BYD Shark 6 gets sleek new skin, at least in China

A mysterious, camouflaged ute spied in China may be a BYD Shark 6 in drag.

Images shared by Chinese website Dongchedi and Car News China show a dual-cab ute on a transport trailer in front of a U8 large SUV from BYD’s luxury Yangwang brand.

According to these outlets, this ute features the DMO plug-in hybrid drivetrain of the Shark 6.

However, it’s clothed in styling that fits in nicely with BYD’s Dynasty series of vehicles, including the Han and Tang, with wide headlight clusters and a slim but wide grille.

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Images courtesy of Car News China.

There’s also what appears to be a canted C-pillar, or some other kind of stylistic smoothing out to give the vehicle a more car-like appearance than the boxy, body-on-frame Shark 6.

There remains the possibility, however, that this is an unrelated ute from BYD, potentially a smaller, unibody vehicle that could complement the Shark 6 in some export markets.

The automaker doesn’t sell the Shark 6 in China, even as utes have recently been growing in popularity there. Instead, the ute is offered only in export markets, including Australia and Mexico.

BYD sells two different series of vehicles through its namesake brand in China: the Ocean series, which includes the Seal sedan and Dolphin hatch sold here; and the Dynasty series, of which the only vehicle sold in Australia is the Yuan Plus which is offered here as the Atto 3 mid-size SUV.

Stylistically, the Shark 6 doesn’t fit in with either the Ocean or Dynasty models. In Australia, this isn’t a problem as BYD offers vehicles from both lineups.

This newly spied vehicle could slot in as BYD’s ute offering in the Chinese market, joining the Dynasty lineup, though it’s unclear if it would be offered in export markets like some BYD Dynasty models including the Han and Yuan Plus.

The new ute could potentially give BYD a rival to vehicles like the plug-in hybrid Radar RD6 and Nissan Frontier Pro in China.

Should this new ute share its drivetrain with the Shark 6, that would see it powered by a turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and two electric motors (one on each axle) powered by a 29.58kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack.

Total system outputs in the Shark 6 are 321kW of power and 650Nm of torque, with a claimed electric-only driving range of 100km on the NEDC cycle and fuel consumption of 2.0L/100km with a 25-100 per cent state of charge.

This increases to a claimed 7.9L/100km when the battery level drops below 25 per cent.

The Shark 6’s battery can be charged at up to 55kW on DC power and 7kW on AC power.

MORE: Everything BYD Shark 6