Too many ute options in Australia? From the Ford Ranger and BYD Shark to the upcoming MG U9 and Foton Tunland, how many pick-ups is too many? | Analysis

Can you have too much of a good thing? Australians love utes and in recent years we’ve seen more and more brands look to capitalise on that, but it may not be a case of the more the merrier.

In the last month alone we’ve seen new utes from Ford (Ranger Super Duty and PHEV), MG (U9), JAC (Hunter), Foton (Tunland) and Deepal (also, Hunter), to go with the already incoming Kia Tasman and LDV Terron 9 and the just-launched BYD Shark 6. That’s another eight ute options for local buyers who were already spoiled for choice. 

It’s why Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss Sean Hanley revealed in January that he believes we may have reached “peak ute”, as he called it, as the overall demand for utes isn’t increasing at the same rate new options are arriving.

“We know that ute buyers can look forward to having much greater choice available to them,” Hanley said back in January. “But despite that, total ute sales are likely, I think, to remain fairly static. And the more fragmented segment will make it increasingly difficult for a single model to dominate the sales charts.”

While Toyota is wary of this flood of new rivals, Ford is confident that it can stay on top, in part because it’s continuing to expand its own Ranger line-up with the PHEV (plug-in hybrid) and Super Duty variants, but it also because believes the market is robust enough to accommodate the newcomers.

Ambrose Henderson, Ford Australia’s marketing chief, told CarsGuide recently that the continued evolution of the ute segment will be crucial to its continued success and even growth, as the ute increasingly becomes the new ‘family car’ for more and more Australians.

“So I think we’ll have more than our fair share of exciting introductions into the segment that’ll help not only those individual products, but I’m sure the whole range of brand as well,” Henderson said.

“And probably the segment as it continues to redefine what a ute is. And that’s why the segment’s grown. It’s because a ute has become not only a ute that can put stuff in the back and tow, but it’s also become an amazing family car. Because of the refinement of the technology and the safety that Ford has introduced and pioneered in this segment.”

Certainly looking at the newcomers to the ute market there is an obvious trend towards appealing to family and fleet buyers in equal measure. Ford demonstrates this perfectly with the addition of both the more frugal Ranger PHEV and the more rugged Ranger Super Duty. But the new BYD Shark 6 PHEV, JAC Hunter and the all-electric LDV eTerron 9 show there are multiple ways to appeal to ute buyers.

The BYD demonstrates that with the right product these newcomers can create space for themselves in the ute market. In the first quarter of 2025, the Shark 6 was the fourth best-selling 4x4 ute, putting it ahead of some of the much-more established competition including the Mazda BT-50, Nissan Navara and Mitsubishi Triton. Whether that’s sustainable or an early surge as the company meets initial demand remains to be seen, but it helps explain why so many brands, especially the big Chinese players, are so keen to get a slice of the action.

MG is so determined to get in on the ute market that it hasn’t even developed its own bespoke model, but instead the U9 is a rebadged and reskinned version of the LDV Terron 9, leveraging the fact both brands are under the SAIC Motor umbrella. Whether or not this turns out to be the right move is unclear, but MG has aspirations on becoming one of the top three selling brands in Australia and knows it needs a ute to get it there. 

And, of course, this doesn’t mean the established bigger names in the ute market will simply roll over and make way. Nissan is working on a new Navara, Mazda and Isuzu just refreshed their shared BT-50/D-Max utes, the Mitsubishi Triton is still relatively fresh and then there’s the highly-anticipated new Toyota HiLux due in the next 12 months.

That will create an even more competitive marketplace and the only clear winner is likely to be you - the ute customer - as you will have more choice than ever before.

Whether or not this level of competition is sustainable for all these brands is up in the air, because if Hanley is right, not all will be able to survive in this increasingly diverse and intense contest. So choose wisely…