Australia’s new car market grew only moderately in 2025, and numerous car brands recorded significant declines.
However, there were some brands that saw strong sales growth last year and – perhaps surprisingly – not all of them were Chinese.
For this article, we looked at the brands with the largest percentage sales growth.
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We excluded exotic brands such as Rolls-Royce (up 24.1 percent year-on-year) and Aston Martin (up 20.1 percent) because their low sales volumes make them more vulnerable to significant percentage differences.
Technically, Leapmotor was the brand with the largest percentage increase in sales last year, up 906.2 percent, but the company only started local delivery in late 2024, skewing the percentage change.
Chery (+176.8 percent)
After relaunching in Australia with the Omoda 5 small SUV in April 2023, Chery has quickly expanded its local offering. In addition, a sister brand was launched (Omoda Jaecoo) and at least one more confirmed for our market (Lepas).
The growth of Chery’s eponymous brand does not appear to have been slowed by internal competition with Omoda Jaecoo, as sales still rose 176.8 percent compared to 2024. The total was 34,889 units.
That wasn’t quite enough to make it into the top ten best-selling brands list, which the company managed to do in several months throughout the year. However, it ranked 13th, which isn’t bad for a young brand in our market.
Chery’s debut model, previously known as the Omoda 5 and now known as the C5 (gasoline-powered) and E5 (electric vehicle), was the only model to see a decline in sales. Overall, it fell by 14 percent, making it the brand’s third strongest model series.
The Tiggo 4 was Chery’s best seller by far, and after it launched here in late 2024, it stormed the sales charts. A total of 20,149 units reached Australian customers in 2025, 950.5 percent more than in 2024.
The Tiggo 7 series took second place with 5,681 deliveries, an increase of 107.8 percent. The larger Tiggo 8 accounted for 3,571 deliveries, an increase of 99.6 percent, while the range was expanded further towards the end of the year with the Tiggo 9 (190 deliveries).
BYD (+156.2 percent)
BYD is another Chinese brand that has diligently expanded its range, which explains its 156.2 percent increase in sales. In 2025, a total of 52,415 BYDs reached customers.
The Atto 1, Australia’s cheapest electric vehicle, was launched too late in the year to make much of a difference, recording just 88 deliveries, all in December; In contrast, the Atto 2 managed 896 deliveries in two months of sales.
BYD’s superstars in 2025 were the Shark 6 plug-in hybrid SUV (18,073 deliveries) and the Sealion 7 electric SUV (13,410), both of which were launched earlier this year. The Sealion 6 completed the podium and its sales rose 46.1 percent year-on-year to 9,055 units.
The electric hatch Dolphin achieved an even larger increase of 53.5 percent to 3,248 units.
Not every BYD was in profit in 2025. The Atto 3 midsize electric SUV, which marked BYD’s first real breakthrough into the Australian market, fell 32.9 percent to 3861 deliveries as it faced new competition from Geely, Leapmotor and MG.
The Seal electric sedan also fell by 40.8 percent to 3,784 deliveries, a similar fate to competitors such as the Tesla Model 3 and Polestar 2.
This year, the Atto 1, Atto 2, Sealion 5 and Sealion 8 will be properly put into operation, allowing BYD to climb further up the top 10 in terms of sales. in 2025 it ranked eighth.
Polestar (+38.5 percent)
The Polestar 2 electric fastback, the Geely brand’s debut model in Australia, plunged 48.9 percent in 2025 with just 746 deliveries.
However, this was offset by higher sales of the EV brand’s SUVs, deliveries of which began in Australia in 2024.
The large electric SUV Polestar 3 rose 367.6 percent to 332 units, while the smaller Polestar 4 rose 607.7 percent to 1,295 units, eclipsing rivals such as the Kia EV6, Genesis GV60 and Lexus RZ. It even managed to narrowly outperform the smaller EX30 from its sister brand Volvo (1281 units).
This year Polestar will launch its new flagship car, the Polestar 5 Grand Tourer. However, given the declining sales of other high-end electric cars, it is unclear what impact this will have on Polestar’s overall bottom line.
Mini (+37.7 percent)
Mini recently revitalized its model range, launching new generations of the Cooper and Countryman and introducing the new Aceman.
The result is an increase in sales, which rose 37.7 percent to 5,485 units in 2025.
The Aceman rose 230.1 percent to 604 units, the Cabriolet rose 103.7 percent to 383 units, the Cooper rose 45.2 percent to 2,263 units and the Countryman rose 19.0 percent to 2,235 units.
Rubber (+23.4 percent)
GWM sales rose 23.4 percent to 52,809 units in 2025, placing the brand seventh overall.
Although the GWM Ora electric hatch and the large Tank 500 SUV only came onto the market here in 2023 and 2024, respectively, their sales fell in 2025. In total, 763 Oras reached customers, a decrease of 37.7 percent, while the Tank 500 fell 9.2 percent to 1519 units.
The small SUV Haval Jolion, the brand’s bestseller, rose by 36.3 percent to 19,413 units, with the larger Haval H6 in second place with 13,217 units, an increase of 6.5 percent.
However, the model with the largest percentage increase was the Cannon Alpha. The brand’s flagship Ute rose 130.5 percent to 2,524 units.
Cupra (+21.0 percent)
Like Chery and BYD, Cupra is another brand that has only recently launched in Australia. The increase in sales in 2025 is therefore due not only to growing buyer awareness, but also to the continuous expansion of the range.
The Tavascan (339 deliveries) and Terramar (246) SUVs helped boost overall Cupra sales, which rose 21.0 percent to 2,830 units.
These helped offset declines in the Leon small car, which fell 2.3 percent to 339 units due to the switch to an updated model. The Ateca SUV is being phased out and fell 61.5 percent to 101 units; The Born electric hatch was phased out in 2025 and recorded 315 deliveries, a decline of 32.3 percent.
Cupra’s bestseller is the Formentor SUV, which accounts for over half of the brand’s total sales. It recorded 1,490 deliveries, an increase of 17.8 percent.
Genesis (+14.4 percent)
After a 26.9 percent plunge in 2024, its first annual loss since its launch in 2019, Hyundai’s luxury brand made up some ground in 2025.
Its sales rose 14.4 percent to 1,602 units in 2024, with its best-seller – the GV70 midsize SUV – doing the heavy lifting. A total of 1,220 copies reached customers, an increase of 35.3 percent.
However, almost all other participants recorded double-digit declines. The G70 sedan fell 15.6 percent to 38 units, the G80 large SUV fell 28.1 percent to 41 units, the GV80 coupe fell 15.5 percent and the GV60 electric SUV plunged 78.6 percent to 15 units.
The GV80 didn’t fare quite as badly, falling by 9.9 percent to 201 units.
Genesis will rely on expanding its dealer network to boost sales in 2026 as there is only one confirmed launch in Australia this year: the updated GV60, which gets a high-performance Magma variant.
Mercedes-Benz (+11.1 percent)
If you combine Mercedes-Benz Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans, the brand with the star grew by 11.1 percent to 27,581 units.
Broken down, the Vans division fell by 2.3 percent to 4,731 units, whereas the Cars division increased by 14.3 percent to 22,850 units.
With the exception of the small EQA (down 12.5 percent to 913 units), all Mercedes-Benz SUVs posted increases, but a number of passenger cars, from the entry-level A-Class to the flagship S-Class, also recorded increases.
It is noteworthy that the medium SUV GLC increased by 47 percent to 4306 units; However, its GLC coupe sibling only rose 0.8 percent to 1,520 units.
However, a handful of Benz models were canceled, including the unpopular EQE and EQS electric vehicles, the small-series SL and GT 4-Door Coupé sports cars and the full-fledged Sprinter van.
Honda (+9.2 percent)
After green shoots appeared in 2024, Honda sales rose nearly 10 percent in 2025.
Like Genesis, much of this growth has come from a single model. The small SUV HR-V rose 43.8 percent to 4,817 units, overtaking the medium SUV ZR-V to become the brand’s second best seller.
The larger CR-V rose just 0.9 percent to 5,595 deliveries, while the ZR-V fell 3.7 percent to 3,940 units.
Honda’s passenger car values ​​also fell, with the Civic hatchback down 3.4 percent to 933 units and the ultra-rare Accord sedan down 28.5 percent to 98 units.
Hyundai (+7.7 percent)
Hyundai sales rose 7.7 percent to 77,208 units. That wasn’t enough to overtake sister brand Kia (82,105 units), but growth outpaced it as Kia only grew by 0.4 percent despite launching its first ute.
The abandonment of non-N versions of the i30 Hatch contributed to a 15.7 percent drop in sales (10,688 units, including the independent i30 sedan), while the switch to a new generation of the Palisade large SUV resulted in a 22.8 percent drop in sales to 2364 units.
The Staria People Mover also fell 11.6 percent to 1,205 units and the Staria Load Van fell 16.7 percent to 2,917 units, with other Hyundai models such as the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and Sonata also recording double-digit declines.
Strong sales of the Kona small SUV (up 31.1 percent to 22,769) and the Santa Fe large SUV (up 16.2 percent to 6,264 units) helped offset these declines, while the i20 N hot hatch saw a massive 172.6 percent increase year-on-year with 1,213 examples reaching customers.
MORE: VFACTS 2025: Another record year for new car sales in Australia, but modest growth overall
MORE: VFACTS: The models with the biggest sales declines in 2025
MORE: VFACTS: The brands with the biggest sales declines in Australia in 2025
