Without a doubt, the most common question I get asked by people when they find out what I do for a living is, “When are we all going to be driving 4×4 EVs?”

This is often followed by, “How much longer will I be able to buy diesel fuel?” These questions really show how much misinformation there is out there regarding EVs and their emergence on the market. Yes, EV passenger cars are coming in big time, but it will be some time yet before we are using an EV for the sort of long-distance and off-road touring that we do. And if you’re driving a diesel-fuelled 4×4 now you’ll be able to buy fuel for it for the life of that vehicle.

Despite the rapid growth in sales of EV cars, they still don’t have the range required for touring long distances and the charging infrastructure isn’t up to the standard we expect when travelling in our diesel- and petrol-fuelled 4x4s. Also, there are very few EVs available now that offer proper 4×4 off-road ability.

We’ve even jumped behind the wheel of the Ford Lightning EV. This truck was imported and converted to right hand drive by a private company, and Ford Australia tells us it has no plans to bring the Lightning in as part of its F-150 truck program, but it is an off-road capable EV that you can buy now.

The Shark PHEV has taken the market by storm, and it looks like the BYD Shark may be the first midsize 4×4 ute to arrive as an EV. Other than that there are not a lot of EV 4x4s coming soon… but they will be here soon enough.

Whether you will be able to actually take them anywhere interesting is another thing.

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