Senior executives from BYD Australia have let slip of a new off-roader undergoing testing in Queensland – and signs are pointing to a new Hyundai Santa Fe competitor.
At a media event this week, chief operating officer Stephen Collins revealed the company now has five full-time engineers in Australia, who are working closely with dozens of engineers from BYD’s head office in China.
“I actually have my team up in Queensland doing some local evaluation with some of the R&D managers from a few core projects,” chief product officer Sajid Hasan told CarExpert.
While the executive team wouldn’t be drawn on what model was being tested, Mr Hasan confirmed it was an off-road vehicle with either a plug-in hybrid powertrain or an electric vehicle with a range-extending petrol engine.
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“They are tuning the suspension, electric motor output, petrol motor output, acceleration response, traction control system – there’s a bit of an off-road exercise that’s happening at the moment – and that tune will be deployed for the Australian vehicles. So, it’s happening, and it’s very exciting,” he said.
A strong possibility is the vehicle being the Fangchengbao Ti7, which could be launched in Australia as a five-seater rival to the Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento, and the Toyota Kluger – likely under BYD’s premium brand, Denza.
Given the Denza lineup currently consists of the B5 and B8, it’s possible the Ti7 could be rebadged as the B7 to maintain consistency.
Available with either single or dual electric motors, the Ti7 comes with a 26.6kWh or 35.6kWh battery for between 100 and 200km of electric driving range, and utilises a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine as a range extender – theoretically allowing the vehicle to drive for up to 1300km without stopping.
Despite having a monocoque chassis – rather than a ladder-frame chassis, as is more common with off-road vehicles – the Ti7 has adaptive suspension, a wading depth of 600mm, and approach and departure angles of 24 and 25 degrees, respectively.
“[Our engineer] called me up … to give me an update, and he was just saying how fantastic it was because they had the laptops out making live updates,” Mr Hasan said.
“He was just saying ‘Wow, what we drove yesterday versus today – same car – but after we made those updates, dramatically different’ and he was flying.”
BYD has previously alluded to a larger, heavy-duty ute to sit above the Shark 6 being in development, but this has yet to be spotted out in the wild.
With the B5 and B8 plug-in hybrid off-roaders already on sale in Australia under the Denza brand, and the Shark 6 plug-in hybrid ute sold by BYD, it leaves just two range-extender EVs from the company ready for local sale: the Fangchengbao Ti7, and the Yangwang U8.
Given prototype vehicles have been spied testing across Australia over the past 12 months, it’s possible the mysterious model could be the Yangwang U8 – a luxury off-road electric car priced from approximately A$250,000 in China.
The U8 is fitted with four electric motors, making a total of 880kW and 1280Nm, giving the vehicle a claimed 0-100km/h sprint time of just 3.6 seconds – despite weighing 3460kg.
The 49kWh ‘Blade’ battery provides up to 180 kilometres of electric driving range, with a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine allowing for a combined range of more than 1000km.
Yet the Yangwang U8’s real party piece is its ability to traverse deep water for up to 30 minutes.
However, senior officials have previously been on record downplaying the likelihood of the Yangwang U8 being added to the Australian lineup, saying the luxury off-road vehicle was still several years away.
According to comments made in January 2025, the U8 wouldn’t go on sale until the Denza brand was well established in this market.
All of this strongly suggests the Fangchengbao Ti7 is currently on the ground in Queensland and receiving local tuning ahead of its launch under the Denza brand in 2026.