Australian new-car sales in May 2025: Electric cars up in declining VFACTS market

The first year-on-year increase in electric-car sales of 2025 was not enough to prevent another decline in Australian new-vehicle deliveries, the ninth in 12 months.

And the Toyota HiLux topped the charts for the second month in a row – for the first time since September 2023 – amid declines ahead of the second-placed Ford Ranger, and third-placed Toyota RAV4.

Data published by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and Electric Vehicle Council (EVC) shows a 1.6 per cent dip in vehicle sales last month, from 111,245 to 109,425 deliveries.

Still, it remains the second-best May on record – ahead of 2023's tally of 105,694 sales – and four of the Top 10 best-selling brands performed better last month than a year prior.

Since the start of the year, just under half a million new cars have been reported as sold – 496,693 – down 3.2 per cent on last year's tally of 513,082.

More than 10,000 electric cars were reported as sold last month for the first time since March 2024, up 10.4 per cent on the prior year, and accounting for 9.2 per cent of new vehicles sold.

It was helped by a resurgence in Tesla deliveries, up 9.4 per cent year-on-year to 3897 cars, thanks to the arrival of the updated Model Y SUV that accounted for 91 per cent of its total.

The Model Y (3580) placed fourth overall for the month, its best result since finishing third in March 2024 on 4379 deliveries.

That month saw it finish ahead of the HiLux, but in May 2025, Toyota's evergreen ute topped the charts, reporting 4952 sales when 4x2 and 4x4 examples are combined.

But sales of the top three finishers were all down last month – 13.2 per cent for the HiLux, ahead of 19.5 per cent for the Ford Ranger (4761 sales), and 27.4 per cent for the Toyota RAV4 (4003 sales).

Only the RAV4 is up year-to-date – albeit by 0.5 per cent – but it is unlikely to be helped in the short term by the launch of a new model early next year, which will see the current generation run out towards the end of this year.

The Ford Ranger has reclaimed the lead from the Toyota RAV4 in the year-to-date race – 22,018 utes against 21,613 SUVs – with the HiLux third (20,072).

Despite the RAV4's slowdown, sales of hybrid cars grew 5.5 per cent last month compared to May 2024 (17,089 vs 16,197), and are up 18.3 per cent year-to-date (78,391 vs 66,277).

Plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales were up 117.6 per cent last month to 3081 vehicles, but they have more than halved compared to two months prior (6932), due to the end of the Fringe Benefits Tax exemption on the car type.

Toyota continued to lead the sales charts – after 23 full years as number one – reporting 23,576 deliveries, up 0.8 per cent on the prior year, and accounting for more than one in four new cars sold.

It led Ford in second (8464, down 3.9 per cent) and Mazda (7845, down 2 per cent) ahead of South Korean siblings Kia (6903, down 8 per cent) and Hyundai (6708, up 3.3 per cent).

Mitsubishi sales fell by 25.6 per cent (to 4766 cars) in sixth position, while Toyota, Hyundai, eighth-placed GWM (4272, up 11.8 per cent) and ninth-placed Tesla (3897, up 9.3 per cent) were the only Top 10 brands to grow their sales in May.

GWM outsold Chinese compatriot MG for the fourth month in a row, the latter down 21.4 per cent in May as its latest models struggle to match the popularity of their cheaper predecessors.

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

More charts and tables coming soon!

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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