The Comet is MG's Citroen Ami
What’s MG to you? Quintessential English two-seat sportscars, a former speed record holder, occasional Le Mans trier, purveyor of rebadged go-faster saloons, past BTCC champions, maker of bargain battery SUVs – few marques are as eclectic. But now MG is about to stand for something different again with a whole new generation of young car-buyers in the world’s third-largest car market. It’s the first MG microcar.
This is it, it's called the Comet EV and it launched in India this week as the country’s cheapest new electric car. Tinier even than MG’s previous smallest car – the MG Metro, remember that? – it has some design appeal, but overall is nowhere near as cool as the Citroen Ami urban EV that provides the blueprint for cars in this class.
Maybe India’s city-dwelling Gen Z’ers aren’t quite as designer fussy. It's no work of art perhaps, but it is undeniably cleverly packaged – two doors, four seats and some luggage space in a body under three metres long which is not much longer than a Smart ForTwo.
Like the Ami, it’s powered by a tiny motor with just 40PS (30kW) but a handy 110lb-ft (150Nm) of pulling power to ensure it can cope four-up. In fairness, the four in question would likely have to be pretty trim. The cabin has a clean and simple layout and offers the digital essentials via a big touchscreen; what the cabin surely cannot offer is much room for larger folk.
Equally like the Ami, the battery is tiny and so is the range. The 17kWh cells are good for 143 miles on India’s test cycle. No surprise it is pitched in India merely as an urban runaround.
While the Comet EV is India’s cheapest new electric car at 798,000 rupees, the word from the street is that it is not quite as cheap as its young buyers were hoping for. It still undercuts its electric microcar rival from market leader Tata and is still expected to be a big hit, chiefly in India but also in its home country of China and the other markets around the world where it will be offered.
Will the UK be among them? At that Indian price, the equivalent of £7800, it costs the same after all as the two-seat-only Citroen Ami. But the chances of this Comet landing here are pretty remote, despite MG’s storming success in recent years with cheap and cheerful electric SUVs and hatchbacks.
The Comet is likely seen as just too cheap and cheerful in the marque’s centenary year when other sportier fish to fry include the Cyberster electric sports car. So probably not one for us, but in response to the question, “What’s the unlikeliest car you could ever expect to see the famous octagon badge on?” we do now at least have an answer.
MG
Comet
