Tesla rules ACT new car market for the fourth month in a row

This level of market dominance by a single battery electric vehicle brand occurs nowhere else in Australia.

Elsewhere, the biggest-selling vehicle brand was Toyota, although its once-dominant grip on the national market is slipping, largely due to supply problems out of Japan.

Last April, one in every five cars sold in Australia was a Toyota but it lost almost 6000 sales last month, its share of the national vehicle market dropping from 22.2 per cent to 14.6.

The Tesla Model 3 was far and away the biggest-selling car in the territory in 2023 with 481 sales and the Model Y the second-biggest seller with 266 sales year to date.

One in every 10 new cars sold in the territory has been a Tesla, and electric car sales in the ACT in 2023 have now accelerated past those of diesel-powered vehicles, with a 281 per cent growth in sales in the past fourth months, compared with the same period in 2022.

Nationwide, the Tesla Model 3 was the country's fourth-ranked vehicle in sales behind the Ford Ranger 4WD ute, the Toyota Hilux 4WD ute, and the Toyota RAV4.

The Toyota Corolla, the world's biggest-selling nameplate, has slipped from popularity at an alarming pace this year. In April, it was outsold nationally by the much bigger and thirstier Toyota LandCruiser wagon.

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Toyota has a firm corporate commitment to hybrid vehicles, which use a combination of combustion and battery battery power, but will roll out its first battery electric model later this year.

It plans to lobby the federal government heavily for a distended timeframe for the introduction of vehicle emission standards so as to allow the market to "transition" more easily.

The rising popularity of EV brands such as Tesla and BYD has also boosted the trade influence of China.

During April, China overtook South Korea to become Australia's third-largest source of new vehicles behind Japan and Thailand.

Over 95 per cent of Australia's light commercial vehicles, including the top-selling Ranger and Hilux, are produced in Thailand and almost all of our electric cars, bar the recently-launched new German-built Cupra Born, are built in China.

Medium-sized SUVs, which included the Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Tucson and Mitsubishi Outlander, collectively comprised the biggest-selling market segment in Australia last month, just ahead of the popular light commercials.