China-made BYD Shark pickup is a predator circling global truck market

DETROIT — There’s a Shark circling one of the greatest profit pools for American automakers globally, as Chinese automaker BYD Auto expands its reach and product portfolio with a pickup truck.

Without the vehicle’s branding badge, the BYD Shark could pass as an American-made product. In many ways, it looks like a smaller pickup from Ford Motor. The China-made truck features uncanny exterior resemblances to a Ford Explorer mixed with the popular F-150 — part of the Ford brand’s best-selling truck lineup in the U.S. for 48 years.

Much like BYD’s Seagull — a small all-electric hatchback that starts at just 69,800 yuan (or less than $10,000) — there’s fear among global automakers that Chinese rivals like the Warren Buffett-backed BYD could flood their markets, undercutting domestic production and vehicle prices to the detriment of their own auto industries.

BYD has…