Ever heard of the Dongfeng Forthing Friday? No, well it’s a yet another Chinese electric SUV that might soon be on-sale in Australia.
That’s if a plan hatched by a Sydney mobility company comes to fruition.
The company’s called called iGZEV, which stands for iGlobal Zero Emission Vehicles, and it has already gained the sign-off to sell the Forthing Friday in the Oceania region.
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In fact, first sales of the Friday began in Fiji last week.
Pivotal to IGZEV’s Australian ambitions is a trip to Dongfeng headquarters in Wuhan, China being made by the company’s new business manager Nickhil Naiker in the next week.
The trip is intended to better understand Dongfeng’s attitude to iGZEV selling the Forthing Friday in Australia and potentially other models including a smaller EV called the Nammi Box.
Nammi, like Forthing, is among multiple Dongfeng sub-brands. Dongfeng is a state-owned Chinese auto maker based in Wuhan and a member of the big four alongside SAIC, Changan and FAW.
Dongfeng is also in a joint-venture with Nissan in China and the Frontier Pro PHEV ute revealed at the Shanghai auto show last April seems certain to come to Australia. Another product of the joint-venture, the N7 sedan, has also been mooted for Australia badged as a Nissan.
The Friday and the Box are both high on iGZEV’s Aussie agenda because they are already built in right-hand drive.
“The only thing we can confirm is that we’re in Fiji,” Naiker said. “We wanted to target the Oceania region, so Fiji is one of the islands that we were targeting.
“As for Australia, there’s not too much I can confirm yet, only because the Australian plan is up to them [Dongfeng] when they feel it’s right.
“So that’s what the trip’s going to be about. It’s going to be to meet them and see where they’re at and what their game plan is.”
At this stage neither the Forthing Friday or Box have Australian Design Rule compliance, they have not been ANCAP rated and there is no locked-in pricing. IGZEV has no preference at this stage whether sales are via franchised dealers or agency.
“All the answers to those questions are all dependent on what happens during my trip there,” said Naiker. “Because, if they simply say ‘listen, no, we’re not going to go into Australia anytime soon ‘… Then it’s kind of out of our hands at that point.”
However, Naiker indicated that if it came to Australia, iGZEV saw the Forthing positioned on price and size as a BYD Atto 3 rival, while the smaller Nammi Box would line up against the BYD Dolphin.
The Forthing Friday is a 4600mm long, 1860mm wide, 1680mm tall five-seat SUV underpinned by a 2715mm wheelbase. It is powered by a 150kW/340Nm e-motor driving the front wheels. It has 64.4kWh Lithium-ion Phosphate battery pack and a claimed 425km range. The maximum DC fast charging rate is only 80kW.
The Friday has been in production since 2020. Forthing has been in existence since 2001.
The Nammi Box has already been employed as Dongfeng’s spearhead into Europe and is positioned as one of the market’s cheapest EVs.
It comes with a 42kWh battery providing a range of 310km, and a single 70kW drive motor. Nammi is an EV brand established in 2020.
IGZEV, meanwhile, is a spin-off from a company called iEngineering which is also owned by the Naiker family.
The founder of both and driving force in the engagement with EVs is electrical engineer Durgeshan ‘Bobby’ Naiker.
“iEngineering has had a few projects in the past where we’ve done charging installation and design for our clients,” explained Nickhil Naiker.
“So that’s why we took this transition, because Bobby is like a big fan of EVs. He drives an EV himself. So he’s kind of just fallen in love with the concept.
“And because of our experience with iEngineering in designing chargers, we thought ‘why not take a stab at electric vehicles and charging?’ So that’s kind of the background of how it came to be.”
Currently on its website IGZEV also promotes Chinese Kinwin electric trucks and buses as well as AC chargers.
IGZEV began casting around for a Chinese EV brand to sell in Australia after its establishment in 2023. It struck a deal to sell the Forthing Friday in Fiji via an agent.
It is treating the launch in Fiji very much as a learning experience as it has no prior automotive retailing experience.
