Foton News

If you have your heart set on a ute but can’t decide what to buy, the range of choices available nowadays is mind-boggling.But a lot of the utes on offer cost more than $60,000.So, what’s available with a sub-$60,000 price-tag and may actually be a good buy for you?Here’s our guide to budget-friendly workhorses.Warning: you don’t get champagne on a beer budget and that’s fine because lots of people (including me) prefer beer anyway. The point is: when you’re shopping in the cheaper part of the market you have to be prepared to make some compromises on quality, ride and handling and overall drivability, and ultimately accept that there’ll always be trade-offs – sometimes minor and sometimes not so minor.(Note: For the purpose of this yarn we’ll focus on dual-cab 4WD utes as they offer the most flexibility in terms of passenger- and gear-carrying functionality ... and because I want to focus on them.)Read on.This top-spec Tunland has plenty of standard features for the price, is adequately capable off-road and offers a reasonable driving experience all-round.It has a 2.0L four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine (120kW/450Nm), a 48V mild-hybrid system, a reasonably calibrated off-road traction control system, and front and rear diff locks.The engine and eight-speed auto transmission produce a sluggish driving experience on sealed surfaces, and it feels underpowered, but the set-up works better at low-speed 4WDing more than anything else.If you plan to do anything beyond formed trails in dry weather than think about swapping out the showroom-standard Giti 4x4 AT71 tyres (265/70R18 116T) for some more-aggressive all-terrain tyres.Towing capacity? 3500kg.Foton Australia offers a limited range of accessories for the Tunland (including tonneau covers, roof platforms and towbar kits) but the Australian aftermarket industry is more than capable of kitting you out with everything you’ll need for your Tunland and there’s gear across all price points to suit every budget.The Musso has an impressive features list, is a capable 4WD, and yields a decent driving experience on sealed and unsealed surfaces.And with the optional XLV pack, it gets a longer wheelbase (110mm extra), a 300mm longer tub and 90kg of extra payload over the standard Musso (880kg rather than 790kg).It has a 2.2L four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine (133kW/420Nm), a six-speed automatic transmission, part-time 4x4 and an auto-locking rear differential.This is a rather sluggish ute and the powertrain is not particularly efficient, but the Aisin auto is a reliable, well-proven transmission and the Musso does well with what it has.Towing capacity? 3500kg.KGM Australia offers a range of accessories for the Musso (including hard lids, ladder rack kits and “premium” underbody protection) and if you can’t find what you want in KGM genuine accessories, then you can always tap into the lively Aussie aftermarket sector.The top-shelf Cannon XSR is the most capable 4WD of this bunch and – coming in at a little more than $50,000 drive-away (nationwide, at time of writing) – you get a lot for your money.This ute has a 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine (135kW/480Nm), twin lockers, a snorkel, underbody protection and Cooper Discoverer AT3 all-terrain tyres – so it is set up for off-road adventure straight off the showroom floor.And it does perform well off-road.The engine and nine-speed auto is a tractable pairing and well suited to the demands of 4WDing, easily able to muster and harness more than enough power and torque on- and off-road when needed – although it does exhibit pronounced lag at times and that auto can be patchy during daily driving duties.Towing capacity? 3000kg.GWM Australia and New Zealand has a variety of accessories (including bull bars, tow bars, and canopies) and if GWM doesn’t have what you want, Australia’s well-stocked aftermarket sector will likely be able to sort you out as soon as humanly possible.More a lifestyle ute than a 4WD ute, the BYD Shark 6 has rattled the market’s cage with its blend of premium features, refinement and all-round driveability. At $57,990 (excluding on-road costs), this ute offers a lot in an appealing package.The Shark has a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder plug-in hybrid system* (321kW/650Nm), a 30kWh battery and, in basic terms, the petrol engine — and regen braking — feed power into that battery during general driving. It has a single-speed reduction gear/dedicated hybrid transmission, which enables electric-only driving and hybrid operation, switching between modes based on throttle demand and battery level.(* Note: The new Shark 6 Performance will have a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine and dual electric motors, claimed to deliver total outputs of 350kW and 700Nm.)Worth noting here is that the Shark does not have 4WD, it has an all-wheel drive system split between the front and rear, and Drive modes include Eco, Normal and Sport and Terrain modes include Sand, Snow, Mud and Mountain.But this Shark 6 is actually impressive off-road, as long as it’s driven within its scope of capability: light to moderate off-road conditions — that is, if possible, stick to well-maintained dirt tracks in dry weather; do not take on any ‘4WD/high ground clearance only' tracks, prolonged sand-driving or rock-crawling.Towing capacity? 2500kg.BYD Australia offers a range of accessories (including “deluxe” bull bars, roof racks, and suspension upgrade kits) and if they don’t stock what you want/need, feel free to buy through the Aussie aftermarket.The other brands on this list are still in their relative infancy in this country – compared to established car-makers in Australia, such as Toyota et al – and there are lingering concerns about after-sales service (or lack thereof), availability of parts, and long-term reliability with these newer brands that have to be taken into account.There are no such concerns with Mitsubishi or its well-proven Triton.While a Premcar-developed Raider ($74,990 drive-away) would be the pick of the Tritons, a less expensive GLX-R Is on the cards here.This ute has 2.4-litre four-cylinder bi-turbo diesel engine (150kW/470Nm), a six-speed automatic transmission and, while it is comfortably mid-range in terms of price, it gets the higher-spec variants’ Super Select II 4WD, an impressive legacy set-up, which enables this ute to be driven in all-wheel drive mode (and centre-diff unlocked), so it’s safe to use on high-traction sealed surfaces.This engine, auto and Super Select II 4WD is an impressive combination – smooth, nimble and torquey – and offers a decent all-round driving experience on- and off-road.Towing capacity is 3500kg.Out of this five-strong mob of utes, the Triton is the best in terms of value for money, baked-in brand trust, parts availability, and ultimately resale value.Bonus: there are plenty of aftermarket accessories (OEM or otherwise) available for the Triton.

A new budget electric ute crusher from China is about to hit Aussie showrooms. The Foton K2 van has been approved for sale in Australia, according to a Department of Infrastructure, Transports, Regional Development, Communications, Sports and the Arts filing. It will join the increasingly busy electric van segment, and will be available in short and long wheelbase variants.It sizes up in the mid-size van category at 4900mm long for the SWB and 5200mm long for the LWB. This makes it similarly sized to the Ford E-Transit Custom priced from $77,890, before on-road costs. There is no indication yet on how the K2 will be priced, but it is likely to come in cheaper than the E-Transit Custom. A spokesperson for Foton Australia would not confirm the K2's future launch, but sales approval rarely fails to result in a vehicle launch. The K2 is powered by an electric motor set-up that produces 125kW. There are two battery choices available, which are 50kWh and 67kWh units.There is no official driving range figure for the K2, but overseas versions, known as the i7, offer 360km from the 50kWh unit, according to more generous CLTC standards. Overseas versions feature a functional cabin, with seating for three people and a small pop-out digital driver display and optional central display. There are also physical climate control buttons. Other information remains scarce at this stage, but we are likely to find out more about it later on this year. It will join the Foton Tunland ute, which recently came to Australia after a more than eight-year absence Down Under. It is unclear what could be next on the agenda for Foton, but the brand has previously offered an SUV and that is something still on the cards. “Foton’s got some pretty strong van offerings,” Inchcape Australia (Foton distributor) Managing Director Blair Read told CarsGuide late last year. “That is where our current focus is, what we've been discussing with the factory, and then maybe SUVs down the track.”

Diesel utes have been one of the categories hit hardest by rising fuel prices in Australia, compounding an already slowing segment of the market. Even the best-selling Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux are experiencing sales declines, with month-on-month drops for April.Ute options have grown substantially in recent times, with the addition of several new Chinese competitors. The BYD Shark 6’s success is well-documented, but it is somewhat of an anomaly in a segment where Chinese utes have experienced stuttering sales performances.One of these utes is the Foton Tunland, which was recorded in sales data for the first time in April, managing 97 registrations for the month.The Tunland returned to Australia after a more than eight-year absence Down Under, with a starting price of just under $40K, before on-road costs. The MG U9 is another experiencing a tough sales run, having amassed only 94 units in April and less than 700 units over the course of 2026 so far.With a drive-away price of $52,990, it is not priced too dissimilarly to the segment leaders like the HiLux and Ranger in the dual-cab category. JAC’s T9 also continues this trend, mustering only 56 registrations in April, and only 359 sales so far in 2026.The brand recently released a new cheaper dual-cab chassis ute, starting from $38,990 (before on-road costs) to try and boost its market appeal. One other Chinese ute falling into a similar category, bucking the wider market trend, is the LDV T60, with just 214 sales in April 2026. This number is better than many of its rivals, but still a decent chunk less than the established pack. It is priced from $45,253 (before on-road costs).Meanwhile, many Chinese brands are turning to plug-in hybrid power for their ute offerings, with many announcing new models launching before the end of the year. JAC unveiled its Hunter petrol PHEV ute, which is already open for orders, while the GWM Cannon PHEV will also join the competition soon alongside its larger Cannon Alpha sibling. Later in the year, Chery will enter the ute race with a first-ever diesel PHEV, as a point of difference to the successful Shark 6.Whether this flood of hybrid offerings can change the tide for many of these brands remains to be seen.

With all due respect to GAC and its plans for a new dual-cab ute — please don’t. Same goes for Hyundai, which has been talking up its plans for a ute in recent months, and Chery that has a yet-to-be-named new ute incoming. We have enough utes in this country.That might sound like a ‘click-bait, hot take’ (and it partially is) but it’s also very much true. The ute market in Australia is getting over-crowded and new additions will make it even more densely packed.Don’t take my word for it, Sean Hanley, the former sales and marketing boss of Toyota has been saying we’ve reached ‘peak ute’ for more than a year. Coming from a man who oversaw the enduring sales success of the HiLux and introduced the Tundra to Australia, that’s a notable position to take. Speaking in January 2025, Hanley said he wasn’t confident that more utes arriving would equal more sales overall.“I’m not necessarily sharing a view that it's going to grow astronomically because of the new entrants,” he said. “It may, I could be wrong, but it’ll be interesting to watch.“Looking towards the future, we already know that the number of ute models available to Australian buyers will expand rapidly. “They’ll be competing for an overall ute market that is likely to remain steady, which suggests that the average sales per model will come down as a result.”That hypothesis was proved correct when the 2025 sales were tallied. The ute segment grew only 2.7 per cent between 2024 and ‘25, despite 12 new entrants from several new brands — including Kia, BYD, MG, Foton and GWM.Go back five years and look at the difference between 2021 and ‘25 and the idea of hitting ‘peak ute’ comes into even greater focus. In that span there was 5.9 per cent sales growth but a 41 per cent increase in the available number of models. Hanley followed up his January comments with more at the launch of the new HiLux late in 2025.“So when I say the ute market's peaked, what I mean is that, well, exactly that, it's peaked. But it's still a significant market, and it will be for the future,” he told CarsGuide."But I think that whole ute market's going to be crazy for the next couple of years. So in the end it doesn't matter what I think. It matters what customers think.”Nissan Oceania Managing Director Andrew Humberstone, seemingly along with GAC and Hyundai management, believes the contrary and the ute market has increased volume in its future.“I don't want to really talk specifically about numbers, but we see certainly an increase in volume,” he told CarsGuide in December ‘25.While BYD has made strong in-roads into the ute market with the Shark 6, cementing itself as a top five selling dual-cab, the reality for most of these new players is they are attracting relatively small volumes.Kia, which set a public goal of 10,000 sales by the end of ‘25 managed less than half of that (4196), while despite a competitive price and bigger-than-average size, the MG U9 managed only 472 sales in the few months it was on sale. Foton split 177 sales between its Tunland V7 and V9 since they hit the market in late ‘25.But even some models that were on sale for the full year in 2025 fared poorly. The Jeep Gladiator found just 332 buyers, while the Isuzu D-Max, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara and Volkswagen Amarok all experienced sales drops.Of course, this story won’t stop the new utes from GAC, Hyundai and Chery coming, nor any other brand that wants to join in, but the reality is none are likely to dramatically increase the size of the overall ute market. Instead, the share of the market will just get divided up into smaller and smaller pieces.In the end, natural selection will play its part and the models that don’t sell will simply be overlooked by buyers and are likely to disappear eventually. One way or another, Australia will not have an endlessly growing number of utes to choose from.

You can't fit 10kg of dirt into a 5kg bag. That feels like an appropriate metaphor for the Australian car industry, where seemingly every few weeks a new car brand arrives to stake its claim on a piece of the market.

2025 was certainly the year of the new car brand coming to Australia.

Foton is on the comeback trail in Australia, but what comes next won’t be an SUV or a larger and more-powerful ute. Instead, the Chinese brand has at least one new value-focused van under consideration, as it seeks to cement its reputation as a provider of no-nonsense commercial vehicles in this country.

New Chinese utes have arrived and they are more than $20,000 cheaper than top-end HiLux and Ranger models.The Foton Tunland range kicks off at $39,990 (before on-road costs) for the Tunland V7 two-wheel drive variant and tops out at $49,990 for the full-fruit Tunland V9 S four-wheel drive.That entry point is similar to the petrol-powered Toyota HiLux Workmate two-wheel drive, but it is about $10,000 cheaper than the most affordable two-wheel drive HiLux and Ranger with turbo-diesel grunt.Foton has now opened the order books for the Tunland line-up before deliveries commence later this month. They will initially be available in a select number of dealers in capital cities and major regional towns before the network expands later this year.Power comes from a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel engine with 48V mild-hybrid assistance that makes 120kW and 450kW, and is paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission.Those numbers are down on the competition but all Tunlands can tow 3500kg and have a payload of between 995kg and 1089kg, depending on the variant.All variants have 240mm of ground clearance and 28 and 26 degree approach and departure angles, respectively. Wading depth is 700mm.The V7 is pitched more towards tradies with a payload of more than 1000kg and rear leaf suspension, so think more HiLux Workmate or SR spec.The V9 is more lifestyle-focused, in a similar vein to a Ford Ranger Wildtrak, with a more luxurious cabin and advanced multi-link rear suspension. Foton General Manager Glen Cooper said the Tunland has been tested and tuned for Australian conditions.“The all-new Tunland offers something truly unique – the space and toughness of a larger workhorse, paired with the comfort and driveability of a modern SUV, all without a premium price tag,” said Cooper.Foton is backing the Tunland with a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. 

Chinese carmakers aren’t just winning over Aussies with affordable electric SUVs, the same manufacturers have quickly established themselves as serious competitors in the popular ute segment that's dominated by the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger. Just this year we’ve seen a stack of new Chinese utes models arrive in Australia to join some already well-established players. So, here’s the ultimate list of Chinese utes in Australia to help you keep up to date with what’s on the ground now and those expected to arrive soon.BYD has taken Australia by storm with its affordable electric cars, but wading into the treacherous and competitive waters of the ute segment inhabited by the likes of Toyota’s HiLux and Ford’s Ranger was brave. BYD, however, didn’t just wade in, it backstroked in during late last year and stole a sizable chunk of the market with the Shark 6 becoming the fourth best-selling 4x4 ute on the market so far in 2025.The Shark 6 is a plug-in hybrid that uses a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine with two electric motors for a combined output of 321kW and 650Nm. Braked towing capacity is 2500kg.The GWM Cannon is the most established Chinese ute in Australia and is popular for its combination of good looks and good value.The Cannon dual-cab has a 2.4 litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel unit making 135kW and 480Nm. Braked capacity is 3500kg.JAC’s T9 arrived in Australia in late 2024 and there are currently two grades on sale - the Oasis and the Haven. Powering the T9 is a 2.0 litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine making 120kW and 410Nm, mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Braked towing capacity is 3200kg.LDV’s Terron 9 is the latest member of the brand’s growing ute family. Larger in every way than the T60 both in dimensions and grunt.Powered by a 2.5-litre turbo-diesel four cylinder making 163kW and 520Nm, the Terron 9 has a braked towing capacity of 3500kg.An eTerron 9 electric version could also be arriving in Australia soon. The LDV T60 is the smaller stablemate of the Terron 9 and is powered by a 160kW/500Nm 2.0-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder, mated to an-eight speed automatic, with a six-speed manual gearbox also available. LDV upgraded the T60 in 2025 and this T60 Max, as it's called now, has a higher braked towing capacity of 3500kg.The new Foton Tunland arrived late in 2025 a very different vehicle to the one we used to know with strikingly handsome exterior and lavish looking cabin.All variants have a 2.0-litre turbo diesel engine with a 48V mild hybrid system, with outputs of 120kW and 450Nm.Chery has confirmed that it will bring a plug-in hybrid ute to Australia to compete against BYD’s Shark 6 in 2026 and the Rely P3X could be it.Rely is one of the many brands owned by Chery, along with Omoda and Jaecoo which are already in Australia. Rely showed off the P3X recently at the Chengdu motor show and it's very likely one or both of these will be vehicles to be picked and arrive wearing a Chery badge.The P3X appears to have all the ingredients to make it a tough rival to the BYD Shark 6 with its ladder frame chassis and 2.5-litre turbo diesel engine with dual electric motors.MG’s U9 arrives right about now and could be a game changer, even if it’s based on a ute that’s already here - the LDV Terron 9.MG’s bosses say that the U9 will come with a choice of diesel, plug-in hybrid and fully electric powertrains, and that variety, along with its good looks and expected affordable price point, will make it a big market disrupter. A 3500kg braked towing capacity is confirmed as well - possibly only on the diesel.Unlike all the other utes here the Geely Riddara doesn’t sit on a ladder frame and is far more car-like and lifestyle focused than a work truck.Still, there’s definitely a market for a small and comfortable little ute like the Riddara RD6, which is likely to come to Australia with a plug-in hybrid powertrain.When it does come isn’t certain, with Geely appearing to concentrate more on growing its passenger car line-up first.

Another Chinese ute has arrived to put pressure on the Australian dual-cab ute establishment with a low price and plenty of gear. Foton has just revealed Australia prices and specifications for its new Tunland ute range.