PHEV sales boomed in March, but battery electric sales slowed

Australians purchased 108,606 new vehicles during March, a decrease of 0.9% on the same period in 2024, which was the best March result yet recorded by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

Sales of Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles (PHEV) during March were up 380% from the same period in 2024, reflecting the impact of the removal of the Commonwealth Government’s FBT exemption for these vehicles from 1 April.

Battery electric vehicles (BEV) represented 4.9% of total sales reported to FCAI, compared with 9.5% in March 2024 and 6.8% in March 2023.

These figures do not include the March 2025 results for Tesla and Polestar who do not report their monthly BEV sales to the chamber.

Toyota was the market leader with sales of 20,541 during March, followed by Ford (8232), Mazda (8000), Kia (7307) and Mitsubishi (7265).

The Ford Ranger was Australia’s top selling vehicle with sales of 4,932 followed by the Toyota RAV4 (4321), Toyota Hilux (4081), Mitsubishi Outlander (3005) and Toyota Prado (2871).

For March 2025, sales in the Australian Capital Territory were up 4.6% on March 2024 to 1,657; New South Wales was down 0.9% to 33,491; Northern Territory increased by 3.3% to 961; Queensland fell 6.8% to 21,954; South Australia was up by 2.2% to 7,143; Tasmania had an increase of 10.2% to 1774; Victoria was down 1.9% to 29,541 and Western Australia increased 9.1% to 12,085.

Key points:

• The March 2025 market of 108,606 shows a decrease in new vehicle sales of 1041 (-0.9%) compared to March 2024 (109,647). There were 24.5 selling days in both March 2025 and 2024 resulting in a decrease of 42.5 vehicle sales per day this year.

• The passenger vehicle market is down by 3448 vehicle sales (-19.6%) over the same month last year; the sports utility market is up by 1,116 vehicle sales (1.7%); the light commercial market is up by 1493 vehicle sales (6.5%) and the heavy commercial vehicle market is down by 202 vehicle sales (-4.7%) versus March 2024.

• Toyota was the market leader in March, followed by Ford and Mazda. Toyota led Ford with a margin of 12,309 vehicle sales and 11.3 market share points.