Should I buy a diesel ute or wait for a hybrid?
QUESTION
Hi John,
I am about to buy my first car and was looking at the Isuzu D-Max X-Terrain and comparing it with all the different utes. They are crazy expensive.
I wondered if you had any idea if Australia will be rolling out hybrid utes? I know they are in the USA and probably elsewhere. I just don’t want to fork out all this money, then next year they bring out a hybrid Hilux, Ranger or D-Max for nearly the same price, then the diesel ones become obsolete.
If you think they are a long way off, do you think the latest D-Max is a good investment?
If you had time to respond I would really appreciate your thoughts on this - it’s a lot of money to make a decision on and very overwhelming.
Thanks,
Ari
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ANSWER
Hey Ari,
I don’t think there are any plans to roll out any kind of hybrid ute.
Even if they do, diesel will not be obsolete in the next two decades.
They have recently deployed a few full EV utes in the US. I’m not aware of any hybrids. The EV utes are insanely heavy, expensive, and have hardly any range when towing. Like the useless LDV eT60 for example.
Everything in every store in the country gets there by diesel truck or van. We burn 10 billion litres of diesel annually, and 20 billion litres of petrol.
Diesel’s not going away any time soon.
Every diesel ute on the road today has an operational service life of about 15 years, and at least three diesel utes are in the top 10 most popular vehicles list - Ranger and Hilux being the top two.
No car is a ‘good investment’ however - it doesn’t earn you a dividend and it’s guaranteed to lose value. So don’t get too hung up on future ‘What If’ scenarios. Instead, focus on finding the right ute for your budget and intended purpose.
JC
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