A manufacturer render of the Chery Stockman. Chery’s Australian site notes that an overseas render model is shown.
Chery has built the world’s first diesel plug-in hybrid pickup, the Stockman, developed for Australia rather than China, with a 2.5-litre turbo-diesel, a 34 kWh battery and a claimed 100 km of electric range on the NEDC cycle. Volvo invented the diesel plug-in hybrid and stopped building it in 2018, the year Europe retired that same test cycle.
Chery has built what it calls the world’s first diesel plug-in hybrid pickup, the Stockman, InsideEVs reported. It pairs a 2.5-litre turbo-diesel with a 34 kWh battery for a combined 469 hp and 800 Nm, and tows up to 3,500 kg. The Chinese company developed it for Australia rather than for China.
Europe tried this first.
Volvo built the V60 D6 Plug-in Hybrid from 2013 to 2018, pairing a 2.4-litre bi-turbo diesel with an 11.2 kWh pack for about 22 miles of electric range. Running a diesel engine in short bursts does not suit the engine. Volvo dropped it and moved to petrol.
Mercedes tried it too.
The E300de ran from 2018 to 2020 with a 13.5 kWh battery, in the previous generation E-Class. InsideEVs writes that Mercedes is doing diesel plug-in hybrids in Europe, in the present tense. We could not confirm one on sale here now.
The test cycle is a relic.
Chery quotes 100 km of electric range on NEDC, the cycle Europe replaced with WLTP for all new cars in September 2018, which was also the year Volvo stopped. Its Australian site adds that the range, consumption, towing and output figures are preliminary and subject to change pending testing and certification. On those numbers the truck uses 34 kWh to cover 100 km, or roughly 1.8 miles per kWh.
Simple is getting better.
A charger shown last week took a car from 10 to 97% in under nine minutes. The argument for carrying a diesel engine, a battery, a motor, a gearbox and an exhaust fluid system gets harder as plain batteries improve. The Stockman’s answer to long distances is a second tank.
Europe is deciding this now.
Hybrids took 36.6% of European Union registrations in the first eight months of this year and plug-in hybrids 10%, and the Commission has proposed softening the 2035 target from 100% to 90%, which would keep them legal. A diesel plug-in hybrid is the furthest that argument stretches.
The truck is not coming here.
It goes on sale in Australia, where pickups are a fifth of new car sales, against the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton. Euro 7 takes effect on 29 November. Chery has announced no European homologation and no European plan for it.
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