4BC Interview — Bartons Motor Group Launches Australia's First EV Campervan

With fuel prices hurting everybody's back pocket, plenty of Australians are looking for a way to save a dollar, and one of the things everybody seems to be interested in is electric vehicles. What I like about this story is that a Brisbane company — a household name, really — is taking it to the next level. They're actually manufacturing what's believed to be Australia's very first complete EV campervan, right here in Queensland. It's the Farizon EV campervan, and it's been turning a lot of heads at the big Caravan and Camping Super Show over the weekend. Now, it's not just about the campervans — the group is also planning a massive multi-brand automall in Wynnum, what a magnificent part of southeast Queensland. I think it's going to change the way we buy cars. Joining us in the studio, Mark Beitz, Managing Director of Barton's Motor Group. Great to see you, Mark — well done to you.

Mark: Thanks, Gary. Thanks for inviting me along.

Gary: So tell me about the Farizon — is that how we say it? Farizon?

Mark: Farizon.

Gary: Farizon. Yes — the far horizon. Farizon. Okay, EV campervan — so what's the reaction like? You put a solar panel on the roof and charge up, ready to go the next day, I'd reckon.

Mark: Yeah. So our business already plays in the campervan space — we also own Jayco, at Tingalpa. And we've seen the success of that RV industry, and we've recently taken on the Farizon electric commercial brand.

Gary: Yep.

Mark: And we saw there's a gap in the market — no one's doing an EV campervan. So we thought we'd build our own, and that's what we've done. We just launched it at the Caravan Show last week.

Gary: So people want to go off-grid, get away from organised accommodation, and so forth — the campervan thing I get, I understand it, I love the idea of it. But then, to know you've got the fuel, if you like, to go for the next part of the journey — can this actually charge? How far do you get on a charge?

Mark: Yeah, look, probably similar to the cars. They're not for everyone — probably an 80/20 style thing. I think for 20 or 30 percent of people, this just won't suit. But if people really think about where they're going — it's no different than planning ahead for service stations, you've got to plan ahead for charging — the campervan gets you around 320 to 330 kilometres, and that's probably four or five hours of driving a day. That's more than most people really want to do.

Gary: Yeah, I reckon you're right, particularly if you're looking to relax. The last thing you want to do is wear yourself out with a ten-hour tear-down to Sydney — that's not the way to run a holiday.

Mark: And if that's what you want to do, you really need to plan precisely. But most people in a campervan are going from caravan park to caravan park, or caravan park to off-grid for a night and back to a caravan park again. I think for a lot of people it still works, but it's not for everyone.

Gary: So it's a big capital outlay — you buy the kit, you buy the van. But after that, you can kind of please yourself a bit, can't you?

Mark: Yeah, absolutely — no fuel. And the quality of what we've built — we've got a Jayco service centre in Tingalpa, and the staff there build these things and fix them. They've built this from the back up, and the quality is the equivalent of anything else on the market.

Gary: So when you say build — are you bringing in an overseas version and converting it here in Australia?

Mark: We're bringing in just the raw van. The van is commercially a full electric van — a new product to market regardless, and they've been a pretty big hit this year. Then we convert that into a full campervan, as you'd expect — shower, toilet, TV, solar panel inverters, kitchen induction stove, microwave, everything you'd expect in a campervan.

Gary: I thought we were going off-grid, this sounds like you've got a luxury appointment better than your home.

Mark: It is, it's exactly that. But you can still go off-grid without a doubt — solar will play a little part, and the electric van itself will run appliances in its own right without needing the solar and batteries. So it works well.

Gary: Let's talk size — does size matter? How big is this as a vehicle?

Mark: As a van, most campervans generally range between five and 6.5 metres. The two versions we've launched are a 5.5-metre without shower and toilet, and a six-metre with shower and toilet. So it's still your standard van, but with a higher roof so you can stand up fully inside, without compromising on storage for clothes and everything else you'd have in a caravan or campervan.

Gary: And given some of the problems with housing and everything else, this could actually be a bit of a solution for some people, couldn't it?

Mark: Yeah, maybe. We run a fairly big fleet of motorhomes, campervans and caravans, and surprisingly, a lot of people will come and hire a caravan, motorhome or campervan as a stopgap. You see it in the Airbnb space, you see it on Camplify — this will play the same.

Gary: The whole industry — I've got family in the caravan resort sector, they run an award-winning park, I won't name it because that would be unfair, but I do understand it. People are really addicted to the idea of grey nomading around the country, but younger people are also getting engaged in this too.

Mark: Yeah, they are. I took up caravanning and camping, I guess, through Covid. We did it as kids, but a big gap appeared in my life, and I never saw it until maybe I was going to retire. Covid gave us a way to explore our own backyard. And while we've gone off-grid caravanning, some of the best times we've had have been in a caravan park at Fingal, not far from here. My daughter and my two grandkids are doing it now too, in caravan parks. It's a new thing — I think it keeps kids outdoors, doing the things we did thirty years ago, riding around caravan parks on bikes and having fun.

Gary: The thing I like most about it, Mark, is that the campervan is a unit — you don't have to worry about the whole tow bar and towing-capacity side of things, as compelling as that is for a lot of people. There are some fantastic kits on the road — some people have got it decked out, really professional about the whole caravan and camping thing. What changes are you seeing?

Mark: Yeah, well, if you go too high-end, it's cheaper to just go and have a holiday without it. But I think it's a different way of life — there's no doubt it's fun. You can jump on your iPad and be connected to screens all you like, but I think it's about getting outdoors. I think we rediscovered that through Covid, maybe.

Gary: I hope you're right, because even with this — it's electronically charged, it's got all the facilities in there — you'd almost need a bit of a tech detox to really get back to that old-fashioned kind of holiday: go out, do stuff, see stuff, don't just read about it online. That's really what I think you're offering here.

Mark: Yeah. And if you're going to caravan parks or off-grid, you do get a bit of that experience, and it tends to give people a taste for it. But it's still the best of both worlds if you want to stay connected — you can do that too these days. Starlink alone will get you connected almost anywhere if you really want it.

Gary: Don't tell me that — I'm trying to detox a little bit. Okay, so you've got the EV campervan being made here — what are you bringing to the table in terms of local manufacturing and new jobs?

Mark: Look, we've only just started this journey. It's not a cheap or quick process to build here — we're building in smaller volume, but a bit bespoke. Over the weekend, the guys on our stand at the Caravan Show sold three, Saturday and Sunday, and a lot of those are custom orders. It's not as cookie-cutter as some of the product coming in already built directly from China — the configuration and the custom build is really important. So this has taken up our existing staff, but we've just taken a lease on a new shed. We now need more staff to meet the demand, and there's definitely demand for this product.

Gary: I think that's the point. Times are tough — it's hard for business, full stop. And you talk about Chinese EVs — I want to ask you about that in a moment — but this is a real leap of faith for a Queensland company to take on, despite all of the other costs that are out there. You're going to do this?

Mark: Yeah, well, I think my own team thought maybe I was a bit mad, but the idea isn't new — there are plenty of motor body builders around that do stuff, and people buy their own van and do it now. But I feel that with our experience at Jayco heritage, we can do this, and we can do it efficiently and to a high quality. The product we just displayed was well received. It's creating a lot of awareness.

Gary: Well, Barton's Motor Group has been synonymous with Wynnum and the foreshore for generations. A lot of people have bought their cars from you over the years. When you start to see the Chinese brands coming into the market — BYD, just to name one, saying they want to be seen as an Australian brand — and you were famous for Holden sales for generations, how does this all stack up? Is it a completely different market to how it was a quarter century ago?

Mark: Yeah, look, I'll be 25 years with the business next week. When I joined in 2001, we were a Holden dealership that also sold some Mitsubishis.

Gary: Yeah.

Mark: We evolved over time and became Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Subaru and Nissan.

Gary: You've kept evolving as a company.

Mark: We've had to. But it's changing, and it's changed quickly. The Chinese brands are here now. In our business model today, there's no Holden. Some of the legacy Japanese brands — well, when I was a kid they were much like the Chinese brands are today. They were still emerging.

Gary: The butt of many jokes, really.

Mark: The butt of many jokes, yeah. But they're feeling the pain now, and the Chinese brands are here. In June — our biggest month of the year — we'll sell over 1,000 cars. But 40, maybe even 50 percent of those will have come out of China. The quality now is ridiculously good.

Gary: Okay, so Lee asks: do they have a hybrid version? You're saying these EV campervans are bespoke, built to customers' orders — what do you say if someone wants a hybrid, with an internal combustion engine in there?

Mark: We won't be doing that bespoke option, I don't think. Not yet.

Gary: Okay, Lee — that's a no. Pretty clear.

Mark: Having said that, with the Farizon brand, as we bring in the full EV range, they're now looking to bring in hybrid vans, and more likely the plug-in hybrids. So you'll get the choice — full EV, or a hybrid with a range of maybe 150 kilometres and the rest on petrol. That's probably a 2027 plan.

Gary: So you've got to keep looking ahead. It takes real strength in the back office of a long-standing business like Barton's, I'd have thought, to make this possible. I wish you well with everything you're doing.

Mark: Thanks, Gary.

Gary: Good on you. That's Mark Beitz, Managing Director of Barton's Motor Group. Sounds good to me — I like the idea of a complete EV campervan, the Farizon.

Explore the full Farizon range at Bartons: bartons.net.au/brands/farizon