MG News

A new world order is forming in the electric car segment in Australia.Tesla and BYD might not be the mighty forces they once were as two EV princes wait in the wings to snatch the crown.The Tesla Model Y, which was streets ahead of the rest in sales through 2024, has come back to the pack.Tesla sales were down 33 per cent in January, following a more than 16 per cent drop in 2024.It shifted just 465 Model Ys and 274 Model 3s. The Model Y was still the best selling electric car in Australia in January but it was down on its usual performance of more than 1500 a month in 2024.An updated version of the Model Y is due in coming months, but it will be significantly more expensive. The current version will likely be in short supply until that point meaning it could give others a head start in the EV sales race.BYD sales also fell off a cliff in January down almost 50 per cent. Sales of its plug-in hybrid Sealion 6 SUV kept the brand afloat but EV sales were down dramatically with the Atto 3 down 77.4 per cent, Dolphin down 66.8 per cent and Seal down 91.2 per cent.Recent port issues are likely to blame for part of the slow sales, but the brand has also announced new cheaper variants of the Dolphin and Atto 3 to boost sales.Surely it's just a blip on the radar and both brands will roar back in the coming months, but what if they don't reach the same EV heights as before?This could open the opportunity for the Kia EV5 and MG4 electric cars to have a crack at the Model Y’s crown.The MG4 was the second best selling EV in January with 440 sales and the EV5 was third with 289.A big selling point for the MG and Kia are their warranties: MG has a 10 year/250,000km guarantee and Kia has a seven year/unlimited km security blanket. Both easily trump Tesla’s four year/80,000km warranty.Both also sell through a conventional dealer model rather than a majority online portal like BYD and Tesla.Both the MG4 and EV5 are both built in China, same as the Australian delivered Teslas, which give them the same price, supply and short shipping advantage as the market leaders.Australians also now have far more choice in the electric car space compared to 12 months ago. A wave of new brands from China include Deepal, Geely, Leapmotor, XPeng and Zeekr, which all launched with Model Y sized alternatives cheaper than their big name rival.Those brands — with the exception of Leapmotor — don't yet report sales.Conventional car makers have started to bring their own EVs online to help dilute the market that was very concentrated on just a few brands a year ago.The chances are Tesla will rebound in the coming months from its January sales, in what is a traditionally slow month for the brand.Kia is unlikely to muster the 25,000 EV5 sales needed to claim the top spot with the brand predicting a run rate of 400 a month in 2025.MG on the other hand has shown it is willing to heavily discount the MG4 to boost sales.For a short period it was the cheapest electric car on sale during 2024, with the base model costing just a smidge more than $30,000 drive-away. The price cut saw MG4s fly off the lot, outselling both Tesla models combined in October 2024.This year will be a challenge for many of the large electric car sellers as cost of living pressures bite and the well has run dry of early adopters willing to pay overs for the zero-emissions tech.

First details of the MG HS plug-in hybrid have been revealed.  The Australian government’s Road Vehicle Regulator requires manufacturers to submit technical specifications before a vehicle goes on sale, and MG has made its submission prior to releasing official details. 

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

MG India has revealed a new seven-seat SUV, which could rival popular ladder-frame-based models as a facelift to one of its Indian-market offerings.

Australia’s new car market rose very slightly in volume in 2024 compared to 2023 - but it wasn’t good news across the board.

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.

It’s no secret times are tough. The cost of living is sky high and cars don’t seem to be getting any cheaper. 

A new year brings a fresh array of vehicles for Australia — but some get us more excited than others.