Driving into the future with New Zealand’s first all-electric ute

Electric commercial van champion LDV is the first brand to release an all-electric ute into the New Zealand market. We took a shiny bright blue one for a weekend spin to see how we liked it.

Last year, 40,000 utes were sold in New Zealand and despite the growing popularity of electric vehicles, not one of them came battery powered – until now.

The first thing to know about the T60 EV is what it’s not.

It has rear-wheel drive and its ground clearance has been reduced by the EV power train and battery. So it is obviously not intended for off-road action. Venturing off the road and into the rough – made extra soggy by an overnight storm – quickly felt like a path to be avoided.

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The second thing to know is the price.

With the single price of $79,990, it qualifies for the New Zealand clean car rebate. A new ute that comes with a $8,625 rebate after purchase is a sweet incentive, plus the potential for a tax write off for business purposes.

Driving out of town and into the country was a pleasant enough experience. The seats are comfortable and the view is good from the high vantage point of the cab. Apart from an engine whine at low speeds it’s very quiet.

There is no park setting. Drive selection is a simple turn of the dial from neutral to drive. It’s all so quiet I needed to check the screen to know we were ready to take off.

Despite being an EV, it doesn’t have all of its 310Nm of torque available from the get go, which means no smoking high speed skids away from the lights.

But it was peppy enough for comfortable cruising, and handled well on the corners, even though the weather was particularly testing, with wind gusts up to 90km on the notoriously wild Āwhitu peninsula where we were staying.

The T60 has a 88.5kWh battery and is capable of both AC and DC charging. Its driving range is said to be 325km off a single charge.

EV weekend road trips are made infinitely better for not having to go near the petrol pumps. Thanks to a fast-charging station in the sleepy rural town of Waiuku, we topped up the juice while lazily wandering to the local bakery for pies.

The T60 has a 1000kg maximum braked towing weight, which will impact the vehicle’s range.

The ute’s user interface is basic and utilitarian – no doubt purposefully pared down to minimise cost.

So no seat warmers or mirror attached to the back of the sun visor. (The vanity or dust-under-my-contact-lense mirrors).

The digital display was not a particularly intuitive or easy user experience – though customising the settings would likely help.

The double cab is a bonus, creating options for family members, guests or precious items you don’t want bouncing about.

The rear tray dimensions are 1.49 x1.51 x 5.3m. It has a robust all-weather surface and drainage points that make it easy to hose out. In all, it was perfectly suited to the slightly messy business of tree planting and staking which was what our weekend foray out into the country was all about.

Our verdict: This is the first and currently only battery electric vehicle ute, and for those looking for ute capabilities and features but wanting lower carbon emissions, then this is it.

It’s an ideal low-carbon utility vehicle for urban and provincial use. It would particularly suit deliveries or light commercial.

It gets bonus points for being the first – and for helping forge the direction utes need to go in the future.

What else to know

Here’s more on the EV T60 Ute from Stuff’s motoring team.

Powertrain: Single rear-axle-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor with an 88.5kWh battery with 130kW/310Nm, 325km range (WLTP).

Body style: Double cab ute

LDV (a division of SAIC Motor) has experienced a whopping 167 per cent year-on-year growth in New Zealand’s van market which has resulted in it being firmly number two with a 32.5% share of the pie.

Meanwhile, in China SAIC has committed US$45.78bn to hi-tech innovation and EVs for the next five years, and with 733,000 NEV (New Energy Vehicle) global unit sales, it is ranked first in China and second in the world.

The T60 EV comes with a dominant front grille and LED DRL’s, black side steps and rides on 245/70R16HT rubber with black alloy wheels.

The cabin is utilitarian but still includes safety and driving aids such as adaptive cruise control.

The colour infotainment screen is recessed into the dash and the instrument cluster offers up analogue dials with speed, power and battery level info. They are separated by a portrait style digital TFT screen that shows mileage and which drive mode is selected.

The 88.5 kWh battery pack is located under the cabin and hangs quite low, which could possibly compromise ground clearance. Given the T60 EV is rear-wheel drive, it’s not intended for heading too far off-road anyway.

It has a smart electric motor configuration and regeneration is variable via the drive mode buttons on the centre console (Eco, Normal and Power).

Steering feels nicely weighted with a positive response in the curves. Behind the scenes the double independent front and leaf spring rear suspension is a little bit jiggly and would benefit from a bit of weight in the tub, but overall sits well on the road.

The drive mode selection is slightly unusual with both of the two buttons Eco and Power being able to ‘second push’ to Normal. There is a noticeable difference between the modes, even when keeping the accelerator in a fixed position, with both speed and regen aggression varying.

Proportionally, the double cab ute is 5365mm long, 1900mm wide and 1809mm tall, with rear tray size (mm) 1485x1510x530 and a payload of 900kg.