Australia June 2025: BYD up to #5, China-built at 23% share

The BYD Shark 6 is up to a record 5th place in June.

New car sales in Australia register their 2nd year-on-year gain in June at +6.2% to 127,437 units. This is the best June result in 7 years: since the 130,300 units of June 2018. The H1 2025 volume stands at 624,130 (-1.4%), the second highest mark halfway through the year below just last year (632,412). SUV sales surge 15.1% to 75,072 and 58.9% share vs. 54.5% in June 2024 and 55.3% two years ago, light commercials gain 11.3% to 31,021 and 24.3% share vs. 23.2% last year and 23.1% in 2023 but passenger cars sink -21.9% to 16,457 and 12.9% share vs. 17.6% in 2024 and 16.3% two years ago. As you’ll see below there is not a single passenger car in the Top 20 this month. Heavy commercials drop -10.6% to 4,887 and 3.9% share vs. 4.6% last year. The four main states and territories are in positive: New South Wales is up 1.8% to 36,887, Victoria up 1.2% to 32,747, Queensland up 5.1% to 27,592 and Western Australia up 6.8% to 12,895. In contrast South Australia edges down -0.9% to 7,862, Tasmania is down -4% to 1,822, Australian Capital Territory off -9.1% and Northern Territory down -1.1% to 1,017.

GWM breaks its Australian monthly volume record in June…

Private sales reduce their footprint as they trail the market at +3.7% to 62,958, business fleet do the same at +3.3% to 45,885 but rentals shoot up 14.5% to 5,883. Government fleets drop -26.1% to 2,896. BEV sales gain 37.6% to 13,169 and 10.3% share vs. 8% a year ago but remain down -6.1% YTD to 47,145. PHEVs surge 219.1% to 6,220 and 4.9% vs. 1.6% last year (25,613 YTD), mainly due to the success of one model as we’ll see further down. Meanwhile petrol sales are down -3% to 48,867 (249,499 YTD), diesel is up 5.5% to 38,939 (185,481 YTD) and HEVs edge up 0.1% to 15,355 (93,746 YTD). Looking at sales by origin, Japan is down -10.3% to 31,055, China soars 60.5% to 29,933 displacing Thailand (+5% to 27,802) as #2 for the first time, South Korea loses -3.1% to 15,095 and Germany is down -11.1% to 5,698.

…as does Chery.

Over in the brands charts, Toyota (-3.2%) underperforms and falls to a very weak 15.9% share vs. 19.4% over the First Half of the year. Ford (+6.4%) evolves like the market to 7.9% share, with Mazda (-0.8%) stable at #3. Hyundai (+28.3%) overtakes sister brand Kia (-5%) for the first time since last October. The event of the month is the 5th place of BYD, up a surreal 367.9% year-on-year with a record 8,156 sales and 6.4% share. Its previous best was #7 with 4,811 sales and 4.3% share last March. This is only the 2nd time a Chinese brand manages to rank within the five most popular brands in Australia after MG did so in December 2022 (#5). BYD also hits the highest monthly volume and share ever for a Chinese manufacturer, previous best being MG at 6,102 in October 2023 and 5.9% in December 2022.

The BYD Sealion 7 is the 2nd best-selling SUV in the country in June below the Tesla Model Y.

But the Chinese offensive doesn’t stop with BYD: GWM at #7 (+30.9%) and Chery at #14 (+180.3%) both break their monthly volume record as well. Recent launch Geely is up two spots on last month to a record #24 with still small 0.6% share and only one model. Omoda Jaecoo drops to #32, JAC stays at #39, Zeekr advances to #40, Leapmotor repeats at #44 and Deepal falls four ranks to #46, the latter few with still minuscule volumes. In other news, Mitsubishi (-30.9%) freefalls to #8 while Isuzu (+15.9%) resists and Subaru (+3.4%) returns to the Top 10 for the first time since last February. Tesla is down -2% to #11.

Launched in March, the Geely EX5 is already inside the Top 50 in June.

Model-wise, the Ford Ranger (+0.1%) reclaims the top spot it holds year-to-date but its advance over the much older Toyota Hilux (+10%) is only 98 sales. The Ranger’s advantage in the most lucrative 4×4 pickup segment is more glaring at 5,952 vs. 5,275. The HIlux ascends to #2 year-to-date also, overtaking the Toyota RAV4 (-38%) down to a pale #9 spot for the month, the nameplate’s lowest since March 2023. The Tesla Model Y (+19%) is up one rank on May to #3, its first podium appearance since March 2024. It is the best-selling SUV in the country by a large margin above the Ford Everest (#6) and Mazda CX-5 (#7). The BYD Shark 6 makes a splash: it soars 19 ranks on last month to a record 5th place. Another record breaker is the Hyundai Kona (+37.7%) up to #8, as the nameplate has been slowly creeping up the ranking over the years as its controversial design grew more accepted. BYD also places the Sealion 7 at #17 and the Sealion 6 at #19.

Note: A complete models ranking will be uploaded to this article when made available to us.

Previous month: Australia May 2025: Tesla Model Y and Chery Tiggo 4 shine in market of -1.6%

One year ago: Australia June 2024: First market drop in 20 months, Mitsubishi (+48.9%) places Outlander at #4

Full June 2025 Top 55 All brands and Top 50 models below.