Chery Hires Premcar to Sign Off the Stockman for Australia, With 1,000 Deposits Already in the Book

Image credit: Chery Australia

If you were on the fence about a Chinese-brand ute because you did not trust it to feel right on a corrugated Aussie back road, this week is aimed straight at you. Chery Motor Australia has signed Melbourne engineering firm Premcar, the outfit that develops the Nissan Navara Warrior and the Y62 Patrol Warrior, to run local ride and handling validation on the Stockman diesel plug-in hybrid ute ahead of the Q4 2026 launch. Chery COO Lucas Harris also confirmed the order bank has grown past 5,000 expressions of interest and 1,000 paid deposits, before Chery has published a single dollar of RRP.

For a first-attempt ute from a brand that only landed here in 2023, that is a big commitment on both sides of the counter, and it is worth pulling apart what the Premcar deal actually changes for anyone thinking about cross-shopping a Stockman against a BYD Shark 6 Performance, a JAC Hunter Pro PHEV or a diesel Ford Ranger.

What Premcar Actually Is

Premcar is not a badge-engineering house. The business traces back to 1996 when it operated as Tickford Vehicle Engineering, building the last of the six-cylinder Falcon hot rods for Ford Australia. Today it runs a proving facility in Melbourne with 30 years of chassis, powertrain and NVH work behind it, and it is the outfit that develops the Warrior variants of the Nissan Navara N-Trek, Pro-4X and SL, plus the Y62 Patrol Warrior. Premcar handles the local test loops, the suspension tuning, the tyre and damper sign-off and much of the durability work that goes into those cars before Nissan Australia ticks them into showrooms.

The Stockman appointment is a slightly different brief. Chery has not asked Premcar to redraw the suspension from scratch. The dampers, spring rates, geometry and steering calibration were engineered in China, and Chery has already published a rear leaf-spring setup on the diesel PHEV with a switch to coil springs planned for the 2027 petrol PHEV. Premcar's job is validation and drivability sign-off: taking near-production prototypes onto Australian roads that Chinese proving grounds do not replicate, feeding back to Wuhu where any final calibration is done, and gate-keeping the launch spec against local driver expectations. That is closer to what a Volkswagen or a Ford would run at Anglesea than a full ground-up Warrior rebuild.

Order Bank: 5,000 EOI, 1,000 Deposits, No Price Yet

Harris told local media the Stockman order bank now sits above 5,000 expressions of interest and 1,000 paid deposits. Chery had asked for a $500 refundable deposit to lock in a build slot when reservations opened. That is a real cash bet from buyers before the finished vehicle exists, and it is the sort of number that suggests the deposit takers are already sold on the diesel-PHEV concept rather than kicking tyres.

Chery's read of the mix is that private ute buyers are showing up alongside fleet inquiries. That matters because fleet buyers rarely commit early. A ute that pulls 1,000 paid deposits pre-launch, without a published RRP, is either priced very sharply in Chery's head already or is banking on the towing and lock-diff spec doing the heavy lifting on the sales conversation. We suspect it is both.

Image credit: Chery Australia

Pricing

Chery has not published Stockman RRPs yet. The deposit is $500 fully refundable and it just holds a build slot. Our expectation, based on where the segment sits and where a first-launch Chery tends to slot in against segment leaders, is an entry driveaway between $55,000 and $62,000 for the diesel PHEV once launch numbers land. Any higher and the ute walks into LandCruiser 300 GR Sport territory. Any lower and Chery would be lighting a fire under the segment on day one.

The CarSorted estimate is not a Chery number. Treat it as a working guide until Chery drops a brochure.

Powertrain and Specs

Nothing on the mechanical side changes with the Premcar deal, so the diesel PHEV drivetrain still lands as detailed in July. A 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel is bolted to an electric motor and a plug-in battery pack for a claimed combined 350kW and 800Nm. All-wheel drive is standard, with low range and three separately controllable locking differentials front, centre and rear. Chery says up to 100km of electric-only running on the older NEDC test cycle, and a 3,500kg braked tow rating with roughly 1,000kg of payload.

The 100km NEDC figure carries the usual caveat. NEDC typically flatters WLTP electric-range results by roughly 25 to 35 per cent, so a realistic on-road number is more likely 65 to 80km before the diesel wakes up. Even at 65km that still comfortably beats the Ford Ranger PHEV at 49km WLTP and sits close to the Shark 6 Performance and the Hunter Pro PHEV on paper.

Equipment and Cabin

Image credit: Chery Australia

The interior brief was already premium-leaning before the Premcar deal, and none of that changes. Suede on the dash and headliner, leather across all five seats, heated and ventilated fronts, a lie-flat front passenger pew for camping, head-up display, wireless phone charger and dual big screens across the dash. Off-road toys include crawl control, tight-turn assist that brakes an inside rear wheel to shrink turning circle on tracks, and factory-fitted all-terrain tyres.

Exact trim walk between grades has not been detailed. Chery has previewed the top-spec setup rather than the fleet or work-oriented entry variant, which is where the pricing conversation eventually gets interesting.

Safety

The Stockman is not yet rated by ANCAP and Chery has not published a target rating. Every recent Chery in Australia (Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid, Tiggo 8 Pro Max, C5) has landed with a five-star score under current protocols, so a similar result is plausible but nothing is confirmed. We will update this article the moment an ANCAP number is published.

How It Compares

The Premcar deal only matters if the Stockman lines up on paper against the utes buyers are actually cross-shopping. Here is the CarSorted read on the plug-in hybrid dual-cab pack the Stockman lands into, once it hits showrooms in Q4 2026.

Two things worth calling out. First, the Stockman is the only diesel-fuelled PHEV on that table, and for a lot of fleets and outback buyers that changes the fuel-logistics conversation on its own (one fuel type across the ute, the caravan gen and the on-farm tank). Second, at 800Nm combined the Stockman has more torque on paper than any of the PHEV utes above, and matches the Shark 6 Performance for power outright. Whether it turns that on-paper number into a real drivability win is exactly what Premcar is being paid to sign off.

For a full side-by-side, run the Chery Stockman vs BYD Shark 6 comparison on CarSorted, or filter the directory for plug-in hybrid utes to see the full pipeline of electrified dual-cabs Australians can order this year.

Warranty

Same coverage Chery already runs on the Tiggo range: a seven-year unlimited-kilometre vehicle warranty, plus an eight-year unlimited-kilometre high-voltage battery warranty over the top. That matches the Shark 6 for time on the battery, and beats it on the kilometre cap. Capped-price servicing and roadside assist will apply once Chery publishes the schedule, which usually happens on launch day rather than months out. See our Australian car warranty comparison for how those numbers line up against the mainstream ute pack.

The CarSorted Angle: What This Actually Buys You

Signing Premcar is not a marketing line. The reason it matters is straightforward: the two things Chinese-brand utes tend to get pinged for in Australian first-drive coverage are on-limit ride comfort with a tray load, and a steering calibration that feels quick around town but nervous on highway ruts. Both are exactly what a Melbourne-based sign-off program is best at catching, because the miles that expose them happen on Aussie back roads that a Chinese proving ground does not replicate.

Looking at the CarSorted database, the BYD Shark 6 Premium currently lists at $57,900 driveaway with a 2,500kg braked tow, and the Shark 6 Performance sits at $69,990 driveaway once you want the full 3,500kg rating. The JAC Hunter Pro PHEV opens under $50,000 plus on-roads. If the Stockman lands between $55,000 and $62,000 driveaway, it slots right into the pricing gap between the Hunter and the Shark 6 Performance, and undercuts the Ranger PHEV Wildtrak while offering roughly 30 to 60 per cent more real-world EV range on top of a diesel back-up tank.

On the running-cost side, the CarSorted calculator has a Shark 6 Premium plugged in nightly at typical Sydney off-peak rates costing about $1,150 a year in home-charge electricity across a 15,000km commuter cycle, versus $3,900 for the same buyer in a diesel Ranger XLT. A Stockman used the same way would land somewhere between those two, but with a diesel tank rather than a petrol one under the tray. For a farm or a mine-services fleet that already runs bulk diesel, that fuel mix is the exact reason to shortlist a Stockman over a Shark 6, before Premcar's road manners even enter the conversation.

What This Means for Buyers

If you are already on a Chery deposit, this week is quietly good news. Premcar's involvement is the cheapest possible insurance against a delivered vehicle that is quick on paper but soft on Aussie roads, and it lets Chery push the launch quality bar closer to what Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota routinely do here. If you are cross-shopping Stockman against a Shark 6 or a Ranger PHEV, the sensible move is to hold your decision until first drives from mid-Q4 land, then compare the finalised RRP against our updated Stockman vs Shark 6 and Shark 6 vs Hunter PHEV pages.

If you cannot wait, the Shark 6 Performance is on sale today with a full 3,500kg tow rating, and the JAC Hunter Pro PHEV undercuts both on price. Filter the CarSorted directory for plug-in hybrid utes to see the full pipeline of electrified dual-cabs Australians can order this year, with running specs and our internal pricing notes.

Chery Stockman Full Specs | BYD Shark 6 Performance | JAC Hunter PHEV Price and Specs