CHINESE automotive big SAIC’s industrial model LDV has confirmed it is going to change the eT60 electrical ute in Australia within the second half of 2024 with an all-new, hi-tech mannequin previewed on the Shanghai motor present earlier this 12 months referred to as the Maxus GST.
Asserting the brand new ute to Australian media final week, LDV common supervisor Dinesh Chinnappa stated: “Now we have a product plan and a timeline. We’ll get into that as we get nearer, with a launch mid-late subsequent 12 months. We’ll get product info out mid-next 12 months.”
Primarily based on the Maxus GST idea revealed on the Shanghai present in April, the brand new ute will probably be bigger than the present eT60 and in contrast to that mannequin, will energy all 4 wheels.
The Maxus GST idea is a technical tour de pressure, with a motor at every wheel growing a claimed 746kW and 1400Nm. The idea additionally displayed a semi-solid state battery pack, a claimed 1000km vary, a tank-turn perform and a claimed 0-100km/h acceleration time of simply 3.0 seconds.
LDV Australia challenge supervisor Shaun Garrard defined to GoAuto that the manufacturing mannequin’s outputs haven’t been revealed, but it surely ought to be no shock that it may not have fairly such show-stopping credentials.
He additionally stated the brand new electrical ute could be marketed beneath the LDV model right here and is unlikely to bear the GST moniker.
“We aren’t sure in regards to the title, it’s not more likely to be referred to as GST. It might proceed with T- one thing, perhaps T80 or T90, we are going to know extra in quarter two subsequent 12 months,” defined Mr Garrard.
When requested what the brand new ute’s introduction meant for the present diesel T60 Max, Mr Chinnappa stated the model was “not about to desert ICE fashions or prospects”.
“Now we have an exquisite ICE enterprise, and can hold it for so long as prospects need us to,” he emphasised.
“There is no such thing as a universe through which we drop all of our ICE vary and turn out to be converts to EVs in a single day, attempting to pressure one thing that doesn’t have to be. The market will change progressively over time. Because the EV dynamics shift, we’ll shift with it.”
Whereas no details about a diesel T60 substitute was forthcoming, LDV administration assured GoAuto that there could be no gross sales hole between present diesel T60 and a brand new one.
Mr Chinnappa confirmed that the diesel won’t be right here first. “The EV is first, then ICE second. We are able to’t speak about ICE timing at this stage. I don’t have a timeline for it. So far as SAIC is worried, there’s an EV model, and an ICE model. However for us, EV is coming first.”
The prevailing LDV eT60 was solely launched domestically late final 12 months in 4×2 type and at $92,900 earlier than on-road prices its LDV’s costliest ute and the costliest 4×2 ute from any producer. LDV has offered 60 eT60s in Australia to the tip of August.
