Don't hold your breath! These are our seven hot 2025 electric cars, utes and SUVs NOT coming in 2024 that you thought were - from Ford, Toyota, Kia, Tesla, Mitsubishi and others

Before the internet age, things moved more slowly.

European cars, for instance, took years and not months to arrive in Australia. Most infamously, hot-hatch icons the Peugeot 205 and Volkswagen Golf II that were both unveiled elsewhere during 1983 didn’t surface locally until 1987 and 1990 respectively.

Thankfully, that’s all changed – mostly anyway, as the oft-delayed Nissan Ariya electric vehicle (EV) proves – as the world is much more immediate and interconnected nowadays.

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Still, society’s appetite for the shiny and new means we’re also now more impatient than ever, leaving many would-be car buyers left waiting for what seems an eternity before that shiny new model finally launches.

Here are a few you shouldn’t expect to drive in Australia until 2025.

The Ranger plug-in hybrid EV (PHEV) is due to arrive in Australia in 2025.

Ford Ranger Hybrid

As dozens of freeway billboards advertising the Ranger plug-in hybrid EV (PHEV) clearly state, it’s coming in 2025, and that should make the Ford the first mid-sized ute of this type in Australia.

We say 'should' because it appears every other one-tonne pick-up manufacturer has electrification plans afoot, so who knows if the Blue Oval will be first. Isuzu’s D-Max, the new Mitsubishi Triton and next-gen Nissan Navara are also said to be future contenders for electrified pick-up leadership. And don't forget, BYD will launch its plug-in hybrid ute in Australia too, but timing is unclear.

Still, as the regular Ranger versions prove so emphatically, Australia currently leads the world in ute engineering and dynamics, so we’re expecting this to be good. As the advertising constantly reminds us.

Arriving in February will be the next-gen version of the Pajero Sport SUV version. (Image: Thanos Pappas)

Mitsubishi Pajero Sport

Hot on the heels of the very promising Triton mid-sized ute arriving in February will be the next-gen version of the Pajero Sport SUV version, replacing the model that’s now nine-years old.

Mitsubishi isn’t saying much, but after our first taste of the sixth-gen Triton recently, we’re expecting a much-more resolved and competitive medium-sized 4WD wagon proposition against the leading Ford Everest and best-selling Toyota Prado, with a wider, longer and stronger chassis supporting a correspondingly larger, roomier, safer and more sophisticated cabin.

Factor in a fair degree of Australian road and environmental tuning, and the fourth Pajero Sport since the original Challenger of the 1990s could become one of the segment benchmarks in 2025.

The redesigned ninth-gen ute icon will be something akin to the North American-market Tacoma.

Toyota HiLux

Now in its ninth year on sale in Australia, the existing HiLux is feeling long in the tooth against Ranger and the new Triton. But Toyota, of course, is preparing a replacement.

No, the redesigned ninth-gen ute icon won’t be the new Champ low-cost truck unveiled in November and based on the current HiLux, but something akin to the North American-market Tacoma.

The latter is expected to share its version of the Toyota New Global Architecture – Frame (TNGA-F) also underpinning the related current LandCruiser 300 Series as well as its smaller Prado SUV coming in 2024.

But other details, including engines and exact launch timings, remain a secret… except that while the next HiLux may break cover in 2024, Australians won’t be able to buy it until 2025.

The all-new, seventh-gen Patrol since 1951 is slated for an Australian release in 2025.

Nissan Y63 Patrol

While we’ve been led to believe that a 2024 unveiling is on the cards, the all-new, seventh-gen Patrol since 1951 is slated for an Australian release in 2025.

As the near-production version wheeled out last August as the Infiniti QX Monograph Concept reveals, it will be an altogether slicker and more spacious three-row SUV challenger to the equally venerable LandCruiser 300. And if rumours are to be believed, the off-road family-friendly behemoth will ditch the existing 14-year old Y62’s 5.6-litre V8 petrol for a downsized V6 twin-turbo.

We’re also anticipating electrified versions with hybrid capabilities in time, courtesy of the Alliance-partner Mitsubishi’s expertise in PHEV applications, along with a re-bodied Pajero version also out around 2025. Maybe. Things are really hotting up in this space.

Confirmed as being under development, there are suggestions of a 2025 unveiling of the ‘Model 2’.

Tesla Model ‘2’

Elon Musk’s Cybertruck blue-sky reimagining of a full-sized American pick-up is currently hogging all the limelight after years of delays and controversies, but the news is bad for Australians desperate for a slice of the electric wedge, with various reports suggesting a local launch as ‘zero chance’ until 2027 ‘at the earliest’.

Best, then, to concentrate on the potentially ground-breaking sub Model 3 hatchback designed to take on the MG4 and BYD Atto 3 in the circa-$45,000 EV bracket.

Confirmed as being under development, there are suggestions of a 2025 unveiling followed by a rapid global release for the entry-level small vehicle currently dubbed the ‘Model 2’, though it could happen sooner or later and with an altogether different badge. Who knows? That’s the mercurial nature of Musk’s business strategy.

We’ll see the Yukon in “Summer 2025”, according to the GMSV Australia website.

GMC Yukon

Remember the Holden Suburban? A flop when released to a disinterested Australia in 1998, its descendants are still huge business in the USA.

Now in its 12^th iteration since 1931 (making Suburban the world’s longest-running continuous nameplate) there’s an upmarket GMC version known as the Yukon – and it will be the closest thing we have to a showroom-fresh Cadillac Escalade. For now, anyway. Or any oversized American SUV-bodied truck, for that matter.

We’ll see it in “Summer 2025”, according to the GMSV Australia website, as the Melbourne re-engineered (from left-to-right-hand-drive), V8-powered Denali flagship, with massive towing capacity to match its vast off-road capable footprint. Whether this means that the Suburban truck-based SUV is due at the start or the end of that year remains a mystery.

Reports suggest a 2025 launch in Australia as a very strong possibility for the EV3.

Kia EV3

A circa-$50K Kia EV SUV that’s the size of a Stonic crossover? Aussies would go mad for it, and that’s exactly what the brand announced at its inaugural EV Day in South Korea back in October.

Following on from the super-successful EV6, the full-sized three-row EV9 and 2024’s Mazda CX-5-sized EV5 SUVs, the compact EV3 is being primed as a volume small SUV, to take on the barrage of cheap Chinese-government-subsidised EV alternatives like the BYD Atto 3.

Reports suggest a 2025 launch in Australia as a very strong possibility, giving Kia strong coverage in the EV market it intends to consolidate as a leading player. With advanced battery/charging tech, a striking design and impressive recyclability, how can the attainable EV3 go wrong?