KGM Musso Ev vs BYD Shark 6

What's the difference?

Electrified utes are growing in popularity in Australia and carmakers have been paying attention.

While the BYD Shark 6 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) ute is by far the best-selling as it stands, there hasn’t really been any electric ute to go up against the poorly received LDV eT60, until now.

South Korea’s KGM (formerly known as SsangYong) has just launched the Musso EV, which is a purely electric dual-cab ute. It’s unrelated to the existing, turbo-diesel Musso and is more closely related to the current car-based Actyon and Torres SUVs.

Read along to see how this ute stacks up against its growing set of competitors.

The BYD Shark 6 Performance is the top-shelf variant in the Shark 6 line-up and, as such, it has a larger 2.0-litre petrol engine, an improved off-road system (or so BYD reckons), and 3.5 tonnes towing capacity (up from the Premium's 2.5 tonnes).

This Chinese-built plug-in hybrid electric ute also has more power and torque than the standard Shark 6, with maximum outputs totalling 350kW (up 29kW from the standard Shark 6) and 700Nm (up 50Nm).

And, if speed’s your specific cup of tea, it might delight you to know that the Performance can do the 0 to 100km/h sprint in a claimed 5.5 seconds.

So, with an updated Crawl mode claimed to simulate traditional low-range gearing, is this Shark better off-road than the Premium version?

Read on.