Chinese cars smash more records in Australia, overtake Thailand as number-two source of new vehicles

Four Chinese car manufacturers have placed among the Top 10 best-selling brands in a given month for the first time in Australian motoring history, as it overtakes Thailand as our second-biggest source of new cars.

Add electric-vehicle makers Tesla and Polestar – which also manufacture in China – to the mix, and the totals surge to 23,225 and 161,479, respectively.

It places China ahead of Thailand (20,070) for the month as the country's second-biggest source of new vehicles, behind only Japan (28,547).

MG ZS

Chinese cars are yet to overtake Thailand's 169,522 and Japan's 246,499 in the year-to-date race, but they remain well clear of South Korea (101,230), after pulling ahead for the first time in September 2022.

In 2020, just 15,689 Chinese-made cars had been reported as sold to the end of August – accounting for 2.7 per cent of sales, compared to 17.5 per cent of FCAI data today.

For the first time, four Chinese car brands placed among the Top 10 finishers last month – BYD in sixth (4877), GWM in eighth (4488), MG in ninth (3927), and Chery in 10th (3305), all up between 10 and 204 per cent on their performance a year prior.

MG was once the country's top-selling Chinese car brand – finishing seventh in 2023, up from 17th in 2020, 21st in 2019, and 30th in 2018 – but has been caught up to by its compatriots.

Chery Tiggo 4

When deliveries of Chinese-made cars from brands not of Chinese origin are counted, the Tesla Model Y places high, with 2324 deliveries.

The meteoric rise of Chinese cars has come at the cost of established marques from Japan and Europe.

Isuzu Ute dropped out of the Top 10 last month, down 17.9 per cent to 3223 vehicles and 11th place, while Volkswagen sales are down 5.9 per cent, and despite its freshest new-model range in years, Nissan is down 22.7 per cent.

Even other Top 10 finishers are feeling the pain, with Mazda – which has struggled to match its former sales success after replacing its top-selling seven-seat SUVs with less popular, initially luxury-priced models – down 17.5 per cent for the month.

Not every Chinese car brand has cracked the Top 10.

LDV finished 19th on 1247 deliveries – up 3.1 per cent year-on-year, but its year-to-date total of 9700 vehicles is down 14.9 per cent – while nearly three times as many $100,000-plus Ram pick-ups were sold last month as budget-priced JAC utes.

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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