Australian new-car sales in 2024: Annual record barely broken despite drop in demand

01/05/2025 06:10 PM

Sales of new vehicles have broken their annual record for the second year in a row – at more than 1.2 million deliveries – despite crawling across the finish line with five months of consecutive decline.

A record 1,237,287 new vehicles were reported as sold in 2024 – topped by the Ford Ranger ute for the second consecutive year, ahead of the Toyota RAV4 SUV – as car companies cleared the last of their backorders taken one or two years ago.

It is up 1.7 per cent from last year’s total of 1,216,780 deliveries.

But demand for new cars has fallen from the heights of 2022 – the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic – and while last month’s 99,666 deliveries were up 1.1 per cent on December 2023, sales were down 3.1 per cent on the December record of 102,820 vehicles in 2017.

MORE: VFACTS December 2023: New-car sales set record, Ford Ranger defeats Toyota HiLux

It represents the first month of sales growth after four months of sales decline in a row – and five in the previous six – amid a worsening economy and high, although stable, interest rates.

More than 25,000 fewer new vehicles were sold in the second half of last year than the first – compared to more than 50,000 in the opposite direction in 2023.

Deliveries to private buyers – excluding fleets, governments, rental companies, and business buyers purchasing with an ABN – were down 1 per cent in the second half of the year.

Industry analysts forecast closer to 1.15 million new-vehicle sales will be reported in 2025 – down on 2024’s record, but in line with demand in showrooms, which leading car companies say has returned to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Sales results published here – collated from Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) data – is based on vehicle deliveries and registrations respectively, rather than how many orders were taken for vehicles in a given period.

Toyota beat its annual sales record on its way to becoming Australia’s most popular new-vehicle brand for the 23rd year in a row, posting 241,296 sales ahead of its previous high of 238,938 vehicles in 2008.

It too says demand in its showrooms has returned to 2019 levels, but improved supply and less constrained production saw more than half of its model range post sales growth last year.

The Toyota RAV4 family SUV – once faced with two-year wait times, now down to a few months – reported a record 62,593 deliveries, up 98 per cent year-on-year.

A boom in RAV4 Hybrid popularity contributed to sales of hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars reaching record levels, up 76 and 100 per cent to 172,696 and 23,163 respectively, while fully-electric vehicle sales flat-lined compared to previous years of record growth, with a 4.7 per cent increase.

The RAV4 finished behind only the Ford Ranger ute (62,953 sales, down 1.2 per cent), and at times appeared likely to become the first SUV to top the Australian annual new-car sales charts.

The gap between the top two sellers ranged from 2500 to 8000 sales during the year – and the Toyota led the monthly charts seven times to the Ford’s five – but the RAV4 was ultimately not close enough.

Instead, the Ranger has become the first Ford to lead the Australian new-car sales race in consecutive years since the Falcon topped the charts in 1992 and 1993, though it failed to break its sales record set in 2023 (down 1.2 per cent).

The Toyota HiLux – the nation’s top seller from 2016 to 2022 – finished third in 2024 on 53,499 deliveries, down 12 per cent year-on-year, ahead of the Isuzu D-Max and Mitsubishi Outlander.

Only one traditional ‘passenger car’ – a hatch, sedan, coupe, convertible or people mover – finished in the annual Top 10, the seventh-placed Toyota Corolla.

In December, the new Toyota Prado finished in fourth position just behind the HiLux, both ahead of the Ford Everest.

Ford finished second on the annual manufacturer leaderboard – with 100,170 sales, up 14.1 per cent – 85 per cent of which were a Ranger ute or its 4WD SUV sibling, the Everest.

It came at the cost of Mazda, which fell to third from the second-placed position it has held for nine of the previous 10 years, and reported a 4 per cent sales decline – to 95,987 vehicles – in a record market.

Only twice in the past decade has the Japanese car maker has sold fewer cars in a calendar year.

Kia (81,787 sales, up 7.4 per cent) beat a resurgent Mitsubishi (74,547 sales, up 17.4 per cent) and slumping Hyundai (71,664 sales, down 4.7 per cent) to finish fourth.

Two Chinese brands finished in the annual Top 10 for the first time in Australian motoring history, thanks to GWM (42,782 sales, up 17.5 per cent) overtaking the likes of Subaru and VW to break into 10th place.

As reported last week, Tesla dropped out of the Top 10 for the year – ending 2024 in 12th place – after reporting a slump of 17 per cent to 38,347 deliveries.

In fact, it was the US car giant’s drop that pulled the rest of the electric-car market close to negative territory in 2024 – only up 4.7 per cent – as deliveries of non-Tesla EVs was up 28.8 per cent year-on-year.

The Tesla Model 3 managed to hold off a resurgent Toyota Camry to remain the country’s top-selling mid-size sedan for the third year in a row, after ending the former family favourite’s 28-year winning streak in 2022.

Data below supplied by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and Electric Vehicle Council (EVC).

TOP 10 CARS IN FULL-YEAR 2024

TOP 10 CAR BRANDS IN FULL-YEAR 2024

TOP 10 CARS IN December 2024

TOP 10 CAR BRANDS IN December 2024

Passenger cars: Top Three in each segment in FULL-YEAR 2024

SUVs: Top Three in each segment in FULL-YEAR 2024

Utes and vans: Top Three in each segment in FULL-YEAR 2024

Passenger cars: Top Three in each segment in December 2024

SUVs: Top Three in each segment in December 2024

Utes and vans: Top Three in each segment in December 2024

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