MG 4 XPower v BMW i7 M70 drag race! Bargain hot hatch battles super sedan

The electric revolution has upended the performance pecking order.

Although hot hatches are about offering lots of punch for minimal money there’s still a divide between fastcars like a Golf GTI or Hyundai i30 N, and really fastcars like a BMW M5 or Audi RS6 – withcars like an AMG A45 or Audi RS3 in between.

Now though, you can spend less than $60,000 on an electric MG 4 XPower and hit 100km/h in a claimed 3.8 seconds.

That’s quick enough to give significantly more expensive cars a bloody nose, at least on paper. Cars like the BMW i7 M70 xDrive.

With a sticker price of $344,900 before on-road costs, it’s a modern take on the classic German autobahn blaster.

Big, bold, and brutally fast, it’s the sort of car that historically would’ve sneered at the little Chinese hatchback. As our latest side-by-side drag race shows, that’s not the case anymore.

You’ll have to watch the video above to see which of the pair was quickest in each of our races, but we’ll tell you right now it wasn’t all one-way traffic.

Click the images for the full gallery

MORE: BMW i7 M70 xDrive review MORE: MG 4 XPower review