The BYD Shark has been slowly encroaching on global automotive markets. Cheap Chinese vehicles like the Shark have already been on sale for some time in Mexico and Australia, where they’re threatening the stronghold American automakers have on the industry. In fact, Australian outlet CarExpert pitted the popular Ford Ranger Raptor against the BYD Shark already – and now that the new and improved Shark 6 is out, it’s AutoTrader‘s turn for a race between the two competitors.
Chad Luckhoff and Sam da Fonseca take both pickups to the drag strip to find out which one outperforms the other in a test of straight-line speed. The BYD Shark 6 features a hybridized engine, while the Ford Ranger Raptor relies on a gasoline-only powerhouse. Luckhoff notes that it’s impossible to get the Shark 6 to 100 percent since it’s a plug-in hybrid, and driving it away from the charger for even a moment starts to chew up some of the charge.
It’s also quite a bit heavier than the Ranger Raptor, potentially putting it at a disadvantage. That said, the Ranger Raptor will be driven by race car driver Anthony Lessing, meaning it’s given a fighting chance.
The crew sets up for the first race. The Ford Ranger Raptor lunges off the line first, but the BYD Shark 6 isn’t far behind. In fact, the Chinese pickup absolutely ditches the Ranger Raptor toward the end of the race, despite having a worse start. The second race produces almost identical results – the Ford Ranger Raptor has superior line-breaking performance, but when the Shark 6 gets up to speed, there’s nothing that can be done to rein in its momentum.
“I’m personally feeling really surprised,” da Fonseca says. “The battle of David and Goliath.”
Lessing says that he gave the Ranger Raptor all it had, but he couldn’t ask anymore of it. The BYD, in his opinion, is really strong, but at the end of the day, it’s just a faster vehicle. Despite depleting its battery, it didn’t break a sweat, indicating that it has quite a bit of power – enough to threaten the Ford Ranger Raptor.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the Ranger Raptor, though. It’s a mighty fine truck on its own, beating out two of its closest rivals in a drag race a few years ago.
Comments
Try racing the Shark against the North American Ranger Raptor and not the neutered rest of world version…
WHO CARES?
All that technology and weight just to equal the output of the first iteration of the 7.3 Godzilla, give or take a few. I would HOPE with numbers like that, it’s faster than a factory tuned 3.0 V6 Ecoboost.
Who cares…why don’t you load them both up to capacity and let us know the range. That would be a more useful test than drag racing pickups