Volvo S60 vs MG Im5

What's the difference?

The Volvo S60 Recharge Black Edition proves sedans can still be sexy and an excellent family car, providing your family is on the smaller side. I only have one kid, so it's perfect for our activities and gear. It’s wonderful to drive and has a great features list but it's not without its quirks.

My son thinks it looks cool, and we enjoyed bellowing out a few renditions of the original Batman theme song this week. He has had a lot of comfort in the back seat, too.

The MG IM5 Performance is fast, comfortable, quiet and super refined. Putting some minor spec and active safety niggles to one side, it offers the features, tech and price to match it with its well-credentialled and already popular mid-size EV sedan competitors. Is there room for one more? We think there should be.

The S60 Black Edition nails it on design. It sports a handsome and sleek shape that manages to look sporty and elegant. It's exactly what you expect a luxury sedan to look like.

My seven-year old dubbed this the Batmobile, and for good reason, every accent is black!

The grille, badge and 19-inch five-spoke alloys look aggressive against the 'Hammer of Thor' LED headlights and make this design look hot.

You better like black paintwork, though, as that is the only choice for this variant.

The interior hasn’t seen any changes for the 2025 model and it seems Volvo is streamlining most of its interiors to look the same.

You could find this dashboard in most of its cars, which is fine because it’s a good-looking treatment full of soft-touchpoints and high-quality materials. But there’s also nothing that sets the Black Edition apart from its stablemates. It would be nice to see a point of difference.

The dashboard is headlined by the 9.0-inch touchscreen multimedia system and a 12-inch digital instrument cluster. You have some other nice focal points in the large sunroof and massive air-vents, which add some interest to the dash.

Overall, it’s a pleasant interior but maybe not as fun as some of its rivals.

Playing spot the straight line on the outside of the MG IM5 is like an automotive design version of Where’s Wally? There aren’t many, in the midst of an unrelentingly curvaceous exterior treatment.

At close to five metres long and two metres wide the IM5 is appreciably longer (+211mm), a little wider (+27mm) and a bit taller (+33mm) than a Tesla Model 3. Think BMW 5 Series in terms of overall size.

And the soft-form shape is functional; the swoopy liftback boasting an ultra-slick 0.24 drag coefficient.

That said, I’m not convinced by the ‘Periscopic’ cameras informing the driver assistance systems from the front guards. They scream tacked-on afterthought. But a touch-only initial opening function for the flush door handles is cool and makes life easier.

The curves continue inside with soft-padded surfaces around the dash and doors, but the straight edge obviously came out for the 10.5-inch central media screen and vast 26.3-inch upper display. There are next to no buttons; even exterior mirror adjustment is directed from the screen to a multi-function steering wheel control.

System software (powered by a Qualcomm ‘Snapdragon’ chip) is lightning fast with a two-finger up and down swipe shortcut function on the central screen for ventilation and other functions.

The interior is light and bright thanks to the enormous panoramic sunroof. It’s been fine in cooler winter conditions during this test but it could be interesting to revisit in the heat of an Aussie summer

There are two interior colour schemes available - the ‘Highland Grey’ of our test car or ‘Dover Beige’ for those brave enough to live life with the threat of scuff marks on your shiny new car’s glamorous but vulnerably light interior.

The cabin of the S60 is fairly practical with the front row feeling spacious for my 168cm height. It’s a low car, so if your knees squeak you might find it annoying to get in and out of!

The comfort of the front seats cannot be understated. They feature a two-position memory function, lumbar- and side-bolster adjustments and under-thigh extenders. Plus, with the heat and ventilation functions, you’ll look forward to a long journey.

Because of the sloping roofline, it’s a bit awkward to get in and out of the back seat but once you’re in there is a stack of room (behind my driving position) and the outboard seats hug you into position, so you don’t move around in corners.

Seats are comfy for long journeys and outboarders enjoy heat functionality, too. The pillar-mounted directional air vents are super practical and the hardened kickplates are a godsend for parents with wildlings like my son, who seem to want to put their feet on everything.

The transmission tunnel is massive, though, so keep the middle seat reserved for kids only.

Up front, individual storage isn’t as great as you might hope for with the glove box being the largest cubby on offer. The middle console is literally a tray and it doesn't fit my iPhone 15 Pro Max (I have a thin case, as well!).

There's no centre console storage aside from the two cupholders, and this variant misses out on a wireless charging pad, so my phone and 'bits' have been shoved into the cupholders or on the passenger seat, which is a tad annoying. The storage bins in each door feature a small drink bottle holder but are, again, shallow.

Individual storage is a bit better in the rear with two net map pockets, two large cupholders in the fold-down arm rest, as well as a drink bottle holder in each storage bin. 

Technology is well-rounded and the multimedia system (powered by Android Automotive) is easy to use, but curiously you don’t get Android Auto in this model!

You do get a bunch of built-in apps like Google Maps and Spotify. There's wired Apple CarPlay and satellite navigation, too.

You get a head-up display and the digital instrument cluster looks high-end with its graphics and shows your sat nav directions, which is always handy.  

Charging options throughout are good with two USB-C ports in each row, while the front also gets a 12-volt socket.

The boot is slightly smaller compared to its rivals at 427L thanks to the electric components but it is still well-sized for my grocery run and it’s not too difficult to grab things that slide to the back.

You get a 'tyre mobility kit' (rather than a physical spare) underneath the floor and I like the way you can hang the home charging cable bag out of the way. 

The Black Edition has a hands-free tailgate which is operated by a kick-function. But you don’t have an electric button on the lid and the kick-function didn’t always work to close it! That said, the lid isn’t heavy, so it’s nothing to split hairs over.

There’s plenty of breathing room up front and in terms of storage one of the first things worth calling out are the long but relatively narrow door bins. No good for anything above unusually slender bottles, even if they’re lying down.

No conventional glove box in the dash, but there is a large lidded box (cooled and heated) between the seats that doubles as a centre armrest. It’s supplemented by a big stowage area underneath the flying buttress style centre console.  

There are two cupholders in the centre console as well as a wireless device charging pad in front of them with a vaguely phone-shaped oddments bin alongside it.  

Move to the rear and the IM5’s 75mm wheelbase advantage over the Tesla Model 3 is clear. Heaps of knee and headroom for me at 183cm sitting behind the driver’s seat set to my position. 

But… the seat sits low which pushes your knees up into the air to the point where my thighs are not contacting the seat cushion. Even though the rear seat reclines to a certain degree it’s a problem compounded by a chronic lack of room for your toes under the front seat. Awkward.

There are map pockets in the front seatbacks, modest bins in the doors and a fold-down centre armrest with two cupholders. Adjustable ventilation in the rear of the front centre console always makes life in the rear seat more pleasant.

The car also houses ‘Strong Magnets’ at various points around the cabin and boot, with a configurable adapter able to lock a phone or tablet into place for the entertainment of, in our case, back seaters. 

Speaking of devices for entertainment, there are two USB-C sockets and a 12-volt outlet in the front and another USB-C and 12V in the back, so charging isn’t an issue. 

The IM5 is a liftback so the boot aperture is generous and a capacity of 457 litres with the rear seats up is decent for a car of this size, although that’s less than the Tesla Model 3 (594L) which has an additional well under the floor. 

Still, enough room for the largest (124L) and smallest (36L) suitcases from the CarsGuide three-piece luggage set with some room to spare.

The power tailgate can be operated hands-free via the key or an always welcome under bumper kick function.

Volume expands to 1290 litres with the rear seats folded and there’s a modest 18-litre ‘frunk’ under the bonnet.

The bad news is a repair-inflator kit rather than a physical spare wheel, but the better news is the IM5 Performance can tow a 1500kg braked trailer (750kg unbraked).

The IM range also features the ‘MG iSmart’ app allowing remote control of various functions including charging, checking vehicle location and route planning. 

At $80,990, drive-away, the IM5 Performance sits at the top of a three-grade line-up that starts with a 75kWh RWD Premium model at $60,990, followed by a mid-spec 100kWh RWD Platinum for $69,990, both drive-away.

Its most prominent competitor is arguably the Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor AWD ($80,900), with others including the BYD Seal Performance AWD ($68,798), Hyundai Ioniq 6 AWD Epiq ($86,500) and Polestar 2 Long Range Dual Motor Performance ($80,380).

Worth noting, too, the IM6 range - essentially the same car with a taller SUV body - has the same model walk-up and identical pricing.

Once you’ve crossed the $80K threshold it’s fair to expect a decent basket of standard fruit and aside from the dynamic and safety features we’ll get to shortly, the IM5 Performance comes to the party.

Highlights include a double-glazed panoramic roof, power-adjustable (12-way driver, six-way passenger) heated and ventilated front seats (also heated in the rear), dual-zone climate control, 20-speaker audio (with digital radio), 256 colour ambient lighting, a power tailgate (with hands-free function) and 20-inch alloy rims.

There’s also adaptive cruise control, a heated steering wheel, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, LED headlights, keyless entry and start, wireless device charging (50W), a 10.5-inch central control screen and a sweeping 26.3-inch upper screen; the right side for instrumentation and car data, the (touch-sensitive) left side for multimedia and other onboard functions.

There’s more and it’s clear this car at least matches or betters its direct competitors for included equipment.

The S60 Recharge Black Edition’s plug-in hybrid powertrain features a 2.0-litre, turbo-petrol, four-cylinder engine and an electric motor that combine to produce 340kW of power and 709Nm of torque.

It has serious kick and can do a 0-100km/h sprint time of just 4.5-seconds. The eight-speed auto transmission is smooth as silk and creates a refined on-road driving experience.

The MG IM5 Performance is powered by an electric motor on each axle - the rear (372kW/500Nm) more powerful than the front (200kW/300Nm), for overall outputs of 572kW (that’s close to 770hp) and 802Nm of pulling power.

The official term for that amount of grunt is… a lot. And we’ll get to what it means on the road in the Driving section shortly.

The official combined cycle fuel consumption figure is an extremely low 1.4L/100km and I did two economy tests this week covering a healthy mix of open-road and urban driving.

Charging it every day for four days, gave me a real-world usage of 3.8L/100km and charging it once in three days gave me a trip readout of 5.6L/100km.

The PHEV powertrain has proven itself economical whether you dedicate yourself to the charging or not, so that’s pretty good.

The Black Edition features a Type 2 port for AC charging, but it can’t be hooked up to a DC fast charger.

This doesn't worry me because even on a standard domestic house socket you can charge the 19kWh battery from 0-100 per cent in just five hours, which is pretty fast for a PHEV.

You also get up to 90km of WLTP-rated pure electric driving range in this, which is good for a plug-in.

The MG IM5 Performance features an 800-volt electrical architecture which means the 100kWh NCM battery can accept a DC peak charge of close to 400kW.

Only snag is the highest you’ll currently find in Australia is 350kW. But even at that rate you’ll still be looking at a 30-80 per cent charge in just over 15 minutes. Maximum AC charge rate is 11kW.

Claimed range is 575km (WLTP) which is less than the Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor AWD at 629km.

Over a week of city, suburban and some freeway running we saw average energy use of 20.6kWh/100km which is on the high side for an EV of this size but maybe not for one with this kind of performance potential. 

A lot of people think driving a Volvo means it’s stately or boring. Get in the Black Edition and it will change your mind.

The power it has is awesome and the pick-up will blow your hair back. Power delivery feels effortless.

The firm suspension and steering provide great road feedback and dynamic handling. While the suspension is firm, the comfort in the cabin is high and you don’t wince going over a pothole. The cabin is very quiet which makes it feel refined, too, even at higher speeds.

You do feel a bit low when you’re sitting next to a big SUV at lights but visibility is pretty good with the wide windows and pillars that don’t get in the way.

I've been precious about going over speed bumps or exiting a ramp, because it's easy to scrape underneath the nose as the S60 sits quite low. But on a whole it's pretty easy to park.

The 360-degree view camera system is clear and has a birds-eye and reversing view but I'd like to see both feeds pop up at the same time. It's easy enough to flit between the views when needed.

First things first, the IM5 Performance is supercar fast. This 2.3-tonne five-seater blazes from 0-100km/h 3.2 seconds and with its dual motors combining to produce 572kW/802Nm, eye-widening performance always resides underneath your right foot.

But it’s not all about straight line speed. Ride comfort is excellent. Underpinned by an all-new platform, the IM5’s suspension is by double wishbones at the front and multi-links at the rear. But the key to its bump and rut smoothing ability is air suspension and ‘continuous control’ active damping.

Fold in double-glazing on the full-length glass roof and side windows, as well as active noise cancellation and you have a serene interior environment at any speed. Also worth noting the front seats are great; as grippy as they are comfortable.

Not only that, despite its relative heft, this mid-sizer steers well, too. Not the last word in road feel but it points accurately and the standard rear steering helps with prompt (but never jerky) cornering turn-in. Flick to ‘Sport’ mode and the IM5 is up for some enthusiastic running.

The rear wheels can turn up to 12 degrees in the opposite direction to the fronts at slow speed, which makes for a usefully tight 10-metre turning circle. But above that, at lesser angles, it adds extra stability and decisiveness in the way the car steers through even tight, twisty sections.

Rubber is top-shelf Pirelli P Zeros on 20-inch alloys (245/40 fr - 275/35 rr) and it grips hard, especially in the wet weather over much of the test period. Braking is solid, as it needs to be, with ventilated discs all around and four-piston callipers at the front. 

No adjustable regen braking but you can feel the ‘Cooperative Regenerative Brake System’ (CRBS) doing its thing when you lift off the accelerator. 

The physical rear view is modest thanks to the slope of the back window reducing its functional area for the driver to that of a 1950s VW Beetle. Even the interior rear-view mirror is tiny and folds up into a recess in the headliner if you’d prefer life without it.

But that’s where a rear camera view popping up on the upper screen display (accessed via the right-hand steering wheel click control) comes in handy. Side camera views are also available as is a 360-degree overhead view, which makes parking straightforward.

If you need more parking help there are various self-parking modes including a nifty ‘Curbside’ function that will realign the car hands-free if you’re parallel parked too far out from the kerb.

In a similar vein, a ‘Rainy Night’ mode projects left and right rear views onto the main screen using AI to enhance clarity and highlight pedestrians and cars.

Overall the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) are relatively unobtrusive but we found ourselves switching off the incessant overspeed chime that sounds for 10 seconds if you creep over the indicated speed limit, even when the system has misfired on the correct speed. For example, 40km/h school zones on a Sunday.

The over-zealous driver distraction warning also occasionally issued a visual and audible slap on the wrist when I was looking straight ahead. Tellingly, there’s a specific quick screen for turning both these functions off, but it kinda defeats the purpose of having them in the first place.

We also found the adaptive cruise control to be hesitant in multi-lane environments, reducing speed occasionally because the system seemingly believed a car was set to merge, when it wasn’t.

No independent ANCAP safety assessment at this point but there’s a full suite of active safety tech onboard including AEB, lane departure warning, blind spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert & braking, forward collision warning, lane-change assist, tyre pressure monitoring and heaps more. And we touch on how it all operates in the Driving section above.

There are no less than nine HD cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors and three millimetre-wave radars on duty.

If a crash is unavoidable there are seven airbags including full-length side curtains and a front centre bag. Multi-collision brake also minimises the chances of subsequent impacts after an initial crash. There are also three top tether points and three ISOFIX child seats anchors across the second row.

All right on the pace for this part of the market and the IM5’s competitive set.

The S60 comes with a five-year/unlimited km warranty, which is a normal term for the class.

You can pre-purchase either a three- or five-year servicing plan and the three-year plan costs $1750, while the five-year plan costs a flat $3000 or an average of $600 per service, which is reasonable.

Servicing intervals sit at every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs first.

The MG IM5 Performance is covered by a seven-year/unlimited km warranty, which is a plus, but the catch is it’s conditional on authorised dealer servicing. Go elsewhere and the term drops to a more common five years/unlimited km. The drive battery is covered for eight years/160,000km, which is the norm in the Aussie market

Servicing is required every 12 months or 20,000km with charges averaging $586 per workshop visit for the first five years, which is on the high side for an EV, even at this price point, the average bumped up by a more than $1400 doozy at year four.

MG IM models are sold (with service available) through all of MG’s 100-plus dealerships across the country, so no concerns there.