BYD, Chery, Geely, GWM, MG and Zeekr all have a huge start to the year to push Japanese, Korean and European carmakers to the back of the pack

New Chinese carmakers are slowly but surely storming up the sales charts in Australia as legacy carmakers are slipping.

The biggest highlight over the first six months of 2026 is BYD. It’s now the second-best-selling carmaker in Australia, behind only Toyota, which has retained the number one spot for 20 consecutive years.

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• 'Lose money, dump cars': Hyundai goes hard on BYD in Australia as sales of the 2027 BYD Sealion 7, Shark 6 skyrocket

Toyota sold a total of 95,141 vehicles until the end of June, which is down 21.4 per cent year-on-year.

While BYD still has a long way to go to overtake Toyota’s annual sales crown in Australia, during June alone BYD sold a total of 18,881 vehicles, which was just 243 vehicles shy of Toyota’s monthly result.

GWM is now holding steady at seventh place on the year-to-date sales charts. It has sold a total of 30,359 until the end of June, which is up 20.5 per cent year-on-year.

MG sold a total of 23,146 vehicles until the end of June, making it the 11th best-selling brand. Its sales are up 6.8 per cent.

Recent entrant to the market Geely sold a total of 10,970 vehicles until the end of June, which is up a wild 494.6 per cent year-on-year. It’s now the 18th best-selling brand in Australia.

New arrival Omoda Jaecoo sold a total of 8808 vehicles until the end of June, which is up an even wilder 1177 per cent year-on-year. It’s now the 19th best-selling brand in Australia.

Zeekr is now the 20th best-selling brand in Australia. It sold a total of 5835 vehicles until the end of June, which is up 1197 per cent year-on-year.

The flip side of the Chinese brands having sales success is a number of legacy brands are moving down the sales charts.

Ford has been relegated to third place on the year-to-date sales charts. It sold a total of 42,296 vehicles until the end of June, which is down 10.6 per cent year-on-year.

Mazda is now the fifth-best-selling brand in Australia. It sold a total of 40,502 vehicles until the end of June, which is down 17.2 per cent year-on-year.

Mazda previously was the second best-selling brand in Australia from 2015 until 2022.

Mitsubishi is now hanging on to ninth place in the year-to-date sales charts. It dropped out of the top 10 best-selling brands in the month of June.

The Japanese carmaker sold a total of 24,802 vehicles until the end of June, which is down 25.7 per cent year-on-year.

Subaru is now in 13th place, selling a total of 14,817 vehicles until the end of June. This is down 25.6 per cent year-on-year.

Nissan drop to 14th place, with a total of 13,854 vehicles, down 32.8 per cent.

It’s not just the Japanese legacy carmakers either. Volkswagen is now the 16th-best-selling carmaker in Australia in terms of year-to-date sales.

It sold a total of 12,333 vehicles until the end of June, which is down 16.6 per cent year-on-year.

BMW is down 8.0 per cent and Mercedes-Benz is down 5.0 per cent.

We’ll have to wait and see how things shake out for the rest of 2026, but it’s clear that these rapidly establishing Chinese carmakers are going from strength to strength in Australia.