What MG is coming for next: Sub-$40k Chinese EV hatchback confirmed to tempt you out of a Toyota Corolla Hybrid

MG is set to take on the Toyota Corolla Hybrid, with the brand working on an all-new EV hatchback intended to rattle the Japanese giant's cage. 

While details remain thin on the ground, for now, it's not thought to be the MG5,  which is also coming to Australia. Instead, the brand is promising its new vehicle will ride on a bespoke EV platform, will be offered in BEV guise only, and will seriously undercut the all-electric competition in Australia. 

"There will be a hatchback electric vehicle. It will be below $40,000 .It will be 2022 or 2023, and it will be Corolla-sized. It will just be EV," says MG Aus and NZ CEO Peter Ciao.

It will form part of a new EV push for the Chinese brand, with its executives promising its electric vehicles will as close to a like-to-like alternative to a ICE cars as possible.

It starts with the just-launched ZS EV, which is just $40,990, or $43,990 drive-away. That’s less than we were expecting, given the brand had invited deposits on the all-electric SUV at $46,990 drive-away, with the brand largely expected to match that figure when the vehicle arrived in Australia.

Today’s pricing announcement, then, undercuts that sum by more than $3000, and undercuts its EV rivals by even more. The Nissan Leaf, for example, is $49,990 plus on-road costs, and the Hyundai Ioniq EV is $48,970. The closest competitor, size wise, is the Hyundai Kona Electric, which starts at $60,740.

For reference, the top-spec Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid is listed at $34,695.

“People will love electric vehicles, if they have the opportunity to drive them at a normal price," Mr Ciao says. "You can’t push people to have this product, but it’s an additional $20,000. You can’t do that. You need to say it’s the same price, but a much better product."