Top 12 electric utes coming to Oz

Electrification is coming to Australia’s most popular vehicle type – utes -- whether tradies, families or weekend warriors are ready or not.

Two years ago, you’d likely have scoffed at the suggestion that anyone could be able to buy an all-electric pick-up anywhere, let alone here in Australia.

Yet with at least three full-size battery-powered utes soon to be available in the US and many more in the pipeline, it’s only a matter of time before the electric pick-up also becomes a reality Down Under, where at least one EV-maker already has solid plans for its zero-emissions ute.

Internal combustion engines are on notice and diesel in particular is becoming a dirty word in many overseas markets due to ever-tightening emissions laws, forcing manufacturers to rethink their future products -- including their humble, and not so humble, utes.

While it’s not going to happen next week, you can expect a revolutionary change in what powertrain sits under the bonnets of utes you will be able to buy beyond 2020.

Electrification is on its way to the ute market and here’s proof.

Tesla is planning to release a pure-electric full-size pick-up, which company founder Elon Musk has said will be priced from under $US50,000, potentially equating to about $75K when it eventually lands in Australia.

Designed to fill the gap between Tesla’s all-electric car range and the battery-powered Semi truck unveiled in November 2017, the Tesla pick-up is said to feature a “futuristic-like cyberpunk” design.

Features such as an auto tailgate, a 240V power socket and 360-degree cameras and sonars to allow it to parallel park on its own are expected, an according to a number of speculative renders it will be a full-size dual-cab.

After originally promising to unveil the Tesla ute by mid-2019, Musk now says a November reveal in “most likely”.

US EV start-up Rivian has already earmarked Australia as a market it intends to enter with its R1T dual-cab pick-up, which is aimed directly at North America’s top-selling vehicle (bar none), the Ford F-Series.

With a US on-sale expected late next year and European and Chinese sales from 2021, the 5.5-metre long, 2.0-metre wide Rivian R1T dual-cab has 560kW of power and 1120Nm of torque, and boasts a range of about 645km from the premium model’s 180kWh battery pack.

It will also be possible to charge its battery pack to allow 320km of range in 30 minutes using a DC fast-charger. Towing is covered with a five-tonne rating (although there’s no mention of how much range will be reduced when towing), while RT1’s four-wheel drive system, comprising an electric motor powering each wheel, should allow plenty of low-end, off-road torque.

While Rivian has said that both the R1T and the closely related R1S SUV are intended for release in right-hand drive markets including Australia, the company hasn’t given an exact timeline for deliveries in Oz.

Fisker Inc CEO Henrik Fisker has gone a step further than Tesla, revealing a detail shot of an all-new pick-up based on his company’s pure-electric SUV, and both ground-breaking Fisker EVs are expected to come to Australia.

Like the Rivian R1T, Fisker’s ute will be positioned as a premium ute that will run well into six figures when it goes on sale here, so it’s hardly likely to challenge the Ford Ranger or Toyota HiLux for market domination. So what of more affordable EV ute options?

Less pie-in-the sky and more wheels on the ground are EV utes from China, two of which have gone on sale recently in their domestic market.

While the Navara-based Rich 6 EV and the JMC Yuhu EV are unconfirmed for Australia, another Chinese electric ute is likely…

The EV version of the new Great Wall Steed replacement (called Model P in China) could be first affordable, battery-electric dual-cab EV ute on the Aussie market.

Unveiled at the Shanghai show earlier this year, the new Great Wall Model P (which is called the Cannon in some markets but will have a different name in Australia) will arrive locally by early 2021 firstly as a turbo-diesel, priced from the low $30K mark as a single-cab.

While details of the new EV are scant -- aside from the display model at Shanghai being rear wheel-drive only and Great Wall announcing it’ll have a 500km range, the Chinese company has said that it will sell the EV ute here -- both in pure-electric and FCEV forms.

There’s no mention as yet of the EV version’s pricing or local on-sale date as yet, but expect it to be north of $50K and here by 2023.

Hyundai’s Toyota HiLux rival has been confirmed for Australian release around 2022 and will be offered here with a full range of body styles, drivetrains and powertrains – perhaps even pure electric.

The Korean brand is a leader in hydrogen fuel-cell technology and is awaiting the construction of its first public Australian hydrogen refueller in the ACT before releasing the NEXO FCEV to both fleet and public buyers.

When we asked Scott Grant, Hyundai’s former COO in Australia, one of the driving forces behind the Korean car-maker’s first global pick-up, if an FCEV version of the brand’s first ute was possible, he said: “These are the things we are talking about” .

A far more affordable - yet much smaller -- ute is on its way, and unlike the rest here, it’s going to be a homegrown Aussie ute.

The local battery electric small commercial ute from ACE EV Group has already been previewed and will be on sale within five years.

However the ACE Yewt is a tiny single-cab (measuring just 3.9metres long) and has a range of just 150-200km so isn’t going to be the tradie’s choice for work and play.

The ACE EV will start as a trial production of 100 vans next year in Adelaide. The fledgling company plans to build up to 15,000 vehicles a year by 2025, including not only the van but also a ute and a small passenger car.

Meanwhile, the major US ute brands are not sitting on their hands -- GM’s CEO Mary Barra recently announced that GM will get onboard with EV versions of its big utes.

While General Motors had begun alliance talks with Rivian (instead Ford has invested $700 million with the new start-up EV company), Barra confirmed GM will produce a full-size electric pick-up truck.

What does that mean for Aussie buyers? HSV has confirmed an electric vehicle is on its agenda, and the most likely target is the full-size ute or an SUV.

GM has said it will release more details about its EV pick-up “when competitively appropriate”.

While there’s no mention as yet of a Ranger EV in the works, Ford announced in January that it’s working on both pure-electric and plug-in hybrid versions of its F-150.

Ford has committed to spending $11.5 billion over the next three years in building over a dozen electric and hybrid vehicles and just last month released a video of the prototype towing a 450-tonne train.

Michigan-based car-maker Bollinger has revealed prototype versions of the utilitarian B1 SUV and B2 electric pick-up truck it will launch in 2021.

Taking cues from the original Land Rover Defender, the Bollinger ute is designed to be easy to manufacture and repair with bolt-on aluminium panels.

An electric motor on each axle fed by a powerful 120kWh battery provides all-wheel drive and huge amounts of power -- as much as 452kW and an almighty 906Nm of torque.

Shrugging off a kerb weight expected to be north of 2000kg, Bollinger says both the B1 and B2 can scorch to 100km/h in just 4.5 seconds, although top speed is limited to 161km/h.

It gets better for those who actually use their utes for work. the B2 gets a decent 2359kg payload, although both vehicles can only tow 3402kg – around 100kg less than rivals like the Toyota Hilux.

Bollinger says it has 30,000 "expressions of interest" for its vehicles but is yet to confirm right-hand drive production.

Minerals giant BHP has started to use a LandCruiser 70 Series converted to electric by South Australian company Voltra and put it to work at its Olympic Dam site in South Australia.

Although BHP has just one eCruiser on trial, the company plans to add more to its fleet later in the year. If the trial is successful, BHP may look to electrifying its entire fleet.

While the Voltra eCruiser is claimed to be Australia’s first 100 per cent electric light vehicle for underground mining, another South Australian company, Zero Automotive, has also converted Toyota’s venerable 79 Series LandCruiser to battery power.

Adelaide-based company Zero Automotive’s ZED70 (for Zero Emission Drive) removes the venerable ute’s diesel engine and gearbox and replaces them with a 700Nm permanent magnet motor and lithium-ion battery pack of between 88 and 115kWh capacity, adding 215kg to the vehicle kerb weight.

Zero claims a theoretical range of up to 350km and a four-hour charge time, but is working on a one-hour fast-charge option for the ZED70, which is fully Australian Design Rule-compliant and turn-key, meaning it’s steel-legal and available for purchase by anyone willing to spend close to $200,000.

In a similar arrangement, Bendigo-based mining industry supplier Safescape has produced an Australian-designed and engineered electric version of the tough Brazilian-made Agrale Marruá AM200 pick-up, for which it holds the local distribution rights.

While road-legal turbo-diesel versions of the military-grade dual-cab are available to the public for well over $100,000 on request, Safescape is offering fleet buyers its locally converted electric version dubbed the Bortana EV on a full-service lease basis as part of the beta phase of its project in 2020.

The hard-core Hummer-style 4x4 off-road ute is aimed squarely Australia’s hard rock underground mining industry, a corrosive environment that consumes about 800 utilities annually and the average monthly ownership cost of vehicles in which is around $10,000, says Safescape.

The big Agrale Marruá AM200 double-cab – which measures a 5264mm long, 2160mm wide and 1970mm high, and has a 340mm ground clearance, 1390kg payload and 3500kg tow capacity – runs a 110kW/360Nm Cummins ISF 2.8-litre turbo-diesel and five-speed manual transmission with two-speed transfer case.

But Safescape’s locally developed electric version, the Bortana EV, ditches all that for an electric motor and a lithium-ion battery pack that’s made by 3ME Technology and supports rapid charging.

While there’s no doubt electric utes have the potential to be supercar-quick (Rivian claims its R1T can hit 100km/h in just three seconds!) and deliver enough torque to haul a 450-tonne train, the elephant in the room is how such a ute will cope in realistic day-to-day off-roading, load carrying and towing situations.

What range an EV ute will have when towing a 3500kg trailer or with a tonne in the tray is a question no manufacturer has yet answered.

And of course recharging infrastructure will need to progress before the EV ute becomes a realistic choice for Aussie buyers, who will also need parts and repair back-up in remote parts of the country.

While user-choosers and tradies might have to wait a while for a practical EV ute at an affordable price, the local mining industry has already started using them and will become a valuable test bed for the public.

Right now there is no electric replacement for your diesel ute with equivalent range or pricing. But given the flurry of EV activity in the ute segment, it might soon be commonplace to hear the whirr of an electric motor rather than the clatter of a diesel engine from the humble hay-hauler.