Lidu Veteran 350 (2027): off-road caravan from China with one major catch

In Hall 11 at the Caravan Salon 2026, I suddenly felt like I'd been dropped into a post-apocalyptic movie set. At the stand of Chinese manufacturer Lidu stood a compact caravan that would've fit right into any "Mad Max" film: the Lidu Veteran 350, shown in black and in grey. Aggressive, angular shapes, chunky off-road tires, and a hitch box that looks like it could survive a firefight. Honestly, I have a soft spot for this kind of look.

The Veteran 350 is built in Changshu, Jiangsu province. A Dutch importer brings it to Europe. On the spec sheet at the stand, one detail stopped me in my tracks: empty weight is 730 kg. But according to the manufacturer's website, the maximum permitted gross weight is only 750 kg.

Do the math on that for a second.

Exactly. And because the rest of the vehicle is genuinely interesting, it's worth a closer look. We've already introduced you to the Aquila 360 from the same manufacturer. The Veteran 350 is the off-road answer to it — but not quite in the way you'd expect.

Who's behind Lidu RV?

According to its own company profile, Lidu RV (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. was only founded in 2024. Sounds like a garage startup — but it isn't. Its parent company is Zybody, also known as Zhongyuan Auto, founded in 2012, which has been supplying aluminum body parts to Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover, and Tesla for over a decade. The plant is IATF 16949 certified — the quality standard used in the car industry.

That explains why this caravan feels the way it does. The body is made from hot-formed steel and aluminum parts, joined using self-piercing rivets and laser welding, according to the manufacturer — exactly the processes used to build car bodies today. The first caravan rolled off the line in January 2025, with a target capacity of 5,000 units per year.

The Veteran reaches Europe through Starlight B.V. from the Netherlands. The company calls itself the official European representative of Lidu, covering the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Scandinavia. There's no German dealer network yet — it's still being built up. More on that below.

The dimensions of the Lidu Veteran 350

According to the spec sheet at the trade show:

• Length: 505.5 cm

• Width: 228 cm

• Height: 203 cm (the brochure lists three values: 203 / 216 / 235 cm, likely depending on the roof structure)

• Ground clearance: at least 30 cm

• Bed: 194 × 150 cm

• Tires: LT245/70 R17 on alloy wheels

• Empty weight: 730 kg

• Maximum permitted gross weight per manufacturer's website: 750 kg

What does that mean in practice? At just over five meters including the drawbar, the Veteran is shorter than most touring caravans and fits on any standard pitch. The 228 cm width, though, isn't exactly compact. On narrow forest tracks, it'll feel just as tight as with a big caravan — the only difference is you actually get the ground clearance to handle it.

One side note: the website lists four colors (Desert Yellow, Olive Green, Midnight Black, Dawn Silver), while the trade show brochure lists six — including Danxia Red, named after the rainbow mountains in Gansu. Even the "Full specifications" link on the manufacturer's site pulled up data for a completely different model when we checked it. Clearly, the European communications side isn't fully sorted out yet.

Military looks, but cleanly executed

The look is half the sales pitch, and it seems to be working. Powder-coated metal panels instead of GRP sandwich construction, frameless panoramic windows, car-style doors with heavy-duty hinges. The door shuts with a solid thud you won't get from a classic caravan.

Insulation is PU foam (B1, meaning flame-retardant). After an hour at a trade show, I can't judge how well it actually insulates in practice. Metal conducts heat better than sandwich panels — that's just physics. Whether Lidu has found a way around that would need a proper winter test to confirm.

Storage is the real strength here: 500 liters at the rear, 300 liters in the front box, plus roof storage. For a caravan this size, that's a huge amount. But we'll come back to the weight issue in a moment.

Chassis: German engineering under the hood

Lidu develops the chassis itself, built from hot-formed high-strength steel. What's mounted on top, though, comes from Germany: independent suspension, the overrun brake system, drawbar, and mechanical corner steadies all come from KNOTT. It rides on LT245/70 R17 tires with alloy wheels.

A real practical advantage: you can get a KNOTT axle serviced at any trailer workshop in Germany. When you're importing something from China, that's worth a lot.

Two things on the spec sheet caught me off guard, though. First: The corner steadies are optional. Crank-down steadies come standard on pretty much every European caravan. On the show unit with the price tag, they weren't ticked.

Second, and this one's worse: The full-size spare wheel is also optional. It's listed as its own line on the spec sheet ("Tires: LT245/70 R17 with full-size spare"), and the slot on the show model was empty. An off-road trailer without a spare wheel doesn't make sense. You won't find LT245/70 R17 tires at the next tire shop in rural Portugal, and your tow vehicle probably runs a different size anyway. If you're using this thing the way the marketing photos suggest, you need to order the spare separately.

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Interior: one bed, two fold-out tables, that's it

The inside of this Chinese off-roader feels a lot more modest and homely than its rugged looks suggest. According to the spec sheet, standard equipment includes:

• a bed measuring 194 × 150 centimeters that folds into a sofa during the day,

• a rail system for movable storage boxes,

• a pegboard for hanging gear,

• a storage bag,

• a mosquito screen and a sun shade, both operated manually,

• two fold-out tables at the front,

• an LED main light plus ambient lighting,

• a 2-kilo powder fire extinguisher,

• and a shore power connection.

No kitchen. No bathroom. No toilet. No water tank. There's an optional 26-liter canister for an outdoor shower and a shower tent. Neither comes standard.

On the 2025 show unit, the tailgate folded down 90 degrees and doubled as a work surface for a gas stove you'd bring yourself. There's no cover for it. If it rains, you're cooking in the wet.

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Power: 100 Ah standard, 314 Ah optional

Standard equipment: a 12V LiFePO4 battery with 100 Ah, plus a 2,000-watt inverter, USB and Schuko outlets, a shore power hookup, and a 2-kilo powder fire extinguisher. A 314 Ah battery (roughly 4 kWh) and a solar panel are available as options.

Without a heater, fridge, or water pump, this setup can genuinely last several days off-grid. That's an honest number, not marketing fluff. The catch: the optional battery costs you weight. And weight is exactly the problem here.

The weight problem: 20 kilos of payload

730 kilos empty weight on the show unit. 750 kilos maximum gross weight according to the manufacturer. That leaves a grand total of 20 kilos of payload.

This isn't my interpretation — both numbers come from the same manufacturer page. The body text on that same page even says "roughly 690–750 kg curb weight." Worst case, you've got nothing left at all.

What that means in practice (my own math, not the manufacturer's):

• Bedding, clothes, dishes, and tools for two people realistically add up to 40 to 80 kilos.

• Upgrading the battery from 100 to 314 Ah adds roughly 20 kilos on its own. Even with just that, you're already over the limit.

• Shower tent, toolbox, pegboards, a full fuel canister: it's all weight.

And then there's 500 liters of rear storage plus a 300-liter front box that you're practically not allowed to fill. 800 liters of storage space for 20 kilos of payload. The math doesn't work.

What I'd want the importer to clarify: Does the 730-kilo empty weight apply to the European-spec trailer, or to a stripped-down base unit? Is there an option to upgrade the gross weight rating? And what's the actual weighed empty weight of the specific unit you're buying? Get this in writing, not just a verbal promise over the phone.

My guess here — and I want to be clear this is speculation: the trailer has a braked axle with a KNOTT overrun brake system. An unbraked trailer is already allowed to weigh up to 750 kilos anyway, so if someone fits a brake at that weight class, they probably designed the axle to handle more. A gross weight upgrade to 1,000 kilos seems technically plausible. But here's the catch: that would kill the trailer's biggest selling point. More on that in the next section.

Driver's license and tow vehicle: what you need to check

With a Class B driver's license, you can tow a trailer up to 750 kilos gross weight behind any car up to 3.5 tonnes. No extra training, no test, no extra math required. The Veteran 350 sits exactly at that 750-kilo limit — right on the line.

Above that, things get complicated: for trailers over 750 kilos, the combined weight of car and trailer may not exceed 3.5 tonnes. That rules out many larger SUVs. Then you'll need a B96 licence (up to 4.25 tonnes combined, driver training only) or BE (trailers up to 3.5 tonnes, but with a practical test). More on this in our guide to the driving licence for caravans.

What about EVs? This is actually where it gets interesting. Many electric cars are limited to a towing capacity of 750 to 1,000 kilos. The Veteran fits right in. Still, there are two things you need to check: your car's nose weight (the maximum downward force the trailer hitch can take) is listed on the vehicle registration document, and on many EVs it's tight. So check fields O.1 and O.2 on your registration document — before you fall in love with the trailer.

The price: what does the Veteran 350 cost?

The show vehicle at the 2026 trade fair had a handwritten price tag reading 23,900 euros. The year before, the figure was 25,000 euros, so the price has actually come down. Whether that 23,900 euros is gross or net, and whether it's a non-binding recommended price or a special show price, isn't clear from the documents. I couldn't find a second source confirming this number. So: as of September 2026, no guarantee.

And now for the important part: the spec sheet for this particular vehicle showed exactly what was actually fitted. Not included: the 314 Ah battery, the solar panel, the 26-litre water tank, the corner steadies, the full-size spare wheel, the shower tent, the external tool box, the outer pegboard, and the electric fly screen.

So 23,900 euros gets you the base model: chassis, suspension, bed, 100 Ah battery, inverter, lighting, fire extinguisher. Everything that actually makes the vehicle usable off-road in everyday life costs extra. Lidu hasn't published prices for the options anywhere so far.

For comparison, because it puts things into perspective: in China, the Veteran 350 starts at 89,800 yuan according to the manufacturer's website. Depending on the exchange rate, that's roughly 11,000 to 12,000 euros. Before anyone cries "rip-off": there's transport, import VAT, customs duty, European type approval, importer margin, and presumably different equipment levels in between. It's not a fair direct comparison. Still, the number is worth knowing.

My tip: get a written equipment list for the quoted price before you buy. On a vehicle where the solar panel, corner steadies, shower tent, electric blinds, and the big battery are all optional extras, that list is what determines the final price.

What to watch out for when buying

• Check the type approval: the manufacturer's website advertises "CE" and "EU type-approved". The importer, however, wrote in September 2026 that the Veteran is "in the final stages of European TÜV/WVTA homologation". That's a contradiction, and CE marking isn't a vehicle type approval anyway. → Ask to see the Certificate of Conformity (CoC) before you pay a deposit. Without EU type approval, you'll need an individual vehicle approval in Germany under § 21 StVZO (national road traffic licensing regulations).

• Recalculate the weight: at a gross weight of 750 kilos, the spec sheet leaves just 20 kilos of payload. → Ask for the weighed kerb weight of your specific unit and whether a weight upgrade is possible.

• Service and spare parts: the axle, overrun brake, and drawbar from KNOTT can be serviced anywhere in Germany. Body panels, windows, and brand-specific electronics can't. → Ask specifically where damage gets repaired and how long a spare part from China takes to arrive.

• Dealer network: there's currently no named dealer in Germany; according to the importer, the network is only just being built up. Hoped-for delivery time: 8 to 16 weeks after ordering. → Clarify who your contact is in case of a warranty claim, and where they're based.

• Warranty: neither Lidu nor Starlight has published warranty terms. → Get it in writing before putting down a deposit.

One more thing: there's no long-term experience with Lidu vehicles in Europe yet. The first series-production vehicle rolled off the line in January 2025, and the market launch started at this trade fair. On the manufacturer's website, the "Owner reviews" section for the Veteran 350 still reads: "No reviews yet." Anything anyone tells you about water-tightness, durability, or resale value is speculation — my own assessment included.

Technical specs at a glance

My verdict: who is the Veteran 350 worth it for?

The Veteran 350 isn't a caravan for a two-week family holiday on the Adriatic. It's also no substitute for a teardrop trailer with an outdoor kitchen, because it doesn't even have a kitchen.

It suits people looking for a base camp: a dry, lockable, sprung bed at the end of a gravel track, with power for a few days and a tow car in front that can do more than just tarmac. If you already travel with a stove, cool box and jerry cans, you won't miss a thing. If you expect a heater and a toilet, keep looking.

What I really rate is the build quality. Hot-formed steel, aluminum outer skin, KNOTT chassis, car doors. Someone here understood that an off-road trailer has to survive one thing above all: vibration. The manufacturing know-how from the car industry isn't a coincidence, it's the whole point of the company.

What bugs me: the 20 kilos. A trailer that advertises 800 liters of storage space but only gives you 20 kilos of payload has a contradiction built into its concept. Either that's a figure the importer still needs to correct for Europe, or it's a real problem. Until that's cleared up, I wouldn't put down a deposit.

And honestly? I'd still stop at the stand just for the looks. Again.

What's your take: is a bed on wheels with off-road suspension enough for you, or does a caravan need a kitchen as a minimum? And would you buy a caravan from China as long as there's no dealer in Germany? Let us know in the comments.