MG wants to join the Philippine pickup truck wars with the TRQ-L
The midsize pickup truck segment is one of the most competitive and popular in the local automotive market. Nearly every mainstream brand has their own entry, and MG Motor Philippines wants to join in.
How will they do that? Say hello to the MG TRQ-L, available in a single 2.0 Comfort 4×2, and making its local debut this week.
If it’s looking a bit familiar, that’s because the MG TRQ-L is essentially a newer and rebadged version of the Maxus T60 which was available in our market from 2020 until the brand exited not long ago.
That familiarity is apparent on the outside where the TRQ-L shares most of its design details with the T60. It retains the same overall appearance, with a larger front grille, slightly redesigned bumpers, and black overfenders.
Standard exterior equipment include halogen headlights and taillights, power-fold mirrors, 16-inch blacked-out alloy wheels wrapped in all-terrain tires, a spray-on bedliner, a sports bar, and roof rails.
The interior is also largely carried-over from its Maxus sibling, gaining slight trim piece differences, and a redesigned center stack that houses a new 10.25-inch infotainment screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (both wired), touch-sensitive climate controls, and a new electronic gear selector on the center console.
Other standard interior equipment include a black interior with red accent stitching, leather seats, a two-speaker audio system, six-way power driver seat, two USB-A ports, and leather-wrapped tilt-adjustable steering wheel.
Compared to the previous Maxus T60, the MG TRQ-LL is a bit more conservative under the hood, in terms of displacement. You won’t find a 2.8-liter turbodiesel here, instead it gets a 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel.
It does produce an increased 161 horsepower and 400Nm of torque, mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission that sends power to the rear wheels. A 4×4 drivetrain isn’t available for now despite the presence of all-terrain tires.
As for safety features, the MG TRQ-L does not get a suite of advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS). It does get the usuals such as dual front airbags, anti-lock brakes, electronic brakeforce distribution, hill descent control, stability control, emergency brake assist, a tire pressure monitoring system, reverse camera, and parking sensors.
Pricing is not yet available for the MG TRQ-L, but we don’t need to wait too long to find out as it will be launching this coming October 23, 2025 (Thursday). Would you consider this over its more established rivals from Japanese and American automakers, or even versus other Chinese pickups?
Photos by Sam Surla
