Companies and governments do a lot of work, but private buyers account for the largest share of new car sales in Australia.
According to the VFACTS 2025 report from the Federal Chamber of the Automotive Industry (FCAI), a total of 600,580 vehicles were sold to private buyers last year, out of a total of 1,209,808 vehicles.
These figures exclude Tesla and Polestar, which report their sales separately to the Electric Vehicle Council, as well as several other car brands that do not report their sales to any industry organization.
Although the Toyota RAV4 failed to secure the title of Australia’s best-selling vehicle overall last year, it was by far the bestseller among private buyers, with 31,413 units delivered. Still, another 20,534 were delivered to other types of buyers, including businesses.
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The Tesla Model Y was the second best-selling vehicle among private buyers, but there’s a caveat here: The numbers are based on data from the Electric Vehicle Council, which doesn’t break sales into private, fleet, government and rental categories like VFACTS does.
For Tesla and Polestar vehicles, we looked at sales in the EVC report, broken down into Person, One Person and Two Person categories. Taking these sales into account, the total number of vehicles delivered to private customers is 625,608.
There are some clear differences between the private sales top 20 list and the “normal” top 20 list.
Last year’s top seller, the Ford Ranger, came 13th among private buyers, while the third-place Toyota HiLux came 10th.
One vehicle that actually climbed the charts despite omitting business and government sales was the BYD Shark 6 Dual-Cab plug-in hybrid, which was the fourth best-selling vehicle among private buyers.
| Model | Private sale | Total sales | % of private sales | position in total sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toyota RAV4 | 31,413 | 51,947 | 60.5% | 2 |
| Tesla Model Y | 17,628 | 22,239 | 79.3% | 10 |
| Mazda CX-5 | 15,951 | 22,742 | 70.1% | 8 |
| BYD Shark 6 | 15,564 | 18,073 | 86.1% | 18 |
| Hyundai Kona | 15,521 | 22,769 | 68.2% | 7 |
| Chery Tiggo 4 | 15,367 | 20,149 | 76.3% | 11 |
| Toyota Prado | 14,168 | 26,106 | 54.3% | 6 |
| GWM Haval Jolion | 13,984 | 19,413 | 72.0% | 14 |
| MG ZS | 12,630 | 20,000 | 63.2% | 17 |
| Toyota HiLux | 12,529 | 51,297 | 24.40% | 3 |
| Ford Everest | 12,470 | 26,161 | 47.7% | 5 |
| Hyundai Tucson | 12,451 | 20,145 | 61.8% | 12 |
| Ford Ranger | 11,516 | 56,555 | 20.40% | 1 |
| World Sea Lion 7 | 11,384 | 13,410 | 84.9% | 24 |
| Isuzu D-Max | 10,690 | 26,839 | 39.80% | 4 |
| Kia Sportage | 10,639 | 19,137 | 55.6% | 15 |
| Mazda CX-3 | 10,112 | 15,429 | 65.5% | 21 |
| Isuzu MU-X | 10,060 | 15,458 | 65.1% | 20 |
| GWM Haval H6 | 9371 | 13,217 | 70.9% | 25 |
| Toyota Corolla Cross | 9157 | 12,686 | 72.2% | 26 |
Another way to look at the data is to sort it by the percentage of sales to private buyers.
This of course brings vehicles from exotic brands like Ferrari, Lotus and Lamborghini to the top. In addition, a number of vehicles will be launched in 2025, including the Zeekr 7X, Geely EX5 and KGM Actyon mid-size SUVs.
However, there are some surprises here.
Honda’s HR-V small SUV, the second best-selling vehicle in 2025, had the highest private sales share of any mainstream model.
It’s unclear whether KGM has intentionally prioritized fleet sales or whether it is simply struggling to appeal to fleet buyers. The entire lineup appeared in this top 20 list.
The BYD Shark 6 is appearing again, with a whopping 86.1 percent of sales going to private buyers. Its showroom colleague Sealion 7 was just behind with 84.9 percent.
Excluding the discontinued models Mazda CX-9 and Ford Puma, of which only one was sold each, here are the top 20 vehicles with the highest proportion of private sales.
| Model | Private sale | Total sales of models | % of private sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lotus Emira | 60 | 60 | 100.0% |
| Lotus Eletre | 9 | 9 | 100.0% |
| Lotus Emeya | 3 | 3 | 100.0% |
| Ferrari Purosangue | 53 | 56 | 94.6% |
| LDV delivers 9 mobile homes | 14 | 15 | 93.3% |
| Honda HR-V | 4401 | 4817 | 91.4% |
| Zeekr 7X | 1100 | 1206 | 91.2% |
| Ram 3500 | 19 | 21 | 90.5% |
| KGM Torres | 257 | 288 | 89.2% |
| KGM Musso | 1833 | 2081 | 88.1% |
| KGM Rexton | 1216 | 1392 | 87.4% |
| KGM CLD | 165 | 189 | 87.3% |
| BYD Shark 6 | 15,564 | 18,073 | 86.1% |
| Two-door Lamborghini | 101 | 118 | 85.6% |
| KGM Actyon | 142 | 166 | 85.5% |
| Suzuki Jimny | 5983 | 7027 | 85.1% |
| World Sea Lion 7 | 11,384 | 13,410 | 84.9% |
| Two-door Ferrari | 139 | 164 | 84.8% |
| Geely EX5 | 3337 | 3944 | 84.6% |
| Polestar 2 | 626 | 746 | 83.9% |
The Polestar 2’s figures are based on data from the Electric Vehicle Council, which breaks down sales into individual or corporate purchases, as opposed to the FCAI, which classifies private, fleet, government and rental buyers.
Putting it aside, 20th place goes to the Honda Civic with 770 private sales out of a total of 933 units, accounting for 82.5 percent of private sales.
MORE: VFACTS 2025: Another record year for new car sales in Australia, but modest growth overall
