"Influencers" paid $20K - $40K to attend BYD Shark 6 demo

[whynot]

Latest Car Expert video review has been released on the BYD Shark 6. There is an interesting little section from 5:15 through to 7:20 where Paul discusses how he was offered money to attend the event. There are screen captures of emails offering $20K and $40K. Paul stated he declined to attend, hence the delay in Car Expert conducting a review of the vehicle.

One would hope that the ACCC will take some interest if none of the influencers videos disclose they received payment from BYD, as under ACCC guidelines they should.





As for the review itself ... my takeaways are that the Shark 6 is an impressive vehicle, but is still missing some refinement / calibration. Some of this seems an easy fix. For example, the Shark failed a hill climb, as the electronics called quits for a lack of traction reason. Decent all terrain tyres would help. So to would a recalibration of the traction control.

It will be interesting to watch the development of the Shark over the next few years.

[smoo]

Yeah, well most of these journos/influencers get a rock hard rager over all of this cheap Chinese shit so what other back handlers are they receiving.

That traction control is woeful, despite the presenter being impressed with it. The LR Diccovery 2 I used to own is more responsive than that and has a system around 25 years old.

Note he said it ran out of juice thrashing it around the track and it wouldn’t go any faster, wondering if it hit top speed or the battery/engine couldn’t keep up with load demand. This is what I suspect is going to happen with these things especially when they are loaded up to GCM. Betting there’s gonna be a whole lot of butt hurt owners who’ve taken the boat or van away on a maiden trip and will have to call it quits or stop every 200km for a breather.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by smoo

Yeah, well most of these journos/influencers get a rock hard rager over all of this cheap Chinese shit so what other back handlers are they receiving.

Most of the press days are junkets for journos to attend so long as they are not critical of the products.
What does that say about journalistic freedom/integrity?

That traction control is woeful, despite the presenter being impressed with it. The LR Diccovery 2 I used to own is more responsive than that and has a system around 25 years old.

Note he said it ran out of juice thrashing it around the track and it wouldn’t go any faster, wondering if it hit top speed or the battery/engine couldn’t keep up with load demand. This is what I suspect is going to happen with these things especially when they are loaded up to GCM. Betting there’s gonna be a whole lot of butt hurt owners who’ve taken the boat or van away on a maiden trip and will have to call it quits or stop every 200km for a breather.

No doubt Shark 6 is attracting significant attention from certain buyers but yeah,
I suspect that it will use up a lot of its electric range when it meets a big right foot.

I smiled when watching the traction control tests, I wondered if Paul was accentuating
the problem with wheel spin or if the system doesn’t cope with more extreme off roading,
maybe the Chinese don’t understand bush driving, it did have basic road tyres on it…

[Wretched]

Nothing new. "Influencers" have been paid for years to do this.
I remember Chris Harris interviewing Alex Goy about it in around 2018/19.

The point they raised was it worked for the manufacturers because they had a bigger following than the journos and it was guaranteed positive publicity.

I think now though, it has started to swing back to journos or more balanced reviews as we see journos and the like leverage social media for their reviews and gain big following. Think of Harry's garage, Throttle House, The Late Brake show, etc.