MG will launch an entry-level 3 that'll cost around £17k

While the MG3 launches in hybrid form, MG hasn't forgotten some people will still want a basic manual supermini at the lowest price.

So there will be a 1.5-litre engine of about 100bhp and three pedals with a gearstick. Nothing fancy there, but it's an increasing rarity as other carmakers bin off their superminis altogether, or switch them to more expensive powertrains.

It comes to Britain in late 2024, about half a year after the hybrid model we covered here.

Prices will be announced in mid-March, so we don't have exact numbers, but MG UK's product planning boss David Allison said the hybrid will be on a par with others' pure-petrol cars, and the straight ICE car a couple of thousand below that.

Which would put the MG3 hybrid in base spec around £19,000 and the ICE car around £17,000.

Allison said the current MG3 (a decade old and outclassed in almost every respect) had just had its best-selling year. OK, he didn't say the bit in brackets, we did. But anyway it shows the draw of a low price.

The new one, even in non-hybrid form, will be higher-priced than the old, he said, because it's better and better-equipped. The hybrid version, for instance, gets two screens and MG's Pilot driver-assist system as standard.