Car review: 2025 BYD Shark 6
Chinese brands are on track to dominate the affordable end of the Australian new-car market, EVs and potentially even hybrids. Now, they’re coming for your ute.
For buyers of Australia’s most popular type of vehicle, it’s only good news, especially if the 2025 BYD Shark 6 is any indication.
BYD specs
The current best of the Chinese breed, the BYD Shark 6, is just $57,900 drive-away and gets you a tonne (nearly three in fact) of surprisingly impressive plug-in hybrid ute.
Specified as richly as a Ford Ranger Platinum but for approximately $25,000 less, the Shark 6 uses two electric motors, front and rear, producing a combined 321kW and 650Nm. It also has a towing capacity of 2.5 tonnes (braked).
Range
A plug-in hybrid, the BYD can cover up to 100km in EV mode, but it can also run on purely petrol if you never want to plug it in.
A turbocharged 1.5-litre engine acts as something of an onboard generator, granting about 800km of petrol-electric range.
Interior
A slightly bigger vehicle than the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux, the Shark 6 has plenty of cabin space – front and rear – and feels very contemporary inside.
The large, 15.6-inch central infotainment screen will no doubt appeal to young tradies, and the young-at-heart.
The drive
It’s also great to drive. Its dual electric motors give it terrific, instant acceleration while the engine and tyres are pleasingly quiet.
The ride quality is SUV-like and not very ute at all. That’s partly down to the Shark 6’s independent, coil-sprung rear suspension, which differs from the tougher but more agricultural solid rear axles and leaf-springs of most other utes.
But for those boxy good looks, pleasing dynamics and incredible bang-for-buck, it’s not perfect. Getting the best from a plug-in hybrid can be fiddly, while the Shark 6’s thirst for energy, petrol or electric, can be very un-hybrid-like at highway speeds.
Off-road capabilities
The jury is still out on its ultimate off-roading ability, and we wouldn’t as confidently bolt a caravan to the back of it for the big lap of Australia, as we would a Ranger or HiLux.
Ultimately however, the Shark 6’s biggest compliment is also its biggest criticism – it feels like an SUV. It’s more comfortable and nicer to drive than traditional dual-cab utes, but it can’t tow 3.5 tonnes. It might not get along the Gunbarrel Highway and back, and may not be able to take a back garden’s worth of gravel in the tray.
To dual-cab traditionalists, it’s a “lifestyle ute”. Whether they would ever do any of those things is not the point.
| Specs | |
|---|---|
| Price | $60,841 |
| ANCAP safety rating | 5 stars |
| Warranty | Six years/150,000km (vehicle); eight years/160,000km (battery) |
| Range | 800km (petrol/electric) |
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