Sales of Chinese brand vehicles, and Tesla, in Australia:
June 2025
BYD 8156 sales, #5, up 368%
GWM 5464 sales, #7, up 31%
Tesla 4589 sales, #11, down 2%
MG 3896 sales, #12, down 8%
Chery 3024 sales, #14, up 180%
LDV 1581 sales, #19, down 5%
Geely 822 sales, #24, NEW
Omoda Jaecoo, 380 sales, #33, NEW
JAC 118 sales, #40, NEW
Zeekr 111 sales, #41, NEW
Leapmotor 60 sales, #44, NEW
Deepal 32 sales, #48, NEW
2025 YTD
GWM 25,189 sales, #7, up 17%
BYD 23,355 sales, #8, up 145%
MG 21,674 sales, #10, down 12%
Tesla 14,146 sales, #14, down 39%
Chery 14,123 sales #15, up 229%
LDV 7340 sales, #20, down 17%
Geely 1845 sales, #32, NEW
JAC 907 sales, #37, NEW
Omoda Jaecoo 690 sales, #41, NEW
Zeekr 450 sales, #42, NEW
Leapmotor 309 sales, #44, NEW
Deepal 99 sales, #51, NEW
Not reporting: Xpeng.
BYD set new records in Australia last month, with its 5th-place position being the highest monthly result for any Chinese brand in Australia to date, ahead of second-tier stalwarts such as Kia and Mitsubishi. With BYD having recently transitioned in Australia from a third-party distributor (EVDirect) to fully-owned subsidiary model, the streamlining of its local warranty structure, and plans for further vehicle rollouts in coming months alongside the launch of Denza sub-brand, the future continues to look bright for BYD in Australia. As a note of caution, BYD's June sales were some 70% higher than their next-best month for the year to date, back in March, so at this point it would be more reasonable to regard them as an outlier rather than a trend.
June was also a strong month for Tesla, with the updated Model Y coming in as the #3 best-selling vehicle for the month in its first full month of availability. First May and now June have been bright spots amidst a broader downward trend for Tesla in Australia, and it remains an open question as to how their numbers will fare once they have chewed through the pent-up demand for the Model Y refresh. Previously, the sales bump from updated Model 3 proved rather short-lived, but the Model Y is in a far more popular vehicle segment.
Not much to write home about regarding the crop of new entrants to the market, though Geely has made a minor splash since arriving here with EX5.
Here are the BEVs that have reached the four digit sales mark in Australia YTD:
1. Tesla Model Y 10,431
2. BYD Sealion 7 3756
3. Tesla Model 3 3715
4. Kia EV5 2765
5. MG 4 2268
6. BYD Atto 3 1854
7. Geely EX5 1845
8. BYD Seal 1609
9. BYD Dolphin 1337
10. Kia EV3 1153
11. BMW iX1 1110
Most PHEV numbers aren't yet available, as VFACTS data doesn't distinguish between different powertrain variants of the same model, so the ICE/PHEV breakdown has to be sought manually from each brand. Fortunately BYD's PHEVs don't suffer from that problem as there are no ICE variants: the "NEV" version of this list would have BYD Shark 6 neck-and-neck with Model Y (10,424 sales YTD), with Sealion 6
probably coming in at #3 with 4375 sales. I say probably because, extrapolating from 2024 and Q1 data, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV sales are likely to be in the range of 3500-4000 units YTD, assuredly the most popular NEV here that is not built in China. Other PHEVs that may have crossed the four-digit sales threshold YTD include Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, Mazda CX-60 and CX-80, and GWM Haval H6. Overall NEV penetration has crept up over 10% in recent months even amidst Tesla's downturn, with the bulk of that growth attributable to Shark 6 specifically.
Alborz Fallah recently penned an opinion piece that may be of interest to folks here:
. Fallah was a key figure in the founding of two of the most influential automotive publications in Australia: CarAdvice (now Drive) and CarExpert, and so this op-ed provides some insight into the thinking at that level. There is still a lot of casual prejudice here regarding Chinese vehicles and China (see the comments...) but I've actually been surprised how open the media class and broader population has been to these new market entrants. Undoubtedly one of the reasons for this is that we no longer have a domestic vehicle industry to protect and be proud of, but it's still curious that Chinese brands have managed to thrive here in recent years despite the broader downturn in Australia-China relations over the same period.