Drag race: 2026 JAC Hunter vs BYD Shark – 0-100 & comparison

Just having a look at the figures here for this new Jack Hunter. Now, it produces 360 kilowatts, which is class-leading power, and 1010 newton meters, which is also class-leading as far as I know. Now, I've tested a lot of cars, probably over a thousand cars, over the last, you know, 10 years or so, and I've developed a bit of a sense of what power and torque feels like. Not because I've done anything special, but just the sheer number of cars I've tested, especially doing performance testing with the V-Box. The Jack Hunter does not feel like it produces 360 kilowatts and 1000 newton meters. It just doesn't feel there. I've tried all the different modes, I've had the battery at, you know, maximum charge and all that, just doesn't feel like it's there. Now, there's a couple of theories that could be, you know, the reason for that. One of them is, I don't mean to suggest that they're misleading us with figures, but it could be down to the way they've measured those numbers. So, most manufacturers will give you the power and torque figure from the engine. So, directly from the crankshaft, the first thing that comes, first area where the energy comes out, that's where the power and torque comes, is measured. But there's another way you can test power and torque. It's at the wheels. So, say you've got a petrol engine, it's spinning energy down through a driveshaft, through a gearbox, down into a differential, then it gets split through another shaft or through gearing, and then through another shaft, eventually to the wheels. And if you measure it from there, power is usually a bit lower because of all that energy required to turn all that stuff, but torque is usually higher because of the mechanical advantage of gearing, actually multiplies the torque. So, electric vehicles, you might see some crazy torque figures of, you know, 10,000 Newton meters. That's at the wheels. So, it's a little bit different compared with a petrol or diesel engine at the engine. Now, that could be what Jack has done here, but 1,000 Newton meters probably doesn't seem like enough for a powerful electric motor. The front electric driving motor produces 130 kilowatts of peak power and 300 Newton meters of peak torque, while the rear electric motor provides 150 kilowatts and 340 Newton meters. Now, if you combine those figures together, you get 640 Newton meters and then peak power about 280 kilowatts. That's kind of what it feels like from behind the wheel. So, anyway, let's apply some science to what's going on here by doing a virtual drag race with the new BYD Shark Performance. Now, these two have very similar powertrain setups. In the Shark, you've got a two litre turbo petrol four-cylinder engine that acts pretty much as a generator most of the time to supply energy to electric motors. They combine to produce 350 kilowatts and 750 Newton meters. In the Shark, the petrol engine can power the front wheels directly, so as in the crankshaft actually goes down in some shape or form through shafts and so on, into the front wheels and directly powers the front wheels. Same sort of setup with this Jack Hunter as well. Likewise, the Jack features a two litre turbo petrol engine. It produces 160 kilowatts and 370 Newton meters alone. And if you're a maths fan, you'll see that torque figure, 370 Newton meters plus the 640 of the two electric motors combined, you've got 1010 Newton meters. That's not usually the way manufacturers will report their figures because it's not exactly precise like that. That's why, you know, a Toyota Camry hybrid, there's no torque figure for it because it all depends on the way the whole system is working. So although it does have, yes, 1000 Newton meters of torque, let's see if it can beat the BYD Shark, which has less power and a lot less torque. Interestingly, the Shark weighs a lot more as well. It's got a curb weight of 2775 kilograms, while the Jack Hunter weighs just 2555 kilograms. That means you've got a power to weight ratio of 126 kilowatts per tonne in the Jack Hunter. In other words, the Jack Hunter should easily beat the Shark. Let's see how they go. There we go. The BYD Shark performance easily out-accelerates the Jack Hunter, despite having less power, a lot less torque, and carrying a lot more weight. That's the same sort of conditions, the same B-box, the same driver, the same piece of tarmac, and yeah, it's able to beat the Jack Hunter. I think the figures for the Jack Hunter are, you know, on purpose trying to stand out against the rivals, but they're not truly representative of what you're getting behind the wheel, as we just saw. Look, does it matter? Not really. They're not drag cars, they're not sports cars, although that brochure does say class-leading power, which is suggestive of it being, you know, standing out in some way in terms of performance. But yeah, in reality, you're not getting that. The hybrid system in the the Jack Hunter is nowhere near as refined as the BYD Shark. It's just very clunky, and you can really notice when it goes from electric power to the petrol engine. Kind of reminds me of an old VCR, when you load in the cassette tape, it's like and starts loading. That's kind of like this. You can actually hear it start the engine, and then it's like got some gearing happening, where it's transferring the power over, or whatever it's doing. Yeah, it's just very noticeable, whereas the BYD Shark is super smooth. You hardly notice the petrol engine start up, and then when it does start up, it's just, there's no difference in feel behind, you know, it doesn't push you in the back or jerk you around. This does a little bit. You could say that that's part of the sort of cost difference. The BYD Shark is around $10,000 more than this sort of top-spec Jack Hunter X. Where's that $10,000 going? Well, in areas like that, I believe anyway, because yes, they are different. There's a definite difference in the way these things drive, even though they are fundamentally the same. In terms of being a ute, the Jack Hunter, well for starters, it doesn't come with a damp tailgate, doesn't come with any power sockets in the back, like the Shark has three Aussie outlets on the side, on the wall there. Also, in terms of carrying and loading capacities, they both offer three and a half ton towing capacity, and they both, interestingly, have 375 kilograms of leftover GBM at three and a half ton towing. So, which is not bad. It's not the best in its class for, you know, compared with the diesel utes. Some of them offer up to 500 kilograms of leftover GBM. But yeah, basically, you can hook up a three and a half ton trailer, legally, and still have 375 kilograms left over for any passengers or any cargo you want to put in the back of this tray. That's pretty much a full family, well, not quite a full family, and you're over the limit. So there are definitely other utes out there that will do better at that, if that's what you're planning. But I mean, it is good that we have these options on the market now, because they can be quite efficient. You can charge this up with DC power, you could drive this to work every day and not use any petrol at all. You can force it into that EV mode, and yeah, you could run it as an EV, which is pretty unique really. And then on the weekend, hook up a big boat or something, or a caravan on the back, and use it like a ute. And then also, you've got the off-road capability as well. This comes with front and rear diff locks, the Shark doesn't offer that. It does have clever off-road driving modes that have been updated since the first iteration of the BYD Shark, but I think this would be better off-road overall because of those diff locks. There's more info on the off-road capability in the full review of the Jack Hunter, and I'll take on the hill climb so you can see how it goes there. But what do you think? Would you rather pay $10,000 more to get something that's a little bit quicker, or save, you know, pocket $10,000, and then perhaps add some accessories to the Jack Hunter? Let me know in the comments.