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From the first Ford Coupe utility to the more recent ‘Unbreakable’ Hilux, the iconic Australian ute has been ingrained within our culture for over nine decades. Fast-forward to the present and a lot has changed with the introduction of EV technology and the fact that the ute does a whole lot more than just play farm hand or rock up to the job site.
Let’s face it. The off-road community love a good dual or single-cab ute. But they’re still sceptical about EV and can’t all afford a ute for work, and a ute for play. So when LDV came out saying they were releasing the first Australian EV ute, we thought, “Gee! Big shoes to fill!” More importantly, you’d think the LDV eT60 would have the one feature that makes today’s ute, a ute.
A farmer’s wife and a ute
So when did our love affair for the ute actually begin? In 1933, a farmer’s wife from Gippsland, Victoria wrote a letter to Ford Australia. The letter mentioned that she couldn’t afford two cars, and needed something that could take them ‘to church on Sundays and the pigs to market on Mondays’.
In 1934, Ford came back with a stroke of genius and redesigned a Ford Coupe to cater for the lady’s needs. They extended the side panels from the rear of the cab and strengthened the body and suspension for load. And there you have it! The first Ford Coupe Utility rolled off the production line. The rest is history.
Now we might not be hauling pigs down to the market anymore, but today’s ute has a lot to live up to. Especially for a growing 4×4 scene wanting more from their daily workhorse.
The all-rounder: Tradie’s best friend to weekend warrior
The truck, ute, rig or whatever you want to call it, has always been seen as the all-rounder. These days, any tradie keen on a bit of weekend adventure will tell you that their pride and joy needs to wear many hats if it’s to earn its spot on the driveway.
Firstly, it’s got to be hardworking. It needs to have plenty of tray space, enough grunt and capacity to tow a decent trailer, good fuel economy, and be capable enough to get you out of a sticky situation on the tracks.
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The current ute category answers that (debatable). The most basic entry-level 4×4 ute comes with 133KW of power, 430NM of torque and has a braked towing capacity of 3.1 tonnes. When we look at 4×4 features, most utes come standard with a locking rear differential and basic off-road fruit to get you exploring. Nothing too fancy, but they can all do the job (debatable).
Enter the LDV eT60
Out came the spec sheet and we were excited as hell to dig in. But something was missing. What? No 4×4? Surely not. Nope! No 4×4.
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It was already going to lack points from a range perspective, and let’s not talk about the whopping 310NM of torque and 1-tonne braked towing capacity. But to not introduce a 4×4 variant? It’s just un-Australian. Unlike its cousin, the T60 4×4, the eT60 is rear-wheel-drive only with a single electric motor hanging scaringly low on the rear axle. Basically not ideal for any sort of off-road terrain.
When it comes to spending your hard-earned dollars, the outrageous price tag would make anyone shopping for a Toyota chuckle. Ding. Ding. $92,990 RRP.
For that money, you could get two GLX Mitsubishi Tritons, and maybe enough spare change to fit bar work or lights.
For those interested, check-out how the LDV eT60 compares to the LDV T60 MAX.
Exit LDV EV?
Okay. Fair is fair. The Chinese-made eT60 was always intended for the fleet industry and early adopters. Now we’re all for reducing emissions, but did LDV miss the mark completely?
We all wanted to love it. We wanted to give it a go as any Aussie would. But did they miss the chance of a lifetime to win the hearts of Australians looking for a good ute?
We can’t see many tradies flexin’ their eT60 down at Bunnings anytime soon (or the tracks for that matter). But hey, we could be wrong! What are your thoughts?
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Just……. LOL …….WHAT A PACK OF MORONS…………. $92,000……..
Of course it isn’t intended for the wider market. It is a niche vehicle that will work well for some users such as fleet owners wanting to dip a toe in the EV market. Some tradies and private owners for whom the range, offroad ability and towing are not an issue (yes they do exist!) might also buy it.
Given that people are willing already to spend up to $90k on a glitzy ute (while I can’t understand it, they are sold in surprisingly large numbers) and owners then add lots of expensive bling (not all are merchant bankers and IT consultants!), there will be a small but interesting market for this. Service businesses which do urban runs only with no towing, local engineers etc may find it viable. Just because it doesn’t work for offroaders and the heavy towing market doesn’t rule it out for some.
In time there will be many more affordable and broader appealing options but the early adopters and makers have a place in the market too.
I herd in nz thistle can only travel around 300 kms but when towing a trailer it drops to 120 kms
EV’s are a good idea in cities but are useless out in the bush or towing say a caravan across the country.
Do I like electric? Sure. My first electric cars were made by Scalextric (these are still made I believe). And, as a commuter vehicle in densely populated urban areas they actually make a lot of sense. However, drive an electric vehicle because they are fun, because if you think driving an electric vehicle is helping to “save the planet” you are totally delusional and mislead by very clever propaganda. Lithium, (one of) the primary rare metal needed for EV batteries has a massive carbon footprint, just to get it out of the ground. You cannot rob Peter to pay Paul, then pretend Peter did not exist, however this is exactly the scenario with electric vehicles. You cannot sing the praises of an EV being a low carbon footprint mode of transport, and ignore the substantially massive carbon footprint used to make it. The carbon footprint is “carbon dioxide”, and it is a needed element in the life cycle of our planet, and ironically, the higher the CO2, the greener our planet will be!
I’m surprised they published your accurate reply as it flies in the face of so much of the so called green crap we are force fed.
Totally agree. EV in any format currently does not save the earth. The manufacture of one lithium battery produces the same carbon a combustion engine produces in 8 years running.
I agree with Sean Flanigan, but not only the carbon footprint developing batteries, what about in 8 to 10 years the resources required to dispose of them. Quite frankly this LDV is a joke, very few safety features not even cruise control for a whopping price tag, I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole.
I like the idea of EV & hybrid but until there is better battery technology so I can tow I’ll watch from the side.
What about the CO2 footprint of every other motor vehicle on the road that is petrol, diesel, hybrid? There are billions of cars, trucks, utes, jetskis, skidoos, bikes, planes, jets, industrial engines, ships, rockets, missiles, mining operations, buildings, etc, out there spewing many millions of excess CO2 into the atmosphere already (as we humans do too). You are implying they don’t produce CO2? They all create a massive footprint when they are made too, don’t they? Who is denying that all things made by humans have a carbon footprint anyway? Humanity has one enormous oversized footprint.
Come on, the global energy transition is already underway and there are many opportunities for manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, users, etc to make and enjoy the new era we are moving into. We don’t all want to go back to riding horse-n-carts? Are we Luddites again? The transition as you said, makes a lot of sense. Let’s look for opportunities to make that transition work. Anyway, the internal combustion engine still has life left in it. Hydrogen anyone?
Sean,you would be the first person who can see through the garbage smoke screen that is put up to convince people that electric vehicles are the way of the future. The big talk is carbon emissions and the dire need to cut carbon out however everything needs carbon to survive such as trees, grass etc without which they will die. This planet will revert back to the ice age if this madness continues. Nature will look after itself . The problem is humans think they know better.
$93k! They are dreaming!
Let’s not try to compare this Ute with a 9ff road Ute we would use to transverse some of the tracks in our deserts, mountains, forest and beaches.
A ICE Ute is a flexible multi purpose Ute that fulfils many different roles from the city based trade, outback adventurers and various industries like mining, civil engineering etc.
E Ute’s will not fulfil all of these roles, at least not with some massive leaps in technology, if ever.
But e Ute’s will fulfil several roles very nicely like the cities tradie, city deliveries where the range lines up with average daily kms, subject to value.
So when we review these let’s review them against the roles they designed for.
Haha a mighty 310nm of torque
Think that’s the equivalent of a diesel in the early 90’s.
Waste of money! Keep polluting guys its not worth it
As Sean says above, EVs make sense as urban commuters but beyond the urban fringe I cannot see how they can possibly be used effectively. I’d be interested to know the range of these vehicles – not in best case scenario but actually doing some real work. I’d also like to know what support infrastructure is being built in terms of charging points and the capacity of the grid to provide power to those charging points, given that EV numbers are expected to increase as we shut down our thermal power stations. Before anyone buys an EV, I suggest that they take a look at what is happening in Switzerland, where the phasing out of nuclear power is causing an energy shortage and the government there has told people not to use their EVs. Australia, of course, has no nuclear power stations, because why would the country that sits on the world’s largest uranium reserves possibly use it to its advantage?
I suspect LDV might be getting this model out there in order to learn from its shortcomings, then come up with big improvements for the next model. Who better than Aussie drivers and conditions to “brake” it? Plus it gets them off-the-mark and running in the class here before the others.
“any tradie keen on a bit of weekend adventure will tell you that their pride and joy needs to wear many hats if it’s to earn its spot on the driveway.” Not every tradie truck owner is a tradie, some ute owners have one because it’s practical for their needs, others own one because of the “tradie persona” it gives, and I personally know of a primary school teacher who has his ute decked out with Ozito and Ryobi tools and yet he doesn’t know how to hold a hammer just for that tradie persona (and yep he even tows the typical trailer too and from the school). Some owners just have one because their the easiest vehicle to turn into a mall crawler for picking up boys with.