VFACTS January 2026: Australia's new-vehicle market up… just – CarExpert
The Australian new-car market was up only incrementally in January, held back by drops from top-selling brands like Toyota, Mazda and Ford.
William Stopford
News Editor
William Stopford
News Editor
Australia’s new-vehicle market had a steady start for the year with a total of 87,753 vehicles delivered in January, an increase of just 0.1 per cent.
Private sales were essentially flat and business and government sales were down, leaving rental companies to save the day – sales to these organisations were up by 47 per cent.
Registrations of petrol-powered vehicles slumped by 14.7 per cent compared with January 2025, while plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) were up 170.5 per cent.
Collating data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries’ VFACTS report and the Electric Vehicle Council’s monthly sales report, electric vehicles (EVs) were up by 93.3 per cent. This increase would have been higher were it not for EV market-leader Tesla, which fell by 32.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY).
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Hybrids were up by only 2.0 per cent, hurt by a significant decline in Toyota RAV4 deliveries.
The top-selling vehicle, therefore, wasn’t the RAV4 as it was in December 2025. Instead, the Ford Ranger ute took the top spot, with the Toyota HiLux in second place and the Mazda CX-5 in third.
“We are seeing fewer petrol vehicles sold and rapid growth in plug-in hybrids, while uptake of hybrid and battery electric vehicles is more stable,” said FCAI chief executive Tony Weber.
Toyota sales slumped by 22.3 per cent, hurt somewhat by the transition between HiLux generations (sales were down by 15.2 per cent) but much more so by the thinning of current RAV4 stock.
Customer deliveries of the new-generation RAV4 will begin late in March, so next month could see another drop for the popular SUV.
Prado deliveries were down by 51.1 per cent, though at this time last year deliveries had only just commenced a few months prior for the current-generation model. It therefore appears to have come back down to earth… and placed below the rival Ford Everest once again, after its Blue Oval rival beat it by just 55 units in the 2025 calendar year.
Mazda was down by 7.6 per cent YoY in January but held onto the second spot, fending off a surging Kia. Strong sales for its top-selling CX-5, which was Australia’s best-selling mid-size SUV in January and up 22.3 per cent, weren’t enough to offset slumping sales for the CX-3 (down 24.3 per cent to 1218 units).
Kia had a strong month compared to last January, up 15.4 per cent YoY, thanks in large part to the K4 small car having fully come on stream. While the Tasman ute isn’t meeting sales expectations, it accounted for 467 of Kia’s 6600 deliveries.
The Carnival people mover was also up by 124.3 per cent to 1321 units, making it Kia’s best seller. While we don’t yet have the breakdown of how many Carnivals went to each type of buyer, we suspect a significant percentage of these went to rental fleets.
After finishing in second place in December and third place overall for 2025, Ford fell to fourth in January. Its deliveries dropped by 10.5 per cent, hindered by a 20 per cent drop for the Ranger. A 13.9 per cent YoY increase for the Everest, which once again beat the Toyota Prado for the title of best-selling large SUV, wasn’t enough to offset this.
Hyundai rose once again, with deliveries up by 6.9 per cent YoY. Its two best-selling vehicles, the Kona and Tucson SUVs, were up by 41.4 per cent and 20.7 per cent, respectively.
Despite this finish for the Kona, it was beaten by the rival Chery Tiggo 4 in the small SUV sales race; it was triumphant over the Chinese SUV (and the GWM Haval Jolion) in the 2025 calendar year, so that’s one race we’ll be keeping an eye on this year.
BYD continued to storm up the sales charts, finishing in sixth place – one of its strongest placings yet, though it finished in fourth position in December 2025.
The Chinese automaker finished eighth overall last year, marking its first time in the top 10 annually. It looks set to remain a top-10 fixture and is knocking on the door of the top five.
January’s top 10 was rounded out by GWM (up 31.3 per cent to 4509 units), Mitsubishi (down 23.5 per cent to 4347 units), Chery (up 105.8 per cent to 3780 units), and MG (down 16.5 per cent to 3123 units).
Isuzu Ute fell just outside of the top 10 at 2929 units, up 2.0 per cent.
Elsewhere, Tesla delivered just 501 vehicles, down 32.2 per cent on January 2025. It was just 32 units ahead of Zeekr, which is powering up the sales charts following the launch of its Model Y-rivalling 7X late last year.
Some brands still don’t report their sales figures to the FCAI or the EVC. These include Mahindra, Xpeng and Cadillac.
As mentioned, the Toyota RAV4 suffered from a thinning of stock ahead of the arrival of the new-generation model. Despite being Australia’s best-selling vehicle in December 2025, it just scraped into the top 10 in January 2026.
It was beaten by the rival Mazda CX-5 and Mitsubishi Outlander, with the Hyundai Tucson in striking distance.
The Ford Ranger took the top spot in January, followed by the Toyota HiLux, with the CX-5 rounding out the podium.
The Chery Tiggo 4 stormed up the sales charts, sitting in fourth spot – its highest position yet in Australia, also achieved last November – with a 119.4 per cent YoY increase.
The Ford Everest (sixth place, 1913 units) has entered the year with a strong lead over the rival Toyota Prado (14th place, 1392 units).
The top 10 was rounded out by the Hyundai Kona, Isuzu D-Max, GWM Haval Jolion and the aforementioned RAV4.
Includes Tesla and Polestar sales.
Includes Tesla and Polestar sales.
Excludes Tesla and Polestar sales.
Excludes Tesla, Polestar and heavy commercial vehicle sales.
Excludes heavy commercial vehicle sales.
Includes Tesla and Polestar sales.
MORE: VFACTS 2025: Another record year for new vehicle sales in Australia, but growth modest overall
William Stopford is an automotive journalist with a passion for mainstream cars, automotive history and overseas auto markets.
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