This hot hatch accelerates at a pace that’s unheard of for its price

The MG4 XPower is the most powerful MG-badged road car. Ever. It is based on – and visually almost identical to – the brand’s value-for-money and fun-to-drive MG4 electric hatch. However, it combines a rest-to-100 km/h time of 3.8 seconds and a purchase price from $59,990 plus on-road costs.

That sort of acceleration at that sort of price doesn’t otherwise exist. Not on four wheels, anyway.

A pair of electric motors, one powering the front wheels, the other the rear, provide the fireworks. Total maximum output is 320 kW and 600 Nm, and using the launch control gives you a chirp from all four tyres and a serious shove in the back.

Many will like the Q ship aesthetic; the interior and exterior are very restrained with no silly stripes, decals, oversized wings, arcade game instrumentation or scream-at-you boy racer graphics. But since the hot hatch market is to some extent built on all of the above, that may not be a plus in the marketplace. There’s a small concession with bright orange calipers on the ventilated discs fitted front and rear.

The XPower has a Dynamic Cornering Control system allowing torque vectoring on both axles. It also has stiffer suspension and sharper steering than lesser MG4s. More power goes aft than fore to give a rear-wheel-drive feel. Inside, there is flasher upholstery than the standard car, with suede-like insets in the leather-like seats.

The 64 kWh battery will charge at up to 150 kW and give a range of 400 kilometres when full. Other bonuses include a seven-year warranty, a known badge (albeit one that has moved house from England to China), and solid if unremarkable build quality.

That 3.8-second acceleration time compares rather well with the 4.2 seconds of a Porsche 911 Carrera, a car which is nearly five times dearer. That’s in a straight line of course, and you’d back the Porsche through any sequence of corners.