MG has introduced a £1500 discount on its 4 and S5 EVs to reverse a stall in orders prompted by the new Electric Car Grant, as buyers wait for government funding to become available.

The ECG, announced last week, will eventually yield a discount of either £1500 or £3750 on a range of sub-£37,000 electric cars.

However, the government has only just opened applications for manufacturers to receive the grant and so has yet to publish a list of qualifying models, leaving buyers in the dark.

In turn, MG UK commercial director Guy Pigounakis told Autocar, orders for new EVs priced below the £37,000 threshold “quite literally stopped” within 24 hours of the grant's announcement.

Introducing the £1500 discount on the 4 and S5 before receiving confirmation that the two models qualify for the grant is no small risk for MG.

Industry insiders have told Autocar that the criteria to receive the grant are effectively a back-door method of excluding Chinese-made cars (such as the 4 and S5). 

To qualify, manufacturers must be signed up to the Science Based Targets Initiative for carbon emissions reduction, and neither MG nor its parent company SAIC are.

What’s more, the level of grant funding provided to a EV depends on the cleanliness of the power grid in the country in which it and its battery cells are produced, effectively preventing any Chinese-made car from receiving the full amount.

A number of other Chinese brands have introduced their own discounts early to get ahead of the European competition.

Leapmotor was first, cutting the C10 and T03 by £3750 – making the latter the UK’s cheapest EV at retail – and it was soon followed by GWM, which discounted its Ora 03 by the same amount.