It's all over: Why Japan will never reclaim its best-selling crown from China as new era of dominance begins for Chinese brands like BYD, GWM and Chery | Opinion

It is a long time, 28 years. From today, it takes you back to the last millenium, before the Sydney Olympics in 2000, before Bill Clinton’s impeachment acquittal 1999, all the way back to John Howard as Australia’s PM.

Needless to say, a lot has happened in the years since. But there has always been one constant — at least as far as new-car sales go — and that is that Japan stood atop the list of countries that Australians bought their vehicles from.

The rise and rise of Korean brands Kia and Hyundai didn’t change it. The shift to manufacture most of our utes in Thailand didn’t change it. It just seemed utterly unshakeable.

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That was, of course, until February this year, when China became the dominant country for vehicle imports into Australia for the first time. And, take my word for it, we’re entering another decades-long spell of dominance for Chinese-manufactured vehicles.

There might be the occasional blip — when the new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid finally hits its stride in April, that might tip the scales briefly back again — but those moments will be few and fleeting.

This isn’t an anomaly, it’s the new normal. Here’s why.

Of the more than 25,000 vehicles sourced from China this month, the vast majority came from only a handful of brands. BYD shifted 5323 units, GWM sold 4689 units, Chery moved 3938 vehicles, some 3294 MGs found homes, and Tesla (which sources Australian vehicles from China) found 2791 buyers, That’s more than 20,000 sales across just five brands.

2026 Toyota RAV4

But there are more than five Chinese brands in Australia. A lot more. And more still that source their vehicles from Chinese factories.

Denza has just launched here, but is targeting 10,000 sales this year, largely across the B5 and B8 4WDs. Geely is a giant that’s still sleeping in Australia. Over the first two months of 2026, it — not BYD — was the biggest-selling brand in China. In Australia it has barely hit its stride, but that will no doubt change.

Then there’s Zeekr, Xpeng, GAC, LDV, JAC, Deepal, Leapmotor and Omoda Jaecoo. Add to that the brands either arriving soon, or expected to, like Forthing, Nio and Lepas. And then there’s the brands now sourcing from China, like Kia with the EV5, Hyundai with the Elexio and Mazda with the upcoming 6e EV.

2026 Denza B5

Whether it's sharper pricing that Aussie buyers are chasing, or new powertrain options and technology, this is all beginning to feel like an extinction-level threat for some our smaller-selling legacy manufacturers. And if (or perhaps, when) some of them go, guess where their customers will be shopping.

Interestingly, if you go back to 2020, China wasn’t even in the top five. We were buying more cars from America than we were from China. And from Germany, Korea, Thailand and Japan, too.

But the dam walls haven’t just broken, they’ve been removed entirely. And I don’t think anything will be putting them back again.