Don’t be fooled by the images you see here. This Radar RD6 from Geely is not what you think it is. It may look like a pick-up truck, but it’s not. It’s more like an SUV with the rear roof section chopped off.
What defines a pick-up truck? Putting aside a torquey diesel engine, a pick-up truck must first and foremost, have a ladder frame chassis. Why? Because these ladder frames are the best for carrying heavy loads.
Us Malaysians are not big on towing but in many major pick-up truck markets like Thailand and Australia, towing capacity is very important for pick-up trucks and if you need to tow a trailer, ladder frames are best because the trailer will be hooked up directly onto the load-bearing frame, locking it securely.
Of course, Honda sells the monocoque Ridgeline in the US, likewise the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, but those are niche models and they don’t drive the core pick-up truck market. Ford and Holden also used to sell sedan-based ‘utes’ in Australia but these models are no longer on sale, for a good reason – because you can’t out-Hilux a Toyota Hilux with a monocoque body.
4×4, be it a Part-Time or Full-time one, is another key feature for a pick-up truck. Yes, Thailand sells plenty of low-rider 4×2 pick-up trucks for easy cargo loading on the lower truck bed height, but the important thing to note is that 4×4 is available as an option for all these models.
Leaf spring suspension is another must-have for pick-up trucks, because you can’t beat these ‘old school’ leaf springs if you want to do old school, tough blue-collar men of muscles type of work. Yes, the Nissan Navara comes with independent multi-link rear suspension but leaf spring is still available in countries where the Navara is used to do heavy duty work.
This electric Radar RD6 from Geely has just gone on on sale in China and it has none of the three pick-up truck pre-requisites mentioned above, not even as an option.
What you see here is a battery electric vehicle (battery EV) built on Geely’s passenger car-style monocoque electric-only SEA platform, with an open-top cargo area.
The Radar RD6 rides on passenger car-style independent suspension on all four corners, and it’s only available as a rear-wheel drive. The SEA platform can accommodate two drive motors but neither 4WD or AWD is available on the RD6, not even as an option, at least for now.
As for towing, Geely would rather not say what it’s rated towing capacity is, probably because like many EVs, driving range drops incredibly fast once you start towing.
So what you see here is essentially a rear-wheel drive electric SUV with an open-top deck behind.
On the upside, there is a front trunk (frunk), which adds a covered cargo area to complement the open rear deck. There’s also V2L function, allowing the Radar RD6 to serve as a giant 220V power bank for household electrical appliances, that’s something a traditional diesel truck can’t do.
Deliveries have just begun in China, and the Radar RD6 is sold there with 3 battery capacity options – 63 kWh (400 km range), 86 kWh (550 km range) and 100 kWh (632 km range), figures based on the Chinese WLTP (CLTC) test cycle.
All three variants are driven by a 200 kW (272 PS) / 384 Nm rear motor.
Although Radar is a Geely-owned brand, Radar-branded products are sold at separate Radar stores.
The Radar RD6 is built at Geely’s Zibo plant in Shandong that specializes in electrified vehicles.
But as much as we like to poke fun as the Radar RD6, it’s a product that makes a lot of sense in China.
The mainland Chinese don’t use pick-up trucks like us. Over there, small vans with sliding doors are the dominant commercial vehicles, like Japan and Korea.
Instead, pick-up trucks are used purely as a lifestyle statement.
So if you view it from the perspective of Geely’s target market for the Radar RD6, the product makes perfect sense. It doesn’t matter if the product concept is a betrayal of the world considers to be a baseline for pick-up truck culture.
In many major Chinese cities, pick-up trucks are still banned. Some cities like Shanghai and Chongqing have eased the ban but in Beijing and Guangzhou, pick-up trucks still face a lot of restrictions on how far into the city centre can the vehicle be driven.
Under such an environment, Chinese consumers never developed the concept of go-anywhere, do-anything lifestyle pick-up trucks like the rest of the world. For an EV manufacturer, that’s a good thing because expectations will be lower since customers won’t be comparing against a go-anywhere, do-anything diesel pick-up truck.
For them, it’s the looks that matter. If it looks like a pick-up truck that they see in American movies, then it’s a pick-up truck. It doesn’t matter if the Radar RD6 can’t climb up a muddy trail or tow its own weight without running out of battery juice faster than you sweat from keeping an eye on the diminishing range.
Buyers outside of China will have a harder time to accept it, though EV fans will of course be willing to overlook its shortcomings.
Geely says exports of the Radar RD6 will start this year but did not mention any specific market.
Source: An electric eunuch? Geely’s Radar RD6 is an EV truck that can’t do truck things