Less than six months after Geely Group announced a new outdoors-centric marque called Radar Auto, the nascent brand has launched its first electric pickup truck in China – the RD6. Production is officially underway overseas and order books have opened, starting at an MSRP around $25,000.
Radar Auto may be a new name to you, but Geely shouldn’t be. Geely Auto is an automotive subsidiary of the larger Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd umbrella. The group is one of the top 10 largest automotive manufacturers in China and is the parent company to several EV brands we cover regularly, including JIDU, Lotus, Volvo Cars, and ZEEKR. Geely also co-owns Polestar alongside Volvo.
In November of 2021, we covered news out of China that Geely Auto had established an independent electric pickup truck marque spun out of the Geely Commercial Vehicle Group. At the time, the new brand was unnamed, but Geely insiders revealed that the company was already benchmarking Rivian as the new pickup standard, with plans to deliver an all-electric pickup truck of its own in China.
This past July, we learned the name of the Geely marque would be Radar Auto and got our first glimpse of its flagship pickup – the RD6. After opening pre-orders in late September, Radar Auto celebrated the official launch of the RD6 electric pickup in China this week as production kicks off.
RD6 electric pickups to arrive in China January 2023
Much of what we’ve recently learned about Radar Auto and its RD6 pickup has come from the automaker’s Weibo page, which has posted a myriad of images and video from the launch event and beyond.
Each RD6 electric pickup comes standard with a single motor that delivers up to 200 kW of power can accelerate from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 6.9 seconds. Now that orders are open, Chinese customers can choose between three battery pack options offering the following CLTC ranges:
63 kWh – 400 km (249 mi)
86 kWh – 550 km (342 mi)
100 kWh – 632 km (393 mi)
The version of the RD6 with the 249 mile range starts at price of RMB 178,800, which is approximately $24,870. Although this electric pickup is only being sold in China right now, that level of pricing is significantly lower than any electric truck being sold in the US right now.
The 86 kWh battery pack is available on two different versions of the RD6 priced at RMB 198,800 ($27,650) and RMB 228,800 ($31,825). The top-tier, long range version is priced at RMB 268,800 ($37,390) which is still ridiculously affordable by US standards.
Other RD6 features include 6 kW vehicle-to-load (V2L) capabilities, plus 220V and 12V interfaces. Production is underway in China with first deliveries expected in January of 2023. Sadly, no plans for US sales just yet, but you never know.
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All-electric aircraft developer BETA Technologies has shared another important milestone in bringing its first two vessels to market. Most recently, BETA’s founder, CEO, and test pilot Kyle Clark took the production version of its ALIA eCTOL up for its first flight, as seen in the video below.
BETA Technologies is a fully integrated electric aircraft and systems developer based in Vermont. Three years ago, it debuted its first electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the ALIA–250. That BETA vessel has since been renamed the ALIA VTOL and completed a piloted test flight transitioning mid-air this past April.
In addition to the ALIA VTOL, BETA has also been developing an electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) plane called the ALIA CTOL. To date, it has flown tens of thousands of test miles en route to evaluation flights for FAA certification. That aircraft is targeting full approval for commercial operations by 2025.
As BETA moves closer to bringing the ALIA CTOL to the public, it has completed its first bonafide production build in South Burlington. Following a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), BETA has successfully taken its production-ready ALIA CTOL up for a test flight, piloted by its founder and CEO.
Watch BETA’s founder complete a CTOL test flight
BETA Technologies shared details of its first successful production CTOL test flight today alongside the images above and the full video below.
Once the production-intent build of the ALIA CTOL was complete, the FAA inspected the aircraft for safety and compliance before granting BETA a Multipurpose Special Airworthiness Certificate for Experimental Research & Development, Market Survey, and Crew Training, signing-off approval for test flights.
On November 13, BETA CEO, founder, and test pilot Kyle Clark conducted the first test flight of the ALIA CTOL aircraft, which lasted nearly an hour. The test included a conventional runway takeoff before the aircraft climbed to 7,000 feet.
While in the air, Clark tested the aircraft’s handling qualities, stability, control test points, and initial airspeed expansion before completing several approaches ahead of a normal landing. Clark spoke following the successful flight:
This start of our production CX300 flight test campaign is a result of years of hard work and focus on studying customer requirements, hard engineering, manufacturing, production, quality and test. It represents a significant milestone for BETA, and is the beginning of an exciting new phase for the business. With this, we’re one step closer to putting this technology into the hands of our customers.
We learned a lot from this first production build. We weren’t just building an aircraft company, we were building and refining a system to build high quality aircraft efficiently. This first build allowed the team to collect data and insight on manufacturing labor, tooling design, processes, yields and sequences, all of which are being used to refine our production systems.
With its production test flight campaign now underway, BETA says it will continue testing the ALIA CTOL aircraft for the standard 50 hours required before qualifying for a Market Survey and Crew Training certificate. That next certificate will enable BETA to fly outside of Burlington and Plattsburgh and continue training additional pilots on the aircraft.
The company shared it will also continue production of additional aircraft, including ALIA CTOL and ALIA VTOL configurations, the latter of which was recently teased in October. You can view footage of BETA’s CTOL flight below.
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Crude oil futures rose slightly on Thursday, with the U.S. benchmark trading around $69 per barrel, though the market outlook remains bearish.
Global crude supplies are expected to outstrip demand by more than 1 million barrels per day next year led by robust growth in the U.S., according to the International Energy Agency’s monthly market report.
Here are today’s energy prices by 8:07 a.m. ET:
West Texas Intermediate December contract: $68.92 per barrel, up 49 cents, or 0.7%. Year to date, U.S. crude oil is down more than 3%.
Brent January contract: $72.78 per barrel, up 50 cents, or 0.7%. Year to date, the global benchmark is down more than 5%.
RBOB Gasoline December contract: $1.9711 per gallon, up 0.3%. Year to date, gasoline has fallen nearly 6%.
Natural Gas December contract: $2.966 per thousand cubic feet, down 0.6%. Year to date, gas has gained nearly 18%.
UBS slashed its price forecast for global benchmark Brent to $80 per barrel from $87 previously on weakening demand in China, the world’s largest crude importer.
OPEC on Tuesday cut its demand growth forecast for the fourth month in a row earlier this week.
U.S. crude oil has shed about 4% and Brent is down 3.5% since Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential as the dollar has surged. A stronger U.S. dollar can depress oil demand among buyers that hold other currencies.
Leading electric vehicle analyst, author, and industry thought leaders Loren McDonald and Bill Ferro stop by Quick Charge to discuss EV Adoption’s acquisition by Paren, the “crisis” of EV charging reliability, and the real state of the EV market.
Depending on who you listen, EVs are either driving brands to record growth and are about cross that critical 10% of the overall market nationwide, or the future is bleak, the market is down, and EVs just aren’t selling. What’s really going on? Loren and Bill (probably) have some answers.
Today’s episode is sponsored by BLUETTI, a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems. For a limited time, save up to 52% during BLUETTI’s exclusive Black Friday sale, now through November 28, and be sure to use promo code BLUETTI5OFF for 5% off all power stations site wide. Click here to learn more.
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