At this point, if you follow the EV space, there's a decent chance you've heard of Radar. It's a premium outdoor lifestyle brand that lives under the umbrella of China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Radar recently started production of its RD6 electric pickup truck, and now deliveries have begun in China.
For those unaware, China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is also the owner of Volvo, another automaker that's no stranger to modernized vehicle designs and electrification. Geely Auto Group also owns Polestar, smart, and several other automotive brands.
Geely Auto Group's Radar brand held an event in Shenzhen, China, to officially mark the beginning of deliveries of its RD6 flagship pickup truck, which is fully electric. Delivery events related to the Radar RD6 are set to continue in other areas of China throughout the remainder of the month of February 2023.
The Radar brand first came to be in 2022, so it may be quite surprising to some that production started recently and deliveries are already underway. The brand was created to satisfy a growing demand not only for electric vehicles, but also for EVs that are specifically designed for adventures. Pickup trucks aren't popular in China, but perhaps EVs will work to change that.
The Radar RD6 features three different battery pack options: 63 kWh, 86 kWh, and 100 kWh. The automaker says the electric truck's driving range starts at 400 km (about 250 miles) with the smallest battery pack. The largest pack has an estimated range of 632 km (which converts to nearly 400 miles).
All current models have rear-wheel drive and a 200 kW electric motor that makes 384 newton-meters of torque (or about 283 pound-feet). The electric pickup truck comes standard with vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionality and provides external power via onboard 220-volt outlets.
According to Green Car Congress, Radar already has 52 stores and 24 experience centers spread across 50 cities in China. The country has been known to move very quickly with new businesses and developments, and Radar is a testament to this. The brand is now officially the first producer of a mass-market electric pickup truck in China.
Despite being under the Geely Auto Group umbrella, Radar has its own fully independent production facility and its own Research and Development headquarters.
