A Chinese brand that manages to beat a German brand on its playing field is quite rare. The MG4 is definitely a formidable conquest model for MG. It puts serious obstacles in the way of local electric car manufacturers.
MG4 and Volkswagen ID.3 remained neck and neck for several months in Europe. Except that according to Jato’s registration data from November 30, the MG4 ended up winning the duel in October. The trend is probably not about to reverse with the closures of the factory producing the Volkswagen ID.3, as well as its cousin the Cupra Born.
The slight restyling of the Volkswagen ID.3 in the middle of the year was not enough to relaunch the model, whose sales are running out of steam in the face of increasingly developed competition.
A still close match in Europe
With the statistics for the month of September, it was possible to observe that the MG4 had already considerably reduced the gap with Volkswagen’s compact sedan. The Chinese model was only a few copies away from overtaking the ID.3. This is now done in the automobile market data for October 2023:
| Model | Accumulated registration in September 2023 | Accumulated registration in October 2023 | Vehicles registered in October |
|---|---|---|---|
| MG4 | 50,277 | 56,669 | +6,326 |
| Volkswagen ID.3 | 50,591 | 54,487 | +3,891 |
The Volkswagen ID.3 remained well above the MG4 until May, when the Chinese model hit its cruising speed and overtook the German. The renewal of the ID.3, to incorporate a slight exterior facelift, but above all several changes to the interior, does not seem to have really convinced buyers at the moment. The ID.3 had a jump in the European statistics in August. More than the renewal of the model, it is probably the change in German subsidies planned for the month of September which caused a small boost in deliveries.
To think that a year ago, the MG4 did not even appear in the 20 best-selling electric car models in Europe. What progress, when in October the MG4 placed in 4th place behind the two Teslas (Model Y and Model 3) and the Skoda Enyaq. The Volkswagen ID.3 only finished in 13th place in October, behind even the Cupra Born. The only consolation for Volkswagen is that the brand is still doing better than the Renault Mégane e-tech which is also struggling to find its audience in Europe.
A huge gap in France between the two models
If the difference is only a few hundred copies between the two models at European level (28 countries), in France the difference is much clearer.
The MG4 thus ranks 6th place in the ranking of electric cars for the cumulative period from January to November 2023. The model has sold 15,934 copies, and the month of December should further widen the gap. For its part, the ID.3 only appears in 13th place with only 4,324 cars registered since the start of the year.
Changes to the rules for awarding the 2024 bonus could once again reduce the difference between the two models in France. This still remains to be verified, because with its unique pricing positioning, MG could continue to disrupt the sales of historic European manufacturers, even without state aid.
Volkswagen in a complicated situation facing falling demand
We must not forget that the Volkswagen ID.3 has nevertheless accumulated a lead of a few years over MG4. The German model has already been registered in more than 180,000 copies in Europe between 2020 and 2022. This can also explain why the Chinese model benefits from the appeal of novelty, while the ID.3 is slipping a little. after three years of marketing. Volkswagen still suffered from the price positioning of its ID.3 compared to the competition.
Unfortunately, it is a little early in the vehicle’s life cycle for demand to fall. This slowdown nevertheless remains bad news for Volkswagen, which has bet heavily on its ID electric range, and must take fairly drastic measures to close production at factories dedicated to electric cars.
The ID.4 is now the German group’s best-selling electric model with 71,318 units sold in 2023, ahead of the Skoda Enyaq, the Audi Q4 e-tron and the ID.3.
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