Toyota RAV4 outsells Tesla Model Y, Ford Ranger among Australian households

Australia’s new vehicle market may have reached a record high in 2024, but increasing cost of living pressures saw a downturn in sales to private buyers.

A total of 624,626 new vehicles were delivered to private buyers last year, representing 50.5 per cent of the overall market.

This represented a slight downturn of less than one per cent on 2023, reflecting increasing cost of living pressures towards the end of 2024.

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Best-selling vehicles to private buyers by volume

The Toyota RAV4 may have missed out on taking the title of Australia’s best-selling vehicle in 2024, but it was a clear winner among private buyers.

In 2024, 34,849 of the RAV4’s 58,718 overall deliveries were to private buyers, rather than businesses (ABN holders), government fleets and rental companies.

Such was its popularity that it accounted for 5.6 per cent of all private deliveries. Overall, RAV4 deliveries made up 4.7 per cent of the new vehicle market.

It was a clear winner, with the Tesla Model Y slipping to second after taking the private sales crown last year.

Throughout 2024, Tesla delivered 16,705 Model Ys to private buyers, a decline of 18.8 per cent compared to the year prior – not as drastic as the electric SUV’s overall 26.1 per cent drop.

However, the percentage of private buyers against overall Model Y deliveries increased in 2024 compared to 2023, up to 78.6 per cent from 71.5 per cent.

The MG ZS continued to sit behind it, while the Mazda CX-5 beat the Ford Ranger to fourth place, despite the ute finishing 2024 as the most popular vehicle overall for the second year running.

Despite experiencing a small drop in overall sales for the year, the Tesla Model 3 rose up the ranks with 14,203 deliveries to private buyers, almost 1100 more than in 2023.

It was also a breakout year for the Ford Everest, which didn’t rank in the top 10 in 2023 but finished seventh in 2024, with more than half of its deliveries coming from private purchasers.

Best-selling private vehicles compared to overall sales

Lotus takes home the unique mantle of being the only brand which sold all of its cars to private buyers in 2024, with the Emira, Eletre and Emeya avoiding ending up on rental, government or business fleets.

Just behind the trio was the Ram 3500, of which just two weren’t sold to private buyers.

The BYD Sealion 6 became Australia’s most popular plug-in hybrid in 2024 despite only starting deliveries in June. A massive 94 per cent of its sales were to private buyers, who took advantage of the federal government’s fringe benefits tax (FBT) exemption.

It should be unsurprising that six of the top 20 best-selling private vehicles by volume were expensive models from Porsche, McLaren, Ferrari and Rolls-Royce, though it should be noted that the latter trio lump in certain models together.

Further down the list, SsangYong had three cars in the top 20, while the BYD Seal snuck onto the table, as did the Suzuki Jimny.

MORE: VFACTS 2024: New vehicle sales hit record high, but slump expected soon