Forthing Taikon 5 vs Volkswagen Amarok

What's the difference?

Forthing remains something of an unknown quantity in Australia, but this first look at the Taikon 5 on local roads is promising.

It’s a modest mid-size SUV that’s priced accordingly and if you’re not a car person this will likely be enough to get people into a showroom.

Compared to most of its rivals it’s surprisingly pleasant and nice to drive, which is not something you can say about many first attempts.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer with travel and meals provided.

The Amarok W600 is impressive when you get it onto a twisty road, and my hat goes off to Walkinshaw for turning a dual-cab into something that is genuinely fun to drive on twisty roads. I’m not kidding, the W600 is proper fun.

But it’s expensive, and despite the tough looks and on-road ability, it doesn’t have any more on-paper performance than its standard siblings. That and its ride is compromised by its new abilities.

Those who spend the cash on a W600 probably won’t be disappointed if they can handle a slightly stiff ride, but it’s possible VW is expecting people will be more into the idea of a corner-carving dual-cab than is the reality.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

Outside, the Taikon 5 is inconspicuous to the point of anonymity. If you told me it was a new model from BYD, Chery, GWM or Leapmotor, I’d believe you.

The EV and REEV versions of this car look identical and the only way to tell them apart is the badging on the tailgate. Yes, that means the EV has a fuel filler cap that doesn’t open and serves no purpose.

Beyond the Forthing lettering on the tailgate, nothing identifies the car as a Forthing. Perhaps that will come in time, once more models arrive, but for now it’s a bland look.

Take the front. The angular LED daytime running lights and headlight set-up is cliche and overdone, plus the honeycomb grille is tacky. It's not helped by the prominent charge flap smack-bang in the middle of the front bumper.

Inside, the car takes the same all-too-similar approach of hanging everything off a central touchscreen.

The 14.6-inch touchscreen is large and prominently mounted, but elsewhere the dashboard already looks dated and cheap. It’s not helped by the exaggerated circular air vents that scream Audi or Mercedes-Benz knock-off, or the large silver panels on the steering wheel.

The Amarok W600 looks tough. In fact, it might even look a little too tough given the engine under its bonnet is unchanged from the regular V6 Amarok.

Walkinshaw has done an excellent job making the Amarok look like a properly fierce on-road performer, from the bespoke front bumper and new ‘W’ motif in the grille, to the lightbar across the front of the fascia connecting the lights and the aforementioned 20-inch Walkinshaw wheels.

The side-exit twin exhaust up the back of the ute looks excellent, and the fact that the sidesteps retract to tuck in below the doors gives the ute a sleeker vibe.

It’s a bit underwhelming in the cabin by comparison, with the Walkinshaw stitching in the headrests and the stainless steel pedals the biggest additions to the (admittedly already plush) Amarok interior.

It’s just a little more than a jazzed-up Ranger interior, but not by much.

Surprisingly standard across the Taikon 5 line-up is ventilation and a massage function for the driver’s seat. This is good value for money, plus the massage feels strong.

The driver’s seat also offers 10 ways of electric adjustment and most people should find a comfortable driving position. You sit high, which SUV buyers prefer for the commanding view.

The steering wheel doesn’t reinvent the wheel (pardon the pun). It’s conventional and straightforward, which is no bad thing. All the buttons are clearly labelled and do exactly what they say.

Behind it, the digital instrument cluster is unremarkable and clearly displays the critical information, including a digital speedometer, odometer and remaining range.

You’re able to cycle through several informative pages. Oddly, the up and down buttons on the steering wheel adjust the cluster’s brightness.

The 14.6-inch central touchscreen multimedia system is large, however it’s tilted too far back and picks up reflections as a result.

The interface is simple and there isn’t much to get lost in, which makes the occasional lag when opening apps and sub-menus harder to excuse.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard and the connection held up over our short driving loops.

The drive modes and vehicle settings live in the touchscreen, but the climate control gets its own bank of physical dials and touch-sensitive buttons. The latter is great to see given so many carmakers are burying it in the touchscreen.

Elsewhere in the cabin there is a fancy-looking and Volvo-esque crystal-style gear selector, a wireless phone charger (Exclusive only), two cupholders, an open storage area under the centre console, a decently sized centre console box, as well as a glovebox.

In the second row there’s enough space to get comfortable. At a leggy 182cm, I had plenty of legroom behind my own driving position and headroom is okay, though the panoramic glass sunroof in the top-spec Exclusive trim eats into it.

The virtually flat floor means getting three adults across the rear bench isn’t out of the question, though there’s little bolstering in the seat back and base, so you’ll slide around in the corners.

Second-row amenities include central console-mounted air vents, a singular USB-A port, as well as a fold-down armrest with cupholders.

There are ISOFIX child seat anchorage points on the two outboard rear seats and top tether points on all three.

The Exclusive comes with a power tailgate. It beeps and opens slowly, but eventually the job gets done.

Boot space is 480L with the rear seats upright, expanding to 1480L with them folded. The boot area is fairly spacious and there’s a flat load floor.

Depending on the variant there’s an underfloor compartment that’s big enough to store some charging cables.

The EV Exclusive comes with a space-saver spare wheel, which is critical if you do long-distance drives in rural and regional areas. Disappointingly it doesn’t feature in the entry-level EV Luxury which makes do with a tyre repair kit, despite having the space to fill.

All versions of the REEV also have a tyre repair kit, but this makes more sense as the space is taken up by the rear-mounted electric motor.

The Amarok starts from a solid base in terms of practicality, so the W600 inherits pretty much all of it, including a couple of its downsides.

The positives to start, the W600 uses the same handy multimedia system on a nice, clear vertical touchscreen with always-on climate controls and a few buttons for key shortcuts.

As much as a bespoke steering wheel would feel more special, the standard one from the Amarok has convenient buttons and is nice to hold.

The seats in the W600 are comfortable, and finding a naturally ergonomic position is easy with the 10-way electric adjustment, but as much as everything falls nicely to hand the cupholders are in an awkward position and there’s not a lot of easy storage space.

A little cubby above the glovebox and a small centre storage bin are a little hard to reach or access while driving, and the phone charger isn’t the best place to store items.

There’s decent space in the back, with doorcard bottle storage (as up front) and a centre armrest with cupholders.

Impressively, the Amarok W600 still has a 3500kg braked towing capacity, a 954kg payload, and no intrusion on the 1544mm long and 1224mm wide tray. There’s an optional roller cover for that, too.

Given the W600 is positioned at the pointy end of the Amarok range it should be no surprise that the dual-cab ute is pricey.

But the W600 starts from $91,990 before on-roads, which is $1300 more than the Ford Ranger Raptor. And the Raptor could be considered a bigger step up in performance when compared with its Blue Oval Brethren than the W600 is to its family. 

Noting, of course, that the Amarok borrows much of the Ranger’s construction from chassis to driveline to interior elements, the W600 is like the much more refined European cousin to the redneck Raptor.

For what you pay, the W600 does have a healthy level of features included, but it does feel like a lot of that cost is paying for the engineering that comes with it.

Regular stuff like a big 12.0-inch multimedia touchscreen, wide 12.3-inch driver display, eight-speaker sound system, electric leather seats and wireless phone charger should be expected anyway, but specific to the W600 is a set of 20-inch Walkinshaw wheels custom-fit to the W600, a dual-exit exhaust which of course exits to the side, and retractable sidesteps.

That, and the engineering underneath which includes a bespoke set of Koni dampers, the addition of a rear anti-roll bar, and a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4 SUV tyres to go with the new lightweight wheels.

While the Forthing Taikon 5 EV and REEV may look virtually identical, what is lurking under the bonnet is rather different.

The EV has a single, front-mounted electric motor that produces 150kW and 340Nm.

The REEV instead has a rear-mounted electric motor, making it rear-wheel drive. It produces 120kW and 240Nm, which is 30kW and 100Nm less than the EV.

It’s paired with a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine that’s capable of producing up to 75kW. It acts purely as a generator and never drives the wheels.

Powering the W600 is the standard 3.0-litre twin-turbo-diesel V6 available in other Amaroks, with 184kW and 600Nm.

It’s mated to a 10-speed torque converted automatic and powers either the rear or all four wheels, depending on how you’ve set the all-wheel-drive system.

Both versions of the Taikon 5 have a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery.

The EV has a 64.4kWh unit that’s good for up to 427km of WLTP electric range, whereas the REEV has a smaller 31.2kWh unit good for up to 170km of WLTP electric range.

For the EV that’s fairly standard for the segment, but with the REEV the battery pack is much larger than many of its similarly priced rivals.

You can’t forget the REEV also has a petrol engine that’s fed by a 43L fuel tank. This allows for a WLTP total range of up to 937km.

Both versions have a Type 2/CCS port on the front bumper, allowing for AC and DC charging.

The EV has a peak AC charging rate of 11kW and a peak DC charging rate of 80kW. The latter is mediocre, but it allows for a 30 to 80 per cent charge to occur in 30 minutes.

The REEV has a peak AC charging rate of 6.6kW and a peak DC charging rate of 40kW. Despite being slower, a 30 to 80 per cent changer using the latter is still claimed to take only 30 minutes.

The Amarok’s diesel V6 engine remains unchanged so the 8.4L/100km fuel consumption rate stands, but if you’re driving the W600 as intended, you’ll see that figure climb.

It’s fitted with an 80-litre fuel tank so theoretically a 950km trip would be possible in WLTP test conditions.

The EV’s front-mounted electric motor is adequate, rather than quick. It’s enough to keep up with urban traffic.

Because it’s front-wheel drive with full torque available from a standstill, don’t be surprised by a touch of wheelspin if you bury the accelerator.

When taking off harder the electric motor can make prominent whirring sounds, but this kind of feedback is nice as an eerily quiet car can feel disconcerting.

In the REEV, the 1.5-litre petrol engine only ever acts as a generator, so it drives like an EV. Its electric motor sits on the rear axle, which makes it quieter from the driver’s seat and rear-wheel drive. In practice the lower outputs blunt it and it feels slower than the EV.

There’s still enough off the line. You only notice the deficit at higher speeds.

There are a total of four EV/hybrid modes to choose from, including EV-only, EV priority, hybrid and fuel only. They all do exactly what its name suggests.

Due to the limited driving program at the launch, I didn’t get to fully experience the extent of how the REEV powertrain operates under every circumstance. For example, I couldn’t drive it with a low battery charge and have it solely rely on the engine.

When the engine fires up to charge the battery, it stays quiet and in the background. If you're not paying attention you wouldn’t know it’s on.

Both versions of the Taikon 5 offer two levels of regenerative braking. There’s no one-pedal mode, meaning you need to use the brake pedal to come to a stop.

What’s surprising is the way it drives. Its rivals can drive like a dog’s breakfast and while the Taikon 5 isn’t class leading, the dynamics are better than you’d expect.

What I mean by this is the steering has some sense of what’s happening with the tyres when you turn the wheel. There are three settings to choose from and the most natural is Sport mode, which is the firmest.

There's no Australian-specific suspension tune, but it’s still generally compliant and comfort oriented. Unlike many of its rivals though, it’s not overly soft and floaty.

In terms of noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) the Taikon 5 is a generally quiet car, even at higher speeds. However, we noticed some plastic trim rattles and creaks, which isn’t ideal given they're brand new.

The first and most impressive thing to mention once you’re on the move in the Amarok W600 is that, once you sling the 2.4-tonne dual cab into a corner, you can tell there’s been some rigorous engineering work undertaken here.

The cornering and handling ability of the W600 belies its dual-cab nature to some extent, as it holds relatively flat and is far more confidence inspiring even on soaked roads than any ladder-frame ute I can recall. 

Of course, the tyres help on the cornering front too, with the PS4 SUV rubber being a fairly big trade-off in terms of sacrificing off-road ruggedness for asphalt grip.

Even the exhaust is a subtle reminder that you’re in something that’s had the once-over (or several times over) from a crew of engineers who know what they’re doing.

Sure, it’s not the same burble that used to roll out of the Walkinshaw sheds back in the Holden days, but it growls gently at certain revs or under the right load.

But the ride is firm, and it’s surprising the roads in the south and east of Tassie showed that given they were the test roads used to turn the W600 into the ‘ultimate driver’s ute’.

It’s noticeable enough that you’d probably get a bit tired of it on a long trip, which is a shame as that’s something VW is pretty sure its W600 customers are looking to use it for. That’s why it can still tow 3500kg and has that near-1000kg payload.

I should note that utes with some weight in the tray often feel a little more settled at the leaf-sprung rear, but we didn't test the W600 with any load onboard.

Its big wheels and low-profile rubber probably don’t help the 2.4-tonne ute on the comfort front, but hey, they look good.

The other main issue is it doesn’t feel as ‘special’ as it could in the power and performance department. 

The engine is great for a dual-cab, plenty torquey and doesn’t feel like it needs to work hard day-to-day, but something with a bit of mongrel about it would have been better.

VW not wanting Walkinshaw to detract from its towing and payload ability might have hindered this a little, but I can’t help but wonder if the Amarok W600 could have been more lively with the four-cylinder petrol engine than the diesel V6.

In the Amarok TSI452 variants, it feels peppy enough to be interesting, and there’s probably more scope for chassis balance than the twin-turbo diesel allows.

It’s also the engine used in Ford’s Mustang EcoBoost and the wicked Focus RS of a few years ago, so not bad pedigree.

The Amarok boasts a five-star ANCAP rating and a strong list of safety features as standard, including a very impressive count of nine airbags.

A driver assistance suite includes lane-assist, pedestrian and cyclist monitoring, a surround-view parking camera, trailer and hitching assist with sway control, plus front and rear cameras with cross-traffic alert.

It’s certainly at the more impressive end of the dual-cab market considering the age of the Amarok as a whole.

Even better, the driver assist systems are unobtrusive, leaving you to enjoy the impressive on-road performance of the W600 without interruption from dings, chimes or warnings.

The Forthing Taikon 5 is covered by a seven-year, 200,000km warranty, while the high-voltage battery is covered for eight years, 200,000km.

There’s 12 months of roadside assistance which can be extended out to five years provided you service within the Forthing dealer network, when required.

Logbook servicing with the REEV is required every 12 months or 15,000km, whereas with the EV it’s every 12 months or 20,000km.

Forthing is offering five years of capped-price servicing. With the EV it’s $1815 and the REEV it’s $2605 which works out to $363 and $521, respectively, per year.

Forthing is still scaling its dealer network in Australia and it currently has 20 sites operational. The company plans to have a total of 35 by the end of 2026.

The W600 is backed by VW’s standard five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty.

Given most popular utes are covered by the same, that’s pretty standard, but longer warranties are creeping in.

Volkswagen says a five-year servicing plan covers the Amarok for just $3200, which averages to $640 a year. Service schedule is every 12 months or 15,000km.