The new HS shares many of its visual cues with the new MG 3 hybrid supermini, including slimmer headlights and a revised front grille. Changes at the rear introduce a new light bar and reworked bumpers.
MG offers the HS with five colours: black, white, grey, silver and red. That famous octagonal badge moves from the centre of the grille onto the bonnet and takes on a more flattened look, in line with the brand’s new design ethos.
The car is 30mm lower but 26mm longer and 14mm wider than its predecessor, while its wheelbase has increased by 45mm to 2756mm. In the metal, it look more like a natural rival for Skoda Kodiaq or Peugeot 5008 than the cars from the segment below against which it’s priced, although MG doesn’t offer a seven-seat version.
Under the bonnet sits either a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine with 168bhp and 203lb ft of torque or an improved plug-in hybrid powertrain. The latter uses an enlarged 24.7kWh battery, a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine, a 207bhp primary electric drive motor and a second starter-generator, for total system outputs of 295bhp and 258lb ft. Like the smaller ZS Hybrid+, it drives primarily through its electric motor, and when it’s running, its engine connects to the front wheels through a two-speed automatic gearbox. On paper, it can hit 62mph in 6.8sec.
However, the key selling point of the PHEV is its electric range of 75 miles, which puts rivals including the Kuga, Tucson and Kia Niro to shame, because all offer fewer than 45 miles.
A mild-hybrid petrol HS is also due at the start of 2025.
MG expects the pure-petrol model to be the biggest seller in the UK, but with numbers like those, the PHEV shouldn’t be far behind.
