Author: Rezz

Many Chinese people find it difficult to appreciate the attractiveness of pickup trucks. They feel that they are somewhat impractical and even do not know how to use the cargo box after purchasing a pickup truck.

Consumers around the world recognize that vehicles must provide certain necessary values, such as comfort, economy, safety, reliability, and entertainment. However, who doesn’t want a vehicle that has all of these attributes, just like a Swiss Army knife that cuts into consumers’ hearts?

Why SUVs When You Can Drive a Pickup Truck

Pickup trucks or Utility Vehicles (UTE) are not common in Europe and China, unlike in the United States, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

In the early 1990s, Great Wall Motor made its first bucket of gold by introducing American and Southeast Asian pickup trucks into the domestic market. However, in the past 20 years, the Chinese auto market, which is in the SUV-blue ocean, has been the main reason for the rise of domestic auto brands such as Great Wall, Changan, and Geely.

Twenty years have passed, and the SUV market has also changed from a blue ocean to a red ocean. The new blue ocean may be in MPVs, or it may be in pickup trucks. It is full of imagination and growth pains and shackles.

Great Wall Cannon was well received when it was launched, and its old rival Geely certainly did not forget about the pickup truck segment.

I heard that in 2018, a world-class consulting company of MBB formulated a pickup truck development strategy for a Chinese leading state-owned automobile enterprise. The conclusion was that the technical advantages of traditional mechanical structures, such as engines, transmissions, and differentials, would be insignificant in the future competition of pickup trucks. Therefore, this state-owned enterprise was advised to give up traditional pickup trucks and switch to pure electric pickup trucks.

Unexpectedly, the senior management of the enterprise did not adopt this suggestion, but Geely was open-minded and learned from the experience. They want to develop pure electric pickup trucks in this field, just like Tesla Cybertruck and Rivian R1T in the United States. The Radar RD6 is the first car of this Geely’s new sub-brand.## Introduction

The RD6 radar is a medium-sized pure electric pickup truck, with dimensions of 5260/1900/1830mm in length, width, and height respectively, and a wheelbase of 3120mm. The length and height of the vehicle are at the normal level of the same level pickup trucks, but the width of the vehicle is slightly narrow.

In fact, this size is not suitable for pure cargo transportation, as the length of the cargo box is too short and not wide enough. However, it clearly has strong adaptability to future regulations for pickup truck for passenger use, so it is highly likely that it will be deregulated and allowed to enter urban areas in the future.

Why a diversified layout for life scenarios?

As a medium-sized pickup truck targeting mainstream markets, the RD6 radar did not choose the relatively saturated commercial and tool-oriented passenger pickup truck markets as its entry point, but instead selected the relatively niche and diversified consumer market.

In 2025, the camping economy market scale in China is expected to reach over 240 billion yuan. With the expansion and opening up of the new energy and emerging markets, pure electric vehicle products targeting this market have quietly emerged.

The RD6 radar is a pioneering pure electric product that is faster than the leading company in the pickup truck industry, Great Wall. The behavior of the RD6 as a pioneer and explorer is commendable, but it is clear that such pickup trucks need the support of a considerable volume and a leisure circle with purchasing power.

Radar’s brand promotion is creative and spot-on. They launched a high-end sub-brand called RADAR Weekend, which focuses on the outdoor lifestyle, and cooperates with the top camping equipment brand Naturehike.

Radar’s future market plan shows that Geely still attaches great importance to its pickup truck strategy. However, considering the uncertainty of the market and the economic environment, they can only test the waters first.

Several future Radar models will likely compete with Great Wall’s “Shanhai Cannon” for mid-to-large size pickups, with “Long Cannon X” for full-size pickups, and with “Tank 800” for full-size off-road vehicles. These models aim to target several forerunners and popular models in the off-road vehicle segment.

The Radar RD6 is built on China’s first native pure electric pickup platform, M.A.P., which can satisfy the needs of outdoor lifestyle, hauling, and people transportation. The CLTC pure electric endurance exceeds 600 km, and the 0-100 km/h acceleration time is faster than most pickup trucks, taking only 6 seconds. The top-of-the-line priced at 268,800 RMB is a relatively appropriate range.

The roof of the RD6 is equipped with a luggage rack. At the same time, the pure electric platform also provides a front cargo box, which adds practicability.

Multiple 220V sockets are provided in the front and rear cargo containers, with a maximum discharge power of 6 kW. This function is unprecedented in China’s pickup trucks. Multiple sockets and high-power discharge capabilities allow the RD6 to supply power in the wild without the need to purchase an outdoor generator.

Conclusion

Outdoor camping cannot be separated from a spacious and load-bearing SUV, but the Skin of the Radar pick-up truck has changed this ecology and provided a new choice for consumers who love outdoor life and delicate camping Glamping.

Radar cars can create demands for users, so there will be more people who have never thought of camping out and can take the first step outdoors because of this brand.

In the context of the comprehensive electrification of automobiles, such brand-new explorations by brands like Radar can still add a lot of colors and development possibilities to electric vehicles.

But in my opinion, the biggest problem is still that domestic pick-ups still belong to niche categories, and there are still problems such as insufficient consumer understanding, unclear positioning, low market penetration, lack of pick-up culture, and unsuitability for national conditions.

And Radar needs to take on the heavy responsibility of cultivating and reshaping user consumption thinking and habits, just like the transformation of the automotive market by Tesla in the past.

Speed ​​is the essence of martial arts. In the field of new energy pickups, Radar is the fastest, but for this brand that will independently listed in the future IPO, it still has a long way to go.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.