Compressed Car

The Comet EV is as small as a ".zip" file. We tried to tap its true potential in the urban jungle called Delhi

- Joshua Varghese

IN ASO CALLED DEVELOPING COUNTRY” AS POPULOUS AS OURS, space is becoming more of a luxury with each passing day. Roads have been widened to ease congestion, but they are now jam-packed once again because the number of vehicles plying on them have shot up exponentially. The average speed comes down from 60 km/h to 60 m/hour at times and parking has also become a nightmare. In such a situation, size does matter. The MG Comet EV is a two-door, four-seat, fully electric compact car that is just the right size to deal with the chaos of the aforementioned urban jungle and we drove it in one of the densest ones in India, namely, the capital city of Delhi.

The MG Comet EV is unlike anything we have seen in the Indian car market to date; nevertheless, it is not an all-new car. MG’s parent company, SAIC, also own the Chinese car manufacturer, Wuling, and the Comet EV is essentially a re-badged Wuling Air EV. Regardless of that, the first thing anyone is going to notice about this car is just how tiny it is. This MG is less than ro feet long and just below five feet wide with a shape that reminds one of the Japanese kei cars; with the small 12-inch wheels only adding to that impression.

The Comet EV does not get a functional bonnet and the shape of the front end has more in common with a van than a car. A DRL strip runs the width of the front just above the charging port and LED headlights are placed above the bumper. Just as the windscreen commands most of the front, the doors dominate the car’s rather simple profile. I also appreciate how MG have extended a chrome strip from the DRL to the wing mirrors, complementing the shoulder-line. Aircraft-style windows for the second row form the rest of the car's side view. Meanwhile, the tail of the car features a generous glass area which meets a shapely rear end, completing a rather cute form overall.