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'The interest is incredible': 2025 BYD Shark 6 ute closes in on 6000 orders with 'exceptional' demand for Australia's first plug-in hybrid rival for Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Kia Tasman

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Samuel Irvine
Cadet Journalist
15 Jan 2025
4 min read

If it weren’t for ongoing industrial action across Australia’s ports, there would be a lot more Shark 6 utes on the road, according to David Smitherman, CEO of Australia’s BYD distributor, EVDirect.

Despite his two decades of experience in the automotive industry, including senior roles with Ateco Group – Australia’s Renault, RAM and Maserati distributor – Smitherman told CarsGuide he believes demand for the Shark 6 has been unprecedented.

“I’ve never seen such a level of interest in a vehicle in my 25 years in the industry. It’s exceptional,” he said.

“It just keeps going exceptionally well and exceeding expectations. We’re north of 5000 [orders], closing in on 6000.”

At last count, EVDirect confirmed more than 5500 eager customers had placed an order for a Shark 6 since orders for the ute opened in late-October last year. The process involves a fully-refundable $1000 deposit made in store or online.

BYD still has its work cut out for it, though, with well-established rivals in the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux selling 62,593 and 53,499 units apiece last year. The incoming Kia Tasman, meanwhile, has already clocked a claimed 20,000 expressions of interest.

Then for reference, there's the Toyota Prado, arguably Australia's biggest car release of 2024, which arrived with a staggering 25,000 orders in the bank.

But Smitherman said the Shark 6's order tally was all the more impressive when you consider very few Australians have been able to get themselves inside one for a test drive, let alone spot one on the road. Plus, BYD is still a new brand in the Australian market.

2025 BYD Shark 6 (image: Tom White)
2025 BYD Shark 6 (image: Tom White)

A pay dispute between the Maritime Union Association and Qube Holdings, which operates some 29 ports across Australia responsible for processing imported vehicles, has prevented thousands of vehicles from docking in Australia, including thousands of Shark 6 utes.

“The interest is incredible...we’ve had a very small amount of vehicles available for test drive, so we’re just being inundated with test drives. It's incredible,” said Smitherman.

The BYD website currently lists 41 ‘Experience Centres’ in Australia, with EVDirect stating that the Shark 6 is available to test drive across its dealer network.

Even with an optimistic estimate of a single Shark 6 example at each dealership — or 41 total vehicles — that suggests hundreds, if not thousands, of buyers could have ordered one without even hopping inside.

That’s why BYD were only able to announce on January 13, nearly three months after launch, that the first Shark 6 ute had been delivered to a customer in Queensland.

Despite the delay, the Chinese newcomer still beat the the upcoming Ford Ranger PHEV and GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV to the plate as Australia’s first plug-in hybrid ute, with both rivals readying for arrival between now and the middle of the year.

Neither Ford of GWM has opened order books on their upcoming PHEV utes yet, although Ford Australia's General Manager of Electric Vehicles Myles Hartley told CarsGuide last September that expressions of interest for the Ranger PHEV had been strong.

"We recently had a dealer meeting and there's been extremely good feedback on the amount of interest of people coming into dealers today and looking for more information," said Hartley.

Whether that translates to an order sheet that matches the BYD remains to be seen, though as Australians increasingly look for greater value (the Shark 6 is priced at $57,900, before on-road costs), Smitherman remains confident in its sales prospects.

So much so, had the industrial action at the ports not occurred and BYD had more stock on hand, Smitherman believes BYD's overall sales tally of 20,458 vehicles last year would have been even higher.

"Had I had the Shark 6 and Sealion 7 earlier, which I would have expected, I would have easily had double the 2023 number [of 12,438 sales]," said Smitherman.

“Once somebody test drives our product, our rate of conversion — because our dealers and our products are so good — is exceptionally high."

Samuel Irvine
Cadet Journalist
Since visiting car shows at Melbourne Exhibition Centre with his Dad and older brother as a little boy, Samuel knew that his love of cars would be unwavering. But it wasn’t until embarking on a journalism masters degree two years ago that he saw cars as a legitimate career path. Now, Samuel is CarsGuide’s first Cadet Journalist. He comes to CarsGuide with an eagerness to report on a rapidly advancing automotive industry, and a passion to communicate the stories car buyers need to know most.
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