What's the difference?
Electrified utes are growing in popularity in Australia and carmakers have been paying attention.
While the BYD Shark 6 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) ute is by far the best-selling as it stands, there hasn’t really been any electric ute to go up against the poorly received LDV eT60, until now.
South Korea’s KGM (formerly known as SsangYong) has just launched the Musso EV, which is a purely electric dual-cab ute. It’s unrelated to the existing, turbo-diesel Musso and is more closely related to the current car-based Actyon and Torres SUVs.
Read along to see how this ute stacks up against its growing set of competitors.
Subaru is entering uncharted territory.
The Uncharted is the brand’s first electric small SUV and a bold new direction, as the Japanese maker enters one of the most hotly-contested and now sought-after new segments in the Australian car market.
There is no shortage of new options calling out to Australian buyers and with a broad range of price-tags, designs and on-board tech it’s never been a more difficult time to enter this space.
So what does the Subaru Uncharted do differently, and is it worthy of your consideration? We took one for a week to find out.
Despite having the Musso name, this electric ute is a completely different beast which is much more lifestyle-oriented than the older and unrelated turbo-diesel Musso workhorse.
There really isn’t much competition out there right now in the electric ute space but this makes a compelling case, especially for those looking in the fleet space. It has an appealing price, adequate range, SUV-like comfort and decent payload capacity.
The Uncharted follows the Subaru promise of offering compelling all-wheel drive and a capable driving experience at a reasonable price, but only if you compare it to its traditional rivals.
The trouble for Subaru is that this part of the market has moved on, and EV buyers now have a different set of expectations relative to its usual point-of-difference.
In that sense, this is a good electric Subaru - but is it objectively a good electric car? With the circa-$60K pricing, that’s a harder argument to make.