Time is many things. It’s an arrow. It’s the great healer. It’s the fourth dimension. It’s that which cannot be cheated. It’s also the thing that can either make or break the impression of a new car. Often, when a new car arrives, we’ll get an initial chance to take it for a quick spin and then, in due time, take one for a few days, to spend that time really getting under a car’s skin and see if it works its way under ours. This is key. A quick taste is just that, and no substitute for a longer, more considered digestion. And it’s a bit of a problem for the MG S6 EV.The S6 EV is basically a bigger brother to the generally impressive MG S5 EV. Both are all-electric SUVs, but while the S5 competes with compact models as varied as the Hyundai Kona and Renault 4, the S6 has the tougher task of taking on bigger, more expensive models such as the Skoda Enyaq and Renault Scenic. At first, the MG seems to stand a very good chance of coming out on top. It’s not the most obviously handsome of cars, and you could quite rightly accuse it of being rather generic in its styling, but in the ‘satin gold’ tri-coat paint option of our test car it looked pretty good. Smooth, uncluttered and clean, with just a hint of imposing height. Inside, if anything, it’s even better. While the twin digital screen layout is, again, fairly generic, the MG S6 scores major kudos for the space on offer and the general quality of its cabin. Soft, quilted fabric adorns the seats and the doors; the grilles for the stereo speakers are made of tactile metal; everything you touch feels properly expensive, almost premium, and that’s in spite of the MG S6’s affordable €39,595 price tag (well, affordable by modern electric SUV standards anyway).There’s copious space in the back seats too, and a massive boot with 674 litres of luggage space, backed up by another 124 litres of space in the ‘frunk’ storage area in the nose, which makes an ideal place to stash your charging cables. That entry price also gets you a very decent 74kWh (net) nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC – the more expensive and sophisticated of the generally available battery chemistries) battery with a claimed range of 530km.The MG S6 has a massive boot with 674 litres of luggage space, backed up by another 124 litres of space in the ‘frunk’ storage area in the nose Soft, quilted fabric adorns the seats and the doors With 144kW of DC charging power available, the MG S6 isn’t the quickest thing to charge Impressively, in real-world conditions, we found it pretty easy to squeeze about 460km out of each full charge of the MG S6, which given the amount of time we spent on motorways, cruising at the legal limit, isn’t bad going at all. With 144kW of DC charging power available, the MG S6 isn’t the quickest thing to charge, but we never spent more than about 40 minutes hanging around on a fast-charger to get it back up to 90 per cent charge, so that’s not too shabby. Less impressive is the slow-charging AC power of just 7.4kW, which is quite slow by the latest standards and not much good if you’re using 11kW or 22kW kerbside chargers. So far, all is looking good for the MG. Certainly, if you were sat in a showroom, luxuriating in those excellent front seats and noticing that, to get the same range from a Skoda Enyaq you’d have to spend an extra €6,000, you’d have to say that the Chinese car with the old British badge is quids-in. And this is where time starts to wreak its havoc. First impressions definitely count with any car, and the MG S6 utterly nails that first five minutes thing. Sit in, start it up and drive off and you’d be forgiven for thinking that you had unlocked a cheat code that allows you to nab a premium-level car for a pauper’s price (relatively speaking). However, as the miles and minutes tick by the shine starts to wear off just a touch. First up, you’ll notice how annoying and awkward the central touchscreen is. Now, it’s not all bad, and credit has to be given to MG for fitting a bank of proper physical buttons to control cabin heat, fan speed and stereo volume just below the screen. The MG S6 has a bank of proper physical buttons to control cabin heat, fan speed and stereo volume just below the screen There’s also a handy customisable mode for the car’s various electronic safety systems, meaning you can quell the beeps and bongs and, with two presses of the screen, eliminate the pointless tugging of the lane-keeping steering. Well, two presses in theory. In fact, that screen proves frustratingly slow and fiddly to use, and you’re often reduced – well, I was – to a combination of repeatedly stabbing and swearing at the screen while you wait for it to catch up. It also utterly failed to connect to my phone in anything but the most basic of fashions, in spite of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto appearing prominently on the display. Oh, and the wireless phone charger, with its nice suede-like cover and ventilation slot, doesn’t appear to actually charge your phone much at all. The driving experience doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny either. While the MG S6 is impressively refined, and its 244hp rear-mounted electric motor is smooth and well regulated when it comes to delivering its power, once you start to dig a little deeper, the talent starts to run out. The steering is lifeless, and the suspension oddly crashy and hard-edged at times. It’s an odd thing, common to many Chinese EVs, that they don’t seem to be able to deal well with cratered Irish tarmac, which seems doubly odd when you consider how poor are many Chinese roads. It’s odder again when you remember that MG can do this so much better. The MG4 EV hatchback – which is quite closely related to the S6 under the skin – is sharp to drive, has excellent steering, and doesn’t clatter half so much over bumps (and it’s just been updated with a much higher-quality cabin too). The steering is lifeless, and the suspension oddly crashy and hard-edged at times The S6 looks good and feels good, until you spend some time driving it SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corporation) has done a great job of both reviving the MG brand and leveraging its recognition factor into sales success, but it also needs to remember that the brand once stood for sheer driver enjoyment, and that’s something that the S6 simply can’t provide. The big MG will likely still sell in a manner that would make hotcake vendors jealous, but it’s a car whose primary appeal lies in its static talents. It looks good and feels good, until you spend some time driving it. Then it just feels a bit ordinary. Lowdown: MG S6 EVPower: 180kW e-motor developing 244hp and 350Nm of torque, powering the rear wheels via a single-speed automatic transmission. CO2 emissions (annual motor tax): 0g/km (€120).Electric consumption: 16.6 kWh/100km (WLTP). Electric range: 530km (WLTP) – 460km (Observed). 0-100km/h: 7.3sec. Price: €42,495 as tested, MG S6 EV starts from €39,495. Our rating: 3/5. Verdict: Price, cabin and quality all speak of MG’s car-making talent. But its screen and bland driving experience detract from it.