BYD Shark Plug-In Hybrid Pickup Surfaces In Mexico

By Gary Gastelu |

May 15, 2024

The Shark is circling.

Chinese electric automaker BYD on Tuesday debuted its new Shark plug-in hybrid pickup in Mexico.

The midsize truck is similar in size to the Ford Ranger and Chevrolet Colorado and aimed at a growing pickup market in the country.

It features an all-wheel-drive system that uses a turbocharged four-cylinder engine and electric motor combo to power the front wheels and another electric motor for the rear axle, with no mechanical connection between the two ends.

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Total output is 430 hp, making it more powerful than the recently launched Ford Ranger Raptor.

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Its battery pack is large enough to provide 62 miles of all-electric driving before hybrid mode is required. That figure uses the European rating system and would convert to around 47 miles using the EPA criteria.

The Shark’s exterior styling is similar to the Ford F-150 Lightning’s, with light bars wrapping both ends, while the interior has a digital instrument cluster and a touchscreen infotainment system display that can be rotated 90 degrees between landscape and portrait orientations. A transmission selector level and chunky toggle switches dominate the center console.

Pricing in Mexico starts at just more than $53,000. The Shark is currently made in China and the launch event happened on the same day that the White House announced a special 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, which would price it uncompetitively to sell in the U.S.

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BYD is planning to build a factory in Mexico with an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles, which could potentially circumvent the tariff, but the company’s chief of the Americas, Stella Li, told Reuters the company doesn’t have plans to sell the vehicle in the U.S. yet.

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“When we build a Mexican plant, we only consider the Mexican market and other countries’ markets, we have not considered the U.S.,” she added.

BYD currently sells several electric commercial vehicles in the U.S. that are built in California.