Spending a week with the MG Comet EV

The MG Comet EV is a car that caught my attention with its compact dimensions, large glasshouse, and bling green colour. What made me hesitant to ask for the keys to our long-termer was the infamous range anxiety and lack of charging infrastructure across the city. Shortly after, unforeseen circumstances saw me scrambling for the key.

The Comet is a cute, petite car and the city runabouts are where it feels at home. The size alone catches the attention of folks across spectrums, and the Apple Green colour turns this knack up a few more notches. People will come and question you about every possible thing that comes to mind, some even congratulating me on the new purchase! Head tilting, neck-snapping, selfie-clicking, or more, this Comet EV has seen it all.

Now, what better situation to test this EV than over my 50km daily commute to and fro the office, and then through the weekend with friends and family? Don’t let the smaller dimensions fool you from the outside, as this hatch has a fair share of space to offer. The front seats are spacious enough for someone like me with a reasonably healthy build, and then, add to that mix, my colleague Venkat, who is taller than the average Indian, and joins me on the commute every day; you’d understand that we had almost nothing to complain about apart from the lack of shoulder room. The rear seats were utilised on a few occasions, and during one such trip, we checked the versatility of the 50:50 flat folding seats to accommodate our bags and then some more, which it gulped with little to no effort. This feature also proved nifty when handling oversized packages from a ready-to-assemble furniture brand not far away from our office.

The drive is fun too, and being an EV, the oodles of torque available right from the word go has me giggling on multiple occasions, especially if it's in the sport mode. The smoothness due to the lack of gears and the silent drive had my mother impressed, and she now insists on a drive in the Comet more than she ever did before with the car at home.

Initially, saving the charge at all costs was at the forefront when living with the Comet, but that anxiety made a disappearing act faster than I could realise. The Comet EV displays a range of 200km on a full charge, and on multiple runs with a distance of 25km, the juice always retained itself above the 170km range. The accuracy was very well to the point, so much so that I let the battery level reduce to single digits before scouting for a public charger. Roaming around the city over the weekend, meeting friends, and taking my mother for that occasional breeze of fresh air, the Comet did all this without letting me break a sweat when it came to charging.

What did get my goat though was the lack of EV charging infra and then a centralised payment option, and this is an issue across the board in the EV world. Currently, I have to search for a charging station, reach there, check if it is actually working (irrespective of the app’s verification), and then load a certain amount into the particular brand’s wallet. If I’m at another brand the next time, it is back to square one again. Having a centralised payment option or wallet such as UPI will make the experience far more convenient. We tried using the charger at MG’s showroom in Thane on one odd night, but unfortunately, it only has two CCS/SAE plugs and not a single Type 2 charger or 15 Amp socket in sight.

The saving grace though was the cost factor and one such occasion was when the Comet charged from 30-100 per cent and set me back by a mere Rs. 316. Taking into consideration my daily diesel manual car that averages about 15kmpl, the Comet brought down the costs from Rs. 1,500 a week to almost five times lower.

Your wallet and bank account will thank you even more considering that charging at home or your office will be even more affordable than the costs outside, which range between Rs. 15-20 per kWh, again depending on various factors such as charging speed, battery size, and more. The charging time can stretch to about eight hours, but MG has addressed this issue recently by offering an optional fast charger.

The request sensor on the door is hard to find when you’re new, but it becomes muscle memory in a matter of days. This brings me to another interesting feature, which is the kill switch below the steering.

This feature lets me keep the doors open without having to worry about any depletion in the battery. If I had to nitpick one issue, it would be the aero discs that make it difficult to fill air, be it at a shop or by yourself with the help of the air compressor stowed in the boot of every Comet.

The wheel size is 12-inches, and if there is any deviation in the air pressure, you’re bound to feel every single pothole or undulation on the road. Next up, we plan to use the i-Smart connectivity, and the Comet is also scheduled to undergo a service that will give us a fair idea about the annual costs of keeping an EV in top shape.

Pictures by Kapil Angane and Kaustubh Gandhi