Lepas L6 vs Cavan C1

What's the difference?

The Chery has most definitely popped and the Australian launch of new brand, Lepas, is only the start of what’s to come in 2027.

The Lepas L6 EV is the brand’s first entrant locally and it’s an electric mid-size SUV rival to the likes of the BYD Atto 3 Evo, Geely EX5, Hyundai Elexio, Kia EV5 and Leapmotor C10. The list goes on…

Lepas is doing everything it can to stand out on its own from the namesake Chery, as well as the Omoda Jaecoo brands in Australia. It’s also set to have its own dealer network.

Is the L6 EV a worthy addition to the Chery Group stable? Read on to find out.

It was, of course, inevitable that electric cargo vans would fall in price. Even allowing for the front-loading of running costs inherent in an EV, the fact that many cargo vans are company-owned and, therefore, purchased largely on price, meant somebody would hit the market with a cheapie that did the job.

In Australia, the cut-price last-mile vans include the Kia PV5 EV and Farizon V7E, both with price-tags under $56,000. The Farizon was the title-holder at sub-$50K drive-away, but a newcomer called the Cavan C1 rewrites that script with a starting price of under $45,000, drive-away, for the cheapest version.

A sub-brand of Chinese behemoth Foton, the Cavan brand will be distributed and retailed in Australia by a separate company to Inchcape (the local Foton distributor) and at the moment, there’s but a single dealership (in Melbourne’s south-east suburbs). That will surely change, however, as deliveries ramp up and the word gets out. In fact, as we go to press, a second dealership, also in Melbourne, has been announced.