Those of you who have been on the lookout for an electric ute will be excited to hear the news that the BYD Shark plug-in hybrid ute will be coming to Australia very soon.  It’s already made its debut in Mexico (which meant that I had to dust off my Spanish to bring you the details; one of the few things that gave me pause was an “elevator cat” in the security features – took me a while to realise they were talking about the jack).  Although time will tell exactly what will make its way across the world to the showrooms of Melbourne, Sydney and more, we can get an idea of what the 2024 BYD Shark is all about – aside from the clever logo design with the shark fin in the A.  It’s made a star appearance across the Tasman at the Southern Hemisphere’s largest agricultural field day, which gave us a chance to find out more and let you know all about it.

Reports say that it’s on the larger side for utes, being a shade bigger than its main rivals, the Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux.  The styling is typical of a big, tough ute, hinting that it will be able to do the business and go everywhere, which, given its AWD drivetrain, it will be able to do (the It vaunted attack angle is 31°, the exit angle is 19.3° and the maximum angle of ascent is 30°).  It has a maximum payload of 835 kg, with the top braked towing capacity listed as 2500 kg.

In contrast to BYD’s rather cute little urban offerings such as the Dolphin, the dominant geometry is square and chunky.  “Cute” is probably not the word that springs to mind, although it’s aesthetically pleasing enough, especially BYD’s hallmark full-width LED light bar.  The paint options are all appropriate for something named Shark, with white, grey and black being your choices.  Cue the jokes about the white ones (what with white being a popular colour and everything) about Great White Sharks.  Specifically, it’s 5457 mm long, 1971 mm wide, and 1925 mm high as it sits on its 18-inch alloy wheels. 

The Shark is powered by a 1.5-litre petrol engine plus BYD’s extra-tough Blade Li-ion battery that can handle more rigorous conditions than the standard EV battery, which is a must for a ute that is likely to be driven over some rough stuff.  The battery has been incorporated into the design of the chassis for extra structural strength.  If you opt for the electric motor alone, you get 100 km of battery range, and the battery can go from 30% to 80% in a mere 20 minutes when hooked up to a DC fast charging outlet.  With both the battery and the petrol engine working together, you can motor on for 840 km. 

The vehicle to load function of the battery means that the battery is designed to charge other devices if needed, rather like a battery bank.  Of course, this will mean that your battery range will go down if you use this function, but it’s certainly handy to have, especially if you use your 2024 BYD Shark to tow a caravan and you want to power some of the appliances in the caravan.

The Blade battery system powers two electric motors, one for the front and one for the rear.  The front motor puts out 170 kW of power and 310 Nm of torque; the one at the back delivers a shade less power (150 kW) and some more torque (350 Nm).  This is harnessed to the 320-kW petrol engine that powers front wheels only, allowing the 2024 BYD Shark to do the 0–100 km test in 5.7 seconds.  The driver can select a number of driving and terrain modes: Mud, Sand, Snow, Eco, Sport and Normal.

Inside the capacious interior, you’ll find a good helping of leather trim and all the mod cons – at least that’s what we’ll get if we end up getting the varieties (species?) of BYD Shark that they have in Mexico.  These are dominated by the 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and 12.8-inch infotainment system.  You’ll find lots of handy storage spaces, a dual-zone climate control with air ionization, a useful heads-up display and wireless phone charging. It offers plenty of room for passengers – as you’d expect from a big twincab ute – and a full complement of airbags and seatbelts, with the front seatbelts being pretensioned and load-limited. The sound system has a rather fun karaoke function (and a handheld microphone to play with; this is one of the optional extras), although you need the right app to do this.  Apple’s keyless entry by smartphone is also possible – if you’ve got this app, tap the phone on the sensor on the driver’s side wing mirror and the door opens.  Voice recognition and standard in-car apps (Android Auto and Apple CarPlay) round out the main infotainment features. The BYD Shark’s voice control goes beyond the features we traditionally associate with this tech (communications and navigation) and also operates the windows and the temperature.  Just say, “Hey, BYD!” and the magic happens (I assume that the Australian versions of the BYD Shark will have this feature but it will speak English – the Mexican spec sheet felt it had to stress that their version spoke Spanish).

One of the stand-out driver aids in the 2024 BYD Shark would have to be the camera system.  On top of a very good 360-degree camera, it has a 180-degree sub-chassis camera, giving the driver a good view of what’s down below. This is such a handy feature for a vehicle that’s designed for off-rod use, as you can spot obstacles very easily.  Other useful driver aids and active safety features found in the BYD Shark GS include adaptive cruise control, intelligent navigation, frontal collision alert, front and rear cross-traffic collision alert, lane change and lane departure warnings, emergency lane change assistance, automatic emergency braking, blind spot warning, and front and rear parking sensors (they call them radars in Spanish, which sounds a lot cooler).

In 2024, they’re calling this the BYD Shark 6 , so perhaps we’ll see additions to the Shark range as time goes by.  The variants released in Mexico were known as the BYD Shark GS and BYD Shark GL, but at the time of writing, exactly which of these will arrive in Australia has not been revealed yet.  Of the two, the GS has the higher level of specs and was the basis of this review.

For any more information on the new 2024 Audi RS Q8, for that matter any other new car, contact one of our friendly consultants on 1300 303 181.  If you’d like some fleet discount pricing (yes even for private buyers!), we can submit vehicle quote requests out to our national network of Audi dealers and come back with pricing within 24 hours.  Private Fleet – car buying made easy!