Changan Beats BYD to Market in Colombia with Its EREV Pickup Truck, the Changan Hunter

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Final Up to date on: eighth April 2025, 06:55 pm

A lot has been written concerning the BYD Shark, the trendy EREV pickup truck that can face some of the established segments of the legacy auto trade within the creating world and Oceania … for now.

However BYD will not be the one participant aiming for a chunk of this profitable phase. Changan has additionally arrived with its personal EREV pickup, the Changan Hunter, and it has truly overwhelmed BYD to carry the primary of such automobiles to the Colombian market.

The Changan Hunter

I don’t usually report on particular person automobiles, however the Hunter is necessary in a single metric I think about elementary for EV adoption: value. At COP$160’000.000 (USD$36,400), the Changan Hunter beats all its legacy competitors: it’s cheaper than the Toyota Hilux ($40,000), the Ford Ranger ($41,400), and the Nissan Frontier ($45,000).

The Hunter is 5.6 meters lengthy, can carry as much as 800 kg, and is powered by a 31 kWh battery (sufficient for 140 km of driving), two electrical motors (70kW within the entrance, 90kW within the rear), and a 2L gasoline generator, promising 800 km with a full tank. There’s a smaller, costlier “luxurious” model for individuals who don’t need a work truck, however as an alternative a extra commute-oriented one.

(Cue a touch upon how wasteful it’s to purchase big automobiles to take you to work, however, hey, a minimum of this one probably gained’t burn oil, and the battery can be as small because the one in a city-car.)

The Hunter arrived in late March, and that month 3 gross sales had been recorded. Numbers are anticipated to go up in April. As a sidenote, the Hunter can be supplied in different markets (like Mexico) as a full ICEV, it’s solely in Colombia that this denomination is unique for the EREV model.

Alternatives within the Pickup Truck Market

There’s just one different phase that has up to now reached value parity within the Colombian market: midsize sedans (due to the GAC Aion ES and the Dongfeng S50, each beginning round $22,500), however it is a very small phase, promoting only some dozen models a month. Rather more necessary is the compact sedan phase, which has zero EV representatives as of at the moment.

In the meantime, the pickup truck phase sells effectively over a thousand models a month, and over half of those gross sales are roughly on par with the Hunter’s specs. Changan has been a distinct segment model in Colombia for years, averaging fewer than 100 month-to-month gross sales, so this might be its probability to interrupt out of that slumber and turn into a notable model within the nation.

Nonetheless, it is going to take a while for them to realize the status solely BYD has gotten up to now, and for that, the Hunter might want to show itself a succesful work automobile, a snug journey, and a dependable machine. Affordability performs a big function firstly (motivating those that would in any other case sit on the fence or go along with extra conventional manufacturers), however it is going to solely pay within the medium time period, when (if) it turns into paired with confidence and belief.

Changan is a “conventional” automaker in China and it has even arrived in different Latin American nations (like Mexico) specializing in common combustion automobiles. In Colombia, it has a number of ICEV choices which have up to now executed very poorly, and all development has come from its NEV portfolio — with the Deepal and Lumin manufacturers, and now the Hunter. This serves as an illustration on how “conventional” ICEV producers in China are specializing in their strengths, leaving the combustion paradigm behind and getting into creating markets with aggressive EV choices, reaching what they didn’t do within the 2010s when their ICE automobiles clearly weren’t as much as the duty of competing with Legacy Auto.

Given the worth the Hunter presents, I might anticipate it to get a minimum of 10% of the pickup market within the nation by late 2025 or early 2026 (which might almost triple Changan gross sales). That is until we see a string of dangerous evaluations within the coming weeks that time to awful high quality. Let’s wait and see how far off the mark I find yourself being.

Ultimate Ideas

I realized one thing when writing this text: it appears most of our pickup vans right here in Colombia come from Argentina. The three hottest fashions (which I quoted firstly) are all Argentinian, the fourth one (the Chevrolet Colorado) is Brazilian.

Which means Changan (and BYD) are threatening the very coronary heart of Legacy Auto in South America, the long-standing crops within the industrial corridors of the South Cone. As long as these are changed by Chinese language factories, I doubt Brazil and Argentina would care, however till they’re, these two economies is also affected by a transition that’s occurring at full swing.

Nonetheless, the truth that most of our pickup vans come from the South implies that these producers are considerably protected in opposition to the antics of Donald Trump. Ought to these pickup vans come from Mexico as an alternative, we might be seeing vital value hikes as a result of tariffs, and this might massively assist Changan promote its Hunter; as an alternative, it appears it should compete in additional “honest” situations.

Might this function a reminder on how badly this commerce warfare might damage USA’s firms, and the way different areas (together with China and the EU, but in addition Brazil and Argentina as we see right here) could discover alternatives within the cracks that open as soon as North American made automobiles turn into much less and fewer reasonably priced.