(Bloomberg) -- BYD Co., the leader in electric vehicles in China, debuted its first truck in Mexico, next door to the world’s largest pickup market. 

BYD unveiled its Shark plug-in hybrid truck Tuesday at an event in Mexico City. It will be available globally, and prices will start at 899,980 pesos (about $53,400).

BYD doesn’t have any plans to sell in the US — the biggest single market for pickups — at the moment.

Even so, the event’s timing was awkward, coming the same day that US President Joe Biden announced sweeping tariff hikes on a range of Chinese imports, including quadrupling the duties on EVs made in China.

“It’s a little bit of a surprise because there’s no Chinese company planning to go to the US,” Stella Li, BYD’s Americas chief, said of the tariffs in an interview.

While BYD passenger vehicles aren’t currently available in the US, the automaker has been pushing into markets across Asia, including Australia, and Latin America, where pickups are popular. Truck sales in those regions are dominated by models such as Toyota Motor Corp.’s Hilux and Ford Motor Co.’s Ranger, which also offer hybrid versions in some markets. 

It’s unusual for a Chinese brand to unveil a new vehicle outside of its home market, and the move shows Mexico’s growing importance to BYD and other automakers based in China, where growth has slowed. Chinese auto brands’ market share has surged in Mexico. Chinese brands account for about 87% of EV sales in South America and 20% in Mexico, according to BloombergNEF.

BYD has been considering building an EV plant in Mexico, Bloomberg reported earlier this year. On Tuesday, Li said BYD is negotiating with three states and will have a final location for the Mexican plant confirmed by the end of the year.

Read More: US Cites Threat of Chinese EVs Made in Mexico as Trade Concern

The Shenzhen-based EV giant makes a wide range of mass market models, including an entry-level EV for less than $10,000 and an all-electric supercar for upwards of 1.68 million yuan ($232,000). BYD dominates China’s EV market and it briefly became the world’s biggest seller of EVs, overtaking Tesla Inc., in the fourth quarter of 2023.

(Updates with price in second paragraph, plans for Mexico plant in eighth.)

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