2 days ago
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High-riding vehicles dominate the overall new-car sales charts in Australia, but the most popular car delivered to rental fleets last year was a humble hatchback.
More than 68,000 new cars were sold to rental companies in Australia during 2024, from $25,000 MGs to a single $300,000 Range Rover.
But the top seller was a model that finished seventh place on the overall charts last year: the Toyota Corolla.
More than one in three – 36 per cent – of rental cars sold were Toyotas, and the top-selling new vehicle overall last year, the Ford Ranger, was only 14th on the rental-car charts.
In total, sales to rental fleets tallied 68,301 in 2024 – or 5.5 per cent of all new-vehicle deliveries – down from 71,850 the year prior, and an all-time record of 77,195 vehicles in 2018.
The rest of the Top 10 best sellers list is largely made up of vehicles also popular with private and business buyers, including the Toyota HiLux (fifth), Kia Sportage (eighth) and Ford Everest (10th).
But it is when the list is sorted by the share of a model's total sales that went to rental-car companies that the list becomes even more interesting.
With the exception of all three BMW 6 Series GT sedans being sold attributed to hire-car companies, it is the Skoda Scala hatchback that quotes the highest share of its sales to rental firms, at 48.6 per cent – or 202 of its 416 deliveries last year.
Only 52 examples were sold to private buyers, placing it in the bottom 21 per cent of the charts when the 107 example sold to businesses – and 55 to governments – are excluded.
It was followed by the BMW 5 Series (41.7 per cent, or 256 out of 614 sales), Peugeot 508 (35.4 per cent, 23 out of 65), VW Polo (33.2 per cent, 716 out of 2154), and Cupra Ateca (26.3 per cent, 69 out of 262).
A surprise sixth-placed finisher is the Nissan Juke, on 25.1 per cent – or 420 of its 1674 total sales.
In 2023, the Scala's crown was held by the Ateca, when 56.7 per cent – or 186 – of the Cupra SUV's deliveries went to a rental-car company.
The brand with the highest share of rental sales was Cupra, on 11.5 per cent – or 263 of its 2339 deliveries – ahead of Nissan (10.3 per cent) and Toyota (10.1 per cent).
Among the most expensive cars to be delivered to rental fleets are 86 BMW iX electric SUVs, 26 Range Rover Sports, and one full-size Range Rover.
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
