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Car of the Year Awards 2024: Best electric hot hatch

Hot hatches should make even the most mundane of drives feel magical. However, this ability to entertain shouldn't come at the expense of everyday usability...

Best electric hot hatch

MG 4 XPower

COTY 2024 logo with Motoreasy

Imagine pulling up alongside the ferocious Mercedes-AMG A45 in an innocuous-looking hatchback, waiting for the lights to turn green, flooring the accelerator and – in near-silence – watching the AMG struggle to keep up. This kind of delicious entertainment is available to you in the MG 4 XPower.
 
All that readily distinguishes this undercover dragster from its lesser brethren is a sportier set of wheels and bright covers for the brake calipers. The XPower is no less practical and barely any less comfortable than the roomy regular MG 4 on which it’s based – as a hot hatch should be. As a versatile machine for family use, it runs rings around its only current electric hot hatch rival, the tiny, toy-like Abarth 500e, and it has roughly twice the range.

MG 4 XPower wheel and brakes

It’s true that both the A45 and Audi RS3 corner and stop with far greater composure, but at the MG 4’s price, its shortcomings are forgivable.

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