Why Are Pickup Trucks Called ‘Utes’ In Australia?

By most measures, America is the undisputed king of pickup truck popularity. From working rigs to luxurious family haulers, pickup trucks fill our roads, our parking lots, and our dealership showrooms. The almighty Ford F-Series pickup has been at or near the top of America’s car sales rankings for decades, with its GM and RAM competitors usually close behind. And that F-Series sales dominance shows no signs of slowing.

But America isn’t the only place in the world that’s had a unique appreciation for pickups. Australia (as well as New Zealand), also shares a distinct appreciation for trucks. While you’ll find plenty of traditional, high-riding trucks in Australia, it’s the ute that once defined and, for many, still symbolizes Australia’s unique pickup truck culture.

What is a ute? It comes from the word ‘utility’ and was historically used to describe a car-based vehicle with an integrated, open pickup bed. However, in recent years, as the Australian-built utes have left the market, people in Australia and New Zealand have used the term to describe any sort of non-commercial pickup truck.

In the overall scope of car culture, both in Australia and globally, the word ute is most commonly associated with the uniquely Australian ‘coupe utility’ segment that Ford of Australia started in 1934 with its uniquely styled, car-based pickup. Utes would explode in popularity during the decades that followed, with Holden (GM) and Chrysler of Australia soon jumping into the market as well.

The ute became a phenomenon in Australia, beloved not just by tradesmen but also by enthusiasts. Soon, Ford and Holden were building high-performance versions of their pickups, in a ute-flavored spin on the muscle car wars. This led to wild, high-horsepower creations like the Holden HSV Maloo.  There was even an all-ute racing series that supported the larger V8 Supercar championship 

Sadly, the era of the Australian ute would come to a fairly abrupt end during the mid-2010s. The last Ford Falcon ute rolled off the assembly line in 2016, with Holden pulling the plug on its ute production one year later. By the end of 2017, the once-proud Australian auto industry would no longer exist at all. And, one of the primary reasons for this was a shrinking demand for the type of traditional Australian passenger sedan that the utes were based on. 

Though we love our more upright, pickup trucks in America, we’ve also had our share of ute-like vehicles over the years. There was the Ford Ranchero, which evolved through several different forms during its mid-1950s to late 1970s lifespan. There was also the popular Chevrolet El Camino, which stuck around even longer. The El Camino (and later, its twin, the GMC Sprint) was in production until 1987. More short-lived, but also ute-like, was the Dodge Rampage pickup of the early 1980s.

In the late 2000s, the American market got very close to getting its own, imported Australian-built ute. It was to be called the Pontiac G8 Sport Truck, and was a left-hand drive, Pontiac-badged version of the Holden Commodore-based ute, just as the normal G8 was based on the Commodore Sedan. But, shortly after the G8 Sport Truck was announced, GM shut down the Pontiac brand, and this American-bound ute never made it to showrooms.

What about a future ute? We wouldn’t put any bets on it. With both Ford and General Motors no longer building cars in Australia, or any cars specifically for the Australian market, the odds of the world ever seeing a new ute, at least in the traditional Aussie form, have to be quite low.