Forthing Taikon 5 Australian Pricing Confirmed: $36,990 Driveaway Makes It the Cheapest EREV on Sale Here

Image credit: Forthing Australia

The placeholder we left in our earlier Taikon 5 piece can now be filled in. Forthing Australia has signed off on the local sticker, and it lands exactly where the Ateco-distributed Chinese launches usually do: aggressively under the established mid-size SUV bracket. A driveaway price of $36,990 on the entry Range Extender Hybrid is the headline, but the more useful number for a shopper is the gap. The Taikon 5 EREV is roughly $22,000 cheaper than a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV at $58,990 before on-roads, with roughly double the WLTP electric-only range. The Battery Electric version at $38,990 driveaway is the cheapest mid-size electric SUV currently on sale in Australia full stop.

The full Australian price list

Every Taikon 5 is sold driveaway. That means the price you see is what you sign for, with stamp duty, registration and dealer delivery already wrapped in. There is one paint cost on top.

Metallic paint is a flat $600 across all four variants. The walk-up between Luxury and Exclusive is $3,500 within each powertrain, and the walk-up between the EREV and the BEV at the same trim is $2,000. Choose your battery format first and your trim second and the maths is easy to follow.

What you actually get for $36,990

The headline EREV Luxury is the most interesting variant on paper for cross-shoppers. Underneath the bonnet sits a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine making 75kW and 130Nm, but it is not connected to the wheels. It only ever runs as a generator, charging a 31kWh lithium iron phosphate battery that in turn feeds a 120kW/340Nm electric motor driving the front axle. WLTP electric range is 170km, and when the tank is full the combined number sits at 937km. Forthing trimmed that combined figure from an earlier 1,050km claim back on 12 June, but the 170km battery range is unchanged.

The Battery Electric pairs a single 150kW/340Nm front motor with a 64kWh LFP pack and is rated at 427km WLTP. That puts it within a stone's throw of a Geely EX5 Complete and ahead of an MG S5 Essence 64 on driving range, both of which cost more.

Full spec sheet

For context, those external dimensions sit the Taikon 5 squarely between a Toyota RAV4 (4,600mm long) and a Nissan X-Trail (4,680mm). The 2,715mm wheelbase is within 75mm of the RAV4 as well, so rear-seat space and cargo should feel familiar to anyone shopping the segment.

Equipment by trim

Both Luxury and Exclusive ride on 19-inch alloys and share the same screens and seat technology. The Exclusive walk-up is more about comfort and visibility kit than performance.

Image credit: Forthing Australia

Luxury kit covers the bases: dual-zone climate, a large central touchscreen running the infotainment and climate menus, a digital driver display, synthetic leather upholstery, six-way power driver seat, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, keyless entry and start, and a 360-degree camera. Forthing has also confirmed vehicle-to-load capability across the line-up, which on the EREV makes long-weekend camping with a fridge and lights a genuinely workable proposition without any second battery.

Exclusive piles on a panoramic glass roof, ventilated and heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, a head-up display, a powered tailgate, premium audio, ambient lighting and upgraded interior trim. For families who park outdoors in summer the ventilated seats alone push the trim-walk into yes territory.

Safety

The Taikon 5 has not yet been rated by ANCAP. As a new entrant launching with low initial volume, a published star score may take some time to land, and Euro NCAP has not assessed the same body either. Standard active safety equipment across both trims includes autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, driver attention monitoring, traffic sign recognition, a 360-degree camera and front and rear parking sensors. Airbag count is seven, including a front-centre bag.

For buyers who treat ANCAP stars as a hard purchase gate, the right call is to hold and revisit once a score is published. Otherwise the active-safety kit list is comparable to what Geely fits to a 5-star EX5.

How the pricing actually stacks up

The interesting cross-shop here is not the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid or the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. It is the slightly smaller, slightly newer wave of Chinese mid-size SUVs that have launched in the past nine months. We pulled the directly comparable variants out of the CarSorted directory for a one-screen view.

On those numbers the Taikon 5 BEV Luxury at $38,990 is roughly $7,000 cheaper than a Jaecoo J5 EV, $7,000 cheaper than a Geely EX5 Complete and $6,000 cheaper than a BYD Atto 3 Essential, while giving up only 23km of range to the Jaecoo and 48km to the Geely. On the EREV side, the Taikon 5 Luxury at $36,990 is $4,898 cheaper than a Leapmotor B10 Style and gives you more than double the EV-only range. Those are the kind of gaps that justify a test drive on price alone.

The CarSorted angle: nightly-charge maths

On the CarSorted database, the median weekday commute for our metro Sydney and Melbourne users sits at around 38km return. The median weekly driving distance across all users on the platform is roughly 240km. Both numbers fit inside the Taikon 5 EREV's 170km of battery range with a margin, which means a buyer who can plug in at home overnight would realistically only fire the petrol engine on long-weekend road trips. At an average residential electricity rate of 28c per kWh, a full 31kWh charge costs about $8.68 for 170km, or roughly 5.1c per km. The same trip in a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid using 5.0 L/100km at $1.90 per litre is 9.5c per km. Over 15,000km a year the Taikon 5 EREV would save a CarSorted-average household around $660 in fuel, and a higher-mileage household closer to $1,100.

Cross-shop side by side on /compare, or filter the CarSorted directory by mid-size SUV under $50,000 with PHEV or EV powertrains to see how the Taikon 5 lines up against the rest of the sub-$45k field. We will add Taikon 5 Luxury and Exclusive variant rows to the directory once Ateco confirms cargo volumes and on-road weights at delivery.

Warranty, servicing and ownership

Forthing Australia is opening with a 7-year, 200,000km vehicle warranty, which matches Kia's headline cover and beats Toyota's 5-year warranty on duration. The battery warranty has not been finalised in writing yet, but the seven-year vehicle cover is the bigger of the two numbers in this segment in practice. Servicing on the EREV is every 12 months or 15,000km. The BEV stretches that to every 12 months or 20,000km because there is no combustion engine to maintain. Capped-price servicing programs have not been published but Ateco-distributed brands typically arrive with one within the first three months.

The dealer network is being run by Ateco Automotive, which also handles Ram, Renault, LDV and Maserati in Australia. That means service capacity already exists across every state, which removes the most common worry with a brand-new badge.

What this means for buyers

If you are cross-shopping a mid-size SUV under $45,000 driveaway and you can plug in at home overnight, the Taikon 5 EREV Luxury at $36,990 is now the cheapest way to drive a 170km plug-in battery in a body this size. It bypasses the BYD Sealion 6, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and the Chery Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid on price by a wide margin, and gives you more EV-only range than any of them. The $40,490 Exclusive walk is worth it if heated and ventilated seats, a head-up display and a panoramic roof are on your must-have list.

If you have already decided you want a full electric and your average drive is under 400km in a hit, the Taikon 5 BEV Luxury at $38,990 is the cheapest mid-size EV on sale in Australia at the moment, with a real-world range that lines up with the GWM Ora 5 and the BYD Atto 3 for noticeably less money. The $42,490 Exclusive BEV is still under what a base Jaecoo J5 EV will set you back, and at that money the equipment list is closer to the $50k brackets than the $40k ones.

The two things to wait on are the ANCAP rating and the published tow rating. Neither is on the table at launch. For families using the car as a daily commuter and weekend road tripper, neither of those gaps is a dealbreaker. For buyers who tow a caravan or treat stars as a hard line, the right call is to hold the deposit until a score lands. The first customer cars start landing in driveways from late June, so anyone signing now should get the keys before the end of financial year.

Our launch preview | Leapmotor B10 Hybrid EV | Jaecoo J5 Petrol | All sub-$50k plug-in SUVs in the CarSorted directory