Australia’s new car market hit a new record of 1,241,037 sales in 2025, but behind the breakdown of combustion engine, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars, there is data to show which group of buyers was attracted the most what type of vehicle.
At a high level, buyers divide into four different camps: Battery electric vehicles (EVs), Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), Hybrids (HEVs)and the still prevailing world of petrol and diesel powered vehicles – including mild hybrids (MHEVs).
Based on 2025 volume, it looks like this:
- Electric vehicles: 103,270 sales (8.3 percent of the market) – including just two hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs)
- PHEVs: 53,484 sales (4.3 percent) – including a small proportion of extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs)
- Hybrids (without plugs): 199,133 sales (16.0 percent) – conventional hybrids plus self-charging systems such as Nissan e-Power
- Combustion engine (petrol/diesel, including MHEV): 884,944 sales (71.3 percent)
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The figures show that electric vehicles now represent a significant part of the market, but they are still largely a personal and business purchase rather than a rental purchase.
PHEVs are operated even more by private buyers and are hardly used by rental fleets.
Regular hybrid vehicles are no longer just an “electrified” niche, thanks in large part to Toyota. They are a mainstream part of the market and, importantly, they have a much healthier presence in the rental market than electric or PHEVs, suggesting they have become the low-risk fuel economy option for fleets.
Meanwhile, vehicles with combustion engines (petrol/diesel plus mild hybrid) remain the standard choice across all buyer groups, as they still account for more than seven out of ten new vehicles sold.
Electric vehicles
In 2025, Australians purchased 103,270 battery-electric vehicles, representing around 8.3 percent of the total market.
Electric vehicles were sold primarily by private buyers, but apart from rental companies, which had little involvement, business continued to make an important contribution.
Of the EV sales where the type of buyer could be clearly divided, it was EVs 66.2 percent private And 31.1 percent business.
This is a very different profile to traditional petrol/diesel vehicles, where rental buyers represent a much more significant part of the demand.
PHEVs
In 2025, 53,484 plug-in hybrids were sold – 4.3 percent of the total market – making them the major drive category most driven by private buyers.
The plug-in hybrid split is as follows:
- Private buyers: 34,758 (65.3 percent)
- Companies: 17,652 (33.1 percent)
- Government: 664 (1.2 percent)
- Rent: 175 (0.3 percent)
Hybrids
Hybrid vehicles (199,133 in total) have become the mainstream purchase of Australians and are also shaping fleet behavior.
The hybrid breakdown by buyer type looks like this:
- Private: 115,588 (58.0 percent)
- Companies: 59,549 (29.9 percent)
- Government: 7,575 (3.8 percent)
- Rental: 16,421 (8.2 percent)
Conventional hybrid vehicles had the highest rental share of the three no-plug subcategories (gasoline/diesel only, mild hybrids and conventional hybrids). In 2025, rentals accounted for 16,157 hybrid sales – 8.3 percent of all hybrid vehicles – compared to 6.4 percent of pure gasoline/diesel vehicles and 3.2 percent of mild hybrids.
This suggests that hybrid vehicles have become the “low-risk electrification option” for fleets seeking better fuel efficiency without changing fueling habits or charging infrastructure.
Petrol and diesel
If we combine petrol/diesel vehicles and mild hybrids (including the Toyota HiLux, Mazda CX-80 and Suzuki Swift models), that’s 884,944 sales in 2025 – 71.3 percent of the total market.
Of these, 94,642 sales were for mild hybrids.
The entire range of combustion engines (plus mild hybrid) is broken down by buyer type as follows:
- Private: 408,938 (46.2 percent)
- Companies: 398,591 (45.0 percent)
- Government: 24,024 (2.7 percent)
- Rental: 53,391 (6.0 percent)
It’s a much more balanced picture than with electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. Private buyers are still leading, but the economy is close behind and rentals remain a significant part of demand.
Overall, it appears that while electric vehicles are on the rise, these are largely being purchased by private customers and businesses (which we suspect includes small business ABN holders), rather than by rental agencies.
Plug-in hybrids have become a major second wave, driven even more by private vehicles than electric cars and almost completely absent from rental fleets. And while petrol and diesel vehicles still dominate in terms of volume, hybrid vehicles – particularly conventional hybrid vehicles – are now a core part of Australia’s “combustion era” market and account for a significant portion of fleet demand.
MORE: VFACTS 2025: Another record year for new car sales in Australia, but modest growth overall
