- Reviewers from the U.S. got a BYD Shark plug-in hybrid pickup to review in Texas.
- They had almost exclusively good things to say about it and concluded that it's a great truck, especially for the money.
Americans view Chinese products as not quite as good as what you can buy from the U.S., Europe or Japan, but the new BYD Shark will make them reconsider it. The Shark is not perfect, but it gets so many things right that you can call it a win for BYD.
It was recently reviewed by The Fast Lane Truck in El Paso, Texas and the guys had almost exclusively good things to say about it. They drove a Shark registered in Mexico, which was almost fully loaded, and it cost the equivalent of roughly $47,000. That sounds like a very good deal for a midsize truck, especially given the complexity of its powertrain, which has two electric motors and a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine spinning a generator.
The engine also directly drives the front wheels in certain situations like when cruising at higher speeds. The Shark is, therefore, an extended-range EV whose engine mostly powers a generator, but which can also power the vehicle directly.
The reviewers from TFL note that on the move you don’t hear the gas engine at all, which is completely different from one of the few range extenders we’ve driven, the Mazda MX-30 R-EV, whose rotary generator made its presence felt. The Shark also has more electric range than the Mazda, and apparently, it achieves its predicted range of around 60 miles from its 29.6-kilowatt-hour battery pack.
It’s also pretty quick. They measured it from zero to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds, which is on-par with the manufacturer-claimed 0 to 100 km/h in 5.7 seconds. The only negative points they found regarding the driving experience was the suspension, which they found caused the vehicle to be a bit bouncy over bumps, and the brake feel, which felt inconsistent and hard to modulate at times.
There was little to criticize about its interior, which seemed extremely solid and well put-together. The big central infotainment screen not only runs smoothly thanks to its excellent hardware, but it also offers both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. You can also rotate the screen to either have it in a landscape or portrait orientation.
They found the second row of seats to be surprisingly spacious too. A six-footer can comfortably sit behind a six-foot driver, placing it in the same league as larger trucks. The bed is just over five feet long and about as wide as its midsize competitors, and BYD doesn’t charge extra for the bed liner, which is sprayed on from the factory as standard.
Overall, this seems like a solid truck that would certainly find buyers in the U.S. with its blend of good electric range, gadgets, build quality and affordability. The fact that it’s so competent explains the rush to increase import tariffs on Chinese-made cars—it’s because they have genuinely become very good and they would pose a real threat to the local manufacturers, which is why the government is trying to protect them.
