Aussie ute market heats up: Foton preparing for Australian relaunch late this year with Foton Tunland G7 EV ute to spearhead its return and battle the LDV eT60
Chinese van, truck and ute maker Foton has announced it will relaunch in Australia in the fourth quarter of 2024 after a five-year hiatus, opening the door to the new Foton Tunland G7 EV ute that will rival all-electric pick-ups like the LDV eT60 and the inbound Radar/Riddara RD6 and Tembo Tusker.
Originally on sale in Australia from 2012-2019 via three distributors, this time Foton’s comeback will be thanks to a partnership with Inchcape, the current importer of Subaru, Peugeot and Citroen vehicles.
Announcing it would focus on “new energy” as well as combustion-powered utes and vans, the Foton’s new line-up will be spearheaded by the Foton Tunland G7 EV dual-cab pick-up.
Full details of the zero-emission alternative to the best-selling Ford Ranger or Toyota HiLux have yet to be released for Australia but we know that it uses a modified version of the diesel ute’s platform and will have an impressive payload of 1090kg and be able to tow up to 3000kg.
Battery size is unknown, but it’s thought on Chinese test cycles the Tunland G7 EV can cover up to 500km on a full charge. Driving the rear wheels is a single e-motor that produces 130kW and 330Nm of torque. Acceleration hasn’t been declared but the G7 RV has a 120km/h limited top speed.
Full pricing and specification will be released later but it’s thought the Foton range could also include the full-size Ford F-150-aping Tunland V that measures in at 5797mm in length, and comes with a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel 48-volt mild-hybrid engine that produces 120kW and 450Nm of torque.
Originally founded in Beijing back in 1995, Foton has R&D centres in Beijing, Germany, Japan and Taiwan and has joint-ventures with Cummins and Mercedes-Benz and works with suppliers like Getrag, ZF, Bosch, Borg Warner, Dana and Aisin.
As well as vans and utes, Foton also produces trucks, buses, mining dump trucks and mobile cranes.
I wonder whether it will have a proper spare wheel, and, a proper roof (unlike the RD6, which, apparently, instead, has a cheap, plastic roof), and, whether it will have V2L and V2H built in, with each of those attributes, conspicuously missing from most vehicles for which they are expected.
Also, as the RD6 has been around for years (outside Australia), and, has no definite availability pending for Australia, and, as “the current importer of Subaru, Peugeot and Citroen vehicles” has no intention of selling such desirable vehicles in Australia, as the Citroen eBerlingo and eRifter, which have been available for years, in right hand drive, in England and Ireland (Stellantis apparently, prohibits Australians from being allowed to buy Battery Electric MPV’s), the question of whether these Battery Electric Vehicles, such as the “Foton Tunland G7 EV dual-cab pick-up”, will ever make it to Australia, is significant.
Of course the policy of the feral LNP/ALP/Greens party, in being hostile to the environment, clean energy, and, the people of Australia, in not properly implementing an emissions regulation and Battery Electric Vehicle subsidy scheme, as was implemented in New Zealand, via the “Clean Car Discount scheme”, which was repealed by the current NZ government, an ally of the feral LNP/ALP/Greens party, in their campaigns of increasing pollution and causing deliberate deterioration in public health, and, turning the countries into toxic waste dumps, is not conducive to increasing the availability of Battery Electric Vehicles in Australia, in which, while the “Clean Car Discount scheme”, which was repealed by the current NZ government, was in effect, New Zealand was decades ahead of Australia (as with the tobacco legislation), but, with the change of government in NZ, to the National/ACT/NZFaecal Party, New Zealand has deteriorated to the Australian level, and, sales and availability of Battery Electric Vehicles, in New Zealand, have been almost eliminated by the National/ACT/NZFaecal Party government, which, like the feral LNP/ALP/Greens party government in Australia, is more intent on harming the environment and the people of the country, over which, they impose tyrannical, coercive control.