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 business within the growing world and Oceania … for now.

However BYD isn’t 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 really overwhelmed BYD to convey 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: worth. 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, dearer “luxury” model for individuals who don’t desire a work truck, however as a substitute a extra commute-oriented one.

(Cue a touch upon how wasteful it’s to purchase big automobiles to take you to work, however, hey, not less than this one doubtlessly received’t burn oil, and the battery can also 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 also be provided 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 to date reached worth parity within the Colombian market: midsize sedans (due to the GAC Aion ES and the Dongfeng S50, each beginning round $22,500), however this can be a very small phase, promoting only some dozen items a month. Rather more necessary is the compact sedan phase, which has zero EV representatives as of at this time.

In the meantime, the pickup truck phase sells properly over a thousand items 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 may very well be its probability to interrupt out of that slumber and change into a notable model within the nation.

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

Changan is a “traditional” automaker in China and it has even arrived in different Latin American international locations (like Mexico) specializing in common combustion automobiles. In Colombia, it has a number of ICEV choices which have to date achieved 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 “traditional” ICEV producers in China are specializing in their strengths, leaving the combustion paradigm behind and getting into growing markets with aggressive EV choices, attaining what they did not 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 gives, I might anticipate it to get not less than 10% of the pickup market within the nation by late 2025 or early 2026 (which might almost triple Changan gross sales). That is except we see a string of unhealthy opinions within the coming weeks that time to awful high quality. Let’s wait and see how far off the mark I find yourself being.

Last Ideas

I realized one thing when writing this text: it appears most of our pickup vehicles 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.

Because of this Changan (and BYD) are threatening the very coronary heart of Legacy Auto in South America, the long-standing vegetation 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 happening at full swing.

Nonetheless, the truth that most of our pickup vehicles come from the South implies that these producers are considerably protected towards the antics of Donald Trump. Ought to these pickup vehicles come from Mexico as a substitute, we may very well be seeing vital worth hikes on account of tariffs, and this might massively assist Changan promote its Hunter; as a substitute, it appears it must compete in additional “fair” circumstances.

Might this function a reminder on how badly this commerce battle may 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) might discover alternatives within the cracks that open as soon as North American made automobiles change into much less and fewer inexpensive.