MG U9 Black Edition Lands in Australia First: $57,990 Driveaway, 160kW Diesel, Front and Rear Diff Locks

Image credit: MG Motor Australia

MG has picked Australia as the launch market for the darkest version of its first dual-cab ute. The MG U9 Black Edition is priced at $57,990 driveaway on a national campaign and is on sale at MG dealers now, less than a year after the U9 opened for orders locally. The mechanical package underneath is the same 2.5-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder that already sits under every other U9, but MG has bundled in blacked-out styling, a full-black interior treatment, heated seats and a new towing cruise control system that no other MG in Australia offers. The point of the story is not power or torque, it is that MG is turning the U9 into a proper trim ladder faster than most Chinese brands have managed, and doing it here first.

Where it slots

MG Motor Australia already sells the U9 in three grades. The Explore opens the range at $52,990 driveaway, the Explore X at $55,990 driveaway and the Explore Pro flagship at $60,990 driveaway. The Black Edition lands at $57,990 driveaway, which is $2,000 more than an Explore X and $3,000 less than an Explore Pro. It is not the flagship, it is a mid-flagship trim that trades some of the Explore Pro's headline gear for exclusive styling and the new towing tech. Buyers wanting the sinister look for the smallest possible premium over an Explore X are the target.

Powertrain and off-road hardware

Nothing has changed under the bonnet. The Black Edition uses the same 2.5-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder as the rest of the U9 range, tuned to 160kW at the crank and 520Nm of torque. Drive goes to all four wheels through a ZF eight-speed torque-converter automatic with a selectable 4x4 system, plus front and rear locking differentials. That is a proper twin-locker setup you normally only get on high-spec versions of the Ford Ranger Raptor, the Nissan Navara PRO-4X Warrior or the GWM Cannon Alpha diesel, and MG has kept it standard on both the Explore Pro and this Black Edition.

The rear end is worth flagging separately. Instead of the leaf-sprung live axle you get under a HiLux, D-Max, Triton or Ranger, the U9 runs a multi-link independent coil rear suspension that MG says was tuned locally. On paper that trades a little of the leaf-spring toughness at max payload for a much friendlier unladen ride, and it is the same core benefit BYD claims for the Shark 6 with its five-link coil rear. If the Black Edition mostly does school runs and weekend caravan work, that rear end is a real asset.

What makes this the Black Edition

Image credit: MG Motor Australia

Every chrome accent on a regular U9 has been swapped for gloss black or dark chrome on this one. That includes the grille, the MG badges front and rear, the door mirror caps, the door handles, the side steps, the wheel centre caps and the exterior trim strips. The tailgate carries a stamped MG U9 script rather than a chrome badge. Inside, the pillars, headliner and roof lining are finished in black rather than the usual grey, which is not just a colour swap, it changes how the cabin feels when the sun is high. Heated front seats and a heated steering wheel are standard, and MG has left the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and 12.3-inch central touchscreen alone, running wireless Apple CarPlay, wireless Android Auto and a 360-degree surround-view camera.

The headline new feature is Towing Cruise Control, which MG Motor Australia says is the first fitment on any of its cars here. It is an adaptive cruise mode tuned specifically for towing at highway speeds, holding a longer gap and modulating throttle and braking more gently to keep a caravan or boat trailer stable. MG has published this as a Black Edition first, so if you tow every weekend, that plus the twin diff locks is where the extra $2,000 over the Explore X starts to earn itself back.

Safety and ANCAP

The MG U9 has not been tested by ANCAP yet, so the Black Edition ships not yet rated. That matters because MG's active safety kit is genuinely strong for the segment, but a ute that goes into fleet duty for a state government or a large corporate will usually need a five-star ANCAP result to be approved. Standard driver-assist gear across the U9 range and carried through to the Black Edition includes autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist with lane centring, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, driver-attention monitoring and the 360-degree camera. The Black Edition adds Towing Cruise Control on top.

How it compares

The Black Edition is a straight sticker-price fight with the mainstream mid-spec diesel dual-cabs. A Ford Ranger Sport 4x4 bi-turbo diesel is around $65,000 driveaway in most metro postcodes, a Toyota HiLux SR5 diesel sits close to $63,000 driveaway, and an Isuzu D-Max LS-U diesel is around $59,000 driveaway. Even a Mitsubishi Triton GLS diesel lists around $60,000 driveaway. The MG U9 Black Edition undercuts all four while adding twin diff locks and Towing Cruise Control that only the Ranger comes close to matching, and only in Wildtrak or Raptor form. It also undercuts the LDV Terron 9 Origin, the sister ute built on the same platform.

The direct sticker fight is with the BYD Shark 6 Premium at $57,900 driveaway during BYD's current August-to-September deal window. The two cars sit within $90 of each other on paper. The Shark is a plug-in hybrid making 321kW combined, running on electricity for around 80km before the 1.5-litre petrol engine wakes up. The MG is a straight diesel four-cylinder making 160kW. The MG wins on braked tow rating by a full tonne (3,500kg versus 2,500kg), the Shark wins on fuel bills for anyone who mostly commutes and plugs in at home. It is a cleaner cross-shop than the Chinese Chinese framing suggests, they are actually pointed at different buyers, and CarSorted has a full MG U9 vs BYD Shark 6 comparison for the head-to-head at that price point.

Warranty and servicing

MG's 10-year, 250,000km warranty carries across to the Black Edition, on the condition that the ute is serviced on schedule at an authorised MG dealer. That is the longest headline warranty of any diesel dual-cab currently on sale in Australia, longer than Toyota's five-year unlimited-km, Ford's five-year unlimited-km and Mitsubishi's ten-year conditional. Capped-price servicing runs for the same period. If you plan to keep the ute past 2033 and are choosing between this and a HiLux or Ranger, the difference in warranty length is real money on paper.

The CarSorted angle

Here is where the Black Edition gets interesting in the CarSorted directory. At $57,990 driveaway it is priced within $90 of the BYD Shark 6 Premium's current $57,900 driveaway deal, priced $7,000 under the Ford Ranger Sport bi-turbo diesel, and priced $5,000 under a Toyota HiLux SR5 diesel. It also runs the longer warranty by five years and carries twin diff locks the Ranger Sport doesn't. That is a lot of hardware for the money if you can accept the ANCAP unknown and the smaller dealer footprint. On our JAC Hunter Pro PHEV comparison the story flips again, because at under $50,000 driveaway the JAC is the actual cheapest new dual-cab with a 3,500kg braked tow, and it is a plug-in hybrid on top of that. Any buyer at this price point should build a shortlist that includes the MG U9 Black Edition, the JAC Hunter Pro PHEV, the BYD Shark 6 Premium and either a Ranger Sport or a HiLux SR5 for a resale sanity check. Try our CarSorted comparison tool to line them up side by side, the numbers move around a lot depending on how you weight tow rating, running cost and warranty.

What this means for buyers

If you already had the MG U9 Explore Pro on a shortlist at $60,990 driveaway, the Black Edition is now the obvious pick. You save $3,000, keep the twin diff locks, keep the multi-link coil rear, keep the 10-year warranty and gain the Towing Cruise Control that the Explore Pro doesn't get. The only real trade is that MG has trimmed some of the Explore Pro's higher-end kit to hit the price, so if a specific creature comfort in the Explore Pro is what pulled you in, walk both cars in the same dealer visit before you sign.

If you were sitting on a Ford Ranger Sport or Toyota HiLux SR5 order, the calculation is different. You are giving up a proven five-star ANCAP result, a bigger dealer network and stronger three-year resale for a $5,000 to $7,000 driveaway saving, a longer warranty and a twin-locker setup. For a private owner who plans to keep the ute for ten years and tows a caravan every weekend, the MG's case is real. For a tradie whose ute is the business and needs a strong three-year trade-in value, the traditional pair still hold on.

And if you were cross-shopping the BYD Shark 6 Premium, this is now a straight fuel-vs-payload decision. The Shark 6 costs about the same driveaway, saves a lot on daily commuting fuel if you can plug it in nightly and gives you Vehicle-to-Load. The MG U9 Black Edition tows a full tonne more, refuels in five minutes on a country trip and doesn't care whether you have a garage with a wall charger. Pick your use case, both cars are honestly priced for what they do. On CarSorted our MG U9 vs BYD Shark 6 comparison and the broader ute directory will help you build the shortlist properly.