Australian new-car sales in April 2025: Toyota HiLux back on top as PHEVs nosedive

The Toyota HiLux was Australia's top-selling new car for the first time in almost two years last month, amid the eighth decline in monthly vehicle deliveries in the past year.

And sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles fell by 62 per cent compared to the prior month – although they are still up 95 per cent year-on-year – as a lucrative tax break for the fuel-efficient vehicles ended on April 1.

Data published by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries today reports 90,614 new vehicles as delivered in Australia last month, plus a further 702 Tesla and Polestar deliveries reported by the Electric Vehicle Council.

It brings the new-car sales total for last month to 91,316 – down 6.1 per cent on the prior year, the third decline this year after 1.7 per cent growth in March.

It remains the third-best April on record – just behind 2021's 92,347 sales – and well ahead of the five-year pre-pandemic April average of 82,168.

Since the start of the year, sales are down 3.6 per cent – on track for about 1.19 million new-vehicle deliveries by New Year's Eve.

Toyota remained the country's top-selling new-vehicle brand, with 19,380 deliveries – down 6.7 per cent – ahead of second-placed Ford, which is down a more significant 15.2 per cent (to 7334 sales).

Mazda in third led Kia and its sibling Hyundai, while there were two Chinese brands in the Top 10, GWM and BYD – the latter up 127 per cent – alongside a resurgent Nissan from Japan.

Not present in the Top 10 was MG, which was down 17.9 per cent last month to place 11th, down on its typical finishing position of seventh or eighth.

The Toyota HiLux leads the monthly sales race for the first time since September 2023, with its highest sales since October 2024 – just 90 deliveries ahead of the second-placed Ford Ranger, and about 300 sales ahead of the Toyota RAV4.

HiLux sales were down 12 per cent last month, but the Ranger was down 28 per cent, and the RAV4 was down 35 per cent.

It means there is now a gap of just 353 vehicles at the top of the year-to-date sales race – the RAV4 still leading the Ranger – after the former recorded a strong start to the year following the Ford's chart-topping 2024 sales run.

Further down the charts are two large four-wheel-drives – the Ford Everest and Toyota Prado – split by just one sale, ahead of the Isuzu D-Max ute.

The biggest losers in April sales were plug-in hybrids, with demand for the fuel type down 62 per cent compared to March 2025, when customers rushed to take advantage of a Fringe Benefits Tax exemption ending after March 31.

BYD Shark 6 plug-in hybrid ute deliveries fell from 2810 in March, to 1293 in April, while the BYD Sealion 6 dropped from 790 to 275.

In total, 2601 plug-in hybrids were reported as sold last month – still up 95.4 per cent on the same month the prior year, but down 62.5 per cent on March 2025.

Electric car sales were down 44.2 per cent last month compared to April 2024, fed by a slump from Tesla, which recorded just 500 deliveries last month – down 76 per cent.

It saw stock of the outgoing Model Y SUV run out in April ahead of the first deliveries of the new Model Y this month, but a similar 76 per cent drop in Model 3 sales year-on-year also drove its low performance.

Data below supplied by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and Electric Vehicle Council (EVC), and compiled by Alex Misoyannis.

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

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