Hybrid dual-cab utes coming soon

The humble utility is set to undergo a seismic shift.

Electric motors, battery packs and silent driving are coming soon, along with innovative functions including generator-like charging systems for tools, lights, e-bikes, you name it.

This decade we’ll see a number of high-profile dual-cab pick-up trucks adopt diesel-electric and potentially petrol-electric hybrid powertrains, with some models expected as early as 2021.

From 48-volt mild-hybrid systems and electric turbochargers to traditional series-parallel hybrids and more sophisticated plug-in hybrid powertrains that will offer 50-100km of pure-electric driving, the low-tech workhorse is about to undergo a high-tech upgrade that could change the way Aussies consider utes.

Details are still emerging on how much these utes will cost, how much fuel they’ll save and what cool new tricks (and how many electric motors) they’ll offer, but here’s what’s coming and what we know about them so far.

The Toyota HiLux has been Australia’s top-selling vehicle for the past five years and executives at Toyota have stated that a mild-hybrid version of the ute is expected to be ready in New Zealand by late 2021, with Australia in line to follow soon after

Details of the system are still under wraps – it could merely be a 48-volt electric system that provides short, low power bursts to reduce strain on the combustion engine – but Toyota New Zealand has promised the vehicle will “do everything a HiLux needs to do”.

Toyota Australia’s sales and marketing boss, Sean Hanley, said the mild-hybrid model was “something we would surely not rule out given it is well understood” but was more upbeat about a fully-fledged new-generation HiLux Hybrid, expected to arrive in 2024.

Set to share its hybrid powertrain with the upcoming Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series, the next-generation Toyota HiLux is likely to employ a traditional hybrid powertrain (non-plug-in) with the combustion engine working in parallel with two small electric motors and a small battery.

“We’ve always maintained that whatever we do in the future, we will continue to have HiLuxes, we will continue to have LandCruisers going forward, but we will bring out – in the future – some type of electrification. There’s no doubt,” said Hanley.

The Mitsubishi Triton will definitely go hybrid – it’s just a case of when. In late 2019, Mitsubishi’s then chief operating officer – and now alliance partner Nissan’s COO – Ashwani Gupta said: “The specific requirements of the next Triton – which is towing capacity, which is payload – the question is whether our existing PHEV technology will fulfil these specific requirements.”

Given that one of Mitsubishi’s chief engineers more recently said “the upgrading of the PHEV system will be installed in next-generation vehicles” it stands to reason that range-topping Triton models will adopt a newer and probably more powerful PHEV system to cope with the extra mass and towing/payload requirements.

The added benefit of a plug-in hybrid ute with bigger batteries is the ability for owners to charge power tool batteries and other accessories directly from the ute without the engine running.

The next-generation Mitsubishi Triton is being readied for 2022 and will be a twin-under-the-skin to the next Navara due to follow a couple of years later. It’s unclear whether the hybrid Triton will be offered from launch or arrive later in the new model’s lifecycle.

The next-generation Nissan Navara will get a hybrid powertrain, according to the company’s global electric vehicle director Nic Thomas, with a 2025 launch looking likely at this stage.

Thomas said that “by the middle of the decade the battery technology will be cheap enough and the motors will be bigger and more powerful” to deliver a competitive hybrid ute.

“Light commercial vehicle, ute drivers and truck drivers are very demanding,” he added.

The next Nissan Navara is expected to launch in 2024 and will share its underpinnings and mechanicals with the redesigned Mitsubishi Triton. This should extend to the hybrid powertrain, however the Navara could also be in line for the brand’s e-POWER range-extender plug-in hybrid system, where the engine has no connection with the driving wheels and acts only as a generator to recharge the battery.

In this sense, it would drive like an EV with at least two powerful electric motors delivering a competitive towing capacity.

“You will see all sorts of varied applications. It’s an evolving proposition,” said Thomas.

Another hybrid pick-up truck confirmed for production and almost certain to be offered in Australia is the Great Wall Ute.

Although little is known about the new hybrid ute from Great Wall, the Chinese car-maker has flagged a 3000kg towing capacity and also confirmed all-electric and even hydrogen fuel-cell versions are also in development.

Details of the fuel-saving utes were revealed during a 2018 presentation by Great Wall’s sister brand and luxury SUV-maker Haval, which detailed a 3000kg towing capacity, 4x2 and 4x4 drivelines, adaptive cruise control and more.

Related: Top 12 electric utes coming to Oz

Like the Great Wall Ute, the Chinese-built LDV T60 (aka Maxus) will be offered with several electrified powertrains in future, with a pure-electric variant already locked in and a plug-in hybrid version understood to be on the menu.

Due to arrive in Australia in 2021, the next-generation LDV T60 has been engineered for electrified powertrains and the plug-in hybrid version could use the same 130kW/310Nm electric motor as the EV version, though with a much smaller (circa-15kWh) lithium-ion battery compared to the EV’s 88kWh pack.

LDV plans to offer at least 20 ‘New Energy Vehicles’ by 2025 and the T60 ute will be chief among them.

The next-generation T7 Ford Ranger and its twin-under-the-skin, the Volkswagen Amarok, are set to arrive in Australia later in 2021 and 2022 respectively and are highly likely to be engineered from the ground up to accept electrified powertrains.

There’s no documented timeline for electrified versions of the next Ranger and Amarok, but given the Ford Ranger is sold in the US, where demand for hybrid and full-electric pick-up trucks is ballooning, the T7 Ranger ute is almost certain to be offered with a hybrid set-up.

The most likely scenario is a petrol-electric powertrain given the lack of demand for diesel powertrains in North America. Whether the plan is for a conventional hybrid or a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is not known, but the US auto giant’s 2.3-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine could be on the cards, along with components from the upcoming F-150 hybrid ute.

Given Volkswagen’s global low-emissions, high-tech vehicle rollout, the German brand is not likely to have partnered with Ford without getting ensuring that electrified powertrains will be developed for Amarok and other models under the venture.

Australian ute sales are heavily skewed in favour of traditional diesel engines, however this could change rapidly in the years ahead.

There is little incentive for the status quo to change based on Australia’s current emissions regulations, but global vehicle manufacturers are, of course, not waiting on our federal government to determine their product development scheduling – even though we are a significant market.

There is a tough enough regulatory environment overseas to be moving in that direction without delay, and the growing popularity of utes worldwide means this category will be at the core of electrification strategies – not an exception to the rule.

What do you think? Will they add more versatility and efficiency to the humble load-lugger, or will they complicate the equation and blast prices into orbit?

Have your say in the comments section below.