LDV T60 vs Volkswagen Caddy 5

What's the difference?

The eT60 presents as an electric vehicle clearly converted from a combustion vehicle to take advantage of being first in our market. 

It comes with some significant downsides, from the lack of key specifications and safety equipment to the downright average drive experience, but in other areas it’s specified right, with decent charging specs, and surprisingly good software on that centre multimedia screen. 

In some ways, these impressions are a reflection of how far the ute market has come in Australia in the last few years, with many commercial offerings now feeling just as complete as passenger cars in terms of specification and driving prowess.

LDV has left open the door for future tweaks and improvements to the eT60’s spec, ride, and features, and we’re keen to get it in for a longer test in the near future. Either way, though, the brand says it has no shortage of buyers lining up to be a part of the zero emissions future of commercial vehicles.

The VW Caddy Cargo feels sporty and is undeniably fun to drive with its lively engine and responsive handling. But that doesn’t detract from its light workhorse capabilities.

Given the choice, we’d prefer the TDI320 turbo-diesel’s superior torque, payload and fuel economy, but for $2000 less this turbo-petrol version with enhanced safety still has plenty of appeal for small van buyers.

The eT60 is hard to tell apart from its combustion equivalents from the outside. If you were expecting a blanked-out grille, aerodynamic wheels, or some other special EV-specific design flair, you’ll be surprised to find there are none.

To that end, the eT60 shares the exterior appeal of the combustion range, with a big, tough-looking grille, modern LED DRLs, sturdy looking alloy wheel designs, and enough chunky personality from the wide stance and additional bits like the sidesteps and sports bar.

Peeking underneath reveals the housing for the batteries, notably no spare wheel, and the tray is utilitarian with the spray-in tubliner. At least the ute scores colour-matching bodywork all around.

The same goes for the inside, which certainly feels like a commercial offering. Again, all the items in there mirror its base combustion equivalent, with the only giveaway of its electric nature being the dial-shifter which replaces the lever on the centre console.

The cabin surroundings are largely hard-wearing plastics, including the steering wheel, making the swish touchscreen with surprisingly fast software look somewhat out-of-place.

The analogue dash cluster, for example, looks a bit old-school for an EV, and in terms of look and feel, the T60 generally feels a bit behind the pace compared to its traditionally more expensive rivals.

While it lacks in some areas, though, it is worth something that this dual-cab flies under-the-radar. Fleet operators won’t need to worry about a strange-looking ute with unnecessary frills, and common body panels with combustion versions will make repairs easy, too.

Our SWB test vehicle has a 2755mm wheelbase and compact 4500mm length.

Its front-wheel drive chassis, which shares some architecture with the iconic Golf sedan, rides on simple but robust MacPherson strut front suspension, a coil-spring beam rear axle and four-wheel disc brakes.

With electric power-assisted steering, it has an 11.4-metre turning circle (larger than we expected) and load access is through asymmetric rear barn-doors and a kerbside sliding door.

The dash has a clean and minimalist look given that most functions including heating/cooling are controlled via the central touchscreen, which, like a phone, can be fiddly and therefore distracting while driving.

However, it does at least retain traditional rotary dials for audio volume and radio tuning.

The moulded composite bulkhead between cabin and cargo bay, with its mesh-protected central window, is effective as a cargo barrier and in minimising noise from the load area.

However, it appears Volkswagen has also fitted noise-absorbing fixtures over the rear wheel housings, which combined with the bulkhead, create civilised cabin acoustics.

Even so, tyre noise can still be intrusive at highway speeds on coarse bitumen surfaces.

Your burning question here will be how much the eT60 can tow and haul. With the same suspension set-up as the Pro version, this ute is capable of carrying a 1000kg payload, or tow 1000kg braked.

This is limited, but when you consider its 2300kg kerb weight due to the addition of those batteries, reasonable.

Operators should keep in mind that the 330km driving range is unladen, so you can expect half of that or less when loaded to capacity.

Tray dimensions come in at 1510mm wide (1129 between the arches), 1485mm long, and 530 high. Axle load capacity at the rear is 2100kg, and the eT60 has a GVM of 3300kg.

The approach and departure angles, as well as the clearance are mostly the same as the combustion version, coming in at 27 degrees, 24 degrees, and 187mm respectively.

Technical stuff aside, the cabin is as hard-wearing and practical as you would hope for a working ute, with a total of six cupholders and four bottle holders, a glove compartment, and sunglass holder, two USB 2.0 ports, two 12V outlets, and the welcome addition of a full-size 220V household power outlet.

The synthetic seat trim is so-so for comfort, and the seat bases are quite high, leaving someone at my 182cm height quite close to the roof.

The lack of telescopic adjust for the steering wheel is a shame, but not unusual for products from LDV’s SAIC parent company (this problem is shared with the MG ZS, for example).

The rear seat continues to offer comparatively good space for this segment, even behind my own driving position, although it would be predictably quite tight with three abreast.

As this was a brief test, we can’t tell you what it looks or feels like when loaded up, but the spray-in tubliner is better than offering the eT60 with simply a painted tray, as it’s good-to-go from day one.

The Caddy’s 1433kg tare weight and 2150kg GVM result in a 717kg payload rating.

Up to 100kg can be legally carried on the roof, where external anchorage points covered by protective caps are provided for installing roof racks or rails.

It’s also rated to tow up to 1500kg of braked trailer but VW does not publish a GCM (Gross Combination Mass) rating, so we don’t know how much it can legally carry and tow at the same time.

The versatile cargo bay, which offers 3.1 cubic metres of load volume, is 1797mm long, 1614mm wide and 1272mm high. With 1230mm between the wheel housings, it can carry either a single 1165mm-square Aussie pallet, one 1000 x 1200mm Euro 3 pallet or two smaller 800 x 1200mm Euro pallets.

All can be loaded through the rear barn-doors, with 180-degree opening for easy forklift access. The sliding side-door’s opening is only 695mm, partly due to intrusion of the bulkhead, so kerbside access is only for smaller items.

There are six load anchorage points and even though the cargo bay’s walls and doors are lined to mid-height, there’s no protective floor covering, which we would recommend to avoid unsightly dents and scratches. There’s also bright LED lighting and another handy 12-volt outlet.

Driver and passenger have plenty of cabin storage with large bottle holders and bins in each door, dashboard bins, a large glove box, full-width overhead storage shelf and a centre console offering four open storage nooks and dual small-bottle/cupholders.

The Cargo range offers eight variants (10 if you include the Crewvan) with a choice of petrol or diesel engines, manual or auto transmissions and two wheelbase lengths comprising Standard (SWB) and Maxi (LWB).

Our test vehicle is the Cargo SWB, equipped with a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine and seven-speed dual-clutch automatic for a list price of $39,990.

Externally you get a no-frills workhorse designed for hard work, with ample dark grey plastic in the usual places where bumps, scrapes and wear occur, including the bumpers, door handles and door mirrors.

However, at least there are silver plastic wheel covers (easy to replace if damaged) to add some bling to its robust 16-inch steel wheels and 205/60R16 tyres, with a full-size spare.

There’s also work-focused rubber flooring in the cabin as you’d expect, which is in stark contrast to numerous creature comforts you might not expect like keyless start, height/reach adjustable leather-rimmed steering wheel, adjustable lumbar support on both bucket seats, heated door mirrors, a reversing camera, rear parking sensors and separate cabin/cargo bay locking.

There’s also standard wireless smartphone charging, two 12-volt accessory outlets and a pair of USB-C ports, plus a four-speaker multimedia system with 8.25-inch colour touchscreen and multiple connectivity including Apple and Android devices.

However, in stark contrast to this tech, there’s no AM radio band. Go figure.

The eT60 is rear-wheel drive only, with an electric motor producing 130kW/310Nm. That’s nowhere near as punchy as the 160kW/500Nm outputs of its punchy twin-turbo 2.0-litre combustion equivalent.

There are three driving modes - 'Power', 'Normal', and 'Eco', and driving performance seems tame. Again, as this was a quick spin in what was described as a pre-production vehicle, we didn’t have a chance to try it out with extra weight in the tray.

Suspension is the same as the combustion T60 Pro, consisting of ‘heavy duty’ coils at the front, and a leaf-sprung set-up in the rear. There are disc brakes all-round.

The spirited and economical 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine produces its maximum 84kW across a 1500rpm-wide power band between 4500-6000pm.

Torque enjoys similar band width as its 220Nm is served at full strength between 1750-3000rpm, which showcases this little engine’s impressive flexibility.

The seven-speed dual-clutch automatic offers three drive modes comprising Drive, Sport and Tiptronic; the latter for manual-shifting using the steering wheel-mounted paddles. There’s also an electronically-controlled automatic locking diff.

The eT60’s WLTP-rated energy consumption figure comes in at 21.3kWh/100km, which for a passenger car wouldn’t be great, but seems about right for a commercial vehicle of its size and aerodynamics. As already mentioned, this gives it an official driving range of 330km.

LDV says the fleet buyers it has lined up for the eT60 understand its range is “more than adequate for their daily requirements”.

There is some good news on the charging front, with the eT60 being sensibly specified from the factory. The DC charge rate maxes out at 80kW, for a claimed 20-80 per cent charge time of 45 minutes on a compatible charger, while the slower AC charging rate (important for back-to-base operators) is 11kW, meaning a nine-hour 5.0-100 per cent charge time.

On a single-phase charger (maxing out at 7.2kW, but cheaper to install) the 5.0-100 per cent charge time is a claimed 13 hours. Expect more like a 40-hour charge time on a standard wall socket.

VW claims an official combined figure of 6.2L/100km and the Caddy’s dash display was claiming 7.2 at the end of our 252km test, of which about one third was hauling its maximum payload.

After crunching the numbers from tripmeter and fuel bowser readings, our own figure was very close to the Caddy’s at 7.4L/100km.

So, based on our figures, you could expect a ‘real world’ driving range of around 670km from its 50-litre tank using 95 RON fuel.

I said some of the standard equipment on this car is odd. This continues through to the drive experience. Keep in mind that LDV reminded us that there were some pre-production quirks about the vehicle we briefly drove on this launch.

Setting off, the eT60 emits a rather unappealing artificial buzzing sound to alert nearby pedestrians of its presence. While the audible aid is welcome, particularly for a commercial vehicle which may be frequently operating in areas shared with pedestrians, does it have to be so grating?

Even the Mifa 9 electric people mover makes a more appealing science-fiction-inspired noise. Perhaps the eT60’s noise was designed to mirror the tone of a diesel engine?

The seating position leaves a lot to be desired for someone of my height and I would also love to have telescopic wheel adjust, although visibility out of the cab is good all-around, and the reversing camera is relatively high-quality.

Manoeuvring at low-speeds is only tarnished, then, by heavy steering, which annoyingly, also gets a bit vague at higher speeds.

Higher speeds also reveal this ute’s main weakness which appears to be its ride. Keep in mind we’re driving a completely unladen pre-production example. But the ride was harsh, busy, and unsettled in our short drive, which covered a portion of freeway and some bumpy side roads.

The suspension from the combustion T60 Pro appears to struggle with the additional weight of the batteries in the eT60. Harsh bumps were easily transmitted to the cabin, whilst undulations had it jiggling and bouncing around side-to-side.

Power from the electric motor seemed sufficient, but not exciting, with tame acceleration off-the line. The obvious benefit being instantaneous response without the need for a transmission.

It is hard to tell whether the 310Nm on offer will feel too heavily burdened when the ute is loaded up. In some instances, electric motors don’t feel additional heft at all, so stay tuned for a follow-up load test.

Unlike this car’s Mifa 9 or eDeliver 9 relations (which use an electric motor with identical outputs), the eT60 does not have adjustable regenerative braking, with a single strong tune, which cannot even be turned off.

While it is welcome for extending the ute’s range and reducing the stress on the disc brakes, it is not a single-pedal driving mode.

The three driving modes don’t alter the experience much, with the Power mode making the electric motor more responsive, and Eco mode taking the wind out of its sails.

Its maximum speed is limited to 120km/h which is more than can be said for the eDeliver 9 which is limited to 90, a recipe for freeway frustration.

We’re keen to spend more time with the eT60 in the future to better evaluate its range claim and how it deals with more commercial duties. Hopefully it can shape up a little better than it did our quick and less-than-ideal testing environment.

It may be a small vehicle but people of most shapes and sizes can find a comfortable driving position thanks to its spacious cabin with ample headroom, comfortable and supportive bucket seating with adjustable lumbar support and a big left footrest. Rake adjustment for the seat’s base cushion would make it even better.

Although it looks like a back-to-basics workhorse it doesn’t drive like one, particularly when unladen.

It feels more like a car than a van and is quite engaging (dare we say sporty) with its combination of firm but supple suspension, nicely weighted and communicative steering through the delightful leather-wrapped wheel and reassuringly strong retardation from a quartet of disc brakes.

It has less power and torque than its TDI320 turbo-diesel sibling and both peak values are accessed further up the rev range, so it must maintain higher rpm than the diesel for optimum performance which is typical of small turbo-petrol engines.  

The sweet-shifting seven-speed dual-clutch automatic makes this easy to achieve, though, particularly when you have the option of manual paddle-shifting.

The gearing also ensures low engine stress at highway speeds, requiring only 2000rpm to maintain 110km/h.

Although its agility is great for zipping through busy traffic or down narrow city lanes for delivery work, unfortunately it can’t erase the huge blind-spot over the driver’s left shoulder caused by the cabin bulkhead and, beyond that, the solid cargo bay walls.

The passenger-side door mirror is not large enough for adequate visual coverage of this hazardous zone. Although blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert are available as pricey options, we reckon they should be standard issue for not only our test vehicle but all solid-walled vans.

To test its load-carrying, we inflated the tyres to the 42psi cold pressures recommended on the placard and forklifted 415kg into the cargo bay.

With our crew of two, that equalled a 575kg payload that was about 140kg under its peak rating (we would have loaded more but weights were in short supply on the day).

Even so, the rear coil springs only compressed about 45mm, which was no different to when we loaded a similar model with more than 700kg. The rear suspension felt slightly firmer but still supple under this weight, maintaining safe and predictable handling.

 It also performed well on our 13 per cent gradient, 2.0km-long set climb at 60km/h, self-shifting down to a suitable gear and easily hauling this load to the top.

Engine-braking on the way down, in a manually-selected second gear, was minimal at best requiring several brake applications to keep it under the posted 60km/h speed limit.

However, this is typical of small displacement motors with heavy loads on their backs.

A maximum five-star ANCAP rating applies to all Cargo variants built from July 2022.

The Caddy Cargo offers numerous safety features headlined by seven airbags and AEB, along with new MY23 upgrades comprising 'Lane Assist' and 'Front Assist'.

Lane Assist operates above 60km/h to provide steering correction when the vehicle appears to be leaving the lane without the driver using the turn signal.

Front Assist detects cyclists/pedestrians plus oncoming traffic when turning at an intersection and can apply autonomous braking to avoid a collision.

There’s also a reversing camera and rear parking sensors, daytime running lights, non-adaptive cruise control, a driver fatigue alert system and more.

Ownership is a better story. The eT60 is offered with an industry competitive five-year/160,000km warranty, with five years and 130,000km of roadside assist. There is also a separate eight-year and 160,000km warranty for the battery (supplied by CATL).

The service intervals might be the most appealing attribute, with the eT60 only needing to visit a workshop once every 24 months or 30,000km.

Even better is the cost, which will set owners back an approximate average of just $145.80 per year for the first 10 years of ownership.

The Volkswagen Caddy Cargo is covered by a five year/unlimited km warranty with 12 months roadside assist.

Scheduled servicing every 15,000km or 12 months whichever occurs first.

Total capped-price servicing for five years/75,000km is $3142, or a pricey average of $628 per year.

However, VW offers an upfront five-year care plan that represents a $1492 saving (that’s almost 50 per cent) for the same service period.