MG IM5 Performance AWD Review: Porsche Taycan Pace for Half the Price?

With 742bhp, four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering and charging speeds that border on the unbelievable, the MG IM5 promises supercar performance for family-car money. Surely there must be a catch?

Let’s get one thing straight right from the outset. This is not the MG you think it is. Forget bargain hatchbacks. Forget sensible family SUVs. Forget everything you know about MG because the IM5 is operating on an entirely different plane. In fact, if somebody covered the badges and asked you to guess what this was, I suspect very few people would say MG. And to be fair it does look generic Chinese EV. But here’s what you need to know: this thing is utterly bonkers.

The car you see here is the MG IM5 Performance AWD. It packs a dual-motor electric powertrain producing 742bhp and 802Nm of torque. It sends that power to all four wheels. It can sprint from 0-62mph in just 3.2 seconds. It sits on an advanced 800-volt architecture capable of charging at up to 396kW. It even has four-wheel steering. And it’s priced at UNDER £50k. The price is £48,995 to be exact.

That’s less than half the cost of a Porsche Taycan GTS, yet the headline performance figures are remarkably similar. Suddenly this car becomes far more interesting than simply another new EV launch.

Sleek, Sophisticated and Surprisingly Handsome

Finished in Nevis Blue, the IM5 is a genuinely handsome machine. Not exciting perhaps, not outrageous, but undeniably elegant.

Like many modern EVs, it has adopted the soap-bar school of design. Everything is smooth, slippery and sculpted by the wind tunnel rather than an artist with an aggressive pencil. The front end is clean and uncluttered, the slim LED lights are neatly integrated and the whole shape prioritises aerodynamic efficiency.

There is enough visual interest here to keep things engaging. The subtle sculpting around the wheel arches, the clever aerodynamic channels around the front corners and the coupe-like roofline, leading into the ducktail rear end, all combine to create something rather smart and sophisticated.

The dimensions certainly help. At nearly five metres long, it occupies proper executive saloon territory. It is sits surprisingly close to Porsche Taycan dimensions. It’s bigger than it looks in photos and videos. Standing next to it, you quickly realise this is a substantial machine.

What it isn’t, however, is visually dramatic. And that creates an interesting contradiction. This car possesses performance figures capable of embarrassing many supercars, yet it looks remarkably restrained. Some buyers will love that understated Q-car character. Others may wish for a little more visual aggression to match the outrageous numbers. I’m in the latter camp.

Practicality with a Premium Twist

Walk around to the rear and you’ll discover this isn’t a traditional saloon. It’s actually a liftback. That means the entire rear section opens to reveal a generous 457-litre luggage compartment. Fold the rear seats and capacity expands to 1,290 litres. There is even a small 18-litre front storage compartment under the bonnet for charging cables and smaller items.

The load floor is slightly higher than ideal, which is hardly surprising given the sizeable battery pack beneath, but overall practicality is strong.

Inside, rear passenger accommodation is similarly impressive. At six-foot-one, I can comfortably sit behind my own driving position with ample knee room and decent headroom despite the sloping roofline. However footspace can be tight. The seat back does recline though. The panoramic glass roof floods the cabin with light and creates an airy atmosphere, although taller passengers may notice their legs sitting slightly higher than expected due to the floor height imposed by the battery pack. Still, for families and business users, there is very little to complain about.

A Rolling Technology Showcase

Step into the cabin and the IM5 reveals its true character. This car is obsessed with technology. Everything from the seating position to the climate control system seems designed to demonstrate what modern software can achieve. Dominating the dashboard is a huge 26.3-inch panoramic display paired with a secondary 10.5-inch touchscreen. The graphics are crisp, the presentation is impressive and the overall effect feels more Silicon Valley than Longbridge.

The equipment levels are frankly ridiculous for the money. Heated seats. Ventilated seats. Memory functions. Heated steering wheel. Wireless charging. A 20-speaker sound system. Ambient lighting. Voice control. Panoramic roof. Double-glazed glass. The list goes on and on.

Then there are the genuinely clever touches. The climate control system, for example, allows you to direct airflow around the cabin using animated air streams on the touchscreen. Instead of manually adjusting vents, you simply drag virtual airflow patterns with your finger. It sounds completely mad until you try it, at which point it becomes strangely satisfying.

There are also customisable shortcuts, configurable displays, multiple driving modes and enough menu options to keep even the most dedicated technology enthusiast occupied for days.

The downside is that there are moments when the IM5 feels like it is trying just a little too hard to impress you. Sometimes you find yourself navigating layers of menus for functions that would traditionally require a simple button press – like adjusting the mirror, or whacking up the bass on the stereo. It’s clever, certainly, but occasionally cleverness comes at the expense of simplicity.

Four-Wheel Steering and Four-Wheel Drive Magic

One of the headline technologies is rear-wheel steering. At low speeds, the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction to the fronts, dramatically reducing the turning circle. The result is remarkable. Despite its considerable size, the IM5 feels surprisingly agile around town. Tight parking manoeuvres, awkward U-turns and narrow urban streets become far less intimidating than you might expect.

At higher speeds, the rear wheels turn in the same direction as the fronts, enhancing stability and improving directional changes. It is one of those features that sounds like marketing fluff until you actually experience it. Then you quickly realise just how much easier it makes everyday driving.

Combined with the four-wheel-drive system, the IM5 feels secure, planted and incredibly capable regardless of conditions.

Performance That Rewrites Expectations

Then we come to the performance. Honestly, it is difficult to overstate just how quick this thing feels.

Most of the time, the IM5 behaves like a perfectly civilised executive saloon. It glides along quietly, rides comfortably and generally goes about its business with remarkable refinement. It doesn’t actually feel that quick in daily driving. But then you suddenly plunge the accelerator properly and it’s like Sulu just engaged Warp speed – with the inertia dampers offline!

The acceleration is brutal. Not excitingly noisy. Not dramatic in the traditional sense. Simply snap-your-neck-back brutal. The scenery starts arriving at your windscreen with alarming urgency. Your head is pinned to the headrest. Your passengers erupt into laughter, panic or both. And then they throw up. The car simply launches itself towards the horizon with a level of violence that feels completely at odds with its calm and sensible appearance.

And yet it remains astonishingly easy to control. There is no wheelspin. No drama. No theatrics. The four-wheel-drive system simply finds grip and deploys all 742 horses with ruthless efficiency. The performance is genuinely supercar-fast.

Charging That Changes the EV Conversation

Then there is the charging. For years, EV ownership has involved a degree of compromise. Range anxiety, lengthy charging stops and route planning have all been part of the experience. The IM5 challenges that narrative.

Its 100kWh battery sits within an 800-volt architecture capable of accepting up to 396kW of DC charging. Under ideal conditions, MG claims a 10-80 per cent charge in just 17 minutes. Having charged the car myself, I can honestly say it is one of the fastest charging EVs I have experienced. Suddenly long-distance electric travel starts to feel genuinely practical. I saw it charging at speeds of 299kW on a 400kW fast charger.

The Performance model offers around 357 miles of WLTP range, while the Long Range variant stretches that to an impressive 441 miles. Those are serious numbers.

So Why Don’t I Quite Love It?

And this is where things become complicated. Because I admire this car enormously. I respect what MG has achieved. I look at the specification sheet and genuinely struggle to understand how they have managed to offer so much performance, technology and capability for less than fifty thousand pounds.

But admiration and love are not always the same thing. The IM5 dazzles your brain. It impresses your rational side. It overwhelms you with numbers, technology and capability.

Yet it never quite captures your heart. The steering feels competent rather than communicative. The handling is secure rather than playful. The electronics sometimes feel slightly overprotective. The car is incredibly capable, but insulates you from any modicum of over-excitement. Essentially it appeals to the brain, not the heart.

Verdict

MG has done it again. They’ve come up with a stand-out EV. In any other world, an ‘ordinary’ family saloon that can accelerate this fast would grab all the headlines and become the stuff of legend in years to come. But EVs have rewritten the rules, and a near three second acceleration time is not the shocker it once would have been.

Nonetheless, MG IM5 Performance AWD is one of the most fascinating cars I’ve driven this year. It offers astonishing performance, impressive practicality, extraordinary charging capability, huge levels of equipment and a genuinely premium cabin, all for a price that seems almost impossible to believe.

No, it isn’t perfect. The technology can occasionally overwhelm. The driving experience lacks emotional sparkle. And the styling perhaps doesn’t fully communicate the madness lurking beneath the surface.

Yet none of those criticisms change the bigger picture. This is not merely a good MG. This is a genuinely good electric car. And I genuinely wanted to fall in love with it, even if ultimately I could not. Perhaps the most remarkable thing of all is that comparing an MG with a Porsche Taycan no longer sounds ridiculous. It sounds entirely reasonable. That should make a lot of established manufacturers very nervous indeed.

---

If you found this useful, interesting or fun, consider supporting me via Patreon, Ko-Fi, or even grabbing a copy of one of my books on Amazon. Every bit helps me keep creating independent automotive content that actually helps people.

BrownCarGuy Books!

Support independent car journalism 🙏🏽☺️ grab my books on Amazon, take up membership to BrownCarGuy on YouTube, or join me on Ko-Fi or Patreon.

👉🏽 Channel membership: https://www.youtube.com/browncarguy/join
👉🏽 Buy me a Coffee! https://ko-fi.com/browncarguy
👉🏽 Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/BrownCarGuy

MY BOOKS ON AMAZON!
📖 Silent Ruin – A Jamshed Khan Thriller. This international espionage novel is an action-packed page-turner!
📖 Want to become an automotive journalist, content creator, or car influencer? Check out my book: How to be an Automotive Content Creator
📖 Quantum Races – A collection of my best automotive sci-fi short stories!
📖 The ULEZ Files – Debut novel – all-action thriller!
https://browncarguy.com/2026/04/15/browncarguy-books/