BYD debuts first pickup truck in Mexico
Chinese automaker BYD has launched its first pickup truck, debuting a luxury plug-in hybrid in Mexico to compete with global rivals in China’s second-largest market for auto exports. Warren Buffett-backed BYD, the world’s biggest maker of electric vehicles, said Tuesday that it would sell the midsize Shark at prices starting at 899,980 Mexico pesos ($53,407) for its GL model and MXN969,800 for its upscale GS version. BYD didn’t specify when deliveries would begin or say whether it had begun taking orders.
It said the vehicles will become available in other countries “in the near future." The launch marked BYD’s first time debuting a new product overseas rather than in China, which analysts said reflected limited domestic demand for pickup trucks, partly due to restrictions on their use in major Chinese cities. Chinese automakers sold about 44,000 pickup trucks domestically in April, versus more than 1.5 million passenger cars, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association. BYD and other Chinese automakers are aggressively expanding overseas amid the pressures of an ongoing price war in a crowded home market.
Exports of pickup trucks accounted for 42% of the segment’s total sales in April, the CPCA said. BYD currently sells a mix of vehicles in Mexico, including an SUV, full-electric buses and cars for taxi use. The Shark will compete with popular models including Ford’s Ranger, Toyota’s Tacoma and Nissan’s NP300 in Mexico, Latin America’s biggest vehicle market after Brazil.
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