The world’s first flat-pack truck has been revealed in driving prototype form by Global Vehicle Trust (GVT). Called the Ox, the truck is the brainchild of entrepreneur Sir Torquil Norman, GVT’s main backer. Four years ago, Norman formed a partnership with Gordon Murray to use the British designer’s revolutionary iStream design principles to create an extremely durable, all-terrain light truck specifically for remote parts of Africa.
About the same length as a Ford Focus, the Ox can carry two tonnes, which is twice as much as a car-based pick-up. Its central-seat, cab-forward design leaves load space for eight 44-gallon drums, or three standard pallets, or 10 people on bench seats that can double as sand ladders. Additionally, the tailgate can be detached and used as a ramp for the loading crew to walk up or even for rolling up drums.
The chassis is a steel ladder with bonded-in wooden panels to provide torsional rigidity, a key iStream principle. The truck is powered by the Ford Transit van’s 99hp, 2.2-litre four-cylinder diesel engine mated to a six-speed gearbox. The all-coil, all-independent suspension uses simple, long-travel steel leading arms in front and trailing arms behind, and the suspension parts are identical side to side.The body parts – mostly flat panels in ultra-durable coated plywood – are also identical side to side, as are the seats and flat windscreen pieces.
Six Ox kits, with engines, fit into a standard 40ft container. A team of three can assemble one in less than 12 hours without any special tools.
At this stage, the Ox has a simple front-wheel drive layout, which saves weight and complication, but four-wheel drive versions are possible, says Murray. However, the Ox has better ground clearance and shorter overhangs than most pure off-roaders and early testing in rough and muddy terrain has returned such good results that the partners question the early need for four-wheel drive.
If the right backing can be found, Murray and GVT believe work already done would allow a UK manufacturing plant to be sending the Ox to market, which might include European as well as emerging market destinations, within two years.