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Australia's top 10 sales list looks very different when automotive groups are counted together, with Hyundai and Kia rocketing up the charts and Chinese companies taking out four places in total.
While vehicles might wear different names, often they are owned by the same company, such as the Volkswagen Group with VW, Skoda, Cupra, Audi and more, Toyota with Toyota and Lexuz, or Geely with Geely, Zeekr, Polestar and Lotus.
Counted as groups with a single corporate owner rather than as individual brands –which, it must be pointed out, is not how Australia's official body counts sales, making this more an experiment than anything else – and the sales results look very different.
At the close of July, for example, Toyota led the YTD sales charts with a total 115,550 sales. BYD nabbed second spot, with 60,192 sales, followed by Ford, Kia and Mazda, with 48,696, 48,399 and 46,960 sales. Hyundai, GWM, Chery, Tesla and Mitsubishi round out the top 10.
Teaming up
But counting group totals rather than individual brands paints a very different picture. Toyota and Lexus still comfortably hold top spot, with 122,902 sales, but it's the Hyundai Group (Hyundai and Kia) which take second spot, with a combined 94,113. Next comes the BYD Group (BYD and Denza) with 62,885. Ford and Mazda hold onto spots four and five, even as individual players.
It's spot six through 10 where things get interesting, with the Chery Group (Chery, Omoda Jaecoo) storming into spot number six with 40,522 sales. GWM remains in spot seven, while the Geely Group arrives in the top 10 with 28,089 total sales. Mitsubishi and MG (the fifth Chinese brand/group inside this new top 10) fill spots eight and nine.
For Chery, the July result was enough to elevate the group to spot number four for the month – a result which did not go unnoticed at HQ.
"Becoming the fourth largest automotive group in Australia is a significant achievement and demonstrates how strongly Australian consumers have embraced both Chery and Omoda Jaecoo," said Lewis Lu, CEO of Chery Motor Australia.
| 2026 YTD RANK | BRANDS | SALES | OWNERSHIP GROUPS | SALES |
| 1 | Toyota | 115,550 | Toyota + Lexus | 122,902 |
| 2 | BYD | 60,192 | Hyundai and commercial + Kia + Genesis | 94,995 |
| 3 | Ford | 48,696 | BYD + Denza | 62,885 |
| 4 | Kia | 48,399 | Ford | 48,696 |
| 5 | Mazda | 46,960 | Mazda | 46,960 |
| 6 | Hyundai | 45,581 | Chery + Omoda Jaecoo | 40,522 |
| 7 | GWM | 34,877 | GWM | 34,877 |
| 8 | Chery | 29,579 | Tesla | 28,366 |
| 9 | Tesla | 28,366 | Geely + Zeekr + Polestar + Volvo + Lotus | 28,089 |
| 10 | Mitsubishi | 27,864 | Mitsubishi | 27,864 |
