New Ora Funky Cat vs MG 4 EV: costs
The MG 4 is currently our favourite small electric car, but is its position under threat from Chinese brand Ora’s new contender?...
Buying and owning
Costs, equipment, reliability, safety and security
The Ora Funky Cat's brochure price is slightly lower than the MG 4 EV's, but consider overall ownership costs and the story is rather different. For starters, that inferior efficiency that we mentioned earlier means the Funky Cat is likely to cost you about £400 more in electricity over three years – and that's assuming you charge up at home. The difference will be even greater if you're using public rapid chargers.
On top of that, the MG 4 is slightly cheaper to insure and is predicted to depreciate at a slower rate, so you should get more of your investment back if you decide to sell after three years. The total saving over three years for cash buyers should work out at around £2000 in the MG 4’s favour.
But what if you want to sign up to a PCP finance agreement? Well, assuming you put down a £4000 deposit and do 10,000 miles a year, the MG 4 will cost you £477 a month over the next 36 months – £21 a month less than you’ll pay for the Funky Cat on the same terms.
All EVs are cheap to run for company car drivers paying benefit-in-kind tax. So, it doesn’t really make a difference which one you choose; as a 40% rate payer, you’ll sacrifice around £21 of your salary every month for either.
The Funky Cat’s peak charging speed of only 64kW means you’ll be waiting for at least 45 minutes for a 10-80% top-up at a public rapid charger. That drops to 34 minutes in the MG 4, despite it having a larger battery, thanks to a maximum charging rate of 135kW (assuming you can find a powerful enough charging point). Charge at home using a typical 7kW wallbox and the Funky Cat will take around 7hr 15min to go from 0-100%, compared with roughly 10 hours for the MG 4.
Both cars were awarded the full five stars for safety by Euro NCAP. However, look a little deeper into the report and you’ll see that the Funky Cat scored higher marks in almost every area. Both cars come with plenty of standard safety kit, including automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance and blindspot monitoring.
Our contenders are well equipped on the luxury front too, coming with adaptive cruise control, keyless entry and LED headlights. However, the MG 4 adds heated front seats and a heated steering wheel – things that aren’t available on the Funky Cat, even as an option.
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