An electric ute was always going to split the room in this country. The ute belongs to the tradie, the farmer, and the bloke who’s towed his boat to the same campsite for twenty years, and most of them run on diesel. There are a few electric utes around, but not many, and Isuzu recently scrapped its plans for an electric D-Max because buyers weren’t asking for one. So when MG announced a fully electric version of the MGU9, there were always going to be a few raised eyebrows.
What’s the story?
We were lucky enough to be among the first in Australia to get behind the wheel. MG took us out to Berry Hill, on the edge of the Hawkesbury River, for a full day with the car: road driving, an off-road loop, towing, and a barbecue somewhere in the middle. If you want to put a ute through everything NSW has to offer, it’s a good place to do it.
The MGU9 EV arrives from Q4 2026, priced at $78,990 plus on-road costs, so around $85,000 by the time it’s on the road. That’s a big jump over the diesel U9, which tops out at $60,990 drive-away. It comes with a seven-year warranty when serviced through MG dealers.
Who’s the buyer?
People who want to go greener, especially with fuel prices where they are, and anyone who wants the occasional camping trip, beach weekend, or bit of bush track without needing years of technical driving experience.
I should say upfront that I’m no off-roader. So this isn’t a review from someone who knows their approach angles. It’s what the MGU9 EV is like for the rest of us.
Tell us about your first impressions
The first thing you notice is the obvious one: there’s no engine. Where it would normally sit, there’s a frunk, a 236-litre storage space under the bonnet with its own power outlet.
A frunk isn’t something you’d think to want in a ute. After a day with one, I can see it becoming something you couldn’t live without. In a normal dual cab, anything you don’t want sitting in the open tray ends up on the back seat, and you’re locking the car every time you walk away from it. Here it goes up front, out of sight. It’s also a good spot for a plug-in eski, which kept the drinks cold for whoever wasn’t driving. The bonnet opens electrically, and you can drop the ride height to make loading the tray easier.
Give us the top lines on performance and/or efficiency/range. What’s it like to drive?
We started on the road, driving up to Hawkins Lookout before heading back to Berry Hill. It’s smooth and quiet, the way EVs are. It’s also quick. With 325 kW and 700 Nm, it gets from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.8 seconds, about the same as a Ford Ranger Raptor. You do feel how heavy it is in the corners (it weighs over 2.8 tonnes), but even in the rain it felt planted.
By the time we got back to Berry Hill, the heavens had opened. It was perfect timing, because the off-road loop was next.
Put it in off-road mode, set the air suspension to high, and drove it exactly the way I’d drive on the road. The car did the rest. There were wet, loose sections where I’m fairly sure I’d have lost grip in a normal ute, and it sorted them out without me doing anything differently. There’s no low-range gearbox to think about. The electric motors deliver their torque instantly, so at low speeds on a steep or slippery track you just ease on the pedal and it goes.
The loop included some steep climbs. On the steepest, all I could see through the windscreen was sky, so I used the 360-degree camera to keep an eye on where I was going. It got up the rocky hill without any fuss.
We finished with towing. The MGU9 EV is rated to tow 3.5 tonnes braked, the same as the diesel. We hooked up a trailer and accelerated with it on the back, and I could barely tell it was there. There’s also an onboard weight gauge that shows what you’re carrying, which is a nice touch if you don’t tow often.
On range, it has a 102.2 kWh battery and a claimed 430 km (WLTP).
Tech & connectivity: what’s the word?
The cabin is nicer than you’d expect in a ute. There are two 12.3-inch screens, wireless CarPlay, and leather seats, and the driver’s seat is heated, ventilated, and has a massage function.
The power is the real tech story, though. There are 2.2 kW outlets in the tray and the frunk, plus a 6.6 kW outlet on the outside of the car, which is plenty for a campsite.
And the lowdown on safety?
It has a five-star ANCAP rating. You get seven airbags, autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise, lane keeping, blind-spot monitoring, and the 360-degree camera that got me up that hill.
The most memorable (or heartbreaking) thing about your drive?
Halfway through the day, we stopped for a barbie in true Aussie fashion, with one twist: the grill was electric, plugged straight into the power outlet in the tray. It was build-your-own burgers, cooked off the ute.
The other was how quiet it is out there. With no engine noise, you can hear the river beside you the whole time, which isn’t something you can say with a diesel chugging away in front of your knees.
One thing you should know before a test drive?
The limits are worth knowing. Payload is 685 kg, against 870 kg for the diesel U9. The 430 km range is a best-case figure, and WhichCar saw higher-than-claimed energy use on hilly roads without a trailer, so expect less once you’re towing or loaded up. It’s also slower to charge than a lot of EVs (20 to 80% takes 42 minutes), so if you’re planning a big trip, plan around the chargers.
I was pleasantly surprised by what it could do. It won’t win over everyone who’s grown up with diesel, and it isn’t trying to. You just have to be comfortable letting the car do the work.