Changan Hunter K50 Range Extender Updated In China

The Changan Hunter K50 REEV was updated last week and gets some interesting tech for a pick-up.

Pick-up trucks are currently facing a challenging sales environment due to high diesel prices. While the Malaysian government claims they’re not putting any industrial policies in place to prevent the sale of new fully-imported pick-up trucks, the reality on the ground is different. Only the Hilux BEV and JAC T9 EV are on sale as alternatives to the typical turbodiesel. If things are to change, perhaps Malaysians can look forward to this newly Changan Hunter K50 range extender electric vehicle.

The Hunter K50 isn’t completely new. It’s already on sale in RHD markets like South Africa and Thailand (where it is rebadged as a Deepal). In fact, it’s actually genetically related to the Peugeot Landtrek, as they’re based on the same chassis. The Range Extender model’s design successfully masked this relationship inside and out.

The big news around the Hunter K50 this month is that it just got a spec update in China. This update seems minor in comparison to what’s been happening in the pure electric vehicle world, but for a range extender PICK-UP truck, it’s actually quite significant.

While the 31.18kWh lithium ion battery pack remains, they’ve now added a new 43.47kWh option as well, bringing the vehicle’s combined range up beyond 1,000km with 192km being served on pure electric, up from 131km. The same 2.0L turbocharged petrol 4-cylinder remains here as a generator, and no it isn’t connected to the wheels via gearbox or anything, it just charges the battery. The larger battery pack enables the Hunter K50 to adopt an additional electric motor, this time on the front axle which enables all-wheel drive and a total of 240kW of total system output.

So a new larger battery for longer range, a new motor for all-wheel drive and an increase in power output altogether. That would be enough to generate some excitement, but they didn’t stop there. The charging and V2L abilities have also been improved. The new model can do 22kW V2L output, up from the very basic 3.3kW. Such a high V2L output is really interesting on a REEV as it enables the Hunter K50 to serve as a mobile generator for an entire home. If you live in an area with unreliable access to the electrical grid but a nearby petrol station, you could conceivably set a K50 up for emergency power. 22kW should also be enough to power commercial grade equipment for construction in remote locations. It pushes things beyond the typical ‘camping powerbank’ use cases we see with many EVs with 3.3kW V2L.

One final upgrade is related to charging. The Hunter K50 adopts a 2C Charging architecture, which brings plug-in charging speeds from 30-80% in just 16 minutes.