New LDV ute could also offer range-extender hybrid powertrain

LDV Australia’s upcoming next-generation dual-cab ute range could include a range-extender hybrid version that would potentially rival the 2025 Ford Ranger PHEV.

The covers are expected to be ripped off the all-new LDV electric dual-cab ute in April this year, ahead of its expected Australian arrival in late 2024 or early 2025.

Internally codenamed as the GST, the new vehicle will be sold alongside the existing T60 ute in LDV’s Australian line-up and will be initially launched in pure EV form, followed by a four-cylinder diesel version up to a year later.

A price of between $70,000 and $80,000 is forecast for the new-generation electric ute, undercutting the existing LDV eT60, which became Australia’s first battery-powered ute in 2022 with a price of about $93K.

Speaking at the launch of the new LDV eDeliver 7 electric van this week, LDV Australia general manager Dinesh Chinnappa revealed to carsales that a range-extender hybrid version of the GST is also being lobbied for in a bid to offer improved real-world range.

“One of the things we’re asking head office about is the proposition of an electric motor that operates to a range of 200km or 300km together with a drivetrain that could push range to 1000km, burning some fossil fuels,” Chinnappa explained.

“That equation means that of the 365 days in a year, the average punter is operating on electricity say 200 days of the year. But when he wants to drive between here and Cairns, he can.

“So you have a pure EV and you have a range-extender.

“Those kind of ideas have been put to the manufacturer on the basis that Australia is so big and the distances are so far that it might help those people that want Monday to Friday to own this vehicle but from time to time need to go longer distances.

“It may come, it may not. But we’ve put it to the OEM.”

As opposed to a typical parallel hybrid like those Toyota is famous for, or a plug-in hybrid such as the upcoming Ford Ranger PHEV, in which both an electric motor and combustion engine can physically drive the wheels depending on conditions, in a range-extender or series hybrid the combustion engine is purely responsible for charging the battery, which in turn powers an electric motor to drive the wheels.

Chinnappa is adamant this technology would be the best fit for the upcoming LDV ute.

“The range-extender would be part of the range; you’ll have a pure EV and you’d have a range-extender option,” he said.

“Australia is getting the ute as an EV first, then a year later we will get it as a diesel. It’s a platform that was designed first and foremost as an EV.”

LDV is eager to continue its upward trajectory with the next-generation dual-cab ute, which it promises will be comprehensively better than the underdone rear-drive LDV eT60.

“If you think the new eDeliver 7 is a different paradigm to the original eT60, the new ute is in a different universe. Get ready to go to the milky way,” Chinnappa said.

Even so, sales of the LDV GST are likely to swing heavily in favour of the diesel model to begin with, LDV officials predict.

“In Australia, it’s probably an 80:20 split diesel to electric, but that’s Australia today. Ask me about Australia in 12 months. It will change,” Chinnappa said.

“We had no choice but to launch with the electric version first. We’ve been saying for some time that the game has shifted in China.

“They are now designing electric first and then we have to go and mount an argument for diesel. Their market has moved.”

Chinnappa said the forecast swing towards electric power will come despite a circa 15 per cent purchase price premium over popular versions of the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger, but he stressed the advantages of EVs in terms of total ownership costs.

“As soon as you run your eye over the cost of fuel, the cost of diesel servicing, the frequency of maintenance – as soon as you start doing the algorithms across the cost of ownership – serious fleet operators will start to say ‘you know what, this makes a lot of sense’,” he said.

“When that happens, you watch it go.”

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