With a larger battery pack, revised interior theme, new colourways and more safetyfeatures on offer, is the updated Windsor EV Pro worth your money? We find out.
MG launched the Windsor EV with a single powertrain in September 2024, and it hasalready become the best-selling EV in India.
The Windsor EV comes with a 38 kWh battery pack offering a claimed range of 332 kms,and it recently got a larger 52.9 kWh unit for the Pro variant having 449 kms of claimed range.MG offers the EV with a single 135 bhp and 200 Nm electric motor powering the front wheels.
While the Windsor EV Pro remains almost unchanged on the outside over the standardmodel, it does get three new colours (Celadon Blue, Glaze Red and Aurora Silver), 18-inch dual-tone alloy wheels, and ‘ADAS’ badge on the tailgate. So, the changes to the exterior are hardlynoteworthy, and unless you know what to look for, this may as well be just any ordinaryWindsor and not the Pro.
The only difference on the inside of the Pro variant is the dual-tone black and ivoryupholstery instead of the all-black setup on the regular version. While it does lighten up thecabin, it can grab stains easily, especially during the monsoon
The seats still have the same diamond pattern padding and stitching, and the rear seatsget the same 135-degree reclining feature as the standard variant. No changes have been made to the seating comfort too, with the front buckets continuing to be large and supportive, whilethe rear seats offer a bit of a knees-up sitting position but plenty of room to stretch your legs
Based on the top-spec Essence trim of the Windsor, the Pro also gets some new featuresfor its premium price tag. One of them is the powered tailgate, which can be operated via abutton on the tailgate, key fob or from the car's central 15.6-inch touchscreen. It also getsVehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) capabilities
It now packs Level-2 ADAS that offers various autonomous assistance functions, includingadaptive cruise control (ACC), autonomous emergency braking, and lane keep assist. It alsopacks a Bend Cruise Assistance function for the ACC that adjusts the vehicle’s speed at corners.The second is the Traffic Jam Assist, which works in tandem with Lane Keep Assist to makedriving in traffic jams fairly easier. Although we could not properly test the capabilities of theADAS system in open world conditions, based on whatever we experienced, the Lane departurewarning, adaptive cruise control and bend cruise control worked well enough
Its suspension has been made firmer to cater to the additional weight of the largerbattery pack and electric motor. The ride feels firmer at low speeds, with more surfaceimperfections felt within the cabin. On the highway, the ride remained flat and composed forthe most part. As with the standard Windsor, the steering’s weight feels quite artificial, thoughthe firmer suspension did mean that body roll was better contained
Compared to the 332 km of claimed range offered by the 38 kWh unit, the 52.9 kWh unitpushes the Windsor Pro’s range to nearly 450 kms (claimed). We expect you could get in theregion of 380-400 kms out of the Windsor Pro – a big plus considering that our testing showed arange of between 275 and 290 km for the standard Windsor. It also supports a higher 60 kW DCfast charging. MG claims a 20-80 per cent charge can be completed in as little as 50 mins. As forAC charging, the Pro is offered with a 7.4 kW charger as standard, which is claimed to juice upthe battery from 10 to 100 per cent in 9.5 hours