Another Chinese ute coming soon? Chery dual-cab pick-up could emerge soon, but will the GWM Ute, LDV T60 and Isuzu D-Max rival be a diesel or electric car?

Another ute could be set to enter the Australian market to take on the Toyota HiLux, Mitsubishi Triton and more.

And we are not talking about Kia’s forthcoming pick-up that is currently being dubbed the Tasman, either.

This would be a body-on-frame ute from Chinese giant, Chery - not that the company’s local arm is saying much about it at this stage.

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There have been reports that Chery would rebadge another brand’s ute as its own product, and there have been other reports suggesting that the company is developing at least one but possibly two utes, and some of this it’s doing on its own. Internal-combustion, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric propulsion have all been floated.

But at this stage there are no solid details about the mystery pick-up.

Chery Australia Managing Director Lucas Harris said he understands that a ute could be a significant addition to Chery’s range in Australia and the local arm has its hand up for a GWM Ute rival.

“I would love a Chery ute. Look, there's currently no firm plans or commitments that we'd be able to share at the moment. Other than that, it's not lost on us how popular those vehicles are in Australia and we'd love to be able to offer customers an option in that space.

“So that's our job to go back to the factory and encourage them as much as possible to give us an option for a ute,” he told CarsGuide.

A future Chery ute could also take design cues from the Jetour Traveller.

Given it could be a few years before a Chery ute emerges, it’s likely that it would be at least either a hybrid or PHEV, or a fully electric model by then.

If Chery does eventually reveal a ute, it would face a wall of competitors in Australia, including the dominant Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger, as well as the Isuzu D-Max, Mitsubishi Triton and Nissan Navara.

There’s also considerable competition from some of Chery’s fellow Chinese manufacturers.

GWM offers the Ute and that model captured 9616 sales in 2023, making it GWM’s second most popular model. LDV also sells the cheaper T60 that also found 9106 buyers last year. BYD has confirmed plans to sell a yet-to-be-revealed plug-in hybrid ute in Australia late this year.

Chery is not new to the ute segment, at least in China, where it sold a ute under its Karry sub-brand dubbed the Higgo many years ago.