Once a niche player selling out of a solitary storefront on EDSA, MG is now one of the biggest brands in the country. But while their smaller 5 and ZS sell like hotcakes, the bigger HS hasn’t fared as well. Mainly due to the explosion of the hybrid-electric market and the rise of the BYD Sealion 6, which is helping push THAT brand to its own top ten showing by the end of this year.
But MG is fighting back with an all-new HS. Equipped with MG’s own signature Hybrid+ technology. While a fair bit different to BYD’s DM-i, it represents a huge leap in efficiency and performance over the old gasoline variant. But does it have what it takes to go Sealion hunting?
Let’s find out.
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Styling
While it looks a lot like the new ZS, there’s no hiding that the HS is a bigger, much more substantial vehicle. That extra sheetmetal stretches the same basic design into a sleeker, more aggressive shape. Subtle chrome, faux carbon, and piano black accentuate the look nicely. Yes, piano black is a scuff magnet, but it suits the car well.
Sharper headlights bleed into the fenders, and the large grille blends more harmoniously into the side intakes. The rear features X-patterned taillights and a full-width light bar that vaguely echoes the subtle ‘Union Jack’ lights on the back of the Cyberster.
To break up the tall flanks, designers have added sharp kinks to the character lines on the rear doors. Pinched fender liners and curved sills further break up the side profile. To their credit, these tricks work. The HS looks sleeker than the smaller ZS, especially on the blacked-out 19-inch alloy wheels on our test unit.
Interior
While the cabin architecture has been fully revamped, you still get the same basic switchgear and controls—as well as the familiar flat-bottomed steering wheel. Beyond that, the HS no longer makes any pretense at old-school sensibilities. Instead, you get a long and low dual LED screen and a simplified upright dash. Thankfully, there are still a lot of physical controls—you need not go into the touchscreen menus to adjust major functions while moving. Light and wiper stalks feature a wand toggle rather than a twist ring, but everything else is pretty standard and easy to acclimatize to. You even get two programmable function buttons that can be customized to your liking—mine are set to regenerative braking and drive mode.
A shiny shift lever, framed lavishly in brushed metal and piano black, sits front and center on the center console, pushing the cupholders forward into the charging ports and the phone pad back under the center armrest. It’s a nice knob, but an asymmetrical shifter like the one in the ZS would have left more space for storage and controls on the console.
Pro-wise, the relatively narrow console gives you more knee room than the Sealion 6 does. Seats are similarly well-designed, with good support and comfort, even for overweight car reviewers. The contrast-stitched leatherette is firm but quite comfortable and is applied liberally all over the cabin. That cabin feels roomier than in the BYD, with more headroom and wiggle room around the knees up front. You get power-adjustable seats, with four-way lumbar support for the driver. Rear seat space feels as good or slightly better, both cars featuring similarly scalloped semi-buckets separated by a wide center pad with a double-wide fold-down center armrest. There’s rear AC, as well, to keep things cool.
Out back, the HS packs a surprisingly large cargo area underneath the power tailgate, with 441 liters measured between the tonneau cover and the big floor panel and 507 liters overall. Plus a few dozen liters more packed around the electricals and emergency tools underneath. An advantage of having less battery to cart around than the BYD.
Engine performance
Yes, the HS may be an electric-first hybrid, but MG’s Hybrid+ system uses a 1.8kWh battery instead of a big, heavy plug-in pack as on the BYD. While still bigger than in some Japanese hybrids, that battery pack means no plug-in option. As with the hybrid 3 and the hybrid ZS, the HS’ gasoline engine acts primarily as a generator, switching to direct drive at higher speeds. But the HS’ more powerful turbocharged 1.5-liter engine brings combined power up to 221hp. The turbocharger also features an air-to-water intercooler setup for better reliability. This allows 0-100kph acceleration times of around 7.8sec despite the extra weight. The bigger advantage is that the hand-off between the electric traction motor and the gasoline engine at higher speeds is much smoother—almost imperceptible. It’s not perfect, though. There’s still a notable delay when waiting for full power when overtaking, as the engine only kicks in after you floor the pedal. Sport mode helps, but the delay is still there.
Unlike many hybrids, there’s no EV/HEV switch. There is a dash display that shows you when you’re running electric only, and you do develop a sense of how you need to drive to keep it going that way as long as possible.
Fuel economy over the weekend was around 12-13 km/L crawling around town. Highway economy at a steady 80kph was between 23-25km/L, with enough charge built up after a 15-minute drive to do another 2-3km ‘free’ after you get off the expressway. When you do have the opportunity to charge up the battery this way, average economy sits around the 21km/L range. Impressive for a crossover of this size, and similar to the CR-V and RAV4 Hybrids.
Ride and handling
And yes, the HS does encourage that kind of conservative behavior. This is a very comfortable car. Where the ZS can feel a bit stiff and skittish at times, the heavier HS features a well-damped and well-engineered suspension. I was genuinely shocked when I checked the pressures on the big 225/55 R19 Bridgestone Alenza 001 tires and found them at a rock-hard 40psi. The HS rode so nicely on those pressures, I didn’t feel inclined to lower them at all.
Overall, the HS feels like a very mature product. The steering, though not feelsome, is precise, and handling is secure. Noise and vibration are well-controlled at speed, and the insulation makes the switch between EV and HEV modes barely noticeable.
Around town, the extra width of the HS means a little extra care merging in traffic, and rear visibility is compromised by the chunky rear headrests. You get a 360-degree camera system with distance estimation for parking—along with automatic tilting mirrors when backing up. You can bind the cameras to one of the hotkeys on the steering—but it doesn’t run at over 15kph, which limits usefulness in traffic compared to BYD’s system.
Extra features
You also get a full ADAS suite, emergency lane keeping assist, emergency braking, blind spot warning, rear cross-traffic and collision warning, traffic jam assist, a nifty speed limiter, and radar-assisted adaptive cruise control. There’s advanced obstacle detection, with a dashboard display showing you traffic around you and helpfully displaying speeding and erratically moving vehicles in orange to draw your attention to them, even before they pull up and cut you off!
In terms of convenience, you get keyless entry, push-button start, and a hands-free automatic tailgate. There’s a big 12.8-inch touchscreen center dash, but you almost never need to use it, with physical buttons for AC, windshield defoggers, auto hold, and hill-descent control all within reach. I do wish there were dedicated keys for the cameras and drive modes, but it’s easy enough to hot-key them on the wheel. You also get Android Auto and Apple CarPlay for entertainment, communication, and navigation, with available USB and wireless charging. Sound is clear and crisp, though not exceptionally deep. There’s no quick function pull-down menu as on some competitors, but MG provides a handy physical ‘Home’ button to put you back in the main menu in a pinch.
Other niceties include a gigantic dual-pane sunroof and matrix-style LED headlights with a very sharp cut-off, to keep you from blinding other drivers. There’s a control dial under the steering wheel to further adjust the lights, in case you find yourself sitting behind an exceptionally low car, but most of the time, the cut-off is perfectly fine.
Verdict
And that’s the HS in a nutshell. Perfectly fine. Which may sound like a criticism, but honestly, if you’re looking for a family five-seater in the CR-V or RAV4 vein, you’re not looking for a raised hot hatch or a wannabe sports car. Instead, you want something quiet, unfussy and economical. And that’s what the HS is. It’s also relatively spacious, quicker than the Japanese hybrids or the Sealion 6, and surprisingly loaded for a car that costs a mere P1,388,888. Yes, you heard right.
About a million less than a CR-V or RAV4 hybrid, and P200,000 less than the Sealion 6. Granted, the BYD still has an edge with its plug-in mode, but in hybrid mode, there’s little difference in consumption. But the purchase cost difference, considering the features and performance you get here, isn’t. And for some owners, not having to juggle two fuel sources is a bonus.
We won’t bet against BYD hitting its sales targets this year as more people hop on the plug-in bandwagon. But we don’t doubt that MG HS is going to snipe quite a few sales away from the mighty Sealion in the months ahead.
SPECS: MG HS Hybrid+ 2026:
Price: P1,388,888
Engine: 1.5-liter turbocharged gasoline I4 + single electric motor
Power: 221hp
Torque: 340Nm
Layout: Front-wheel-drive
Seating: Five
Score: 8.5/10
More photos of the MG HS Hybrid+ 2026:
