Chinese brand LDV has joined the chorus of carmakers jumping past hydrogen and plug-in hybrid power in Australia, and instead leaping straight to electric cars.
Executives from the brand’s parent company, SAIC Motor, have laid out plans to offer plug-in hybrid, electric, and hydrogen fuel-cell electric power options across the next-generation LDV range of utes, vans, and people movers.
However in Australia, local LDV managing director Dinesh Chinnappa pointed to a future with a choice of petrol or diesel, or electric power… but nothing in between.
“We’ll move with the market and we’ll move with the technology, but at the moment we are battery EV focused,” Mr Chinnappa told media.
He did, however, describe LDV as “nimble enough” to adapt quickly if buyers start demanding hydrogen or plug-in hybrid vehicles en masse.
Although BMW and Toyota are standing firm behind hydrogen as a fuel of the future, it’s been abandoned by some of its major promoters globally.
Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have walked back plans to offer hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, although there is still demand in the heavy vehicle market.
LDV kicked off its electric car rollout in Australia with the eT60 ute, eDeliver 9 van, and MIFA 9 people mover.
It’ll add the Toyota HiAce-sized eDeliver 7 to that line-up late in 2023 or early in 2024, with a four-wheel drive electric ute to follow later in 2024.
A further three electric light commercial vehicles are slated for Australia in the coming years.
