How BYD has brought the Shark 6 plug-in hybrid ute to Australia so quickly

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The first plug-in hybrid ute in Australia will be the 2025 BYD Shark 6, beating the Ford Ranger PHEV by more than six months, but the Chinese brand insists it has not rushed its pick-up to market to beat rivals or to take advantage of soon-to-expire tax benefits.

When asked by Drive when development started on the Shark 6, David Smitherman, CEO of BYD's Australian importer EVDirect said: "I would say like two years ago, and probably even before that."

"It is very quick, but you have to remember BYD will be using shared technologies across their business, but when you have that sort of horsepower behind you, you can move quite rapidly," he said.

While the Shark 6 is only hitting showrooms now, with the official Australian launch later this week and already on sale in South American markets, it shares its underpinnings with another model in the BYD family, the Fangchengbao Bao 5.

MORE: 2025 BYD Shark 6 to cost less than $60,000, undercutting key Toyota, Ford, Isuzu rivals

With the same ladder-frame chassis underpinnings and shared 1.5-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder plug-in hybrid power, the Bao 5 and Shark 6 likely overlap considerably in development work and costs.

The Bao 5 has been in production since late 2023, meaning development for what would eventually turn into the Shark 6 could have been started as early as 2021.

It is expected the Bao 5 will also make its way to Australia – with Denza badges, BYD’s luxury division – as a plug-in hybrid rival to the likes of the Toyota Prado and Ford Everest.

Regardless, Smitherman said a ute has been key to BYD Australia's plans for a long time, and was critical in the decision to bring the brand Down Under in 2022.

"If we go back in time, it was pretty simple, when we launched the brand in Australia, we said how do we make a dent in the Australian market?

"There are two big segments in Australia, SUV and ute.

"And of course, we started with Atto 3, and then we went into the Dolphin, we went into the Seal – and they're great vehicles and we've been wildly successful.

"[But] a brand won't be successful if you don't have a ute, and so we know we have to have a really good array of SUVs and utes – and that's what this is.

"This is why we pushed really, really hard to get his vehicle to market, we haven't rushed it, we've had it in Australia for I reckon just about a year testing, and it's going to be right."

Smitherman said the "size and scale and the engineering power" at BYD's disposal is key to how the brand can bring products like the Shark 6 to market quicker than other car brands, and quoted a 110,000-strong engineering workforce amongst 900,000 BYD employees.

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