MG’s roaring success in Australia and the UK is the basis for the brand confirming it will produce the upmarket Marvel R electric SUV in right-hand drive, although we’re waiting on confirmation locally.
MG will launch the replacement version of the upmarket Marvel R in right-hand drive after restricting the current model to left-hand-drive European markets only, the brand has confirmed.
For now, it has only been announced in the UK, but very similar sales numbers in Australia make it a strong contender for a local introduction.
No details about the new model have been released, but it’s expected to be built on the same modular electric underpinnings as the new MG 4. The architecture, called the Modular Scalable Platform (MSP), can accommodate a range of battery sizes up to 150kWh and also facilitate battery swapping.
The current Marvel R is the brand’s halo model. In European markets, it costs up to €48,015 (AUD$74,000) for the dual-motor Performance version producing 213kW.
The decision not to build a right-hand-drive version of the current Marvel R was made before MG sales rose significantly in both the UK and Australia. MG clocked 38,891 sales in Australia to the end of October in 2022 – hardly that far behind the UK’s 43,061 sales in the same period.
The decision to sell the new Marvel R in the UK, which has confirmed the model, came after MG sales for both EVs and combustion-engine cars skyrocketed. “Tragically, if we did have Marvel R now, we could probably have sold 6000-7000 this year,” said UK commercial director Guy Pigounakis.
The replacement for the Marvel R is “a completely different car”, according to Pigounakis, although he didn’t go into more detail.
MG parent company SAIC is reportedly planning 14 vehicles based on the MSP electric platform, with the MSP platform likely to replace electric models such as the ZS EV small SUV. No timing was given for the replacement for the Marvel R, but the new model is expected before 2025.
Nick Gibbs