Key Takeaways
- Chery KP31 is now officially the Chery Stockman, confirmed 17 June 2026
- Chery called it the world's first diesel plug-in hybrid ute in February 2026; since the June naming release it has said Australia's first
- Powertrain: 2.5L turbo-diesel plus electric motor, dual-cab body, full 3,500kg braked tow, 1,000kg payload
- Public vote: 25%+ of ~12,000 ballots, from a nine-name shortlist, beating Outrider, Orca, Ironbark, Bushwalker, Longreach, Ridgeback, Terra and Mate
- Winner Steve Kodikara from Victoria collects the first Stockman delivered in Australia
- Chery said Q4 2026 in February and late 2026 in August; ANCAP has published no rating, pricing still TBC
- Petrol PHEV follows in 2027 (Chery, February 2026); outputs not published
Image credit: Chery Australia
If you have been keeping a Stockman on the shortlist of utes worth waiting for, it just got a name. Chery Australia confirmed on 17 June 2026 that the dual-cab project we have all been calling the KP31 will hit local showrooms as the Chery Stockman. Same vehicle, same diesel plug-in hybrid powertrain, still no confirmed on-sale date, but the badge is now sorted. For ute buyers cross-shopping the BYD Shark 6, the JAC Hunter PHEV and a brand-new Kia Tasman, that name change is the cue to start treating this thing as a real option rather than a Beijing motor show curiosity.
What Actually Changed Today
The launch story has been moving in stages. We covered the interior reveal back in April when Chery showed off the triple-locking-diff cabin and confirmed dimensions slightly longer and taller than a Ford Ranger Wildtrak. The June announcement is purely a naming step, but it matters. It locks in the marketing identity, kicks off the dealer training cycle and clears the path for a real RRP and a real order book. The name was picked through a public competition that pulled in more than 20,000 entries. Chery's team trimmed that to a shortlist of nine, and roughly 12,000 Australians then voted. Stockman cleared 25 per cent of the vote on its own, the largest share of any shortlisted name.
For the record, the eight names Stockman beat were Outrider, Orca, Ironbark, Bushwalker, Longreach, Ridgeback, Terra and Mate. Some of those would have aged better than others in a 4WD club car park, so the public vote arguably did Chery a favour. The winning entry came from Steve Kodikara in Victoria, who takes home a Stockman as his prize. That delivery will be the first Stockman Chery hands over in Australia.
Powertrain and Specs So Far
Pricing has not landed yet and Chery is sticking to outlines on power and torque until closer to the on-sale date. What is confirmed is enough to slot the Stockman straight into the towing-and-tradie shortlist next to the JAC Hunter Pro and the BYD Shark 6 Premium.
| Spec | Chery Stockman |
|---|---|
| Body style | Dual-cab pickup |
| Powertrain | 2.5L turbo-diesel PHEV |
| Drive | 4WD with locking diffs |
| Braked towing | 3,500 kg |
| Payload | 1,000 kg |
| Electric-only range | Up to 100km (NEDC) |
| On-sale Australia | Late 2026, exact date not announced |
| ANCAP | No data |
| RRP | TBC, expected before Q4 launch |
The 2.5-litre turbo-diesel running as the petrol-station-free range extender is the headline. Every other dual-cab PHEV on sale or confirmed here, the Shark 6, the Hunter PHEV, the Cannon Alpha PHEV, the Ranger PHEV, runs a petrol four-cylinder paired with the battery. Chery calls it Australia's first diesel plug-in hybrid ute, and on our own numbers that holds up: of the 13 plug-in hybrid utes in our database, the Stockman is the only one with a diesel engine. The obvious appeal for Australian buyers is keeping the fuel-tank story familiar (long-haul diesel range, long-haul diesel torque) while still being able to plug in at home and crawl into work on electrons.
Image credit: Chery Australia
Equipment and Off-Road Kit
The interior reveal from April is still the reference point. Chery showed off front, centre and rear locking differentials with their own physical controls on the centre console, plus low-range, crawl control, a wading mode and a properly mapped off-road drive selector. The seating is finished in leather across the cabin in the showcased trim and the centre stack runs a large landscape touchscreen with a separate digital cluster. Roof-mounted speakers and a wireless charging pad with a flip cover suggest Chery is targeting a Wildtrak or X-Pro buyer rather than a base-spec tradie.
How that translates to grades is the part we still need confirmed. The KP31 brief always implied at least two trims in Australia, a workhorse plus a flagship 4WD spec, but Chery has not put names against them publicly. With the Stockman badge now locked, expect the variant ladder, V2L, charging speeds and any included long-range fuel tank to be the next batch of confirmed details.
Safety
The Stockman is not yet rated by ANCAP. The KP31 concept brief listed the usual AEB, lane-keep, adaptive cruise, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic suite that the segment now expects, and Chery's recent volume models in Australia (Tiggo 7 Hybrid, Tiggo 8) have landed with 5-star scores on current protocols. We will hold off on assuming anything until ANCAP publishes a result against the 2026 protocol, which is the toughest yet for dual-cab pickups.
How It Compares
The Stockman lands into a segment that has shifted faster in 12 months than the previous 12 years. Pulling the live numbers out of the CarSorted DB:
| Ute | Powertrain | EV range | Braked tow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chery Stockman | 2.5L diesel PHEV | 100km NEDC | 3,500 kg |
| BYD Shark 6 Premium | 1.5L petrol PHEV | 100km NEDC | 2,500 kg |
| BYD Shark 6 Performance | 1.5L petrol PHEV | 80km WLTP | 3,500 kg |
| JAC Hunter Pro PHEV | 2.0L petrol PHEV | 100km NEDC | 3,500 kg |
| GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV | 2.0L petrol PHEV | 115km NEDC | 3,500 kg |
| Ford Ranger Hybrid (was PHEV) | 2.3L petrol PHEV | 49km WLTP | 3,500 kg |
Two things stand out. Chery is the only one bringing diesel into a PHEV ute, and the claimed electric range is well clear of the Ranger PHEV's 49km. Watch the test cycles in that table though: the Stockman, the Shark 6 Premium, the Hunter Pro and the Cannon Alpha are quoted on NEDC, which usually flatters WLTP by 25 to 35 per cent, so do not read 115km NEDC against 80km WLTP as a 35km gap. We will rerun this table the second Chery publishes a WLTP number.
Need to cross-shop the names you know? Run the BYD Shark 6 vs JAC Hunter PHEV comparison or pit a Shark 6 Premium against a Ford Ranger, and we will add the Stockman to the multi-card layout as soon as Chery publishes RRPs.
CarSorted Take
Here is where it gets interesting for Aussie buyers. Plotting the current dual-cab PHEV list out of our DB, the BYD Shark 6 Premium sits at $57,900 drive-away with a 2,500kg braked tow ceiling, the Shark 6 Performance is $62,900 before on-road costs for the full 3,500kg rating, and the GWM Cannon Alpha Lux PHEV is $57,490 drive-away. We hold no price for the JAC Hunter Pro PHEV yet. Chery has not announced a Stockman price and has said it will come closer to market introduction, so we are not going to guess one. That band is what it has to answer.
Use our Shark 6 vs Hunter PHEV page to see exactly what a sub-$60,000 driveaway PHEV ute looks like spec for spec today, then keep the Stockman tab open. If you would rather browse the whole electrified ute pipeline in one screen, the CarSorted directory ute filter already lists every confirmed model with running specs and our internal pricing notes.
What This Means For Buyers
If you ordered a HiLux or a Ranger last year, none of this changes your current truck. If you are a buyer sitting on a late-2026 deposit deadline for a dual-cab, the Stockman name confirmation is your cue to delay your final decision. Chery has said pricing and launch timing will be announced closer to market introduction, and has not published either yet.
For tradies who actually need to tow 3.5 tonnes weekly, the appeal of a diesel PHEV is straightforward. You get genuine torque off idle, the diesel range you trust on a 1,000km gooseneck run, and the home-charging cost saving on Monday-to-Friday city commuting that has been the single biggest reason novated-lease customers have flipped to a Shark 6 in 2026. Combine that with the 1,000kg payload and the proper locking-diff hardware, and the Stockman is the first PHEV ute that reads like a real LandCruiser or Ranger alternative, not a workplace-shy lifestyle vehicle pretending to tow.
For fleet buyers, the smart move is to ask Chery now whether the Stockman gets a cab-chassis variant. The Shark 6 added one in May. If the Stockman launches dual-cab pickup only, it locks itself out of the mining and council channels that have done so much to validate the Shark 6 in just six months. If it launches with a cab-chassis option ready to take a service body, this becomes a genuine fleet contender on day one.
Best Electrified Utes Australia 2026 | Best Utes Australia 2026 | BYD Shark 6 vs Ford Ranger
Disclaimer: Specifications and timing are sourced from Chery Australia's 23 February 2026 KP31 concept release, its 12 March and 8 May 2026 naming-competition releases, its 17 June 2026 naming announcement and its current Stockman model page. Pricing has not been announced. The 100km electric-only figure is quoted on NEDC and has not been homologated under WLTP for Australia. ANCAP has published no rating for this model, so we report no data rather than a star count. CarSorted DB pricing for cross-shopped models is current at the date of publication and is subject to change.