Move over dual cab utes: The 2024 Toyota RAV4 hybrid takes Australia's best-selling crown ahead of Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux in another record-breaking July for new-car sales

The Toyota RAV4 was Australia’s favourite vehicle last month, overtaking the incumbent utes and notching up 5933 sales. 

The Ford Ranger (4915) and Toyota HiLux (4747) trailed Australia’s favourite SUV, with Toyota once again taking overall honours. Mazda managed to keep its head above Ford with both maintaining a solid gap back to fourth-placed Kia. 

It was another record-breaking July with 99,486 registrations recorded enough to beat last year’s result by 2.7 per cent. Year-to-date, sales are at 731,898 — up 7.9 per cent on last year’s record numbers.

“This is a remarkable achievement in an economy featuring widespread cost of living pressures,” noted Federal Chamber of Automobile Industries (FCAI) head Tony Weber. 

“It was also interesting to note that while sales in the Business and Government segments were up 13.7 per cent and 37.5 per cent respectively, Private sales were down 4.2 per cent,” added Weber. 

Hybrid sales were also buoyant up 88.4 per cent on last year with plug-in hybrid sales up 128.9 per cent. The share of electric cars fell slightly to 6.6 per cent. 

“While the first seven months of 2024 have exceeded expectations, the industry remains cautious about the future pending the implementation of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard coupled with the economic conditions,” cautioned Weber.

Toyota is riding the popularity of hybrid vehicles keeping its head in first place with 22,705 sales last month and climbing back to an impressive 22.8 per cent market share.

The battle between Ford (57,371) and Mazda (57,023) is nail-bitingly close, the former having a slower July (7749 vs 8476) but managing to hold second place year-to-date by a slim 348 car margin. 

Kia remains in a strong fourth followed by Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Isuzu, MG, Nissan and Subaru.

As for models, the Corolla hatch and sedan had an extremely strong sales month with 2688 registrations with its sparring partner, the Hyundai i30 (663), nowhere to be seen as the company waits for the updated hatch to arrive (though with Kia Cerato sales up significantly to 1592). 

Then came the Isuzu D-Max ute, Ford Everest large SUV, the Mitsubishi Outlander and Mazda CX-5 mid-size SUVs and the MG ZS small SUV. The Toyota Kluger rounded out the top 10, beating the LandCruiser to the punch. 

Tesla’s sales were weaker in July with just 1353 Model Y and 1239 Model 3 registrations not enough to see either model climb into the overall top 10. 

By state and territory, the Northern Territory, South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia all improved their positions while the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria had small sips (less than two per cent). Sales in Tasmania were down 12 per cent.

Most popular brands July 2024

Ranking	Brand	Sales (YTD)	Variance (percent)
1	Toyota	144,006	+ 29.2
2	Ford	57,371	+ 26.7
3	Mazda	57,023	- 2.9
4	Kia	47,920	+ 5.8
5	Mitsubishi	45,352	+ 29.6
6	Hyundai	42,103	- 4.8
7	Isuzu ute	29,724	+ 25.4
8	MG	28,694	- 10.4
9	Nissan	28,217	+ 43.4
10	Subaru	25,344	- 2.7

Most popular models July 2024

Ranking	Model	Sales (July)	Variance (percent)
1	Toyota RAV4	5933	+ 115.7
2	Ford Ranger	4915	- 4.4
3	Toyota Hilux	4747	+ 1.6
4	Toyota Corolla	2688	+ 25.3
5	Isuzu D-Max	2369	+ 14.4
6	Ford Everest	2162	+ 67.9
7	Mitsubishi Outlander	2110	+ 18.7
8	Mazda CX-5	2031	+ 25.7
9	MG ZS	1815	- 52.9
10	Toyota Kluger	1705	+ 29.9