MG will unveil a concept that previews its long-awaited new small electric car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, the brand has told Autocar.

Expected to take the MG 2 nameplate, the new four-metre-long model will sit below the new £23,495 MG 4 Urban to give the brand a rival to small EVs such as the Renault 5, BYD Dolphin Surf and upcoming Volkswagen ID Polo.

The production car will arrive toward the end of 2027, MG head of Europe William Wang told Autocar.

The MG 2 is expected to use the same front-wheel-drive E3 electric platform that underpins the MG 4 Urban, which is priced from £23,495 with a 42.8kWh battery. 

The small EV could also be offered with the Urban’s forthcoming semi-solid-state battery, which uses a gel-like electrolyte to reduce the impact of cold temperatures on the range as well as improve the safety of the cells.

The MG 2 forms part of a new model push by the SAIC-owned brand to increase the number of models it sells in Europe to up to 18 within the next two years, said Wang. 

UK boss David Allison has previously told Autocar that the segment below the MG 4 was “the obvious area of the market that's next to happen” and MG “obviously” had to be in there.

“I’ve always felt that was the next market that was going to happen, because as Europe transitions towards EVs, inevitably the easiest way of making them more affordable is downsizing,” he added.

The response to the launch of the Renault 5 also gave the brand confidence that the market for small, affordable EVs in the UK is much bigger than previously expected. “The Renault 5 has made the job much more important,” he said.

The incoming MG 2 will have a much more European-focused design than other models in the line-up to reflect its bigger role in the region, compared with other markets. As such, it will be designed in the UK, said Allison previously.

The model is also expected to expand MG’s EV presence in small-car markets like Italy, although current tariffs on China-built EVs would make it a good candidate for MG’s new European plant, which could come on stream as early as 2027. MG has yet to announce the location for the plant.

As well as launching smaller-sized models, MG will also expand its range at the bigger end of the market with the S9, a large plug-in hybrid SUV due later this year. Euro NCAP inadvertently announced the model’s European arrival, prior to its official unveiling, when it released its crash test results.

MG’s sales in the UK are currently dominated by the HS compact SUV in combustion-engined, hybrid and plug-in hybrid formats and the smaller ZS SUV, largely as a hybrid. 

MG’s electric sales shrunk by 23% last year in the UK to account for just a fifth of the brand’s 85,000 total, as hybrids moved into the lead, headed by the ZS. 

However, the brand has expanded its EV line-up in recent months to include the S6 and S5 SUVs as well as the MG 4 Urban.