The pickup truck used to be a humble utilitarian vehicle. Something you use on the farm or as a contractor, carrying your team and tools around. Power steering and air conditioning were luxuries; the interior of these vehicles was more “easy-to-hose-down” than a place to enjoy the journey on a weekend trip kumusha. And to be honest, i’m not really mad about it. Double cab 4×4’s arguably haven’t looked better than they currently do (thanks America), and their interiors are getting even more advanced and I think that has a lot to do with China coming to the party. Japan moved things along when they entered the market, with these small reliable pickups in the 70’s. But because of their market niche, they didn’t get receive as many updates as sedans and sports cars.
The Hilux, for instance, has had basically the same interior and engines for what seems like the last 20 years compared to the exterior facelifts. It never needed to be anything more than it was, possibly because buyers didn’t know they could have more.
And this is where the Chinese manufacturers found an in. Without a massive legacy of models, they could come in and create something new and make changes very quickly. I cannot tell you how impressed i was with the GWM P series and the sister Haval vehicles. Good looks, comfortable ride and a tech laden interior. It was modern car, with 4 wheel drive, ground clearance and a load bed. (You can see a review by Z Car Culture here). I can’t speak for their offroad ability but for what 90% of users will use these trucks for i think its perfectly fine and South African buyers seem pretty happy with them years after launch. The P500 HEV i saw earlier this year just further convinced me that these guys were onto something.
Fuel-conscious Zimbabweans and climate-aware buyers would love being able to have a useful 4×4, less trips to the petrol station AND the latest tech.The options for the 4×4 buyer these days are looking a lot better.
BYD
BYD has also been expanding into the African market with electric vehicles, mainly sedans and people carriers like the Atto 3, E6 and Denza D9. So it wasn’t really a suprise to see BYD bringing in the Shark 6. Imposing American styling and what i initially thought was an electric powertrain was, in fact a 1.5L turbo petrol and hybrid battery system. A formula GWM was bringing into its SUV line up. Slowly but surely these are becoming increasingly common on our Zimbabwean roads. Now consumers aren’t limited to Aqua’s and Vezels if they want something more modern and useable but hybrid.
Geely
This all places the Geely Riddara RD6 in an interesting position. Supplied by ICC Paint locally, this 4×4 is fully electric with a claimed range of 400km. Which, when towing, will most certainly be less. Given our….uh..sporadic…power supply, how you use this vehicle will certainly need some consideration. Right now, as long as you don’t do over 300km, leave Harare and have power at home for 9 hours a night (less if you install a DC fast charger). The Riddara RD6 could be something you could daily or run a fleet of for contractors and the like. Change any one of these parameters and you might be better off with a hybrid from GWM or BYD.
Toyota
Bringing everything round full circle, Toyota have decided its time to really update its ubiquitous Hilux. Toyota was never really on board with fully electric cars. It saw Hydrogen as the solution to our sustainable driving problems. That also means they were losing market share, before the hydrogen infrastructure comes into being. Being the pragmatic car maker it is, it is not putting all its eggs into one basket, buts finally diving head first into the electrified pick up truck battle.. Name a flavour of Hilux and Toyota will give it to you (market dependant of course).
We still have our trusty petrol and diesel options, a 48V hybrid could be the one that moves volumes. And a new fully electric version with -wait for it- a whopping 240km of range. To be fair the way Toyota has measured its range using the WLTP standard versus the CLTC used in China so quite literally your mileage will vary. 2028 will see the introduction of a hydrogen-powered model. So whatever combination of Hilux you want, Toyota is going to be able to sort you out.
The introduction of SUVs as the aspirational vehicle opened the door for 4x4s to elevate their class in the automotive heirarchy. Now often seen as a SUV with room for jetski’s motorbikes and other lifestyle things as well as a good fleet vehicle for contractors etc means they can no longer just be the most basic boxes on 4 wheels that they used to be.
