MG4 vs Ford Focus: what each really costs a year

Start with the two cars. The MG4 Premium Long Range was £29,995 in April 2026 with a 64kWh battery and 280 miles of official range, and Carwow puts its official efficiency at 3.5 to 3.8 miles per kWh. I've used 3.6, the middle of that, rather than the 3.4 the rest of this site assumes, because the MG4 has its own number. The Ford Focus stopped being built in November 2025, so the petrol car here is the last one: the 1.0 EcoBoost mild hybrid 125 Titanium, which Auto Express lists at 52.3mpg and 116g/km officially, with the final-generation range priced from £29,330 to £32,380. Read it as the car you'd buy nearly new or from stock, because there isn't a new one.

Now the miles. 8,000 a year in the MG4 is about 2,220kWh. On Intelligent Octopus Go, which is 8p a kWh between 11.30pm and 5.30am, that's £180 a year. On the Ofgem price cap of 26.32p a kWh from October to December 2026 it's £585. On public rapids at Zapmap's 77p August average it's £1,710, which is the number to remember if you haven't got a driveway.

The Focus at 52.3mpg needs about 695 litres for the same 8,000 miles, and at 172p a litre, the UK average in the week ending 21 September 2026, that's £1,200. Auto Express got 44.6mpg out of the non-hybrid version on test, which would be nearer £1,400, so treat £1,200 as the kind figure. Either way the gap on this one line is £1,000 a year with a driveway, and it's the line that decides the whole comparison.

Tax. Both cars pay the £200 standard rate from their second year, and neither is anywhere near the £50,000 or £40,000 expensive-car thresholds. The difference is year one: the MG4 pays £10, the 116g/km Focus £455. The road tax guide has the whole table.

Insurance. This is the line the MG4 loses. The Focus 1.0 Titanium sits in group 17 and Car Insurance Expert puts the average comprehensive premium for a Focus at £770 a year in the second quarter of 2026. The MG4 Premium Long Range is group 29. I couldn't find a published MG4 average I'd trust, so the table uses a range: Confused.com's electric-car average of £607 for March to May 2026 at the bottom, and a group-29 premium a couple of hundred pounds above the Focus at the top. Get a real quote before you decide; on a car this cheap the premium can swing the answer.

Servicing. Closer than you'd think. MyRepairCost puts a full MG4 service at £110 to £200 at an independent in 2026, once a year, and Auto Express says MG asks for it every year or 15,000 miles. The Focus alternates a full service at £150 to £225 with an interim at £95 to £150, every 12 months or 12,500 miles. Average those out and both land around £155 a year at an independent. The EV's advantage shows up later, in brakes that last years and no cambelt at 100,000 miles, not in the annual bill. The servicing guide goes through what the garage actually does.

Nobody can tell you this to the pound, so I'll show the working and you can argue with it. When Is EV Cheaper's 2026 analysis puts an average EV, and it names the MG4, at 45% to 55% lost over three years. Take the middle, 50%, on £29,995 and that's £15,000 gone, or £5,000 a year. Free Plate Check has the Focus keeping 56% of its value after three years on a £29,575 new price, and Auto Express's own residual figure was 54%. Call it 45% lost, £13,300, or about £4,500 a year.

Two things to weigh against those numbers. Used EV prices stopped falling in 2026 and three-to-five-year-old cars were up on the year by the summer, so the MG4's figure may be kinder than the estimate. And the Focus has just gone out of production, which usually props up used values for a while and then doesn't. The depreciation guide covers what moves these numbers. For this page the point is simpler: the value line is bigger than every other line added together, on both cars, and the gap between them is about £500 a year against the MG4.

Add the lines up, using the table. MG4 charged overnight: £180 electricity, £200 tax, about £700 insurance, £155 servicing and £5,000 lost value, roughly £6,235. Focus: £1,200 petrol, £200 tax, £770 insurance, £155 servicing and £4,500 lost value, roughly £6,825. The MG4 is about £600 a year ahead, and all of it comes from the electricity line, because the MG4 gives back most of the fuel saving in insurance and value.

Move the charging and the answer moves. On the price cap the MG4's electricity is £585 and its lead shrinks to about £200, which is inside the uncertainty of the insurance and value estimates, so call that level. On public rapids it's £1,710 and the Focus wins by about £900. Drive 12,000 miles instead of 8,000 with a driveway and the MG4's lead grows to about £1,100, because the fuel saving scales and the other lines don't. The whole running-cost page has the same shape for a generic pair of cars.

• Driveway and an EV tariff. MG4, without much of a contest. £1,000 a year saved on fuel, a seven-year, 80,000-mile warranty, and a first-year tax bill of £10.
• Driveway, no EV tariff. Still the MG4, but only just, and switching tariff is the single biggest thing you can do. The tariff comparison shows what a year costs on each.
• Street parking. The Focus, on the money. Rapid charging at 77p a kWh costs more than petrol at 52mpg, and the no-driveway guide is where I say so properly. A lamppost charger after midnight narrows it to roughly level.
• Under 5,000 miles a year. The fuel saving halves and the insurance gap doesn't, so a nearly-new Focus is the cheaper car to own, and there are plenty about.
• Keeping it for the long haul. The MG4. The depreciation line stops mattering once you stop selling, and by year five you're still inside the warranty with £1,000 a year in your pocket.