Ute News

Chery ute likely to spawn Omoda or Jaecoo spin-off according to the brand's global boss.

Radical electric BYD Shark 6 alternative goes on sale right next door to Australia.

China’s LDV has just launched the new Terron 9 turbo-diesel dual-cab ute in Australia, but the electric eTerron 9 counterpart is still nowhere to be seen.

‘The empire strikes back: Ford’s plan to battle China’ was the headline we ran last week when the Blue Oval revealed plans for its new Universal EV Platform.For Ford’s sake, I hope they don’t end up like the Empire at the end of Return of the Jedi, but there does seem to be a real danger that Ford is making the same mistake the bad guys in Star Wars did — repeating themselves and being exposed by a rising rebellion.To translate that for non-Star Wars nerds like myself. The Universal EV Platform is meant to be Ford’s answer to China’s new wave of cost-effective electric vehicles. It will be a scalable platform, which will allow Ford to offer multiple models of different shapes and sizes.Ford has said it will start with a ‘mid-size pickup’ (or ute in the Aussie vernacular), which will join the iconic F-150 and city-friendly Maverick in the brand’s US pickup lineup.Ford claims that the Universal EV Platform will require 20 per cent fewer parts, 25 per cent fewer fasteners, 40 per cent fewer workstations in the production facility and be 15 per cent faster to assemble when compared to a “typical vehicle”.That all sounds great on paper, and certainly a pickup would seem like a good choice in the US market… except both mid-size and electric pickups have yet to show any signs of long-term success in the US or, to be blunt, any market.Americans love the F-150, they bought more than 732,000 examples of the big ute in 2024. But only a tiny fraction, just 4.5 per cent, was the all-electric F-150 Lightning (33,510 in total). And if you look at the existing mid-size pickup Ford offers in the US, the Ranger, it managed just over 46,000 sales. If you look at the mid-size electric pickups that are currently available in the US market, the news doesn’t get much better for Ford. The controversial Tesla Cybertruck reportedly only found 37,000 buyers and the Rivian R1T is still a very niche proposition with circa-15,000 sales.So it’s not clear why Ford is so confident that an electric mid-size pickup is the right answer, but the company is definitely confident.“I don’t think new EV startups will keep up with our Ford engineers and manufacturing teams making this a reality,” said Doug Field, Ford chief EV, digital and design officer. “New ideas are easy. But innovation is delivering ideas, in a way that millions can access.”Simplified parts and production methods are great, and should have a tangible impact on the starting price if Ford lives up to its hype, but having the most efficient production method does mean a car will resonate with buyers.Nobody buys a car because it has 25 per cent fewer fasteners. They buy a car (or mid-size pickup) because it suits their lifestyle and budget. Yet there is no clear and definitive evidence that there is a sizeable market for such a vehicle.Perhaps Ford is confident that it can out-perform both Tesla and Rivian. Even then, though, that’s 55,000 sales per year, is that enough to make such a vehicle profitable?To its credit, while the F-150 Lightning has underwhelmed, Ford has managed to carve itself a new place in the ute market with the smaller, SUV-based Maverick. It sold over 131,000 units in 2024, compared to just 32,000 Hyundai Santa Fe — despite the latter being first to market.But Ford isn’t launching its new electric ute into a vacuum. Slate Auto, a new car company with the financial backing of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, also plans to launch a simple, affordable and customisable small ute/pickup.The Slate Truck will be a more direct rival to the Maverick, rather than the new ‘Universal’ pickup, but the same questions around the market desire for this type of vehicle remain.Ford will obviously have other models it can spin-off from the Universal EV Platform to amortise the cost of development, but even so, the very slow transition to electric vehicles means any hope of mainstream success for electric utes seems to be a long way off in the future.Former Hyundai Canada and now Hyundai Australia boss Don Romano has a very different take on the current state of the market, which sees the Chinese brands undercutting the so-called legacy car makers. He believes the Chinese industry is being supported at an unsustainable level and eventually it will fall back into the reaches of the likes of Hyundai, Ford and others.”The real issue when you talk about competitiveness is probably when you look at Chinese EVs, and the question I’d have is ‘how long can they sustain that low price’ when we’re all using the same materials and the same equipment?’,” Romano said in a recent interview.“Eventually, when you look at the same systems that are used to build these cars and the same equipment and the same material, eventually, it comes to an equilibrium where we’re all having on the same cost factor that we’re going to have to all live with. And then the pricing really just comes down to what it takes to distribute the cars and market the cars. So I don’t think any change in our competitive pricing is something that is a long-term issue. I think we’re going to ultimately all be in the same bandwidth on a car-by-car basis.“I don’t know how they do it other than, you know, I read the same things you do about government intervention and support… “It’s one big world that we all live in and we’re all going to be living in the same economic environment, so whatever advantage one country has over another, and I’ve seen this happen in my 40 years, where it used to be cheaper to build in one country than another, and then suddenly it’s just as expensive, I think that’s ultimately going to happen. Whether that’s in my lifetime or not, that I can’t answer. But for right now it appears they have it.”Will Romano be proved right in time? Will Ford’s early call pay off and give it the advantage when customers do come rushing for an electric ute? Or will a new player like Slate change the market? Only time will tell, but hopefully none of it ends in a big bang like a Star Wars movie…

The JAC T9 EV Dual-Cab 4x4 ute has been slotted into a real-world trial with WA-based mining services provider, Warrikal, to examine its performance in one of the harshest work environments in the country.

Ford Ranger Black edition makes a return for 2025

MG’s first ute in Australia, the U9, is set to launch in September to take on the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux.When it does land here it will come with an Aussie-specific multi-link suspension setup that the brand says will suit our roads and increase comfort.This is a big difference to the LDV Terron 9 which is essentially the same ute under the skin. Both LDV and MG are owned by China's SAIC Motor.The LDV Terron 9, on the other hand, has rear leaf springs. Many utes come with this type of suspension due to the affordability, strength and load-carrying capacity. However, leaf springs aren’t known for their ride comfort and on-road dynamics.With the MG U9's more sophisticated rear multi-link setup, it has been benchmarked locally.“We researched the Australian market significantly for our MG U9 product, and we share Australia’s love for the outdoor, sport and adventure lifestyle, but often the utes they drive just don’t offer the comfort they want or deserve,” said MG Motor Australia and New Zealand CEO Peter Ciao.“I wanted to offer a ute with no compromise on driving comfort or capability. And, we’ve done this by engineering our multi-link rear suspension platform specifically for the demands of our local drivers”.Multi-link suspension is typically used in SUVs and cars for the better ride and on-road dynamics it offers, however it generally doesn't offer as much load-carrying capability.The MG U9 won't be the first ute to feature a rear multi-link setup in Australia. The BYD Shark 6 features this kind of rear suspension, though it only has a braked towing capacity of 2500kg.Despite having a rear multi-link setup, the MG U9 will still offer a segment benchmark braked towing capacity of 3500kg, like the leaf-sprung LDV Terron 9, as well as the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux.The MG U9 will be offered solely in a dual-cab body style and use the same platform as the Terron 9 with a ladder-frame chassis and four-wheel drive.Under the bonnet is a 2.5 litre turbo-diesel engine making 164kW, which is paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission.A hybrid version of the U9 is likely to follow after the launch of the diesel variant, with the possibility of a fully electric model coming later.Pricing and more detailed specifications for the MG U9 have yet to be announced. However, prospective Australian buyers are now able to pre-order the U9 through MG dealers.The U9 will arrive following MG's successful rise in Australia off the back of popular models such as the MG3 hatch, MG ZS SUV and affordable electric vehicles such as the MG4 and Terron 9.

Ram predicts its latest big ute will be a best-seller in its range.

Sorry, Swifties. While we appreciate the cultural phenomenon that is singer/songwriter, artist and philanthropist Taylor Swift, this is not a paean to a great pop star, but, rather, a reference to the year that marked Japan’s stellar ascension as the biggest threat to the established carmakers of that time. Their fear was existential as well as actual.

The biggest threat to the established ute order might be from a brand which currently doesn't have one.