Is the Chery diesel hybrid bakkie a good idea?
Nobody does diesel hybrids. But Chery is going to bring a turbodiesel hybrid bakkie to South Africa, soon. What do Chery engineers know, that everyone else, doesn’t?
Chery is now the dominant Chinese car company in South Africa. It might not be obvious from the numbers at first, but if you do the smart math, it’s true.
Take all the Chery sales, add in the Chery sub-brands (which operate independently) and it is the biggest Chinese car company (as an associated entity) operating in South Africa. It’s a huge achievement for a brand that started off with terrible reverse-engineered Daewoo Matiz clones nearly 20 years ago.
The one thing Chery doesn’t have is a bakkie. Product planners at Chery have clearly seen the strong demand for bakkies in the South African market. They would have observed the success of GWM’s P-Series range, too. That’s possibly part of the reason why Chery purchased the Nissan assembly plant at Rosslyn, which has operated as a specialist bakkie assembly plant during the last phase of its Japanese ownership.
There is no containing Chery’s ambition and it has confirmed that the Himla bakkie will be marketed locally this year. But the more interesting news is the diesel-hybrid KP31, which Chery has also confirmed for the local market later this year or early in 2027.
South Africans are buying more hybrid vehicles than ever before, and last year saw a huge increase in demand for PHEVs. But they are all petrol-electrics, not diesel. And that begs the question: why has nobody built true diesel-electric PHEVs? And does Chery know something we don’t with the KP31?
Everyone loves hybrids … with petrol engines
Hybrids are great to own but an engineering nightmare. Integrating both internal-combustion and electric powertrains into a single platform is complicated, costly and sacrificial in terms of packaging. You have some of the benefits of an ICE powertrain or electric drive, but also all of the disadvantages of each.
Since the first hybrids came to market in the late 1990s, engineers have preferred to make them naturally aspirated petrol-electrics. Why? Because naturally aspirated petrols are simpler, with lower long-term maintenance risk. But also because the linear power delivery of a naturally aspirated petrol engine complements the hybrid’s setup best.
Why do naturally aspirated petrol engines work so well with hybrids? Because there is so little power delivery overlap. What do we mean by that? The battery-electric part of a hybrid drives at pull-away and low speeds, where a naturally aspirated petrol engine is weakest and not very efficient. At the speed where the hybrid system’s electric motor becomes overburdened for its power output, the petrol engine is in its ideal power curve to take over.
Why diesels aren’t good hybrids
The reason nobody really makes any diesel hybrids is that their energy-delivery overlap is too great. Diesels are all about lots of torque at low speeds, and that means they’d make the electric-motor bit of a hybrid setup nearly redundant.
In a hybrid, you want the 2 elements of the powertrain to be complementary, not operating simultaneously. The other issue is that diesels have heavier engine internals and are less tolerant of the inconsistent duty cycle that is inherent to a hybrid. All that on/off operation isn’t great for diesel engine efficiency.
Experienced diesel bakkie and SUV owners know that these engines run best when they are at a very constant throttle and speed. An issue with diesels in hybrid systems is the durability risk. Modern diesels have many emissions-control components, which can become problematic. The diesel particulate filters and exhaust gas recirculation systems need high temperatures to function properly and to burn off carbon and other particulates.
When diesel engines run start/stop, they are at risk of more carbon and particulate matter buildup, with very expensive maintenance and repair costs. Why? Because of the interrupted duty cycle of being part of a hybrid system, the diesel engine doesn’t run consistently hot enough for all its emissions systems to function.
Petrol engines are just inherently less risky in the hybrid duty cycle. And cheaper to maintain, in the long term, as part of a hybrid system. Petrol engines also have much less vibration, especially at start-up, low speeds, and during acceleration than diesel engines.
The Chery diesel hybrid
If diesel hybrids aren’t a great idea, and nobody really makes them, why is Chery choosing to be an outlier? Because being first to market with a diesel PHEV will give it huge brand standing in the bakkie market. And it promises a huge range – in excess of 1 000 km – with ease of refuelling in rural areas, where diesel is always available but petrol is not.
There’s no question that Chinese engineers know more about hybrids than their rivals in traditional vehicle development hubs like Europe. But the Chinese have not been diesel-engine pioneers at all. And that’s where the powertrain of Chery’s KP31 raises questions.
Sourcing the best automotive-grade battery is a given because Chery will use a Chinese-made battery pack for the KP31, so the electric portion of the hybrid powertrain will be excellent.
But what about that 2.5-litre turbodiesel Chery’s developed? Theoretically, the ideal engine for a South African-market bakkie is still a pure turbodiesel, not a hybrid. The Toyota Hilux is the measure of everything in the South African bakkie market, and yes, technically it does offer a “hybrid” option. But those Hilux 2.8-litre turbodiesel “hybrids” are compliance hybrids, with a 48 V integrated starter motor that does very little to drive the bakkie.
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Is there a market for diesel hybrid bakkies?
Chinese brands, especially those in the Chery brand stable, have dominated the surge in demand for PHEVs in the local crossover-SUV market. But South African bakkie buyers seem disinterested in transitioning from diesel to hybrid bakkie powertrains.
GWM’s big hybrid bakkies and the BYD Shark are halo models, but both have been criticised for their limited range and true all-terrain ability in South African conditions.
Demand for these petrol-hybrid bakkies from GWM and BYD has been low, while demand for traditional turbodiesel brands’ double-cabs, priced in the same segment as the P500 and Shark, remains very strong. The fact that Hilux and Ranger turbodiesel sales have not been impacted by the P500 and Shark is evidence of how traditional South African bakkie buyers still are, even at the R1-million price point in the lifestyle bakkie market.
We don’t yet know the output numbers of Chery’s KP31 engine but there is an official thermodynamic claim of 47% efficiency. How good is that? Well, an AMG One has a thermal efficiency rating of only 40%. Perhaps even more importantly for the KP31 is the 30% reduction in noise and vibration compared to other diesel engines in the market.
Can Chery solve diesel hybrid issues?
The main issues with a diesel hybrid – the fact that all the best diesel benefits overlap with those of the electric motor, thereby reducing the overall benefit of the system – seem difficult to solve. What could Chery’s engineering innovation breakthrough be to make hybrid power and diesel engines work?
Could Chery’s engineers somehow keep the engine at an operating temperature that is ideal for diesel engine health, especially the emissions treatment systems, while it’s coasting and syncing with the battery pack and electric motor? That kind of duty-cycle frequency management appears complicated and costly. Still, Chinese engineers have done amazing things in the hybrid and EV powertrain space over the last decade, so there’s every possibility that they will surprise the market with the KP31’s powertrain integration.
On some of its pure ICE vehicles, Chery’s low-speed throttle calibration lacks refinement. But on the hybrids, Chery’s engineers are masters of integration and software control. However, with most turbodiesels operating best between 1 500 and 2 800 rpm, it’s difficult to imagine what the KP31’s diesel engine will be doing at low speed in city traffic. Or, even more problematically, when driving on challenging, steep terrain off-road.
If Chery has solved the pairing and integration issue of a turbodiesel hybrid, it could be the biggest thing in bakkie powertrains since common-rail diesel injection.
