Covering just over 100,000 miles in two years is a lot for any car, but that’s what happens sometimes with work vehicles. They need to be reliable and cost-efficient, otherwise, they don’t make financial sense. Especially when the work vehicle is used to fix other cars on the road.
A pickup truck probably comes to mind when thinking about road assistance vehicles, but as you can see in the video embedded at the top of this page, published on the James and Kate – The EV Team YouTube channel, a Chinese-made electric station wagon is more than up to the job.
Introducing the MG5, which is known as the Roewe Ei5 in other parts of the world. It’s a battery-powered car made by SAIC Motor in Zhengzhou, China, and sold in the United Kingdom at a pretty attractive price.
The facelifted version starts at £30,995 (about $38,800) and comes with a 61-kilowatt-hour battery pack that enables a WLTP driving range of 326 miles. However, the car in the video is a pre-facelift car that was available with either a 52.5-kWh battery or the same 61.1-kWh unit as the one offered with the facelift.
But battery size is not the topic here. Instead, it’s the pretty impressive reliability of the compact wagon that was used as a work vehicle. After 100,000 miles, you’d expect to see at least something go wrong, but in the case of this particular EV, everything seems to be in very good shape, at least mechanically.
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The battery lost six percent of its capacity due to degradation, which translates to about 14 miles of range, but other than that (and some inevitable scrapes on some plastic bits), the car is still going strong. The seats have been protected by aftermarket covers and look intact, and the mechanical bits show no signs of aging, from the CV axles to the electric motor and reduction gears. No tears, no leaks, nothing.
Even the brake pads, which are usually replaced every 50,000 miles (just a rule of thumb, not based on actual science) on a combustion vehicle, show almost no signs of wear. The man speaking in the video actually has a brand new set of brake pads to compare with the ones that are on the car and the difference is almost nonexistent.
The tires have been replaced several times, but that’s to be expected with every car on the road. All in all, it looks like a pretty robust set of wheels. It’s certainly a far cry from the old perception that Chinese-made cars won’t last too long, compared to Western-made vehicles, at least.
Go ahead and watch the video and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
