Within India’s electric car segment, there are multiple players. Some are former dominators but have lost major market share and some are on their journey to be the country’s best-selling electric car brand. JSW MG Motor India falls in the latter category and has found great success with Windsor EV, which is already India’s best-selling electric car.
Improving on their offering further, MG has just launched Windsor EV Pro, which is a, well, a Pro version of Windsor EV. We experienced this vehicle as part of the national media drive organised by MG Motor. While it is vastly familiar, Windsor EV Pro addresses some of the shortcomings that media and buyers expressed with Windsor. After driving this vehicle across Assam and Meghalaya, here’s what we think about this new EV.
MG Windsor Pro First Drive Review
We should start with the pricing, as they have been announced already. MG’s introductory prices have ended as the first 8,000 bookings came well within a day. MG Windsor Pro has been priced at Rs 18.1 lakh (Ex-sh) without BaaS pricing and Rs 13.09 lakh + Rs 4.5 per km with BaaS pricing with battery as a rental service.
There are three new colours with Windsor Pro – Celadon Blue, Glaze Red and Aurora Silver. Of these three, Glaze Red is likely to garner a lot of bookings as it looked quite eye-candy. Windsor Pro gets a new design for the 18-inch alloy wheels that looks like it could be lighter than what is offered with Windsor. Another change with Windsor Pro is an ADAS badge in Red highlights.
Design changes
Where design is concerned, those are the only changes and Windsor Pro continues to smite buyers with its premium flair and roomy silhouette. It is still the same size too. The only other exterior change is that it now gets an electrically operated tailgate which ups the premium quotient providing access to its massive boot. Other than this, it is virtually identical to Windsor, which you might already be familiar with.
Even on the inside, there are no real changes other than the fact that it now gets Black and Ivory dual-tone upholstery. Even though Ivory upholstery is hard to keep clean, it is a welcome change as it makes the cabin look and feel roomier and adds a flair of sophistication too. The new Ivory shade and Windsor’s Infinity View glass roof transforms lend an airy feel.
Other features continue to be the same on the inside, which is not a bad thing. The 2,700 mm long wheelbase carves out a lot of room for all occupants and rear seats still recline up to 135 degrees for a lounge-like experience. This cabin is ergonomic and it is well thought out. It gets soft-touch plastics, a floating centre console with storage and premium touches for AC vent knobs, power window switches and many more.
The 15.6-inch free-standing infotainment screen is still slick to use and controls almost all the vehicular functions including headlights, ventilated seat controls and a lot more. Once you get used to it, the circular pod controls on steering wheel, infotainment screen and instrument cluster all feel like second nature and the learning curve is not that steep.
Added Pro Features
Main addition in terms of technology is not V2L (Vehicle to Load) or V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle), but it is the Level-2 ADAS suite. This was one of the main feedbacks with the Windsor EV, which MG has worked on rather quickly. MG, as a brand, is known for its advances in ADAS suite in Indian car market and democratising it for the masses.
Now, Windsor Pro has autonomous features like auto emergency braking, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, auto high beam assist and many others. We tried them out during our time with this vehicle on the highways and city roads and they work as advertised. Lane keep assist is not for twisty hill station roads as we had in Assam and Meghalaya, but should work very reliably on regular roads with an added safety net.
A larger 52.9 kWh battery pack powers Windsor Pro, which is 39.2% larger than Windsor’s 38 kWh battery pack. With the larger battery pack, MG is claiming a 449 km range on a single charge, which is 35.64% more range than Windsor’s 331 km promised range. Higher range should act as a deterrent for range anxiety and eHUB by MG app has emerged as a key aspect in EV transitions.
Performance & Dynamics
When we started the journey in the morning, our Windsor Pro review unit had 99% charge and it was indicating 400+ km of range on a single charge. At the end of our journey, Windsor Pro’s battery SOC was at 44% and it was still showing a 187 km range left. In our experience, we found it quite close to reality and one could expect around 400 km of real-world range with MG Windsor Pro if driven sanely.
Speaking of driving, there haven’t been any changes in the performance department. It continues to be powered by a sole 134 bhp and 200 Nm electric motor, driving front wheels only. There are multiple drive modes and Sport unlocks all the performance. 0-100 km/h spring can be done in around 10 seconds and instant acceleration is quite addictive. Regen braking is very effective as well and one can adjust regen level as per their liking.
Dynamically, Windsor Pro remains more or less the same as Windsor EV. The hilly roads we took in Assam and Meghalaya tempted us to push this vehicle harder around corners. But we realised that corner carving is not Windsor Pro’s forte and it is not designed for spirited driving either. For intended use, Windsor Pro rides and handles quite well. We just wished bump absorption was a little better as it can get slightly unsettling once the speeds go up.
Conclusion
We just wished there were more features added with Windsor Pro, which was not the case. Primary of these is a rear washer and wiper, which continues to be a baffling omission. We didn’t feel the need for it when we drove Windsor in Gurgaon last year. We missed rear wiper a lot in Assam and Meghalaya where it rains cats and dogs. The other feature we expected was rear ventilated seats, which definitely sounds like a Pro feature to have in a market like India.
Other than these, Windsor Pro is a significant step up from Windsor and can easily emerge as a phenomenon and probably even make JSW MG Motor India, the country’s best-selling electric car manufacturer. It has a lot of things going for it and a larger battery promising higher range along with an added safety net from Level-2 ADAS suite is the icing on the cake.