Holden Colorado Rox could come to Oz

The Holden Colorado Rox -- a hard-core off-road ute concept fitted with a six-inch lift kit and monster 35-inch Blackbear mud tyres. concept has broken cover in New Zealand

And it could get an Aussie sibling… perhaps the Colorado Crox?

The beefy Kiwi pick-up concept brandishes several bespoke parts including pumped-up wheel-arches to contain massive tyres, removable side steps, a 20kg lighter carbon-fibre bonnet with scoop and vents, plus a side-outlet exhaust pipe like its bigger brother Silverado.

With looks designed to steal attention away from the Ford Ranger Raptor, it also gets custom-made steel bumpers fore and aft, the latter fitted with fog lights, winch and tow hooks.

The Holden mud-plugger's tough visuals are backed up an LED light bar on the roof, accompanied by a quartet of LED spot lights mounted to a roof basket that’s also home for a spare tyre.

There's also a snorkel to make deep-water fording possible and a 500mm tray extender to fit bigger bikes and power toys in the back.

Even the cabin of the Holden Colorado Rox has been upgraded with the fitment of Monza sports seats front and rear, plus unique leather upholstery.

Although the vehicle is a one-off concept at the moment, commissioned by Holden New Zealand, sources close to the project told carsales.com.au that GM Holden's Australian operation had input into the Colorado Rox concept with one main request: "Make it big".

At present the muscled-up ute concept will spend the next year or so making its way around New Zealand but there have been internal discussions about bringing the concept to Australia or even building a second version specifically for the Aussie market.

There's also talk that the wild concept may be airlifted to an international motor show in due course.

Last month Holden released five accessory packs to meet the increasing demand of dual-ute ute buyers who want to customise their rigs, including the Tradie Pack with a roof tray, the Rig Pack for towing and the Farmer's Pack with a steel rear bed and underbody protection. These packs have been engineered in-house and in some cases use Rhino-Rack parts.

There are also high-end Colorado utes available in Australia under the HSV SportsCat banner, which will soon be split into on and off-road model-grades.

An Australian Holden spokesman wouldn’t confirm whether the company was considering bringing extreme accessory packs that mimic the Rox concept Down Under, saying only: "We love what our colleagues in New Zealand do".

The company Holden commissioned to build the Colorado Rox concept (RVE International) already sells ute accessories in Australia via its Melbourne warehouse and offers several kits for existing utes.

RVE International's marketing manager, Anthony Stead, explained that market reaction will play a big part in the concept vehicle's future.

"We use concept builds like the Colorado Rox as a test bed to develop new parts for production, for sure," he said, before cautioning that the Rox is still a concept vehicle at the moment.

"This is a concept package; Holden NZ wanted something to stand out of the crowd, to draw attention to the brand, to show what the Colorado is capable of.

"Hundreds of hours have been spent by RVE creating one-off bespoke parts. The flares are custom-made, the carbon-fibre bonnet is 20kg lighter than the factory unit and features a huge scoop and vents."

He added that the Holden Colorado Rox concept is completely road legal and "…anything we release will in the Australian market meet all [ADR] requirements."

The Holden Colorado Rox concept was shown at the Fieldays event (June 12-15) in Mystery Creek, New Zealand, which is about 140km south of Auckland. Fieldays is claimed to be the southern hemisphere's largest agricultural event.

There's no word yet on engine enhancements for the concept ute but Holden New Zealand managing director, Marc Ebolo, said the Colorado Rox project retains its 3.5-tonne towing capacity and will haul a fully-laden trailer as it tours the island nation.

Holden NZ's head honcho added that the concept shows just how far the dual-cab ute's design and capability can be taken.

Dual-cab utes continue to dominate the Australian new car marketplace, with the Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton the three top-selling 4x4 dual-cab utes in this country. The Holden Colorado is fourth on the list.