Chery boss nervous as Stockman ute launch looms

Chery Australia is closing in on the launch of the world's first diesel plug-in hybrid dual-cab ute, and the bloke charged with selling it isn't cracking the champagne just yet.

With roughly 10,000 registrations of interest logged and customer pre-orders nudging 2000 – before the order books have formally opened on October 1 – Chery Motor Australia chief operating officer Lucas Harris says the Stockman's arrival is more nerve-racking than exciting.

Fair enough, too. Chery has been handed everything it asked for on this ute, which means there's nowhere to hide if it doesn't stack up when Australians finally get the keys.

There’s a lot riding on the new Stockman diesel hybrid ute and given Chery Motor Australia’s COO has been close to the program from the start, he says that's exactly why he's twitchy.

“It's funny. People always say to me, ‘You must be so excited!’ And I'm probably more nervous than excited, to be honest with you,” he told carsales.

“Look, the reason why I'm nervous is that we've had the privilege to be so involved in all of the development of this vehicle, and everything we've asked for, we've got it,” he confirmed.

That means a ladder frame underneath with double wishbones up front, leaf springs out back, 4x4, all-terrain tyres, 247mm of ground clearance and 3500kg braked towing.

“So now I feel an enormous amount of pressure to make sure that it lives up to the hype and actually delivers a great result for the business. So I'm much more nervous than I am excited, to be honest with you,” he said. 

“I guess they say that if you don't care, then you're not nervous, right? So sometimes it's a good feeling to have.”

On the numbers so far, the business result is already looking positive. Harris explained that the brand has more than 10,000 registrations of interest and 2000 pre-orders.

That's punters queueing sight unseen, price unknown.

What they're queueing for is a 2.5-litre turbo-diesel mated to plug-in hybrid hardware – a world first in a dual-cab – for a combined 350kW and 800Nm.

That's 100Nm clear of the BYD Shark 6 Performance and 50kW/50Nm up on the GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV, with a battery pack understood to be 34kWh, good for a claimed 100km of EV-only running on the generous NEDC cycle. Call it 70-80km in real world scenarios.

It's a big unit as well, measuring 5450mm long, 2010mm wide and 1890mm tall on a 3250mm wheelbase, with a tub 1560mm long, 1560mm wide and 500mm deep.

That makes it 130mm longer and 125mm wider than a Toyota HiLux double-cab, on a wheelbase 165mm longer.

Whether it drives like it belongs in Australia is the bit Harris is losing sleep over, which is why Melbourne's Premcar – the Nissan Warrior and Mitsubishi Triton Raider mob – has been brought in to test and validate the Chery Stockman diesel ute on local roads.

The formal pre-order portal opens October 1, complete with a sweetener for early birds. That's when Chery learns how much of those 10,000 tyre kickers are genuine and how much is idle curiosity.

If Chery converts half of those the Aussie operation gets the business result its chasing.

On that trajectory the Stockman should account for the JAC Hunter PHEV without much fuss, and the real measuring stick becomes the BYD Shark 6 – the ute that proved Australians will buy a plug-in hybrid dual cab in serious numbers.

Pricing, grades and final specs land closer to launch, which was originally set for later in 2026 but could push into 2027 depending on how much fine-tuning Chery undertakes.

The petrol PHEV Stockman was previously confirmed for 2027 and a cab-chassis highly likely down the track.

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