New electric ute brand Radar launched

The ute market is about to go through a huge change as car makers – new and old – start building these revolutionary new products.

Chinese behemoth Geely has laid out plans to launch an electric ute.

The company has several major brands under its umbrella including Volvo and niche brands such as Lotus.

Geely also experience with electric cars through its Polestar brand that launched this year in Australia to instant success.

Radar RD6 electric ute.

Now it has launched another brand dubbed Radar, which plans to build a new electric dual-cab ute called RD6 with more than 600km of driving range.

The RD6 showcased this week was designed by Lotus creative chief, Peter Horbury, and will reportedly be built on the same electric car platform as the coming Polestar 4 SUV.

Radar is expected to focus on electric utes and SUVs as the brand’s chief Ling Shiquan told Reuters he expects annual sales of utes in China to hit 3 million.

“More people are pursuing a healthy lifestyle with more outdoor activities while the governments are also relaxing restrictions for pick-ups in cities,” said Ling. “Those changes are supporting the growth of pick-up trucks.”

Chinese car making giant Geely has launched a new brand Radar that’ll build electric utes.

The new RD6 is most likely to target the new Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T, which have just started deliveries in the US.

Tesla is also working on its electric Cybertruck that has been hit with several delays as the company focuses on expanding its production capacity around the globe.

It’s too early to say whether Geely will launch the Radar brand Down Under, but the success of Polestar and Volvo’s electric SUVs in Australia could help it come sooner rather than later.

There are several other brands exploring the idea of electrified utes.

Geely also builds electric cars under the Polestar brand.

Ford has launched the new Ranger ute. There is no electric version expected soon but the brand has designed the new vehicle’s platform with the ability to add electric power.

Volkswagen’s Amarok – which shares its underpinnings with the Ranger – will go electric at some point in the future, too.

Karsten Intra, CEO of VW Commercial Vehicles, said it was likely some form of electrified Amarok would arrive during the vehicle’s next product cycle.

“Electrification is a subject in all the different fields. What we can see in that pick-up business is there is popping up a lot of demand towards electrification. This car is actually made for electrification. What we have to do now is we have to look into the markets,” he said.

“We are flexible. We have a current set-up of drivetrains – diesel and petrol – but we are observing closely the market and the platform is flexible and enables us also to come up with new electrified versions. We are ready for everything that comes up.”

Rivian has started deliveries of its R1T electric ute in the US.

Hyundai has said it won’t build a diesel or petrol powered workhorse but Thomas Schemera, Hyundai’s vice president of global product and planning, told News Corp Australia this week an electric ute or pick-up could feature in Hyundai’s plans.

“We have a lot of things in the pipeline,” he said.

The Ford F-150 Lightning has received rave reviews.

“Nothing has been confirmed yet. But I can imagine if there is a way to showcase and to compose vehicles like that, for example for Australia or for the US, we’ll make it happen.”