Australian new-car sales in 2025: Annual record broken for third VFACTS year running

Sales of new motor vehicles in Australia have defied warnings of a slowdown to – just barely – set an annual record for the third year in a row, at more than 1.24 million cars, SUVs, utes, vans, and trucks.

And the Ford Ranger ute held off challenges from the Toyota HiLux and RAV4 to remain the best-selling new vehicle for the third year in a row – the first Ford to do so in 37 years – while Toyota has topped the manufacturer charts for the 24th straight year.

Early forecasts at the start of the year pointed to a slide in new-car sales in 2025, from a record 1,237,287 vehicles in 2024, to between 1.17 and 1.18 million examples.

Data published today has proven the forecasts wrong, with sales of 1,241,037 in 2025 – edging ahead of the prior year's result by 0.3 per cent, and setting a new market record.

It is the slimmest margin since new-car sales grew by just 0.036 per cent in 2000.

Nudging the new-car market over the line was 1.9 per cent sales growth in December 2025 (101,513 cars), the fourth consecutive month in positive territory, and the second-highest December on record, behind only 2017's 102,820 sales.

The data, published by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and Electric Vehicle Council (EVC), is based on vehicle deliveries and registrations, respectively, rather than how many customers placed deposits on new cars in a given period.

Sales of cars to private buyers – excluding fleets, governments, rental companies, and business buyers purchasing with an ABN – are expected to be up year-on-year, once Tesla and Polestar sales – covered by the EVC – are factored into the FCAI's numbers.

Demand for new cars has cooled since its peak in 2022 – in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when wait times were high, and stock was limited – but the long-anticipated slowdown has not arrived.

It has been fuelled by the arrival of new makes and models – most from China – and the rise of hybrid or electric vehicles; in many cases, in the same package.

China has overtaken Thailand as Australia's second-largest source of new cars, and three of its brands – GWM, BYD, and MG – have placed in the Top 10, with Chery catching in 13th.

Brands from China have chipped away at former favourites, with Mitsubishi down 17.9 per cent in sixth, Subaru down 3.9 per cent in 11th, Nissan down 21.6 per cent in 12th, and Suzuki dropping 27.7 per cent to 20th.

Toyota has reported its second-highest sales ever – 239,863 deliveries, between 2024's record 241,296 and 2008's 238,983 – to remain the country's top-selling new-car brand for the 24th year in a row.

The Toyota RAV4 family SUV – its top seller in 2024 and 2025 – fell back to 51,947 sales last year amid breaks in availability, and the easing of demand since the highs of 2023 that saw wait times blow out to two years.

A late surge, however, allowed it to stay ahead of the Toyota HiLux ute – reporting 51,297 sales – which was a 10-year-old vehicle for most of the year, and only switched to a new generation in December.

Neither Toyota could beat the top-selling Ford Ranger, which clocked up 56,555 deliveries to lead the sales race for the third consecutive year, after ending the HiLux's seven-year winning streak in 2023.

It is the first Ford to lead the annual sales charts for at least three years in a row since the Falcon topped the tables for seven consecutive years until 1988.

All three top sellers failed to match the prior year's performance – down 9.6 per cent for the Ranger, 4.1 per cent for the HiLux, and 11.5 per cent for the RAV4 – despite a stable, if slightly growing, market.

However, Toyota is preparing for a run at the top spot with the new-generation RAV4 in March 2026, which it believes could become the number-one seller in the coming years, if not this year.

The RAV4's slump has not stopped sales of hybrid cars from setting a record – 199,133 – before the further 53,484 plug-in hybrids, up 131 per cent, are counted.

Electric-car sales returned to positive territory in 2025 – up 13.1 per cent to 103,270 vehicles – as growth for the likes of BYD, Zeekr, and Kia suppressed a 25 per cent slump for market leader Tesla.

The Isuzu D-Max claimed fourth place on the sales charts – down 11.1 per cent to 51,297 deliveries – ahead of the Ford Everest (26,839, down 1.3 per cent) and the Toyota Prado, up 166.3 per cent to 26,106, as the new model launched in 2024 settled into showrooms.

For only the second time in Australian motoring history, there were no traditional 'passenger cars' – hatchbacks, sedans, wagons, people movers, or two-door sports cars – among the Top 10 sellers for the calendar year.

Ford finished behind Toyota as the number-two brand in the country – reporting 94,399 sales – but its 5.8 per cent decline saw the gap to third-placed Mazda, which was only down 4.2 per cent to 91,923 vehicles, narrow.

Kia beat sibling brand Hyundai yet again – with 82,105 deliveries ahead of 81,787 – but missed its own forecast of about 90,000 vehicles, due in part to a slow start for the controversial Tasman ute, which has seen its lofty sales goal wound back.

Mitsubishi held onto sixth place – despite a 17.9 per cent slump – ahead of Chinese brands GWM, BYD, and MG, but only the former two are in positive territory.

Sales of MG vehicles – once the most popular Chinese cars in the country – declined by 18.4 per cent, and its top seller, the MG ZS small SUV, dropped out of the Top 10 for the first time in five years.

Data below supplied by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and Electric Vehicle Council (EVC).

Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner

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