In 2023, BMW pushed past Mercedes-Benz – at least where cars and SUVs are concerned – while Lexus and Volvo had record years and Tesla outsold them all.
Here, we look at the luxury brands on sale in Australia and how they performed in 2023. Note, VFACTS figures are based on customers taking delivery of a vehicle, not simply ordering one.
We’ve omitted ultra-luxury brands like Bentley and Rolls-Royce for brevity, but we’ve included Tesla for context – even if it’s arguably not a luxury brand.
Tesla: 46,116 sales
You may argue Tesla doesn’t belong here, given its Model 3 and Model Y have base prices that undercut not only rivals from luxury brands but even those from mass-market brands. Nevertheless, we’ve included it for context.
Tesla sales were up 135.4 per cent over 2022 despite having only two models: the Model Y, Australia’s best-selling electric vehicle (EV) in 2023; and the Model 3.
Sales of the Model 3 were up 59.5 per cent year over year, but the Model Y was up by a whopping 230 per cent.
Not only did Tesla outsell every other brand on this list, it was Australia’s eighth best-selling brand overall, overtaking the likes of Subaru, Volkswagen and Nissan.
BMW: 26,184 sales
BMW beat out Mercedes-Benz, but with an asterisk attached.
The three-pointed star brand still sold more vehicles overall if you lump in sales from both its passenger car and commercial vehicle divisions.
Strip away Vito cargo vans and the like, however, and the Bavarian brand edged past.
Sales were up 15.4 per cent, with its best-selling vehicles being the X1 (4644 sales, up 91.5 per cent), X3 (4002 sales, down 12 per cent), X5 (3682 sales, up 18.4 per cent) and 3 Series (3147 sales, up 11.7 per cent).
Like the related X3, X4 sales declined (775 sales, down 13 per cent) while some of BMW’s sportier models didn’t do as well like the 4 Series (858 sales, down 14.3 per cent) and 4 Series Gran Coupe (805 sales, down 6.2 per cent).
The latter two’s electric sibling, however, had a good year. BMW sold 353 i4s, up 70.5 per cent.
Mercedes-Benz: 24,315 sales
Mercedes-Benz sold 24,315 vehicles, while Mercedes-Benz Vans sold 4538 vehicles.
The Vans division includes not only load-haulers like the Vito, but also plush people movers like the V-Class, but the bulk of its sales was of the Sprinter van (3113 units, up 15.9 per cent).
Mercedes-Benz Cars was down 9.3 per cent year over year, with double-digit declines for several key models.
The GLC was its best-seller with 3631 sales, down 16 per cent, though the related GLC Coupe managed to grow sales by 17.5 per cent to 1799 units.
The C-Class sat in second with 2625 sales, down 26.4 per cent, followed by the GLE (2535 sales, down 18 per cent). Again, the coupe SUV version of the GLE posted an increase (809 sales, up 3.6 per cent).
Mercedes-Benz’s most affordable model, the A-Class, was also down. The brand sold 2392 examples, a decrease of 15.8 per cent.
There were few bright spots. EQB sales were up massively (783 sales, an increase of 455.3 per cent), while the outgoing E-Class posted an increase in its twilight months (421 sales, up 21.3 per cent).
Audi: 19,039 sales
Audi sales were up 29.2 per cent year over year, despite a drop in sales for its top seller, the Q3. Audi shifted 4457 examples, a decrease of 11.7 per cent that saw it fall further behind its Volvo XC40 rival.
But apart from drops for the fairly low-volume A6 and A7, it was otherwise a rosy picture at Audi.
The Q5 was its second-best seller (4210 sales, up 31.2 per cent), followed by the A3 (3319 sales, up 57.3 per cent) which came remarkably close to matching the Volkswagen Golf in sales – there was a difference of just 273 units.
Intriguingly, some Audi models saw spikes in popularity despite being at the end of their lifecycles. These include the A4 (863 sales, up 61.3 per cent), A5 (178 sales, up 17.1 per cent) and A5 Sportback (572 sales, up 47.8 per cent).
