Maxus tries its hand at a full-electric pick-up, the T90EV. Jonathan Crouch briefs you on it.
The Maxus T90EV was the UK's very first all-electric pick-up, but it certainly won't be the last. There are some compromises to make if you're to make the switch away from diesel in a truck of this kind, but the tax advantages are significant. A certain kind of customer might be tempted.
The last bastion of combustion power is the pick-up truck. But even this rough and ready genre must one day fall to the EV revolution. Here, it already has. Enter the Maxus T90EV, our market's first full electric pick-up. This Chinese contender, sold in Thailand and Pakistan as the MG Extender, isn't quite as much of a genre-revolutionary product as it might first appear. Actually, all Maxus brand owner SAIC has done is rip out the normal T90's diesel engine and add a heavy drive battery to the same chassis. Still, it's the first EV pick-up we've seen - and that makes it very significant indeed.
Let's address the elephant in the room right up-front: this T90EV doesn't have what you might think would be a prerequisite for most pick-ups; 4WD. Maxus says that likely customers - apparently people like highway agencies and country vets - think ground clearance of higher significance. Which is unfortunate because by pick-up standards, there's not a huge amount of that - 187mm (compare with the 310mm you get in a Toyota Hilux for instance). But those customers will be expecting to make compromises for the huge advantage of never having to fuel up ever again; except with charge - Maxus claims you'll be replenishing the 88.6kWh battery every 219 miles. It isn't particularly fast for an EV away from rest, but feels quite rapid for a pick-up. Top speed is limited to 80mph, but you wouldn't really want to go much faster than that anyway. It certainly feels weird to travel almost silently in a pick-up, without a rumbly diesel up-front. There's a rather intrusive Acoustic Vehicle Alert pedestrian safety noise under 20mph - and a firm ride. But no brake regen paddles or settings to better harvest energy back into the battery. You'll have to like light steering, which makes the T90 easy to manoeuvre but gives very little cornering feedback. For off-tarmac use, Hill Descent Control is standard: and Maxus says that a 4x4 version is coming in 2024. For this rear-driven variant, the approach and departure angles are, respectively, 27 and 24-degrees - which actually is better than we expected: a diesel Hilux manages 29 and 26-degrees. There's a decent 550mm wading depth too.
Normally with EVs, the only visual giveaways lie with altered badging and the lack of tailpipes. It's a bit different here. Because the 88.6kWh drive battery is too big to fit in the space vacated by the original version's diesel engine beneath the bonnet, it has to sit clearly visibly beneath the floor. Obviously, if Maxus parent SAIC had engineered this model as an EV from the start, it would have styled it more adventurously, but it's smart enough and comes as you'd expect only in a double cab body shape. A £50,000 truck is usually a pretty luxurious-feeling thing inside but here, the investment you're making is in the tax-saving drivetrain. Which is pretty clear from the moment you take a seat behind the plastic-rimmed wheel and note the lack of navigation or even a DAB radio on the central 10.25-inch screen. Still, there's not much wrong with the ergonomics, there's a big rotary gear selector and you're well-positioned on supportive seats with faux leather facings. It doesn't feel particularly futuristic or EV-like - there's an old-tech ignition key and a manual handbrake. And the indicator and wiper stalks are the wrong way round for our market, plus there's not much reach-adjustment on the steering wheel. The touch-sensitive climate controls are smart though and cabin space is reasonable. In the rear, the backrest is pretty upright and there are 12-volt and 3-pin plug sockets wired directly to the drive battery for powering your devices.
Even with an unknown Chinese badge on the grille, you won't expect an EV pick-up to be cheap - or you shouldn't anyway. This one isn't, costing from launch around £50,000 after deduction of the government's plug-in grant. That's for the rear-driven model we're looking at here. Maxus promises a 4x4 version in 2024. The brand is currently expanding its UK dealer network to a target figure of 65 outlets. You could certainly get a high-powered diesel pick-up for that and one fully loaded with equipment - in the way the T90EV isn't. There's faux leather upholstery and a large 10.25-inch centre touchscreen, but no navigation, cruise control or even a factory-fit DAB radio. But there's everything you really need, including a reversing camera, smartphone-mirroring and electronic stability control. You also get 17-inch alloy wheels, side steps, stainless steel sports bars, rear parking sensors, rain sensing wipers and front seat heating. You won't really be buying this Maxus for its equipment levels though. Ultimately, you'll either think this is a crazy proposition to take up. Or a crazy one to pass up, given the huge potential tax benefits. There'll be no in-betweens.
This is where you're going to have to decide whether the taxation benefits of choosing this EV-powered pick-up (which could be a five-figure sum) out-weigh the practicality downsides over an equivalent diesel model. We've already discussed the lack of 4WD, though Maxus plans to introduce a model that will rectify that. But the towing capacity still won't match that of a diesel - in this 2WD T90, it's restricted to just 1,000kg braked (or 750kg un-braked). Then there's payload. This T90 EV's introduction here was delayed while it was re-engineered to be able to carry a tonne of payload and therefore qualify under UK commercial vehicle registration regulations. You certainly won't be able to take any more than that. The cargo area is at least uncompromised over the diesel donor model. That means a load length of 1,485mm and a load width of 1,510mm. If you are fully loaded up, you can forget getting anywhere near the 219 mile EV range figure we quoted in our 'Driving' section. Even unloaded, 180 to 190 miles is a far more realistic figure - and it doesn't help that the range indicator tends to embellish the actual range remaining by between 10 and 20%. Maxus quotes an efficiency figure of 2.49 mi/kWh. The 88.6kWh battery can replenish itself at a rather modest maximum charge rate of 80kW. The connection is via a CCS port where the diesel model's fuel filler would be. Maxus claims that recharging from 20 to 80% is possible in 45 minutes from a high voltage DC source. At home using a 7kW wall box, you'd need 13-15 hours. An 11kW AC charge from 5-100% takes 9 hours. Servicing intervals are every 18,000 miles and there's a 5 year/100,000 mile warranty.
If your mental picture of a fully electric truck is something like a Ford F-150 Lightning or a Tesla Cybertruck, then a degree of readjustment will be necessary if you're to countenance a Maxus T90EV. It's nothing like either of those futuristic designs, in either style or performance. But unlike them, it does lie within the realms of affordability and is available in the UK now. What's certain here is that you can't just hand over the keys to your old diesel pick-up and expect anything remotely like-for-like in return. Particularly here, simply ripping out a diesel powertrain and inserting a battery one instead to an existing design was always going to require a few compromises. You might be tempted to make them though, once you take a look at the potential tax and running cost savings to be made here.
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