The car brands that'll change Australia's ute market forever: BYD, Chery, JAC, Foton, GWM and LDV to put the wind up the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux | Opinion

Australia’s four-wheel drive ute market is set for a major shake up in the next 12 months.

The number of Chinese brands on offer is set to swell from two to six, with at least four more cut-price entries from BYD, Chery, JAC and Foton set to redefine the segment in a big way.

By no means does that suggest we will see older, far more established rivals such as the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger squeezed out of the segment – far from it.

But the capacity of Chinese brands to quickly bring in electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid options could see those legacy brands lose crucial territory to Chinese ones in an increasingly lucrative corner of the market, particularly as emissions standards and consumer budgets tighten.

It’s little wonder then that Australia’s first hybrid ute – the GMW Cannon Alpha Ultra Hybrid – was from a Chinese brand.

So will the second, the BYD Shark 6, and the third, the Cannon Alpha plug-in hybrid, and quite possibly the fourth, the JAC T9 plug-in hybrid, and the fifth, the Chery KP11.

Demand for hybrid passenger vehicles is up 87 per cent this year to September, and while that hasn’t trickled over to utes just yet, there’s one unmissable section of the market that absolutely wants hybrid power: businesses and fleet customers.

As the mining, construction and transport sectors increasingly try to decarbonise their line-ups, hybrids are the only practical option in the light commercial vehicle sector.

And when the BYD Shark 6 offers up to 100km of pure-electric range at an estimated price of about $60,000 before on-road costs that makes it a pretty compelling option.

The Ford Ranger PHEV, which is set to arrive in late 2025, will offer just 45km of pure-electric range and likely come at a price north of $80,000.

Even if it is more popular than the Shark 6, its unlikely Ford will be able to match the production output of BYD.

It is only a matter of time until the enormous hybrid growth that is being experienced across the passenger car segment extends to the ute segment.

Customers will want more efficient utes, not only for environmental reasons and tightening government regulations, but for costs. The price of diesel is only going one way – up.

I’m not suggesting this means Japanese and American makers are done for, not in the slightest.

But the proliferation of Chinese utes with hybrid technology will certainly put legacy makers on their toes, something the market and the customer will only be better off for.