Sunday call to China for LDV over EV ute

Management of local LDV distributor Great Lake Motors have experienced an avalanche in enquiry for its future EV ute product since the June 13 announcement of EV incentives.

The brand has previously announced an electric ute in part based on its current T60 diesel vehicle is coming to New Zealand eventually, but when is still up in the air.

General manager Andrew Baylis says on Sunday afternoon he had more enquiry for the vehicle than in the last six months.

“There are numerous fleet customers; individual trade customers, farmers, who have made enquires for an EV ute,” Baylis says. “There is huge pent up demand for it.”

“We were in communication with the Chinese Sunday afternoon,” he says, referring to manufacturer SAIC.

Baylis says the government announcement gives them a far stronger case for the vehicle with the Chinese.

“Of course it does. It is not so much about the money for them, it is about the volume.”

How much volume? Baylis says that if they could get the vehicle here for next year they could do big numbers for the small brand.

“It is probably not unrealistic to say we could do 1500 to 2000 utes next year if we had an EV model.”

Baylis has few confirmed details on the electric ute, but Chinese reports indicate 130kW and 310Nm of electric power with an 88.55kW battery. Range is a claimed 535km, though that is likely to be on an optimistic Chinese test cycle.

For now, Baylis is focusing on the brand’s two other EV models – the large EV80 and medium-size eDeliver3, the first shipment of which landed last month and is already sold out.

The eDeliver3 under the subsidy would be a little over $40,000 before GST is added. It has not been crash tested, so technically does not meet the three-star safety requirement of the subsidy, but Baylis does not expect it to be an issue.

Both models have cab-chassis models that may appeal to commercial ute buyers, with the eDeliver3 version now ‘in the product plan’.

Baylis says they have pitched the EV80 cab chassis – the basis for rental EV motorhomes plying New Zealand’s roads – to customers as a ute replacement but most customers found it too big. The eDeliver3 is likely to be more appropriate.