China's BYD Shark Vs. Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian R1S: ‘Exceptional Build Quality’

• BYD's Shark is a plug-in hybrid electric pickup.
• It's on sale in Mexico for less than half the price of a Tesla Cybertruck.
  
• American reviewers from The Fast Lane EV put the Chinese truck to the test against the Tesla Cybertruck and Rivian R1T.
  

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The BYD Shark is the Chinese automaker’s first-ever pickup truck, and it’s a pretty interesting one. It has two electric motors making approximately 430 horsepower and a high-voltage battery that packs around 29.5 kilowatt-hours of energy. But it also has a 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine under the hood that acts as a generator.

It’s also on sale in North America right now for half the price of the American-made Tesla Cybertruck and Rivian R1T. But there’s a catch.

The Shark is not sold in the United States, where the hiked import tariffs for Chinese-made EVs would likely make it much more expensive. In Mexico, however, a fully kitted-out Shark like the one in the Fast Lane EV video embedded at the top of this page comes out at $47,000–but that’s without the import tariffs that would have to be applied if the truck was sold in the U.S.

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That said, how does it compare to the all-American Tesla Cybertruck and Rivian R1T? For starters, the Shark is smaller than both of them, which means it has a smaller bed. Additionally, the towing capacity is just 5,500 pounds–half that of the Cybertruck.

The biggest takeaway from the video is that BYD’s PHEV truck has “exceptional build quality,” with a lot of switches inside, as opposed to the minimalist cabin of the Cybertruck.

The Shark comes with two screens and a head-up display, thus trumping even the R1T when it comes to the display count. It also has vehicle-to-load and the highest driving range out of the group thanks to that gas engine. On battery power alone, BYD says the Shark can cover about 62 miles on a full charge, with a total range of approximately 520 miles with a full tank of gas.

DC charging is possible, and while the peak rate is somewhere around 45 kW, it’s enough to go from 30% to 80% state of charge in about 20 minutes because the battery is much smaller than the Cybertruck and R1T.

In the bed, the Chinese-made EV comes with three 110-volt outlets for powering tools or appliances, and there’s also vehicle-to-load capability through an adapter that plugs into the charging port.

It’s not all good, though, with the reviewers pointing out that the ride is bouncy and the tow rating is significantly lower than its American-made all-electric counterparts.