Is the BYD Shark silly or next-level?

The BYD Shark has just landed in Australia and while most Australian 4WD enthusiasts are quick to point out the potential lack of reliability and ruggedness, there might just be a place for this Chinese vehicle in the Australian Ute space and in this video, we’ll look at why.

Boasting a combined 321 kilowatts of power and 650 newton-metres of torque, the BYD shark 6 can accelerate to 100 kilometres an hour in just 5.7 seconds. That’s about 0.3 seconds quicker than the Ford Ranger Raptor, twice as quick as a diesel n70 hilux or 2.3 seconds slower than a Lamborghini huracan. Although the BYD shark won’t handle like a Lamborghini or a raptor, it does have an all-wheel drive system, independent front and rear suspension system (much like the Jeep Grand Cherokees and Nissan patrol Y62’s) and even dedicated mud, sand and snow terrain modes.

However, we all know more features means more things to go wrong, and for a vehicle manufacturer that hasn’t yet earned the rights to boast its reliability like Toyota and Nissan, it may seem like a bit of a gamble of $61 510 , which is the drive away price for the cheapest spec.

Now, Australians are known to travel in their utes, use them for work, tow (the BYD shark can only tow 2.5 ton braked) and basically put them through their paces. A lot of farmers will usually expect north of 300 000 k’s out of a ute at the minimum. So the question is, ‘is the new BYD Shark, which has a combined output just shy of a Dodge Challenger Scat Pack, wading depth of 700mm, or the same as a 200 series land cruiser and all the tech that the competitors have and more, silly, or next-level? Only time will tell, but right now, nobody really knows.

#bydshark #4wdsofaustralia