MG4 EV vs BYD Dolphin UK: Which Chinese EV Is Right for You? (2026)

The comparison you're probably here for is the closest head-to-head: MG4 EV Gen 1 Long Range at £29,995 versus the BYD Dolphin Comfort at £30,230. Separated by just £235, these are effectively the same-price cars — and that narrow gap makes everything else on this page matter enormously.

But the MG4 story is more complicated, because 'MG4' in 2026 covers two entirely different cars. The MG4 EV Urban (Gen 2, FWD) starts at £23,495 with a 201-mile WLTP range and a torsion-beam rear suspension. The MG4 EV (Gen 1, RWD) starts at £29,995 with 280-mile range and a multi-link rear end. They drive and feel nothing alike.

For the money, the Gen 1 MG4 at £29,995 is the more natural Dolphin rival: similar price, more range, faster DC charging (150 kW vs ~100 kW), a 363-litre boot versus the Dolphin's 345 litres, and a longer vehicle warranty (7 years versus 6). The Dolphin hits back with standard V2L — vehicle-to-load, which lets you power devices or appliances from the car battery — a useful feature the MG4 simply does not offer in any trim. Both come with heat pumps. On pure value metrics, the MG4 Gen 1 edges ahead on paper; the Dolphin earns its £30,230 with V2L and a slightly stronger reliability record from Chinese owners.

This section is where the MG4 pulls decisively ahead — not on range alone, but on the speed at which you can top it up.

The MG4 Gen 1 Long Range offers 280 miles of WLTP range from a 62 kWh LFP battery; the Extended Range stretches to 338 miles from 74 kWh. The Dolphin returns 265 miles from its 60.4 kWh Blade Battery LFP pack. In realistic mixed-use UK driving — dual carriageways, heating on, typical weather — expect roughly 220–240 miles from the Gen 1 MG4 LR and 200–220 miles from the Dolphin. Both shrink in winter; neither is a long-range EV in the traditional sense.

But the charging story is the real differentiator. The MG4 Gen 1 peaks at 150 kW DC, clearing 10–80% in around 25–30 minutes at a compatible rapid charger. The Dolphin peaks at approximately 88–100 kW DC (BYD UK says '100 kW capable', the EV Database records 88 kW peak, and Carwow measured 110 kW in its March 2026 test — treat this as 88–100 kW, medium confidence). On a 150-kW charger, the Dolphin still charges at its own ceiling: the 10–80% journey takes around 40–45 minutes.

On a single-charge motorway run with one rapid stop, the MG4 spends roughly 15 minutes less at a charger than the Dolphin. Over a year of motorway use, those minutes accumulate. If you rarely rapid-charge — home-only charging on a wallbox — the Dolphin's ceiling matters less, because both cars top out at 11 kW AC.

One nuance: neither car supports Plug and Charge (automatic authentication), though the Dolphin does support Autocharge. Both accept the OCPP 1.6 standard used by most UK public networks.

The warranty comparison goes each way. The MG4 offers a 7-year / 80,000-mile vehicle warranty — one of the longest in the segment and fully transferable. The Dolphin is 6 years / 93,750 miles, slightly shorter in years but nearly the same in mileage. Battery coverage is where the Dolphin pulls ahead: 8 years / 125,000 miles versus the MG4's 8 years / 100,000 miles — 25,000 extra miles of battery protection matters for high-mileage drivers.

BiK tax is identical at 4% for the 2026/27 tax year across both cars — both are pure EVs and fall into the same government band. Fleet users will notice no difference at the headline rate. VED is £10 first-year zero-emission rate for both; from year two the standard annual rate applies.

On residual values, the CDL data (published October 2025 by Auto Express) shows BYD at 47.2% and MG Motor UK at 46.8% after three years and 36,000 miles. The difference is negligible: within measurement noise. Both sit comfortably in the middle of the UK market — below Kia (48.6%) but well above the worst performers. For a £30,000 car, a 47% residual means approximately £14,100 retained after three years — a more than competitive position against non-Chinese mainstream EVs.

Running costs are broadly similar. Both cars use LFP batteries (the MG4 Gen 1 LR and all Dolphins sold in the UK), which means no range anxiety about degradation and strong cold-weather resilience versus NMC chemistries. Energy efficiency is comparable: expect 3.5–4.0 mi/kWh in mixed driving for both, translating to roughly £5–7 per 100 miles at 30p/kWh overnight home charging.

This is what makes cathayev.com different. UK car journalism reads press releases and drives press cars. We read the 汽车之家 owner scores, the 车质网 complaint filings, and the 懂车帝 owner forum threads. Here's what they say about both cars.

The BYD Dolphin wins the Chinese reliability contest. 汽车之家 (Autohome) records 4.50/5.0 from 4,224 reviews with 112 faults per 100 cars — a strong result, and one from an enormous owner base that makes statistical noise small. The MG4's Chinese equivalent (a different car sold as the MG4 EV in China, which shares platform and powertrain) scores 4.49/5.0 from 1,514 reviews but logs 148 faults per 100 cars — a notably higher rate. The MG4's service complaints on 车质网 outnumber its mechanical complaints by a significant margin: it is the dealer network, not the car itself, that drags MG's score down.

The Dolphin's Chinese complaint record is more nuanced than the headline 2.8/5.0 on 车质网 suggests. The majority of those 'complaints' are price-cut compensation claims — buyers who paid £X last month and find the same car costs less today. The genuine mechanical issues logged include A-pillar rust (on older units), headlight water ingress, and a significant September 2024 recall covering 96,714 Dolphin and Yuan Plus vehicles for a CEPS controller fire risk. BYD addressed this recall; it should be checked on any used Dolphin. The manufacturer response rate on 车质网 for BYD is 100% — they do not ignore complaints.

MG's 车质网 score (2.3/5.0) is worse than the Dolphin's, but again: the split between dealer complaints and mechanical defects matters. Only 201 of the MG4's 车质网 entries are genuine product-quality complaints. The #1 mechanical issue is steering rack noise.

For UK buyers, the headline summary is: the Dolphin has a stronger reliability record from a much larger owner base; the MG4's Chinese data is more mixed but driven more by after-sales service culture than engineering failure.

After the numbers, here is the straight verdict — no sides taken, no favourites.

**Buy the MG4 EV Gen 1 Long Range if** you frequently rapid-charge on long runs (150 kW versus ~100 kW is a meaningful real-world difference), you want the longest vehicle warranty (7 years), you prioritise driving dynamics (RWD, multi-link rear suspension), or you're working within a tighter budget and the Urban's £23,495–£27,995 range fits better than the Dolphin's £30,230.

**Buy the BYD Dolphin if** you want V2L (powering devices from the car battery — the MG4 cannot do this), you value brand-scale reliability (BYD is the world's best-selling EV manufacturer with 1 million+ Dolphins produced), the 8-year / 125,000-mile battery warranty matters to you (25,000 more miles than the MG4's 100,000), or you want the reassurance of BYD's growing 125-site UK dealer network.

**The single clearest recommendation**: if you never rapid-charge on motorways and use a home wallbox daily, the Dolphin at £30,230 with V2L and a longer battery warranty makes a compelling case. If you do regular motorway runs and every minute at a charger counts, the MG4 Gen 1 at £29,995 charges in roughly half the time and deserves serious consideration.

What neither camp should do is conflate the Urban MG4 with the Gen 1. They are different cars. The Urban at £23,495 is a lighter city EV with limited DC charging (140 kW) and a smaller range (201–258 mi); it is not a Dolphin rival but a class below it. Check the suffix — Urban or MG4 EV — before you sign anything.