Australian new-car sales in April 2026: EV sales share breaks another VFACTS record

Electric vehicles have accounted for a record share of Australian new-car sales for the second consecutive month – up 157 per cent year-on-year – as buyers continue to embrace zero-emissions vehicles amid high fuel prices.

Battery-electric cars accounted for 16.4 per cent of new cars, SUVs, utes, vans, and trucks reported as sold in April 2026, improving even further on the prior month's 14.6 per cent – and April 2025's 6.6 per cent.

It equates to 15,459 electric vehicles sold, down slightly on March's 15,839 – as fewer new cars of all types were sold in April than March – but more than double the 6010 reported this time last year.

It represents the second-highest April sales result on record, ahead of 2025's 91,316 and 2021's 92,347 but behind 2024's 97,202.

While fuel prices have cooled from the heights of late March and early April, car companies say demand for electric vehicles – as well as hybrids – is still strong, aided by tax incentives that continue in their current form until the end of March next year.

The boost in electric-car sales was joined by a 27.1 per cent surge in hybrids, to 18,162, thanks to the first full month of deliveries for the new Toyota RAV4, the country's top-selling car of any kind last month.

Plug-in hybrids were up by an even-sharper 270 per cent year-on-year, to 9628 sales, as April 2025 was the first month after the axing of a lucrative Fringe Benefits Tax exemption for PHEVs that supercharged demand for the vehicle type.

Sales of purely petrol-powered cars were down 30.1 per cent last month, compared to a year prior, while diesels were down 21.7 per cent.

The Toyota RAV4 returned to the top of the sales charts in April 2026 after a slow start to the year, as stock of the old model ran out ahead of the new generation's late March arrival.

Yet deliveries in April 2026 were still down 2.1 per cent compared to April 2025, as handovers of the new model are still ramping up.

Despite the slide in diesel demand, the Ford Ranger was the second-best-selling new vehicle, on 3661 deliveries, ahead of the Toyota HiLux on 2835 – though both are down year-on-year by 9.2 and 31.2 per cent, respectively.

Five of the Top 10 best-sellers were still powered by diesel, the popular utes joining the Isuzu D-Max in fifth, Toyota Prado in seventh, and Ford Everest in 10th.

Tesla Model Y sales are up 193.6 per cent year-on-year, but it is coming from a low base – as the outgoing model was in runout in April 2025 – and the 822 registrations reported in April 2026 were not enough to remain the country's top-selling EV.

Instead, it finished just 34th on the charts, nearly 1000 registrations behind the BYD Sealion 7, which reported 1780 deliveries to top the EV sales ranking.

Rival Chinese electric-car brand Zeekr delivered more than 1000 cars in a month for the first time, its 7X SUV reporting 973 of its 1006 total.

Toyota sales were down 21.6 per cent year-on-year (15,185), amid the new-model ramp-ups for the RAV4 and HiLux ute, though the brand still accounted for close to one in six new vehicles sold.

Long-time second- and third-place finishers Ford and Mazda were again bumped down the order – to fifth and sixth – by BYD, which reported a record 7702 to finish second, while Kia was third on 6450.

Both brands, as well as Hyundai in fourth, have a broader and more affordably-priced range of hybrid electric cars than Ford or Mazda, though the latter is also winding down sales of the current CX-5 ahead of a new model due within weeks.

Four Chinese car brands finished in the Top 10 sellers: BYD in second, GWM in seventh, Chery in eighth, and MG in ninth.

Isuzu clung onto 10th place for the month, just ahead of Mitsubishi, which dropped out of the top bracket, to 11th.

Data below sourced from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and Electric Vehicle Council (EVC).

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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