MG returns to Ireland with an electric crossover

MG is coming back to Ireland after an absence of 15 years, thanks to the Frank Keane Group.

MG, still probably best known for its sports cars of the 1950s and 1960s, died along with Rover when the ill-fated MG Rover Group collapsed in 2005. It was a long, slow, occasionally embarrassing death following BMW’s sell-off of its British brands in 2000, but Chinese car maker Nanjing saw enough value in the MG badge to snap up the rights.

Since when, and following a merger with the Shanghai Auto Industrial Corporation (SAIC), MG has been making a tentative European comeback, mostly in the UK, but now back on our shores too.

Frank Keane Group has taken on the distributorship, and sales will kick off in November with the MG ZS EV crossover.

The ZS is an electric car, with a 44.5kWh battery and a claimed WLTP range of some 262km — rather less than some rivals, but it’s playing the bigger-car (but smaller battery) for your cash card. Prices for the ZS start from €28,995.

It will be followed in the next few months by the MG 5 EV Sportswagon estate, which comes with a bigger 52.4kWh battery and a claimed WLTP range of 345km, and the MG HS mid-size SUV which has a plugin-hybrid powertrain, which claims a 51km electric range and CO2 emissions of 43g/km.

Gerard Rice, Managing Director of the newly-formed MG Motor Ireland, stated: “We are excited to be appointed as the distributor partner for MG Motor in Ireland for their range of electric vehicles. MG is the fastest growing mainstream car brand in the UK in 2020 and is growing rapidly across Europe with sales already in full flow in a number of markets and other countries will follow very soon. We are currently working hard to select the MG Motor retailers for the Irish market to join us on this exciting and electric journey.”

If nothing else, in the context of all else that is happening in 2020, it’s rather refreshing to see someone have the confidence to launch a new (well, new-old) brand into the Irish car market.