Geely Radar electric ute coming to Australia

One of the world’s largest car companies has doubled down on its plans for Australia, throwing the doors open for a fierce battle over one of our most beloved cars.

Chinese car brand Geely is arriving in 2025 with an electric SUV that will be joined by a battery-powered rival to the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger.

Geely has its sights on ute customers as part of its push into the Australian market.

At the global launch event for the new EX5 electric SUV, Geely Auto vice president Michael Song confirmed there will be a new dual-cab ute as part of its Aussie rollout.

Geely Radar R6 ute. Photo: Supplied

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“Pick-up trucks are a special category in Australia, we don’t consider them as regular family

vehicles,” Song said.

“I’m very clear that pick-up trucks have important markets globally. The proportion of pick-up

trucks in right-hand drive markets is larger than in left-hand drive markets, but the fact is that

pick-up truck demand varies significantly across different regions.”

One in five vehicles sold in Australia is a utility – be that a pick-up or a cab-chassis ute.

“We have already made strategic plans regarding pickup trucks, and it’s not just about BEV (battery electric vehicle) pickup trucks – we have also planned for diversified energy solutions,” he said, referring to potential combustion-powered, hybrid or plug-in hybrid models.

Geely Radar R6 ute. Photo: Supplied

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The Geely Group already offers a model under the Radar brand in some markets, and that car like unibody electric pick-up truck is known as Riddara RD6.

It has already hit the market in Thailand in right-hand drive, so the gates are open for Australia – but until now, there has been no word on a pure-petrol, petrol-electric hybrid or plug-in hybrid version akin to the new BYD Shark 6.

That leaves the door open to a more traditional ute to rival the Toyota HiLux.

Geely Radar R6 ute. Photo: Supplied

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The Thai-spec Riddara RD6 is offered with a single-motor rear-wheel drive and two different

battery packs (63kWh or 86kWh), the latter with up to 517km of EV range based on the

lenient Chinese testing cycle.

A dual-motor all-wheel drive version of the RD6 called the Horizon is offered in China.

There was no official confirmation from Mr Song that the Radar or Riddara RD6 ute is the

one that will be sold in Australia, but he made it clear the brand won’t make the same

mistakes others have when entering the highly competitive Australian market.

Mr Song confirmed Geely models – including the soggy, slow feeling EX5 – will have Australia-specific suspension tuning and recalibrated advanced driver assistance systems

(ADAS), which will hopefully make the vehicles more liveable on the daily.

Even big brands like Mitsubishi have admitted to getting it wrong, with the Japanese maker rushing through a recalibration program for its frustrating safety tech.

“Based on driving habits, we will make adjustments according to the actual conditions in Australia and provide different strategies,” Mr Song said.

Geely has confirmed plans to sell cars in Australia. Photo: Supplied

“This work is called regional adaptive calibration, which is something we will definitely do.

“We will also regularly send engineers to Australia.

The Australian market is a relatively new market for our brand, so more issues involve adapting to local social rules, with driving habits being particularly important, so we are very eager to learn these,” he said.

The first Geely to arrive in Australia is the EX5 electric midsize SUV, which is expected to hit our roads in the first half of next year.