BYD Shark Pick-Up Earns Five-Star Euro NCAP Rating, Priced from £47,295

• The BYD Shark DMO pick-up has scored a maximum five-star rating in Euro NCAP crash testing, with strong marks for both adult and child occupant protection.
• The plug-in hybrid pairs two electric motors with a 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine for a combined 436PS and a 0-62mph time of 5.7 seconds.
• The Shark DMO is on sale now in the UK from £47,295 including VAT and can cover up to 56 miles on electric power alone.

A Pick-Up Built to Pass the Same Test as a Family SUV

Pick-up trucks don’t usually chase five-star safety ratings. The segment has long been judged on payload, towing capacity and ground clearance rather than how well it protects the people riding inside. BYD’s Shark DMO just set a different benchmark for the class, picking up the maximum five-star score in the latest round of Euro NCAP testing.

The assessment draws on a test carried out last year by the Australasian safety body ANCAP, with Euro NCAP adding its own evaluations on top. Euro NCAP describes a five-star result as “overall excellent performance in crash protection and well equipped with state-of-the-art crash avoidance technology”, language that puts this double-cab pick-up in the same bracket as family SUVs designed from the ground up around passenger safety.

Double-cab pick-ups have historically lagged ordinary cars on this front. Their ladder-frame construction and commercial-vehicle roots were built around carrying loads, not crash structures, and testing bodies only started holding them to the same standard as passenger cars in recent years. A five-star result on that tougher standard gives real reassurance to anyone cross-shopping a pick-up as both a work tool and a family vehicle.

What Euro NCAP Found

The Shark scored 82% for adult occupant protection and 86% for child occupant protection, with testers highlighting good results in the frontal-offset test and in both the full-width rigid barrier and side barrier evaluations. Euro NCAP singled out the protection offered to 6- and 10-year-old dummies in the side barrier impact, and praised the truck’s child presence detection system, which warns the driver if it senses a child has been left inside.

The Shark’s autonomous emergency braking reacted well to both cyclists and motorcyclists, helping it to a 74% score for Vulnerable Road User protection. The Safety Assist category scored 87%, with Euro NCAP crediting the AEB’s response to other vehicles alongside the lane-departure support system and a speed assistance system that reads local limits and sets the cruise control to match.

Power for Work, Range for Everything Else

Under the body, the Shark runs BYD’s Super Hybrid DMO powertrain: one electric motor on the front axle producing 231PS and 310Nm, and a second at the rear generating 204PS and 340Nm. Combined, the system produces 436PS and 650Nm, enough to get the double-cab from 0 to 62mph in 5.7 seconds, quick for a vehicle built to carry a payload and tow.

A 32.2kWh Blade Battery sits in the ladder-frame chassis, fitted using BYD’s Cell-to-Chassis construction for extra protection in a crash. On a full charge the Shark can travel up to 56 miles on electric power alone, and BYD quotes a combined range of 419 miles once the 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine joins in. Two onboard power sockets let owners run tools or appliances directly from the battery, a function BYD calls Vehicle-to-Load.

That combination lets trade buyers run equipment off the battery on a job site all day, then switch to electric-only running for the commute home. It also gives the Shark a lower running cost than a diesel rival for drivers who mostly cover short distances and can charge at home or at work.

Kit Included at £47,295

The Shark DMO is available to order now, priced at £47,295 including VAT. Standard equipment includes vegan-leather upholstery, heated and ventilated front seats, and a 12-speaker Dynaudio sound system. The driver faces a 10.25-inch digital instrument panel with a head-up display, alongside a 15.6-inch infotainment screen with built-in mapping, a voice assistant and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Elsewhere, a 50W wireless phone charger sits in the cabin, exterior puddle lights mark the doors at night, and front and rear parking sensors work with a 360-degree camera for tight manoeuvres. Keyless entry and start come as standard, and owners can heat or cool the cabin remotely through the BYD app before they get in. The double-cab layout seats five, so the Shark can double as family transport outside working hours rather than sitting idle at weekends.

Part of a Growing Safety Record

The Shark’s five-star result is the ninth earned by a BYD model following the brand’s 2022 arrival in the European passenger car market, joining the Dolphin Surf, Dolphin, Seal, Seal U DM-i and Sealion 7 on the list.

Stella Li, Executive Vice President of BYD, said: “BYD is a technology company, and our 120,000 R&D engineers are constantly striving to find the next innovation that can improve people’s lives. But our key strength is our ability to take these ideas out of the lab and put them into the hands of customers – to turn intelligence into reality. The SHARK’s Euro NCAP result is further proof of how our engineering and electronics skills can come together to achieve this – and all in a pick-up that’s capable as a workhorse, as comfortable as an SUV, powerful and agile on and off road, and efficient enough to drive up to 90km on electric power alone. We know that the SHARK will be yet another important vehicle in our European range, breaking down further barriers to new-energy vehicle adoption.”

For buyers cross-shopping the pick-up segment on safety as much as capability, the Shark’s result gives BYD a number its rivals can’t easily match: a five-star Euro NCAP rating backed by scores in the 80s for occupant protection, on a truck that also plugs in. It’s the ninth time BYD has reached five stars in Europe, and the first time it has done so with something you can put a load bed on.