Manufacturers need to get permission to sell each new car in China with a government regulator. Once a month a list of cars approved for sale is published and this comes with important information such as key specifications and pictures. Not surprisingly manufacturers are not very happy with this but usually considerable information has already reached the public by this time anyway. Sometimes, however, there is a complete surprise and this month that car is the MG S5.
A compact all-electric SUV the S5 seems to have taken people by surprise. At the front, the MG S5 has a classic X shape with slender headlights and lower air intake. There is a split grille design at the bottom similar to that of the MG Cyberster. A wave-like line starts on the front wing and makes its way along to the rear of the car. At the rear, there is a through-type tail light and a generally clean look. The car is available with both 17 and 18-inch wheels.
The MG S5 has dimensions of 4476, 1849, and 1621 mm (l/w/h) and the wheelbase is 2730 mm. There are two separate Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) listings. Both show the same rear axle mounted 125 kW TZ180XS0951 electric motor powering the car, and sourced from United Automotive Electronics. Top speed is 170 km/h.
Different weights are given with presumably 1615 kg being the base spec version, and the other listing displaying weights of both 1685 and 1740 kg.
With the higher spec version, the difference between the two given weights may indicate two different-sized battery capacities. All cars use lithium iron phosphate batteries which are assembled by SAIC’s Venture with CATL.
Options include a panoramic roof along with various wheel and mirror options.
SAIC owned MG is this year celebrating its centenary. The MG S5 is likely produced on the same platform as the MG 4 (Mulan), previous reports indicated the platform would be used for a series of electric vehicles. Also, this is the first time MG have used a name beginning with S within China. Earlier this year MG applied the S9 name on a rebadged Rising R7 displayed in Geneva for the European market. It is highly likely that the MG S5 will be exported.
Source: MIIT
Could this be the new MG ZS for European markets?
It slightly bigger than the old model….
Nice to see some Cyberster DNA filtering down to other models, lovely stuff