A Brand-New Tradie Work Truck for Used-Truck Money
At $59,990 drive-away with an alloy tray, Cummins power and a seven-year warranty, the new DFAC Captain 45 has arrived looking to disrupt Australia’s traditional light-truck market.
An artist’s impression of the DFAC Captain 45 fitted with a Master Tech service body, creating a compact mobile diagnostics and repairs vehicle.
These days, sixty thousand dollars does not buy quite as much as it used to.
It will buy a well-equipped dual-cab ute, although perhaps not once you have added a tray, bullbar, towbar and the compulsory collection of lights needed to illuminate the next postcode.
It will also buy a used light truck from one of the traditional Japanese stalwarts, complete with several years of work behind it, an unknown number of drivers and a seat cushion that may already have adopted the shape of someone else’s backside.
Or you could spend $59,990 drive-away and put a brand-new DFAC Captain 45 in your yard, complete with an alloy tray, a 2.5-litre Cummins turbo-diesel engine and a seven-year, 250,000-kilometre warranty.
That is the attention-grabbing proposition behind the newest light truck to enter the Australian market.
Distributed by the Australian-owned KRW Motor Group, the DFAC Captain 45 is a 4.5-tonne GVM truck that can be driven on a car licence. It can also be uprated to a 6-tonne GVM for operators holding the appropriate light rigid licence.
On paper, at least, the new Captain appears to have arrived carrying a sizeable amount of truck for the money.
The forward-tilting cab provides clear access to the Captain 45’s Cummins engine and major service components.
Cummins power
Under the cab sits a 2.5-litre turbo-diesel Cummins engine producing 121 kW and 400 Nm of torque.
Power is delivered through a six-speed automated manual transmission supplied by FAST, while DANA provides axle and driveline components.
Those names should provide some reassurance to operators who may be unfamiliar with the DFAC badge. Rather than attempting to reinvent every nut, bolt and gearbox cog, DFAC has drawn on established global component suppliers for some of the truck’s most important mechanical systems.
The Captain 45 has a 3300 mm wheelbase and, in addition to its 4.5-tonne GVM, carries a 3.5-tonne towing capacity. That combination should make it attractive to tradespeople, equipment-hire businesses, councils, fleet operators and owner-drivers who need more carrying ability than a ute can comfortably provide.
It may also appeal to businesses that have spent the past few years watching the price of heavy-duty dual-cab utes climb towards luxury-car territory.
A truck will not necessarily replace a ute in every application. It is larger, less fashionable and considerably less likely to appear outside a trendy café on Sunday morning. However, when the job involves carrying tools, machinery, building supplies or towing a substantial trailer, fashion tends to become less important than payload.
The DFAC Captain 45 is offered with a 3300 mm wheelbase and a choice of six exterior colours for trade, fleet and government applications.
More than a basic workhorse
While the price is likely to attract the initial attention, the Captain 45 is not being presented as a stripped-out bargain-basement truck.
Standard equipment includes adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, lane-departure warning, pedestrian and cyclist detection, driver and passenger airbags, a high-resolution reversing camera and parking sensors.
The truck also receives smartphone mirroring, a multifunction steering wheel, an LCD instrument panel and a large 13-inch infotainment display.
For a truck entering the market at under $60,000 drive-away, that is a surprisingly comprehensive safety and equipment list. There was a time when an entry-level work truck offered a vinyl floor, a heater and the firm expectation that the driver should be grateful for both.
The enormous screen may sound like a curious feature in a work truck, but it reflects the expectations of drivers moving from passenger vehicles and late-model utes. Operators now expect clear navigation, phone connectivity, reversing vision and easy access to vehicle information without having to decipher a row of switches apparently designed by a Cold War submarine engineer.
The Captain also meets the applicable Australian Design Rule requirements and ECE R29 cab-strength certification.
The DFAC Captain 45 cab combines a practical work-truck layout with the comfort and technology expected in a modern passenger vehicle.
Built with Australian drivers in mind
DFAC and KRW say the Australian version has not simply been lifted from an overseas catalogue and placed on a ship.
The truck has undergone local evaluation by DFAC engineers and KRW technical personnel, with pre-production vehicles tested under Australian road and climatic conditions.
The cab has also received several changes aimed specifically at local operators.
The driver’s seat is designed for occupants weighing up to 140 kilograms, while longer seat runners provide additional adjustment for taller drivers. It is a relatively simple detail, but one that matters when a truck is expected to spend its working life carrying Australian drivers rather than crash-test mannequins built to an international average.
KRW Motor Group CEO and founder Neil Wang said the company had worked closely with DFAC to prepare the Captain 45 for the Australian market.
“DFAC engineers from China, along with our local technical experts, have been testing and evaluating pre-production models in Australian conditions,” Wang said.
“The testing has considered vehicle performance, safety and driver comfort. The result is a vehicle we believe will be a strong contender in the Australian market.”
KRW Motor Group CEO and founder Neil Wang is leading the introduction of DFAC Trucks to the Australian commercial vehicle market.
A major manufacturer with an unfamiliar badge
The DFAC name may be new to many Australian operators, but the company behind it is not a small start-up assembling trucks in a borrowed shed.
Its origins date back to 1969, and DFAC claims approximately 1.2 million vehicle sales across more than 100 countries. It is described as China’s second-largest truck manufacturer.
That global scale is significant, but it does not automatically guarantee success in Australia.
The local light-truck market has traditionally been dominated by well-established Japanese brands with extensive dealer networks, strong resale values and decades of customer familiarity.
Australian operators also tend to remember brands that arrived with great enthusiasm, sold a handful of vehicles and then quietly disappeared when the difficult business of parts, servicing and warranty support began.
KRW therefore has more to establish than the truck’s purchase price.
The distributor says it is developing a national dealer network supported by 24-hour roadside assistance, customer finance and a range of locally focused accessories.
Wang said aftersales support had been considered alongside the truck’s engineering and specification.
“It is not simply an off-the-shelf truck,” he said. “It has been specified for Australia, with DFAC, KRW and key OEM partners working together on its design and development.
“The Australian market is extremely competitive, but we believe the Captain 45 and the DFAC models that follow will offer operators a compelling alternative.”
A multifunction steering wheel and clearly arranged dashboard place the Captain 45’s major controls within easy reach of the driver.
Not every work truck needs to be white
In another break from the traditional light-truck formula, where buyers are generally offered white, white or a slightly different shade of white, the Captain 45 will be available in six colours.
The range includes Snowy White, Onyx Black, Flame Red, Wattle Yellow, Ironbark Grey and Reef Blue.
Colour choice may appear to be a minor consideration beside payload, fuel consumption and servicing costs, but it could prove valuable to businesses wanting their vehicles to match an established fleet or corporate identity.
It also means the new truck may be easier to spot than the average anonymous white delivery vehicle.
An alloy tray and 3.5-tonne towing capacity give the Captain 45 the versatility required by construction, trade and equipment-hire operators.
The real test starts now
The Captain 45 arrives with an attractive specification and a price that should make the established brands take notice.
At $59,990 drive-away with an alloy tray, it is priced in territory normally occupied by premium utes and used light trucks. The seven-year, 250,000-kilometre warranty adds further weight to the value proposition.
However, the Australian truck market is not won by a large touchscreen, a colourful brochure or a sharp introductory price alone.
Operators will want to know how the Captain performs under load, how it rides on rough roads, what it uses in fuel and how quickly parts can be supplied when something eventually breaks.
They will also be watching the development of the dealer network and the long-term performance of KRW’s service and warranty support.
Those answers will come as the first trucks begin working in Australian fleets.
For now, however, there is unquestionably a new Captain in town, offering a brand-new work truck for the sort of money many operators have become accustomed to paying for somebody else’s old one.
Whether it represents a genuine changing of the guard or simply an attractive introductory offer will become clearer when Roadtrains.com.au puts the Captain 45 to work in a full road test next month.
The DFAC Captain 45 enters the Australian light-truck market with a 4.5-tonne GVM, 3.5-tonne towing capacity and a $59,990 drive-away introductory price.
