Reborn Subaru Brumby? Small is the next big thing in utes

Do you miss the uniquely Australian workhorses that died out with the demise of the locally made Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon utes nearly a decade ago?

Or maybe your loyalties lay with the Subaru Brumby, seen above: a smaller yet just as stylish compact 4x4 pick-up that farmers and hipsters alike pine for some 35 years after production ceased.

Good news: smaller, lighter and more efficient utes, which look and feel more like cars than trucks, are set to return, albeit in an evolved form on what came before.

The first evidence of the new breed in Australia has been the KGM Musso EV, though its price of from $60,000 drive-away makes it a niche proposition.

Also making it a niche proposition for some buyers is ANCAP’s discovery in August that the KGM Musso ute was initially advertised as having eight eight airbags, when it only had six.

ANCAP said KGM has advised them that it has changed its advertising material to reflect this.

The emergence of these smaller utes doesn’t mean the current ones are about to disappear. Three of the five best-selling vehicles last year were medium-sized utes –the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max – and they continue to sell strongly today.

Just as they have been for decades, all those are body-on-frame separate-chassis vehicles, with most models powered by diesel engines.

But there is an evolution underway for the ute, in ways that even product planners would have struggled to predict a few years ago. It’s been driven in part by rising fuel prices and increasingly stringent emissions standards.

It appears those product planners have also noticed that there could be a gap in the market left by those smaller utes of days gone by.

They’re already gaining popularity in overseas markets, particularly North America.

These more compact utes do not replace the HiLux or Ranger but support them as affordable and cleaner-running alternatives.

To achieve that goal, there will be a switch from a separate chassis to an integrated body construction method, known as a monocoque.

Just like the beloved Falcon and Holden utes used to be, this follows the template for all modern passenger cars and most non-4x4/off-road SUVs sold in Australia today.

The most high-profile possibility for Australia is market-leader Toyota, which is believed to be developing a four-door double-cab ute based on the RAV4 hybrid SUV.

Dubbed Project 150D, it is set to debut next year, ahead of a possible release sometime in 2028.

Toyota Motor North America CEO, Ted Ogawa, strongly hinted that such a vehicle is under consideration to US industry publication, Automotive News, earlier this year

“A RAV4-based pickup is an opportunity for us, and the dealers are waiting,” he said.

Manufacturers are keen to follow the lead of the unexpected runaway success of the Ford Maverick, which has far exceeded sales expectations since its release in the United States and Canada during 2021.

The Maverick is based on the Ford Escape mid-sized SUV, a rival to Toyota’s RAV4 hybrid.

The Maverick sits below the Ranger ute and much-larger F-Series full-sized pick-up trucks, giving consumers the practicality of an SUV combined with the versatility (and modish styling) of a ute.

More importantly, it comes with an inexpensive petrol-electric hybrid choice, which has accounted for up to two-thirds of all demand for the compact ute. That’s an impressive feat in the land where “gasoline” is still comparatively cheap.

In North America, Hyundai also offers a similar style of dual-cab pick-up (the Tucson SUV-derived Santa Cruz) as does Honda.

In fact, the latter is credited for starting the modern car-based ute trend in 2005, when it released the first monocoque-bodied Ridgeline pick-up.

While not a big hit, the large, American-built pick-up sold well enough to be profitable, with demand credited to buyers who would not otherwise have purchased a ute. This means the Ridgeline was proof of concept for other manufacturers to ponder since.

Honda will release the third-generation Ridgeline model in 2028 and has already indicated that, if available in right-hand-drive, it may come to Australia.

Hyundai is counting on the same in order to bring in the redesigned Santa Cruz here about the same time.

Right hand drive configuration is a stumbling block to the Australian market for many smaller car-based utes that are sold in huge numbers as inexpensive, versatile staple in South America, such as the Fiat Strada, Renault Oroch, Chevrolet Montana and Volkswagen Tukan.

The same may also be true with Chinese carmaker BYD’s Mako ute.

Unveiled in Brazil late last month, this is a dual-cab version of the Sealion 6 plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) that is already well-established here in the Australian market.

Whatever the case, Australia is set to see a wave of smaller and more-efficient utes that are SUV-based before the decade is out.