We’re not going to lie, we had to look this one up to find out what it is.

Spotted by Carscoops reader Brett Borgard testing here in the States, it’s the Chinese-made Foton Tunland compact pickup truck that’s offered in Australasia, which includes Australia, New Zealand, the islands of New Guinea and other neighboring islands, as well as some emerging markets around the world, but not in North America.

As it turns out, we had posted about the Foton truck back in 2011, before it quietly exited our radar, but can you blame us for not remembering it?

So, what’s it doing here in the United States?

That’s a tough question to answer without talking to the engineers, but unless they’re evaluating it for North America, which we find hard to believe, we’re suspecting that U.S.-based company Cummins that provides one of the Tunland’s engine offerings, the 2.8-liter turbo diesel, the other ones being petrol units from Mitsubishi, may have something to do with it – possibly performing engine tests.

Thanks to Brett for the scoop!

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