Ute News

BYD says the "seismic shift" occurring in Australia will result in big brand "fallout", as a wave of new Chinese brands combines with tightening emissions to squeeze household name car makers.

The Nissan D27 Navara is still a few months away from hitting dealers, but there are signs it could be the best-value dual-cab pick-up in Australia. With full pricing and specification details to be revealed soon, the newly-Mitsubishi Triton-based ute – the fifth generation to wear the badge in 40 years – already boasts several features that may make it a surprise hit for buyers.

Genesis seems like an unlikely brand to offer a ute, but the South Korean luxury firm has revealed it considered a dual-cab.The Hyundai-Kia Group has been relatively slow in entering the ute contest, with the Kia Tasman only launching in 2025 and Hyundai still several years away from its first dual-cab, despite joining forces with General Motors to speed up the process. Speaking at the recent launch of the new Genesis Magma performance line-up, Genesis Chief Creative Officer Luc Donkerwolke was asked if the brand would consider a dual-cab ute as part of its expansion. His answer was a surprise, revealing that not only has the brand considered it, it has created a design study on a potential ute model.“ Well if you wait until the January issue of Auto & Design you will see the pickup study we did a couple of years ago,” Donkerwolke said. “We do a lot of things that we don't show, but in this Auto & Design, I have decided to show some unseen projects, and we did consider pickup as well.”Despite undertaking this preliminary consideration, the Genesis team ultimately decided it wasn’t the right fit for a brand that is trying to grow in the luxury car space amid competition from far more-established brands. Crucially, he didn’t rule it out in the future, and also revealed he has a personal soft-spot for ‘pickups’.“We have decided it was not the right time yet,” Donkerwolke said. “We have some homework to do. We still have to take care of the core business, the core segments. And who knows, maybe why not? I mean, I can only tell you as a car fanatic, I have a lot of sports cars in my barn. I have also a very wide pickup as well.“So even if I'm considered as a very suspicious marginal in Europe for having a pickup with more than 600-horsepower. It just tells you that all horizons and especially mine would not limit itself for the normal segments. But this said, one thing at a time. We first do the homework, the main, and then we will look into what all the satellites we can plug in onto the brand.”But while it’s no ute for Genesis right now, given Kia already has the Tasman and Hyundai is working on several ute/pickups both independently and with General Motors for several different markets, there is potential for the luxury brand to revisit its ute in the not-to-distant future.

Toyota appears to be tempering expectations surrounding the new HiLux, seemingly forecasting a significant sales drop and conceding its unlikely to be the country's – or even the brand's – best-selling vehicle.

It looks like an all-electric ute from Kia won’t happen.It was just earlier this year the brand confirmed its plans to introduce an all-electric ute by 2030 to partner its Tasman diesel sibling. The Tasman joined the Australian market in April 2025 as a 2.2-litre diesel and is approaching 3000 sales for the year. Kia is now probing a hybrid version of the ute to take on the strong-selling BYD Shark 6.The EV pick-up was planned to be built for North America, which lends to the prospect of it being a similar size to the big pick-ups such as Ford’s F-150 and the Chevrolet Silverado. The ute was expected to sell 90,000 units annually “mid-to-long-term”, following a full launch. This exceeds expectations for the Tasman, which is targeted for a 80,000-unit annual global sales target. Now tariffs appear to be stunting any progress on an EV pick-up truck from Kia, according to Car and Driver.Heavy tariffs remain on Korean steel, aluminium and derivative products. The consequence of these tariffs has caused the brand to indefinitely delay the launch of its EV4 sedan in the US.The same tariff-related trouble is forcing the South Korean company to backtrack on its EV ute aspirations, with the project regressing back into the ‘evaluation stage’. With Kia’s plans for a big EV ute fading away in the US, it seems unlikely that Australia will see something similar from Kia in the market for some time.Kia already sell several EVs in Australia and will bring across its EV4 sedan in January 2026, followed by a hatch variant later next year.The Kia EV pick-up's apparent demise continues a growing trend of big EV utes struggling to get off the ground, particularly in the US. Earlier this year, RAM put its 1500 all-electric full-size pick-up on ice, citing slowing demand for the decision, while Tesla was also forced to cull its cheapest Cybertruck variant.Ford’s F-150 Lightning has been an exception, with its sales recovering confidently after the brand temporarily halted production late last year. 

Ford’s F-150 experiment in Australia has hit lots of bumps along the road.Sales of the big rig have slowed to a trickle, with just four deliveries recorded in the past four months. A far cry from the 200-plus a month that were finding homes at the start of this year.This has been due to a hold on deliveries from as far back as July for what is believed to be a fix for quality issues.Good news, the long pause is over and the supply of F-150s will start to flow again once recall fixes have been undertaken.In that time it has ceded a lot of ground to its competitors.Ford has fallen well behind its rivals with just 549 F-150 sales through the first 10 months of this year. Ram has sold 2321 1500s in that time, Chevrolet has sold 1814 Silverado 1500s and Toyota 676 Tundras.The big American pick-up truck launched in 2023, but has been hit with numerous stop sale orders due to compliance issues and multiple recalls, which raises quality concerns.Ford Australia gave the contract to Thai-based company RMA Automotive to convert the F-150 from left-hand drive to right-hand drive in a Melbourne factory.The Blue Oval’s main rivals the Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado and Toyota Tundra are all converted by Walkinshaw, the company previously known for delivering fast Holdens. Remanufacturing vehicles from left- to right-hand drive is a big and complicated operation. The F-150 alone uses about 500 new parts and takes about 22 hours to convert.Ford has also just launched the Ranger Super Duty, which fills the role of the F-150 in many situations.It matches the F-150’s 4500kg braked towing capacity and has a superior GVM (4500kg) and GCM (8000kg).It is also cheaper and smaller, making it more palatable for Australian roads and car buying public.The Super Duty also uses diesel grunt compared to the F-150’s petrol power. The Super Duty uses a 154kW and 600Nm 3.0-litre turbo diesel V6 engine and the F-150 is powered by a 3.5-litre turbo-petrol V6 (298kW/678Nm).Ford’s Australian CEO Andrew Birkic recently told CarsGuide the F-150 was going nowhere.“I would see and the full-size pick-up segment as two different customers,” he said.“I think the full-size pick-up will continue to do well because it has a particular customer.”

The new generation Toyota HiLux will bring with it the first electric version of the dual-cab as we know it, though some of its confirmed specifications are lacklustre compared to its diesel counterpart.Read more about Toyota HiLux EV: Major issue with new HiLux EV exposedThe new Nissan Navara, revealed in November 2025, is based heavily on the Mitsubishi Triton, though a Navara-specific Warrior version is already confirmed.Read more about Nissan Navara: New 2026 Nissan Navara revealedThe Ford Ranger Super Duty, a tougher version of the incredibly popular workhorse, is set to welcome more body styles after its late-2025 launch.Read more about Ford Ranger Super Duty: 2026 Ford Ranger Super Duty accessories detailedChery is set to call upon Rely, one of its Chinese-market sub-brands, to bring a new ute to Australia with plug-in hybrid available from launch.Read more about Chery ute: 2026 Chery ute to be hybrid at launch in OzA camouflaged KGM Musso has been spied testing in South Korea, suggesting a new version of the ute is on the way, though more details are yet to come to light.Read more about KGM Musso: Korea's budget electric ute incoming, to join its plug-in hybrid petrol version and the more common smaller diesel engine.Read more about GWM Cannon Alpha: Big new diesel ute and SUV comingWant to know what other new models are due in 2026? Check out our rolling coverage by clicking on the links below. Best EVs Australia 2026Best Small Cars Australia 2026Best 4x4 Australia 2026Best New Cars 2026 AustraliaBest Family Cars Australia 2026Best Hybrid Cars Australia 2026Best SUVs Australia 2026

Ford has issued another recall for its F-150 US-style pick-up truck.

Nissan's slick new ute has taken a surprising turn. It was previously thought the Nissan Frontier Pro ute would only launch with a plug-in hybrid set-up, but it has now been revealed with a petrol and diesel engine options in China.The Frontier Pro PHEV is destined for a global launch, with Australia potentially on the cards. Nissan Oceania Vice President and Managing Director Andrew Humberstone said that the brand is working on getting the ute down under. “New Navara and Frontier Pro together? Oh, yeah, absolutely,” he said to CarsGuide.“And it wouldn't be one or the other. I would absolutely see an opportunity for both of them (in Australia).”The Frontier Pro plug-in hybrid has a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine, with a single electric motor producing 320kW and 800Nm. Its pure electric driving range is 135km according to the very generous CLTC testing system. The new petrol and diesel engines put it on a collision course with some of the biggest sellers in Australia, such as the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux.The 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine produces 192kW and 400Nm, while the 2.3-litre turbo-diesel motor produces 140kW and 500Nm. Both are paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission. The Frontier Pro came about as a joint venture between Nissan and Dongfeng Motor Group and is designed and built in China. This will be the first time one of Nissan’s Chinese vehicles will take on the global market. Nissan currently sells the Navara ute in Australia, which comes exclusively with a 2.3-litre turbo-diesel engine. The brand recently announced a new D27-series Navara, which will launch in the first quarter of 2026 and will be tasked with turning around a tough sales decline. The current generation Navara starts from $36,428 (before on-road costs) for the single cab chassis, with the whole Navara range mustering less than 6,500 sales so far in 2025. This leaves it far behind many of its rivals such as the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max, who collectively are approaching 100,000 sales in 2025. The plug-in hybrid variant of the Frontier Pro would have to hunt down BYD’s Shark 6, which has had an excellent start to life in Australia, with more than 15,000 sales in Australia. A new diesel variant, if it were to come to Australia, would go into direct competition with the big hitters of the segment. 

Ford has announced a serious boost to its Ranger ute lineup.