Chery is finally launching a bakkie in Mzansi next year. We have known about the vehicle for the past four years but it did not have a name, instead going around using its codename KP31. Until now. Chery has decided to call it the Grootman, which is an Afrikaans word for “big man”. Grootman was chosen among thousands of other names, after Chery ran a national competition to name the bakkie.
“Chery brings its Chinese heritage and global engineering expertise to this bakkie, and we wanted South Africans to have a hand in shaping its identity here,” said Jay Jay Botes, General Manager for Chery South Africa. “Grootman is a word people use with respect, often for someone who has worked hard to get where they are and can be counted on. Having South Africans choose it makes the name particularly meaningful, and we recognise that it comes with expectations we will have to live up to.”
While we currently don’t have all its details at hand, we do know that it runs a diesel Hybrid powertrain based on a 2.5-litre turbo diesel engine. Final power figures are yet to be released, but at this moment Chery is quoting 350kW and 800Nm of torque, which would make it the country’s most powerful series production bakkie by far. Chery also says the Grootman will be able to drive around 100km on electric power alone. We believe the combined range will be well over 1 000km.
