BYD ute pricing to blow Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger ‘out of the water’

Outspoken local BYD importer Luke Todd expects the pricing of the Chinese brand’s first ute to blow the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger “out of the water” when it launches here in late 2024.

And he’s matching the bullish ambitions on price with a confidence that the first ever BYD pick-up will better any rival on technology, driving capability and design.

“This thing is the car… everyone in the market for a ute will want to be driving,” he told carsales at lats week’s Japan Mobility Show. “It does everything and more.”

Todd also claims to have more than 20,000 registrations of interest for the as-yet-unnamed dual-cab ute, which has just entered production in China.

The first example of the plug-in hybrid ute is also now arriving in Australia for local testing by a group of expert local engineers, just days after a patent image leaked online.

BYD has a strong local history with aggressive pricing. The Atto 3 small electric SUV has achieved high sales based on its sub-$50,000 launch price tag announced in 2022, the recently-released Dolphin electric hatch is now Australia’s cheapest EV and starts below $40,000, and the Seal electric sedan undercuts the Tesla Model 3 by nearly 20 per cent.

“We have proven now with the Atto 3, the Dolphin and the Seal especially, to come in at prices no-one was expecting,” said Todd.

“We have no intent other than doing that with every model we bring to Australia.

“We want to keep setting new benchmarks for what the new ‘affordable luxury’ is. I can’t give you pricing for the ute because it is still in development, but expect to see that we are always going to be extremely pricing competitive.

“[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.”

Utes are the second-biggest sales segment in the Australian new-vehicle market and the HiLux and Ranger are the two biggest players. Pricing for their dual-cab 4x4 variants start around $50,000 and can extend beyond $80,000.

Could a BYD dual-cab start in the low $40K range? That’s what the Seal’s price differential suggests.

Combine the expected pricing with the interest already shown and Todd is clearly expecting the BYD ute to take a big chunk of sales off the established players.

“We respect them [established ute makers] but we don’t fear them,” Todd said.

“We have more than 20,000 registered interest already on our website and we haven’t announced the vehicle for official sale or anything yet,” he said.

“For us to have that much interest in the vehicle already makes us pretty excited for what we can achieve when we get it on to the market.”

While BYD has no previous experience with utes, Todd says the quality of recent products such as the Seal is evidence it will be at the top of its class.

“The Seal is better technology than anything that is coming out from any other automotive manufacturer in the world,” said Todd. “That’s why we have so much confidence in the pick-up, it’s the same thing.

“It’s a ground-up platform … same design team and then we have had the Australian influence and some American influence as well because of their desire for pick-ups.”

The plug-in BYD ute will use the company’s DM-i (dual mode intelligence) powertrain, which combines a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine and dual electric motors for a reported power output of 364kW, making it more powerful than the Ford Ranger Raptor.

BYD has been a purely EV brand in Australia until now, but the ute will be among the first combustion-powered models released Down Under by the Chinese brand and its local importer, EVDirect.

A plug-in hybrid mid-size SUV is due on sale here by mid-2024, followed by the huge Yangwang U8 plug-in hybrid large SUV in 2025.

BYD’s PHEV ute is set for launch ahead of the Ford Ranger PHEV and a year ahead of its own fully battery-electric sibling.

Todd has no doubt that launching the petrol-electric dual-cab ute here in late 2024 is the right call, rather than waiting a year for the battery-electric version.

“Why I am so happy we ended up bringing this one [and not wait for the EV] is that you get the best of both worlds,” Todd said.

“You can get more than 100km on pure electric and then flip over to the dual motor technology and we are going to have a vehicle of 1000km or more range.

“It’s a game-changer in my opinion.”

As we’ve previously reported, the BYD PHEV ute will come with vehicle to load (V2L) charging capability to power camping equipment, power tools and other electrical equipment.

Todd admitted some key ute numbers, such as power, torque, payload and braked towing capacity are yet to be finalised. The EV’s target range between recharges is also yet to be publicly named.

“We already know a [braked towing] number [for the PHEV], but what we are doing in Australia is pushing it to an even higher level to see what we can comfortably advertise it at.

“It won’t be the highest towing capacity in the segment, but it’s definitely not the lowest either,” he promised.

Spy photos: Car News China

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