Growing Chinese brand Chery has confirmed plans for its first Australian-market ute – or perhaps utes, plural, as a car-derived 'lifestyle' model is being considered alongside a heavy-duty Ranger rival.
Chery is due to launch its first ute in Australia by the end of next year, as the latest Chinese brand to join the country's second-most-popular new-vehicle category.
And there could be not one, but two – a heavy-duty, ladder-frame dual-cab to rival the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux, alongside a car-derived 'lifestyle' pick-up for customers less focused on towing and off-road capabilities.
Diesel plug-in hybrid power – a departure from the petrol plug-in hybrid BYD Shark 6 and its rivals – is one of the power sources on the cards for the ladder-frame option.
Chery's first modern-era ute was revealed at the Shanghai motor show earlier this year – under the Himla badge, and later as the Rely R08 – but it will not be manufactured in right-hand drive.
Australia will instead get Chery utes with bolder styling, the ladder-frame HiLux rival recently exposed in patent images, and used as the basis of the illustration at the top of this story.
"That's left-hand drive only, that one [Himla], which I think is good actually, to be honest with you," Chery Australia chief operating officer Lucas Harris recently told Drive.
"And the reason I say that is it's quite a conventional-looking ute. Nothing wrong with it, and it's not ugly by any stretch of imagination, but the ute that's coming, I think, is a much better looking proposition."
Harris confirmed as many as three Chery utes are under consideration for Australia.
"There's a few different options there. There's a sort of recreational style ute, which is maybe a 600kg or 700kg payload, monocoque chassis – it's aimed at recreational, family-type use," he said.
"Then there is also a proper one-tonne, ladder-frame chassis ute – and a third option, which I can't really talk that much about, which is being looked at at the moment too, which will be exciting."
Asked if the ladder-frame ute would be a conventional diesel offering, or adopt hybrid and electric power, he said: "We haven't quite finalised that yet, it's still going through the motions.
"One of the powertrains that has been sort of talked about – and not confirmed, but certainly talked about – is a diesel plug-in hybrid, which I think would be really interesting and really exciting, and certainly a big point of difference in the marketplace."
Nearly all plug-in hybrid vehicles on the market use petrol engines, as electric motors deliver their best performance at low speeds and rpm – complementing petrol engines, which extract peak performance at higher revs.
Diesel engines, on the other hand, are known for high torque at low rpm, so combining them with plug-in hybrid assistance is a niche only few car brands – Mercedes-Benz being one of them – have explored.
It remains to be seen if a plug-in hybrid ute would operate akin to the BYD Shark 6 – with electric motors doing most of the heavy lifting, and the petrol engine primarily used as a generator – or the electric motor assisting the engine, as in the Ford Ranger PHEV.
The Rely R08 – the Chinese badge for the Himla – uses a 120kW 2.3-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine.
The petrol engines in Chery's first plug-in hybrids in Australia, the Tiggo 7 and Tiggo 8 Super Hybrids, can drive the wheels directly through a one-to-one gear ratio optimised for higher speeds.
"If that was the case with a diesel, it would be interesting to think about. If [the engine is] not going to drive, presumably not just that one-to-one ratio at cruising speed, you'd also want those benefits down low," Harris said.
"You'd have to assume there would be some kind of transmission arrangement, where they could deliver that power, but still be a meaningful and useful plug-in hybrid. I'm really excited to see more detail around how that's going to work, if it becomes a real option."
The ladder-frame, heavy-duty Chery would be a known quantity in terms of positioning and dimensions, rivalling the Ranger, HiLux, and budget-priced Chinese alternatives, including the GWM Cannon and JAC T9.
It is the car-derived 'monocoque' model that would launch its own category in Australia, as the likes of the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz – dual-cab utes based on family SUVs – offered in the US are not sold locally.
"From a simple market segment [perspective], it's obviously the one-tonne payload, ladder frame [that's of most interest]," Harris told Drive.
"But I think the recreational ute is also really interesting. It's quite a good-looking vehicle.
"It's certainly not going to be a tradie vehicle or anything like that, but for a family that wants to chuck stuff in the tray, a dog in the tray ... or go camping and don't need all of the cost and all of the sacrifices that come with a ladder-frame chassis pick-up, I think that's an interesting option.
"Just look back in the past with recreational utes; a different style, but like [the Ford] Falcon, [Holden] Commodore and [Subaru] Brumby, that sort of stuff."
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
