The Australian automotive market achieved a significant milestone in 2024, with a record 1,237,288 new vehicles delivered

Following a closely contested race, the Ford Ranger emerged as the top-selling vehicle, with 62,593 units sold, beating out Toyota’s SUV-market leading RAV4 (58,718 units). This is despite the RAV4 topping the sales charts for seven out of 12 months.
Despite Ranger’s overall leadership, SUVs remained the standout category with a 57 percent market share.
Notably though, this was largely driven by the success of hybrid and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) SUVs, which posted impressive year-on-year increases of 89 percent and 107 percent, respectively.

New players on the rise
At a brand level, Asian manufacturers continue to dominate the Australian automotive market, taking nine spots in the top 10.
While Japanese vehicles, led by Toyota, remain at the forefront, a significant shift is visible. Chinese-made cars have surpassed those from Korea for the second consecutive year.
This marks a pivotal moment for the Australian market, with a range of other Chinese manufacturers having already announced plans for market entry.
Looking back though, we can see how the top brands have already shifted.
While four of the top five (Toyota, Ford, Mazda, and Mitsubishi) have held strong, new entrants, MG, Isuzu Ute and GWM have cemented their positions within Australia’s top ten by sales.
Among the brands they replaced, Holden’s market exit logically knocked it off the list, but Volkswagen and Honda are both still active at lower volumes (ranked 12th and 20th respectively in 2024).
Similarly, despite total sales increasing by 16 percent from 2019, just three brands have kept up with this growth rate, with the rest giving up share to newer entrants.

Rise of non-internal combustion vehicles
Looking to longer-term trends, Australian automotive preferences are gradually shifting away from internal combustion (ICE) vehicles, with growing adoption of vehicles powered by alternative fuel sources (hybrid, PHEV, BEV, etc).
In the span of five years, passenger vehicles have seen a significant drop in ICE sales (from 93 percent in 2019, to 62 percent in 2024). A similar trend is evident for SUVs from 98 percent ICE share in 2019, to 71 percent in 2024).
Light commercial vehicles are currently the outlier here; while internal combustion engines remain dominant, 2024 marked the first year sales of electric and hybrid light commercial vehicles surpassed 2,000 units, with further growth predicted in coming years given the new models that have already been introduced or announced.

Looking into the future: 2025 and beyond
As the market evolves, competition is set to intensify.
The entry of new, (largely) Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers will continue to disrupt the landscape, but it will take time for them to build significant share.
In the short to medium term, ‘traditional’ brands are likely to remain prominent, selling significant volumes of petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles.
From an aftermarket perspective, this knowledge can provide a level of certainty to those focusing on ICE power trains.
The EV revolution is accelerating, but it takes a long time for EV sales to translate into significant share within a 20M vehicle car parc.

This column was prepared for AAA Magazine by Fifth Quadrant, the AAAA’s partner in the Quarterly Aftermarket Dashboard Summary Report which is delivered to members each quarter, and the Interactive Digital Aftermarket Dashboard (available in the member area of the AAAA website).

For more information about Fifth Quadrant’s services, visit www.fifthquadrant.com.au or contact Ben Selwyn on ben@fifthquadrant.com.au