Australian new vehicle sales reached 100,939 in August, up 0.4% on the same month last year. Year-to-date volume sits at 811,388, down 0.1%.
The flat headline covers a heavy rotation underneath it. Petrol and diesel accounted for 49,432 of the 97,942 passenger, SUV and light commercial sales recorded in VFACTS, or 50.5%. Battery electric, plug-in hybrid and conventional hybrid vehicles took the other 49.5%, putting pure internal combustion less than half a percentage point from minority share of the light vehicle market.
Petrol volume fell 32.6% to 25,824 and diesel 22.5% to 23,608. Within VFACTS, battery electric sales rose 181.2% to 19,257, plug-in hybrids 171.1% to 10,591 and conventional hybrids 7.4% to 18,662.
Brands
Toyota led on 19,712, down 5.2%, for 19.5% share. BYD was second on 8,231, up 68.8%, ahead of Kia on 6,500, Mazda on 6,203 and Hyundai on 5,355. GWM took sixth on 4,870, followed by Ford on 4,816, MG on 4,767, Geely on 4,504 and Chery on 4,238.
FCAI puts the combined August volume of the five Chinese brands in the top 10 at 26,610, or 26.4% of the VFACTS market.
Geely recorded the largest single movement, lifting from 401 units in August 2025 to 4,504. Zeekr sold 2,120 against 88, and Omoda Jaecoo was up 340.6% to 2,203. GAC, Denza, Foton, Farizon and Xpeng all recorded volume against nil a year earlier.
The falls sat with established brands. Ford was down 39.8%, Audi 49.7%, Mitsubishi 42.6%, Volkswagen 38.0%, Subaru 36.7% and Nissan 33.4%.
Segments
Light commercials fell 22.1% to 18,081, cutting the segment from 23.1% of the market to 17.9%. Four-wheel-drive pick-up and cab chassis volume dropped 27.1% to 13,507.
The Ford Ranger fell 50.6% to 2,440 and the Isuzu D-Max 26.2% to 1,708, while the Toyota HiLux held flat at 4,833. The Toyota RAV4 led the model chart on 5,470, up 32.9%.
SUVs took 65.7% of the market on 66,269 sales, up 9.5%. Medium SUVs alone accounted for 30,850 units, up 32.5%, and 30.6% of all sales. Heavy commercials fell 17.4% to 2,997.
Source markets and buyers
China supplied 36,070 vehicles in August, 35.7% of the market, against Japan on 24,892 and Thailand on 15,658. Year to date China has delivered 244,855 vehicles to Japan’s 195,614, a lead of 49,241 units.
Private buyers carried the month. Across passenger, SUV and light commercial, private sales rose 7.7% to 52,916 while business volume fell 5.8% to 36,426 and government 18.9% to 2,323. Rental was flat at 6,277.
Western Australia was the strongest state, up 8.7% to 11,572, with Tasmania up 9.3% to 1,698 and South Australia up 4.0% to 6,660. Queensland fell 4.8% to 20,849 and the ACT 6.4% to 1,512. New South Wales was flat at 30,517 and Victoria up 0.9% to 27,270.
“The sustained level of BEV sales, together changing brand preferences, shows how quickly consumer choice and competition are reshaping Australia’s new-vehicle market,” Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Tony Weber says.
Weber says the shift reinforces the need for charging infrastructure that keeps pace with the market, particularly on highways, in rural and regional areas and for motorists without access to charging at home.
The two BEV numbers
FCAI reports 27,089 battery electric vehicles sold across all reporting sources in August, the highest monthly total recorded in Australia, at 24.9% of the entire new vehicle market and up 171% year on year.
That figure is not comparable with the VFACTS table. Within VFACTS, battery electric vehicles totalled 19,257, or 19.1% of the 100,939 recorded. The 24.9% is calculated against an all-sources market of about 108,791, which takes in roughly 7,850 vehicles outside VFACTS. Almost all of those, about 7,830, are battery electric, reflecting Tesla and Polestar reporting through the Electric Vehicle Council instead of the chamber.
Both figures are correct on their own basis. They are not interchangeable, and month-to-month comparisons need to state which one is in use.
