, debuting it with an all-new hybrid powertrain before an expanded line-up arrives in 2025.

MG won't launch premium or electric sub-brands as it commits to one marque in Australia