The ultimate Shark?

How do you make the BYD Shark better? Kit it out with stuff that makes it more useful, more rugged and more Kiwi. And there’s the chance to own this yourself, while helping an excellent cause.

We named the BYD Shark 6 our 2025 NZ Autocar Car of the Year and have been driving one ever since, and nothing about the experience has changed our minds.

So when the opportunity came up, courtesy of BYD New Zealand, to put one through the best of the Kiwi aftermarket and auction it for Hato Hone St John, we were in. Our partners at AutoTrader NZ are handling that task, with no reserve and a start point of just $1. Considering the build sheet is approaching $40,000 in donated kit, it is one heck of a deal.

So what do you add on to our Car of the Year to make it even better?

The truck

The Shark 6 needs no long introduction in these pages. It has 320kW combined, 0–100km/h comes up in 5.7 seconds, it’ll tow up to 2500kg braked, there’s 800km of total range (a little less when towing of course), a 790kg payload and a tag of $69,990 on the window. It sits in the same conversation as a Ranger or a Hilux and it belongs there.

We could have gone loud with it; big tyres, big graphics, big lift. But the whole point of the Shark is that it needs none of that to be interesting. So the brief was simple; build a ute that looks good and works hard without wrecking the things that won it Car of the Year. Keep the ride, the range and the handling. We also wanted to showcase Kiwi suppliers wherever possible while not messing with anything that would compromise BYD’s factory warranty. 

Up front: Ali Arc and Airplex

The Shark wears an Ali Arc nudge bar. The New Zealand firm has developed three purpose-built Shark 6 models (B801, B802 and B803), all SWL-certified and airbag-compatible. This Shark carries the version with integrated driving lights, Ali Arc’s first-ever nudge bar with the lights factory-fitted.

Airplex Industries, the Kiwi-made acrylics specialist operating since 1982, supplied the protection shields: bonnet guard, headlight covers and weathershields, all cut and formed in New Zealand. Inside the cab, the same brand wraps the seats in 14 oz heavy-duty canvas: full front, full rear, waterproof, with a five-year factory warranty. If you actually use your ute for work, you probably already know Airplex.

Wheels and tyres: Enkei and Toyo

This is where the build philosophy really shows. You can bolt 35-inch mud terrains onto anything and it will look mean in a photograph. It will also eat range, generate road noise and turn a well-sorted chassis into something that wanders about at highway speed. We wanted the opposite: a tyre that looks purposeful, handles properly on tarmac and still does the business on gravel, without costing the Shark its party trick; going a very long way between fuel stops.

Thanks to our friends at YHI, the setup is an 18-inch Enkei Trail-cross hoop wrapped in Toyo Open Country A/T III rubber, sized LT285/65R18. That works out at roughly 33 inches overall, about as big as you can go on the Shark 6 without rubbing. The Trail-cross is Enkei’s tough truck-and-SUV wheel, light enough to preserve the hybrid system’s efficiency. The Toyo A/T III is, in our view, the best compromise between all-terrain grip and on-road manners for a ute of this weight. Quieter than a mud terrain, more capable than a highway tyre and confidence-inspiring on loose metal at speed. It is a wheel-and-tyre package chosen by someone who drives their ute, not just photographs it.

The M2 Artemis canopy: Napier-built, warranty-approved

The Artemis canopy dominates the truck. From any angle it is the first thing you see, and it turns the Shark from an open-tub ute into something altogether more serious.

M2 Overland in Napier supplied the Artemis Wellside Canopy System. It is the only purpose-engineered wellside canopy in New Zealand for the Shark 6, manufactured in marine-grade aluminium and designed, fabricated and finished right here in Aotearoa. M2 Overland is one of BYD New Zealand’s approved OEM accessory suppliers, so the entire installation sits within the Shark’s six-year, 150,000km factory warranty.

The donated package goes well beyond the canopy shell. Central locking pairs to the existing Shark key fob, so one click locks the cab and the tray. An interior lighting kit fires automatically when either side door opens. Cross-bars on the lid accept a roof rack. And the fit is tight: the canopy meets the tub rails with almost no visible gap, and an Airplex tray gap-fill panel between the cab and the wellside closes the last cavity where loose gear could disappear.

Inside the canopy, a Carryboy NZ drawer system turns the tub into something approaching a proper service body. A 250 kg-rated slide-out platform sits above twin drawers, big enough to carry recovery gear, tools, fishing rods or three days of camping food. Pull the platform out and you have a work surface at tailgate height. The drawers underneath stay accessible at all times, even when the platform is loaded. It is, honestly, the kind of storage setup that makes you wonder why every ute doesn’t leave the factory this way.

Importantly, there is plenty of clearance to access the rear vehicle-to-load ports.

Inside: protection first

RubberTree, the Kiwi tailored-mat specialist, supplied their full deep-dish heavy-duty set, model BY007HD, made specifically for the 2024-onwards Shark 6. They clip in flush with the original footwell and they will outlast most of the people who walk on them. Combined with the Airplex canvas seat covers, this is a cabin that can handle hi-vis, mud and a wet dog without anyone reaching for the upholstery cleaner.

The plug-in package

Of course a Shark is at its best when properly charged. The team at TransNet are throwing in a level-two charger with the build, ready for installation; 7.4kW of Type 2 charging will see the truck topped up in just four hours.

Public charging is sorted with a $1000 credit on the ChargeNet network, which now covers more than 520 fast-charging locations nationwide.

Then there is the bit nobody wants to deal with: Road User Charges, currently $38 per 1000km for all PHEVs. EROAD, the NZX-listed Auckland company that pioneered electronic RUC back in 2009, has thrown in an ERUC unit with a full two-year subscription. No need to deal with the paperwork.

A first aid kit completes the package. A small detail on a truck being auctioned to fund the ambulances we all hope never to need.

Thanks

A build like this does not happen without someone who knows the vehicle inside out. Andrew Simms, and in particular Brett Witheridge, whose deep knowledge of the Shark 6, educated many of the decisions on this project, and handled the physical build. The result speaks for itself. Thanks also to dealer principal, Matthew Wales, for letting us use their space.

A Kiwi special

One of the finishing details to be done before the vehicle goes on display is the graphics, and for that we needed a name. Raptor is obviously gone, Toyota claimed the shark-related Mako. It took some work.

Introducing Ururoa. The name comes from the whakataukī: Kaua e mate wheke, mate ururoa. Don’t die like an octopus, fight like a shark. The octopus gives up when it is caught. The shark fights to the end. That felt right for a truck built to raise money for Hato Hone St John.

Ururoa translates as great white shark. It was chosen with the input of a cultural advisor, and it places the truck inside an Aotearoa story rather than borrowing from elsewhere. A personalised plate application is in with KiwiPlates and NZTA, and the exterior graphic was still being finalised as this issue went to print.

Make it yours!

Ururoa goes under the hammer live on AutoTrader.co.nz from Fieldays opening day, June 10, 2026. Every dollar of the hammer price goes to Hato Hone St John, which currently raises around 30 percent of its operating costs from non-government sources. That is the gap, in many communities, between an ambulance arriving and one that does not.

Visit AutoTrader.co.nz on June 10 to see the full and finished truck, and hopefully bid.