Chinese brands enjoy sales surge

Chinese brands are making an increasing impression on Australia’s new-vehicle market and four of them have appeared in the top 10 of the marques’ ladder for the first time.

The development came as registrations of new vehicles totalled 100,539 last month and delivered the sector’s second strongest August result, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).

The tally included 20,070 Chinese-made vehicles, which was an increase of 67 per cent from August 2024.

Tony Weber, FCAI chief executive, says the figures show how quickly the industry and consumers are adapting to new options with BYD, GWM, MG and Chery among the top marques.

“The presence of four Chinese brands in the top 10 illustrates the continuing evolution of the automotive landscape in Australia,” he adds.

“Consumers have an extraordinary range of vehicles to choose from – more than 400 models, including around 100 EVs.”

Ford’s Ranger was the best-seller last month with 4,942 units and the Toyota Hilux was second on 4,823.

Next was Toyota’s RAV4 on 4,115 sales, the MG ZS with 2,680 and the Isuzu Ute D-Max on 2,314. 

Toyota topped the marques’ ladder with 20,791 registrations during August, followed by Ford on 8,002, Kia with 7,402, Mazda on 6,814 and Hyundai clocking 6,322.

Overall, SUVs continued to dominate activity across the ditch and accounted for 60,495 of sales, or 60 per cent of the market. 

Passenger cars made up 13.1 per cent of sales in August, but year-to-date registrations are down 25 per cent compared with the same period last year.

EVs had a 6.8 per cent market share and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles represented 3.9 per cent.

Some 812,447 new vehicles have been sold in Australia in the year-to-date, down 2.1 per cent from 830,226 for the same period last year.