Australia gives world-first ute an ocker name

Chinese car giant Chery will name its highly anticipated diesel PHEV ute the Stockman, after the name was finally selected from thousands of Australian submissions.

The brand launched a campaign to name what was previewed as the KP31 prototype in March, after which its list of more than 20,000 potential ideas was whittled down to just nine – with Stockman coming up as the winner.

Submitted by Steve Kodikara from Victoria, the Stockman name was chosen by him as it “captured the spirit of Australia's original workhorse and everything a ute should represent: reliability, capability and resilience”. 

Out of the other submissions – which included Outrider, Orca, Ironbark, Bushwalker, Longreach, Ridgeback, Terra and Mate – Stockman received more than 25 per cent of the 12,000-plus votes.

For his part in naming the Stockman, Kodikara will be the first example to land in Australia, becoming the first person to own a plug-in hybrid diesel ute globally.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen the Stockman name on a ute though. 

Stockman was previously used on a cab-chassis ute variant of the Suzuki Sierra, powered by a diminutive 1.0-litre engine but featuring a dual-range four-wheel drive system.

The Chery Stockman’s 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine is paired with at least one electric motor and a high-voltage battery pack, with reports from China suggesting it can drive on EV power only for about 170km.

Chery is yet to reveal full technical specifications, however it has already confirmed it’ll feature a 3500kg braked towing capacity and a 1000kg payload.

According to Chery, the concept KP31 measures 5610mm long, 1920mm wide and 1925mm in height. That’s slightly larger than the production version, which Chery has confirmed will be 5450mm long, which is still longer than either the Ranger or Toyota HiLux.

Chery says that further details about the Stockman including pricing, full specifications and launch dates will be announced in the coming months.