DETROIT – There's a shark circling as a Chinese automaker, considered one of the most important profit pools for American automakers on the earth CAR WORLD expands its reach and product portfolio with a pickup truck.
Without the vehicle's branding, the BYD Shark could pass as an American-made product. In some ways it looks like a smaller pickup truck Ford engine. The Chinese-made truck bears striking exterior similarities to a Ford Explorer paired with the favored F-150 – a part of the Ford brand's best-selling truck lineup within the U.S. for 48 years.
Similar to BYD's Seagull – a small all-electric hatchback that starts at just 69,800 yuan (or lower than $10,000) – global automakers fear Chinese rivals just like the Warren Buffett-backed BYD will flood their markets and curb domestic production and Undercutting vehicle prices could possibly be to the detriment of their very own automotive industry.
BYD has not announced plans to sell the Shark within the US, but has moved into countries where it does General MotorsFord and Toyota engine sell pickup trucks, including Australia, Brazil and Mexico.
In the United States, pickup trucks are the bread and butter of Detroit automakers, selling hundreds of thousands of units annually. They have also change into increasingly necessary to Toyota within the US and worldwide.
“When you consider how important these products are to manufacturers from a revenue standpoint, it comes down to the franchise,” said Terry Woychowski, president of automotive at Caresoft Global and previously chief engineer for GM full-size trucks. “There is a lot of interest in this vehicle because of the market.”
Caresoft, a technical benchmarking and consulting company, has around 40 Chinese-built electric vehicles from corporations equivalent to BYD, Nio and other.
The Michigan-based company digitally and physically analyzes every a part of a vehicle, from screws and latches to seats, engines and battery casings. It then determines how its customers – primarily automakers and suppliers – can improve the efficiency of their products and reduce costs.
attract attention
Automakers like Ford and Toyota, which rely heavily on sales of smaller pickup trucks worldwide, have taken notice of the BYD Shark.
“It's a great product. It sells well. They're trying to sell in large quantities in Mexico, but it's also being localized in Thailand,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said when asked about the BYD Shark by CNBC earlier this month. “If we want to be a global player in pickup trucks like we are now, we have to compete.”
While Ford's F-150 reigns supreme in the US, Toyota's Hilux has been the best-selling truck outside of North America for many years. Toyota has sold 19.8 million Hilux trucks since its introduction in 1968, including a record 851,000 units in 2022.
When asked about Chinese rivals earlier this month, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said the company must be “ready to answer the worldwide needs of worldwide markets” regardless of competition.
“We try to focus on the needs of each market and be the best in town. So that will be our strategy,” Toyoda said during a media panel at the CES technology conference.
BYD Reportedly exported more than 10,000 BYD Sharks in 2024. These sales are expected to increase in the future, especially as the company prepares to expand production.
BYD increased its share of vehicle exports from China from 2%, or less than 56,000 units, in 2022 to 8% in 2024, or 350,500 units, according to BofA Securities.
Exports have continued to help BYD increase its global sales to about 4.3 million vehicles in 2024, up from about 3 million last year. Wall Street analysts expect the number to rise further this year to about 5.5 million, according to Goldman Sachs.
“BYD is beginning to develop the overseas market with compelling (highly competitive, innovative) products that we expect to become a secondary growth driver for the company and could account for 31% of additional vehicle sales volume in 2022-2030E,” says Goldman Sachs analyst Tina Das said Hou in a Jan. 14 investor note.
The BYD Shark is intended to help the automaker increase its sales and profits. It's a midsize pickup truck – which has a smaller market in the US compared to worldwide – with a plug-in hybrid powertrain that combines electric vehicle components such as a battery and electric motors with a small 1.5-liter internal combustion engine.
The vehicle can operate as a fully electric vehicle or the engine can power its batteries and electric motors, with a combined range of more than 500 miles between battery and engine, BYD said.
The shark starts at about 899,980 pesos (US$44,000) in Mexico. That's far more than the other BYD models, but still much cheaper than many hybrid or fully electric trucks in the US. It matches the pricing of midsize models of the Ford Ranger and Toyota Tacoma midsize pickup trucks in Mexico.
Benchmarking Ford, GM
When we took the BYD Shark for a spin on private property with a mix of smooth and broken asphalt in Michigan, the pickup drove well. Its acceleration is fast, but not as fast as that Tesla Cybertruck or the all-electric pickups from GM. It's quiet, but there's definitely room for improvement in ride and handling, which feels a little less refined than current trucks in the US
The Shark's overall build quality is impressive, but there are quirky elements to the vehicle, according to Woychowski, as well as some “common” best practices with current pickups from Ford and GM.
Familiar practices and elements include overall exterior design being similar to the F-150, including lighting and a retractable tailgate step; the interior design of the front seats is reminiscent of Toyota; and certain production aspects of the vehicle used by other trucks. In particular, the frame – the backbone of the vehicle – is dipped in wax. According to Woychowski, it's a process to reduce corrosion that GM has been doing for decades.
“You can tell where and who was benchmarked,” Woychowski said as he inspected the vehicle’s underbody. “Ford over here, GM down there and Toyota over there.”
That doesn't mean the vehicle isn't unique. While Caresoft has yet to disassemble the Shark to better understand its manufacturing processes and parts, the vehicle's interior design and, most importantly, its hybrid powertrain are unlike anything currently offered in the United States
For example, a few of the battery technology is housed under the rear seats, eliminating cupboard space, and there are bungee cords to carry the vehicle's back seat when folded.
“This is actually pretty poorly done,” Woychowski said of the back seat. “I would keep an eye on this room. I bet they did pretty well.”
Other unusual elements that aren't as easy to identify include an over-engineered rear suspension with two wishbones (as an alternative of 1 each); a clearly straight frame; unnecessary variety of jack stands under the vehicle to boost it; and using hydraulic arms for the heavy-duty tailgate, he said.
Woychowski said customers had shown particular interest in Chinese automakers, including BYD, because they were growing and quickly developing latest products and improving existing models.
“It’s a credible truck,” Woychowski said of the Shark. “They did some things very well. There are some things they can do to eliminate the problem, but it’s not a difficult task.”
image credit : www.cnbc.com
Leave a Reply