MG IM5

FIRST DRIVE After focusing on value with great success, MG is moving upmarket with a saloon to rival Tesla’s Model 3

- Alastair Crooks [e-mail]

MG's recent rise has been well documented with the Chinese-owned company now a significant player in the electric-car market. Over the past six years MG has been the second biggest-selling EV maker here in the UK for private retail customers, with only Tesla ahead. Impressive stuff given that MG is also selling petrol and hybrid cars.

Even MG concedes that its rapid growth rate was always going to slow down. However, it still wants to achieve a market share of five per cent (the firm is at four per cent so far in 2025) and to help it grow, it’s looked to its home Chinese market - particularly fellow SAIC-owned brand, IM Motors.

Standing for ‘Intelligence in Motion’, IM Motors was founded in 2020 and has since launched the LS7 and LS6 in China. We saw them at the Geneva Motor Show in 2024 and they have now morphed into the IM6 SUV and this, the new IM5 saloon.

Sitting above MG’s regular model lineup - the MG4 and MGS5 EV - the more premium IM5 is a rival to the Hyundai Ioniq 6, BMW i4, Polestar 2 and Tesla Model 3. And plenty of comparisons were drawn with the latter’s styling when the IM5 was unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Pricing for the IM5 backs up the upmarket aims, with the Standard Range model at £39,450, the Long Range coming in at £44,995, and the Performance range-topper priced at £48,495.

The model lineup is fairly self explanatory. The IM5 Standard Range comes with a 75kWh battery and a 291bhp rear-mounted electric motor for a claimed range of 304 miles. The Long Range gets the larger 100kWh battery and a more powerful 402bhp motor on the rear axle with an outstanding range of 441 miles – five miles more than a Model 3 Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive. The Performance variant gets the same 100kWh battery and a dual-motor setup that lifts power to a bonkers 741bhp, but loses some range, for a 357-mile maximum.