Chinese cars likely won’t come to America anytime soon, but they’re already on sale in many global markets. From Europe to Mexico, manufacturers like Great Wall Motors and MG (yes, it’s now a Chinese brand) are making massive inroads, and now Australian outlet Carsales reports that BYD is building its first ever ute to fight the Toyota Hilux.
Although BYD is a high-volume player in the battery-powered EV space, the unnamed pickup truck will start life out as a plug-in hybrid with a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine and two electric motors. Not only should this allay total range concerns, it could make for a properly powerful pickup truck, with Carsales claiming “a reported power output of 364kW.” That’s 488 horsepower, which would be a gargantuan figure in a Ford Ranger competitor.
The incoming BYD ute even looks decent, as revealed by patent drawings. Derivative, certainly, but decent. There’s a bit of Nissan Frontier in the arcs over the fenders, a lot of Ford in the front end, and acres of plastic cladding, but no gaping maw and nothing wildly impractical. I’m sure the aftermarket will eventually brodozer it out with more lights than an Ibiza night club, but in stock form, nothing about the styling should scare consumers out of showrooms.
Australian BYD importer Luke Todd told Carsales that “[With] These models we have blown everyone out of the water with price-point and we are working very hard to make that happen with the ute as well.” Powerful, green, right-sized, and allegedly priced far below what a Toyota Hilux costs? What’s the catch?
Even though Australia pays exorbitant prices for new cars, vehicles that trade heavily on price often have obvious deficiencies. For instance, the BYD Atto 3, a small and inexpensive electric crossover, only has an 88 kW DC fast charging rate, and hasn’t been getting the best reviews in Europe. British magazine Autocar claims its test example reeked of off-gassing plastic, had “unstable” infotainment, and wasn’t exactly refined when driving intent heightens.
When you do drive the car a bit harder, you will discover its composure starts to fray at the edges. Mid-corner surface imperfections can elicit strong kickback in the steering, and even in a straight line you will feel potholes through the steering more vividly than in other cars. You get a different kind of steering corruption under acceleration, as the Atto 3 exhibits some torque steer as well.
In addition, reported range falls far short of its rating on the admittedly optimistic WLTP cycle.
Measuring the Atto 3’s economy was somewhat fraught, as its own efficiency readout was hopelessly unreliable, at one point claiming to do 12mpkWh during performance testing. The average figure of 3.4mpkWh was calculated using the kWh charged for the mileage driven. It is slightly worse than what we got from the [Cupra] Born and [Kia] Niro EV, but still works out to a range of 201 miles. When fully charged, the car would always predict 260 miles, its WLTP figure, which is clearly unrealistic.
Of course, the Atto 3 is a previous-generation product, but Autocar reports that the new BYD Dolphin suffers from many of the Atto 3’s issues such as an obtuse infotainment UX and disappointing handling, all while bringing a new annoyance to the party.
Being new for 2023, the Dolphin also has bongs and a spoken message berating you for going over what it thinks (but often isn’t) the speed limit. It’s annoying and hard to turn off. Button, please!
Well, that ought to drive you round the bend. Of course, Chinese vehicles reportedly not quite measuring up to Western standards isn’t just a BYD thing, as the GWM Ora Funky Cat has received middling reviews in Europe too, with Auto Express noting subpar ride and handling, along with substantial infotainment difficulties.
Even though the upcoming BYD ute sounds mighty impressive, there’s a chance it might not quite measure up to the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger. Sure, a vastly cheaper double cab ute sounds great, but please temper your expectations. It won’t take much for Chinese manufacturers to bring their vehicles up to Western refinement, but even once the bulk of Chinese cars reach fundamental parity with European, American and Japanese counterparts, customer sentiment often lags. Chinese brands could face similar uphill battles to what Hyundai and Kia faced in the marketplace, and it could take another decade before models trade on desirability and overall excellence rather than price. Of course, we’ll just have to see what happens, won’t we?
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The catch is it will spy on you. ????
Is Mexico no longer part of the Americas?
I thought we all knew the catch was unsustainable government subsidies and slave labor?
China can undercut ANYBODY. They don’t let stupid shit like tariffs get in the way LOL
Also, the other car companies deserve to be undercut for gouging and leaving the cheaper car segments behind and making room for China.
I know, I know, Building Cars is Hard, but the Chinese have been building cars for decades, have an industry built on strong-arming foreign companies into basically handing over their know-how to local business, and have no shortage of exposure to international product. Are they just that confident they can show up with shoddy crap and a low price tag and we’ll suck it up and buy it, rather than sweating the last few details?
I mean, I guess I know the answer, but still.
Yes, yes they are, coz there are plenty of cheap bastards who buy with their wallets instead of their heads.
I mean some Americans bought Yugos so…..
If shoddy crap is all that people can afford they will buy that crap in great numbers.
The UX experience with Chinese made cars depends on the importer and the extent to which they have demanded and paid for localisation.
SAIC learned that lesson early in Oz with MG, GWM are still learning it and Chery couldn’t give a shit. BYD have learnt very very quickly as they have had issues in their meteoric rise in Oz.
There have certainly been UX issues in the software and the OE tyres on the Atto were found to be not fit for purpose but a lot of that has been rectified. Which has impacted the starting price.
Cheap Chinese made utes in Oz are not a novelty. EV and hybrid utes very much are. The only EV ute is from GWM (battery version of the current ute) and it’s widely agreed to be problematic and expensive. There is no hybrid. Yet. Ford, Toyota and Mitsubishi will have offerings next year (with VW and Nissan to naturally follow thanks to badge engineering) so it’s only natural that the Chinese and Koreans will be in shortly (Kia is launching the Tasman pick-up shortly).
The catch is it will be tariffed to a very high price when it comes to the US. That’s what got traditional European car makers attention and they are trying to get the EU to do the same, because the Chinese manufacturers are poised to eat their lunch.
and funnily enough Stellantis announced they will buy 20% of a Chinese manufacturer called Leapmotors https://www.auto123.com/en/news/stellantis-leapmotor-affordable-electric-vehicles/70872/
There is a reason that the original Chinese designed and built ship is called a junk. Now stealing tech etc and buying shut down names to label stolen technology as a old time local built car only confuses idiots and let’s more aware pretend they aren’t buying slave labor, stolen technology, and arming the Chinese against weaker neighbors
With the impressive payload capacity of our new mid-size pickup, you’ll finally be able to Bury Your Dreams.
The catch is longevity
What’s the catch? It’s a BYD.
When the components that allow for it are mass produced, increasing the peak power available with electric drive systems is stupid cheap. The difference in per-unit production cost between a 50 horsepower EV drive system and a 500 horsepower one, in mass production, can be less than $1,000. Lithium-ion batteries are similar to each other in terms of cost per kWh, but vary widely in terms of cost per kW, and it is often the case that an extremely power-dense battery will cost similarly to one with 1/10th the power density, but cost per kWh of capacity will also be close between the two. To get another 10% in gravimetric energy density, often tradeoffs are made, such as reduced power density by 80% or more.
Thus, it is plausible that this 488 horsepower truck could end up selling for Ford Maverick money.
EVs and plug-in hybrids are a massive threat to the existing business model that relies upon price discrimination and creating a linear relationship between horsepower and cost, and the Chinese seem more than willing to upset some apple carts. In fact, Chinese slave labor isn’t even necessary to pull this off, but use it they will.
I think the EV market will get very interesting when someone makes an extremely aerodynamic sedan or hatchback that gets 200+ miles range on a 30 kWh pack and sells for under $20,000, and THEN comes with Dodge Charger Hellcat like straight-line performance that can drain the entire battery in a few minutes if desired. It can be done, it’s just a question if someone will do so. So far, the Tesla Model 3 performance is arguably the best bargain in automotive performance today, and the margins on that car are quite fat compared to its competition.
“In addition, reported range falls far short of its rating on the admittedly optimistic WLTP cycle.”
My view as an OEM engineer is that the WLTP isn’t optimistic, but that most drivers can’t be bothered to even try to drive economically. Until I did formal eco driver training I didn’t realise how bad at it I was, and I got the training as a prize for winning an eco driver competition (which seemed like an odd prize, it should have gone to the loser). Also any journalist testing the abilities of a car is definitely going to bust the economy target by trying out the performance in a straight line and flinging it round some corners. It’s part of the job.
The purpose of the WLTP isn’t to tell you how much range you’ll have with your use case, it’s a repeatable comparative tool so you can identify which cars are more economical. Like 0-60 testing tells you which car is fastest without guaranteeing that you’ll hit that 0-60 every time you accelerate regardless of technique or intention.
The catch is slave labour. Or not. Honestly who knows anymore, and I doubt your average consumer really cares.
Don’t kid yourself that patriotic ‘Mericans and ‘Strayans wouldn’t buy these by the ship load the if they’re half decent and hit the right price point.
Toyota/Honda sold crappy little rust buckets (reliable, but still crappy) back in the day, and they had no issue entering the American Market despite half the population grumbling about Pearl Harbour.
Ford/Chevy sells crappy little rust buckets (reliable, but still crappy) currently. I’m emphasizing the rust part.
Neighbor is a huge no Chinesium has to be built in Canada or the USA guy, he drives a Chevy Trax
I bet he’s very proud of his made in PRC Milwaukee tools.
Nearly everything is made in China. The difference is if you buy a brand-name product made in China, it will be made to that brand’s specification and quality control, whereas if you buy the cheaper, Chinese knock-off, it won’t be made to the same standard. Case in point are my Ryobi 18v power tools – no way I’d buy a non-Ryobi battery or battery charger via AliExpress or Amazon.
Personally, I prefer to not buy stuff made in China, but it’s not easy, so if I want quality, I will buy the brand name if the only choice is Chinese- made.
CCP, slave labor (even if not highly underpaid labor), CCP, extremely unethical business practices, CCP, apparently terrible quality, CCP.
US Southern States allows minor to work, Hyundai factory in Alabama hired someone as young as 12.. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-hyundai-subsidiary-has-used-child-labor-alabama-factory-2022-07-22/
Underage labor is like the least of the problems for minors in the South.
All states allow minors to work if it’s farm work.
I used to believe that bullshit, too.
China has the same kind of slaves as everywhere else: wage slaves.
Well, Chinese cars are here already – we get the Volvo S90, Polestar 2, and Buick Envision, and Canada previously got Chinese built Honda Fits, and there was also the short-lived Coda All-Electric and a couple 3-wheeled cyclecar variants imported by ZAP!, Snyder, and Wildfire, plus various low speed NEVs conversions of different microvan and truck models, etc.
If you want to rope in Canada, right now Canada Tesla Y come from Shanghai Gigafactory.