MG S5 EV vs Renault Scenic

The Renault Scenic costs £5,500 more than the MG S5 EV. For that premium it adds 94 miles more WLTP range and 92 litres more boot space. The MG S5 EV is not just cheaper - it also offers a 1.6s quicker 0-62mph time. On EVcarsguide's combined category scores, the MG S5 EV comes out ahead overall.

The MG S5 EV is £5,500 cheaper to buy. Running costs are almost identical - about £168 a year either way, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the MG S5 EV comes out roughly £5,580 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 208 miles for the MG S5 EV and 274 miles for the Renault Scenic - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The Renault Scenic goes roughly 66 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 28 minutes in the MG S5 EV and 37 in the Renault Scenic, so the MG S5 EV loses less time at each stop. So the Renault Scenic stops less often while the MG S5 EV stops for less time - pick on which you would rather do.

The two are within 15 mm on width, so neither is meaningfully easier to thread into a tight space. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 551 mm of total clearance for the MG S5 EV and about 536 mm of total clearance for the Renault Scenic. The MG S5 EV also turns in a 0.4 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 84% battery health for the MG S5 EV and 84% for the Renault Scenic. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use NMC-type cells, so for daily use keep the charge limit near 80% to slow degradation. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.