The new Chinese car brands gaining ground on Toyota

For decades, Toyota has been the car brand to beat in Australia, with several upstarts trying – and failing – to properly usurp the Japanese giant.

That could be set to change, as the onslaught of new Chinese car brands causes what is arguably the first notable and significant shift in Australia's car-buying habits since the rise of the SUV.

That's not to say Toyota is showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, Toyota sold 239,863 cars in Australia last year, or roughly 20,000 cars a month – meaning it held onto its title as Australia's top-selling car brand for a 23rd consecutive year.

However, back in 2003, when Toyota first claimed the number-one spot – narrowly edging out Holden – the Australian new-car market was a vastly different place. There were only 38 passenger-car brands available in Australia, and Toyota had an almost 20 per cent market share.

Flash-forward to 2026, and Toyota's year-to-date market share has dropped to 16 per cent, with more than 63 car brands on the scene (and more to come).

While newcomers like BYD and Chery still have a way to go to equal Toyota's dominance, they are gaining pace – and fast.

According to the April 2026 new-car sales data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), BYD has shown 110 per cent growth in its year-to-date sales, while Chery isn't far behind with 92 per cent sales growth compared to the same period last year.

Newer brands like Geely and Zeekr are also enjoying strong growth since their arrival, both already eclipsing their full-year sales from 2025 in the first four months of 2026.

Meanwhile, more established brands like GWM (which rebranded from Great Wall Motors in 2020) and MG (which relaunched in Australia in 2016) are managing to mostly maintain their growth trajectory in a highly competitive market.

Although the gap between Toyota and its rivals is closing, it remains an intimidating rival. With almost 60,000 sales already under its belt as of April 2026, the car maker behind top sellers like the HiLux and RAV4 is still on track to comfortably surpass 200,000 sales by the end of 2026.

It's also worth noting that Toyota's sales in the first half of the year have been held back by supply constraints as it transitions to the new-generation Toyota RAV4, with a slate of new model updates expected to bolster what has been a relatively slow start to the year for the industry leader.

However, if BYD continues on the trajectory it has enjoyed since it arrived in Australia in late 2022, it could achieve 110,000 annual sales projected based on its current rate of growth, which would mark the highest performance of any Chinese brand in Australia.

BYD, which stands for 'Build Your Dreams', is a Chinese battery and electric car giant that started selling cars in Australia in 2022 with its Atto 3 small SUV.

Since then, BYD's local range has grown to include 11 vehicles, with at least five more models planned to arrive in the next 12 months. This year also saw the local launch of BYD's spin-off brand, Denza. The more premium, off-road-focussed offering is already showing early success, with 1131 sales to April, despite customer deliveries of its B5 and B8 SUVs only commencing in January.

Meanwhile, BYD's fellow Chinese brand Chery – which officially re-entered the Australian market in 2023 after a short-lived run in the 2010s – is exhibiting average year-on-year growth of 144 per cent.

Already in 2026, Chery has delivered over 16,000 sales – almost half of its total sales in 2025 – with eight months still left in the year.

That's without even factoring in sales from its new upmarket spin-off brand Omoda Jaecoo, which landed in mid-2025 and is fast expanding its line-up of higher-end SUVs in Australia. It has already overtaken its full-year 2025 sales in the first four months of 2026.

Data sourced from 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 VFACTS reports. Projections are marked in yellow and are estimates based solely on past performance and are subject to change.

Newer arrivals like Geely, Zeekr and Leapmotor are trickier to predict, given a lack of sales data, but even if they can maintain their current modest rate of growth, they will be closing in on 50,000 sales a year by 2027 and 2028.

Consider that most of these brands have yet to fully expand their local line-ups, and these sales estimates could prove conservative.

Finally, these brands will only be forced to grow more competitive with their pricing as the market is flooded with direct rivals like Lepas (another Chery sub-brand), GAC and Forthing launching imminently, while already-launched brands like Deepal, Farizon and Foton continue to establish themselves locally.

Of course, more established Chinese brands like GWM and MG have both become comfortable mainstays in Australia's top 10-selling car makers in under a decade – proving that the potential for growth knows no bounds.

Please note that Drive contacted Xpeng for this story, but the brand was unable to provide sales figures by the deadline. This story will be updated with a response when it is available.

Susannah Guthrie has been a journalist for over a decade, covering everything from world news to fashion, entertainment, health and now cars. Having previously worked across titles like The New Daily, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, People Magazine and Cosmopolitan, Susannah now relishes testing family cars with the help of her husband and three-year-old son.

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