Australians bought more cars in 2023 than any other year to date. But some brands carved off a bigger slice of the record pie and others were left wanting more.
Here are the cars and brands that Australians loved and fell out of love with in 2023.
HOT
FORD
The Ford Ranger was the best selling vehicle in the country last year, knocking the Toyota HiLux off the perch it held for the past seven years.
Ford sold more than 63,000 Rangers in the past 12 months, outselling the HiLux by more than 2000 units.
The Ford Ranger outsold the Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max utes to be crowned Australia’s favourite car of 2023.
The Ranger was developed and designed in Australia at the company’s Broadmeadows facility and is a success story for the local car industry, which ended production at the close of last decade.
Ford’s sales were up more than 30 per cent for the year and the strong result also made it the third highest selling car brand in the nation, leapfrogging Hyundai and Kia.
Top ten cars
| 2023 | 2022 | ||
| 1. Ford Ranger | 63,356 | 1. Toyota HiLux | 64,391 |
| 2. Toyota HiLux | 61,111 | 2. Ford Ranger | 47,479 |
| 3. Isuzu D-Max | 31,202 | 3. Toyota RAV4 | 34,845 |
| 4. Toyota RAV4 | 29,627 | 4. Mitsubishi Triton | 27,436 |
| 5. MG ZS | 29,258 | 5. Mazda CX-5 | 27,062 |
| 6. Tesla Model Y | 28,769 | 6. Toyota Corolla | 24,542 |
| 7. Toyota LandCruiser | 26,449 | 7. Toyota LandCruiser | 24,542 |
| 8. Mistubishi Outlander | 24,263 | 8. Isuzu D-Max | 24,336 |
| 9. Mazda CX-5 | 23,083 | 9. MG ZS | 22,466 |
| 10. Hyundai Tucson | 21,224 | 10. Hyundai i30 | 21,166 |
Chinese cars are officially mainstream. Aussie buyers are voting with their wallets. Sales of BYD, GWM, Haval, MG and LDV skyrocketed in the past 12 months.
These brands have now been on sale in Australia for several years and they keep drawing in new customers with sharp prices, masses of standard equipment and long warranties.
Sales of Chinese-built cars were up 57 per cent last year.
MG has established itself as a top 10 brand in Australia.
MG is the strongest performer, growing more than 17 per cent in the past 12 months and establishing itself as the seventh best selling car brand in the country. The strong sales result was driven by the ZS small SUV and 3 hatchback.
BYD is taking advantage of the groundswell of support for electric cars with sales of its electric-only line-up growing by almost 500 per cent in 2023. The company’s fortunes are expected to grow even further in 2024 with the recently launched new Dolphin hatchback and Seal sedan. BYD is also bringing a plug-in hybrid ute and SUV to Australia next year.
Sales of BYD are growing at an astronomical rate. Photo: Thomas Wielecki
GWM and its SUV offshoot Haval moved about 11,000 more vehicles in 2023 than the previous year and commercial vehicle focused LDV grew by 30 per cent.
China’s also turning into a manufacturing powerhouse, building cars from BMW, Polestar, Tesla and Volvo among others for Australia. China is now the third biggest exporter of cars to Australia after overtaking Korea and Germany.
Top car brands
| 2023 | 2022 | ||
| 1. Toyota | 215,240 | 1. Toyota | 231,050 |
| 2. Mazda | 100,008 | 2. Mazda | 95,718 |
| 3. Ford | 87,800 | 3. Kia | 78,330 |
| 4. Kia | 76,120 | 4. Mitsubishi | 76,991 |
| 5. Hyundai | 75,183 | 5. Hyundai | 73,345 |
| 6. Mitsubishi | 63,511 | 6. Ford | 66,628 |
| 7. MG | 58,346 | 7. MG | 49,582 |
| 8. Tesla | 46,116 | 8. Subaru | 36,036 |
| 9. Subaru | 46,114 | 9. Isuzu Ute | 35,323 |
| 10. Isuzu Ute | 45,341 | 10. Volkswagen | 30,946 |
ELECTRIC CARS
Electric cars were a hit in 2023. Sales of the zero-emissions machines grew by more than 160 per cent through the year.
Tesla was the main source of growth, with sales of the Model Y SUV accelerating at an astronomical rate of more than 230 per cent.
The Tesla Model Y was the sixth best selling vehicle in the nation the past year. Photo: Mark Bean.
The Model Y was the sixth highest selling vehicle in the country and was only slightly behind the Toyota RAV4 as the best selling non-ute in the country. It mades up more than half last year’s EV sales.
Booming Chinese brand BYD had a cracking year and it has even bigger plans for 2024 with a more complete line-up of vehicles.
There are plenty of electric cars arriving in the next 12 months from some of the world‘s biggest car makers such as Volkswagen and Toyota.
