BYD to launch new PHEV pickup truck soon to rival Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger

BYD has been on a role in the EV market and despite a slight setback in sales (and losing the best-selling EV brand title to Tesla), there's no sign of them slowing things down.

In fact, they're gunning for an entirely new segment - pickup trucks. BYD has teased us with a bunch of photos of a heavily camouflaged blue/orange pickup truck and BYD themselves have confirmed that this will be made available for several markets globally.

Judging by the looks, this pickup truck should have slightly bigger dimensions than most medium to large-sized pickup truck models like the Toyota Hilux as it will most likely be based on the Bao Leopard 5 by Fang Cheng Bao (or Formula Bao), one of the sub-brands under the BYD umbrella.

With that being said, it is also said that this BYD pickup truck will also share the same powertrain as the Bao Leopard 5 - a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine mated to electric motors (one on each axle) with a combined power output of 687PS and 760Nm of torque.

Fitted with a 31.8kWh Blade battery from BYD, the Bao Leopard 5 can travel up to 125km in all-electric mode or up to 1,200km when you consider the petrol engine into the equation.

And yes, it can be charged as it supports up to 100kW of DC fast charging which translates to just 16 minutes to get it juiced up from 10% to 80%.

Going back to the news of the BYD pickup truck being intended for the global market, it won't be surprising if they have Thailand and Australia in their sights.

Since these two are right-hand-drive markets, perhaps it might also make its way into Malaysia as well? Or perhaps they'll wait it out and just launch a fully electric version that is also said to be unveiled next year?

Stay tuned for more updates.