VFACTS August 2025: Four Chinese brands in top 10

UPDATED 03/09/2025 1:30pm:The Electric Vehicle Council has now published its August sales report, so we have updated the figures in this article to include Tesla’s tallies.

Australians took delivery of 100,539 new vehicles in August, up 2.2 per cent on the same month last year.

There’s a major caveat here – these figures don’t include Tesla and Polestar, which report their sales figures to the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC).

The EVC has previously published its monthly sales report the day before the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) publishes its monthly VFACTS report.

Now, with more auto brands signing up to publish their sales figures in the EVC report, this is being published after the monthly VFACTS report.

Including Tesla and Polestar figures, the latter of which were supplied ahead of the EVC report’s publication, total new-car sales rose to 103,694, up 2.9 per cent on last August.

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Four Chinese brands – BYD, GWM, MG and Chery – were in the national top 10.

While BYD, GWM and MG have all finished in the top 10 before, the presence of all three plus Chery is a first.

BYD finished sixth, with GWM, MG and Chery filling out the top 10. Combined, this bloc helped keep stalwarts like Isuzu Ute, Subaru, Volkswagen and Nissan out of the top 10.

It’s worth noting that, in addition to Tesla and Polestar not supplying their sales data to the FCAI, the monthly VFACTS report doesn’t include brands like Mahindra, Xpeng, Ineos, Smart and Cadillac.

This consistently leaves us with an incomplete picture of the overall market, even if none of these sell in the same volumes as players like Toyota and Ford.

Brands

Toyota was Australia’s top-selling auto brand in August. In other news, water is wet.

The Japanese giant delivered 20,791 vehicles, down 3.3 per cent on last August.

Second-place Ford had a larger drop of 10 per cent, delivering 8002 vehicles, with the Ranger ute down by nine per cent and the Everest SUV down by 3.1 per cent.

Kia pushed past Mazda for a third-place finish as deliveries of its Tasman ute ramp up. It delivered 803 Tasmans which, along with jumps for the Picanto, Seltos and Stonic, saw its deliveries up by 7.2 per cent.

Mazda had a tough month, falling 17.5 per cent. Every single one of its models was down compared with last August, with its top-selling CX-5, for example, falling by 22.6 per cent.

Hyundai sat in fifth. It was already falling behind corporate cousin Kia but the introduction of the Tasman could widen the gulf, particularly as Hyundai has yet to lock in a ute for our market.

It posted a modest year-on-year increase of 1.8 per cent to 6322 units, but year-to-date it’s sitting at 51,957 (up 7.5 per cent) compared to Kia at 55,554 (up 1.3 per cent).

BYD took sixth spot thanks to a massive 141.3 per cent year-on-year increase. The popular Sealion 6 slumped by 47.8 per cent to 552 units, but this was more than offset by the new Sealion 7 (1413) and Shark 6 (1261) plus a 163 per cent jump in Dolphin sales.

The Chinese brand was over 300 units ahead of Mitsubishi, which fell 17.5 per cent year-on-year. Triton sales were up by 23.2 per cent, but this wasn’t enough to offset dwindling sales for the outgoing ASX and Eclipse Cross plus an 18.9 per cent drop for the Outlander.

Sitting behind Mitsubishi were three Chinese brands, all of which posted increases. GWM deliveries rose 42.6 per cent to 4488 units, MG rose 10.3 per cent to 3927 units, and Chery rose a whopping 203.8 per cent to 3305 units.

Chery’s Tiggo 4 outsold every other model from the brand combined.

GWM and Chery have posted consistent sales gains, but MG’s growth has slowed – its year-to-date sales, for example, are down by 11.3 per cent. However, it’ll soon introduce its first ute in Australia and recently entered new segments including the large SUV segment with the QS, so it’ll be a brand to watch in 2026.

Further down the sales charts, Polestar had a strong month. It recorded 228 deliveries – 120 Polestar 4s, 91 Polestar 2s and 17 Polestar 3s. That was enough to see its sales rise a whopping 250.8 per cent, one of the largest gains in August.

Other big movers included Mini (430 deliveries, up 184.8 per cent), Cupra (188, up 42.4 per cent) and Honda (1185, up 40.1 per cent).

Models

The Ford Ranger was on top for August, where it is also currently sitting year-to-date. Just 121 deliveries separated the Ranger and Toyota HiLux in August, and the duelling utes are currently sitting at 37,183 and 35,766, respectively, for the year to date.

The Toyota RAV4 took the bronze in August, with its 4115 deliveries putting every other SUV in the shade. Year-to-date it’s sitting at 32,564 deliveries, so it appears unlikely it’ll be Australia’s best-selling vehicle in 2025.

The MG ZS sat in fourth for the month, with its sales up 70.1 per cent on last August, ahead of the Tesla Model Y and Isuzu D-Max.

The Ford Everest outsold the rival Toyota Prado by just 200 units, though the latter is still ahead year-to-date (19,955 deliveries versus 16,922).

The Hyundai Kona was Australia’s best-selling small SUV, but it was just 203 units ahead of the rapidly rising Chery Tiggo 4.

Segments

• Micro cars: Kia Picanto (705), Fiat/Abarth 500 (41)
• Light cars under $30,000: MG 3 (418), Mazda 2 (305), Suzuki Swift (238)
• Light cars over $30,000: Mini Cooper (163), Hyundai i20 (103), Volkswagen Polo (90)
• Small cars under $45,000: Toyota Corolla (1823), Hyundai i30 (975), Mazda 3 (748)
• Small cars over $45,000: Volkswagen Golf (273), Audi A3 (259), Mercedes-Benz A-Class (160)
• Medium cars under $60,000: Toyota Camry (1170), BYD Seal (623), Skoda Octavia (47)
• Medium cars over $60,000: Tesla Model 3 (603), BMW 3 Series (171), Lexus ES (94)
• Large cars under $70,000: Skoda Superb (44), Citroen C5 X (1)
• Large cars over $70,000: Mercedes-Benz E-Class (39), BMW 5 Series (32), BMW i5 (20)
• Upper large cars: BMW i7 (4), Mercedes-Benz S-Class (4), Porsche Panamera (4)
• People movers under $70,000: Kia Carnival (899), Hyundai Staria (111), Ford Tourneo (91)
• People movers over $70,000: Volkswagen ID. Buzz (70), Volkswagen Multivan (33), Mercedes-Benz V-Class (14)
• Sports cars under $90,000: Ford Mustang (283), Toyota GR86 (72), Mazda MX-5 (61)
• Sports cars over $90,000: BMW 2 Series Coupe (104), Mercedes-Benz CLE (63), BMW 4 Series two-door range (50)
• Sports cars over $200,000: Porsche 911 (80), Ferrari two-door range (11), Mercedes-AMG GT (9)

• Light SUVs: Mazda CX-3 (1269), Toyota Yaris Cross (771), Hyundai Venue (665)
• Small SUVs under $45,000: MG ZS (2680), Hyundai Kona (1983), Chery Tiggo 4 (1780)
• Small SUVs over $45,000: Audi Q3 (446), Volkswagen T-Roc (324), Mercedes-Benz GLA (317)
• Medium SUVs under $60,000: Toyota RAV4 (4115), Mitsubishi Outlander (1775), Kia Sportage (1653)
• Medium SUVs over $60,000: Tesla Model Y (2324), Lexus NX (442), Mazda CX-60 (386)
• Large SUVs under $80,000: Ford Everest (2203), Toyota Prado (2033), Isuzu MU-X (909)
• Large SUVs over $80,000: Land Rover Defender (295), BMW X5 (239), Range Rover Sport (202)
• Upper large SUVs under $120,000: Toyota LandCruiser (1208), Nissan Patrol (397), Land Rover Discovery (32)
• Upper large SUVs over $120,000: Lexus GX (105), BMW X7 (75), Mercedes-Benz GLS (61)

• Small vans: Volkswagen Caddy (73), Peugeot Partner (45), Renault Kangoo (14)
• Medium vans: Toyota HiAce (418), Ford Transit Custom (289), Hyundai Staria Load (243)
• 4×2 utes: Toyota HiLux (865), Isuzu D-Max (355), Mitsubishi Triton (264)
• 4×4 utes: Ford Ranger (4730), Toyota HiLux (3958), Isuzu D-Max (1959)
• Large pickups: Ram 1500 (221), Chevrolet Silverado (159), Chevrolet Silverado HD (151)

Sales by category

Includes Tesla and Polestar sales.

Top segments by market share

Includes Tesla and Polestar sales.

Sales by region

Excludes Tesla and Polestar sales.

Sales by buyer type

Excludes Tesla, Polestar and heavy commercial sales.

Sales by fuel or propulsion type

Excludes heavy commercial sales.

Sales by country of origin

Includes Tesla and Polestar sales.

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