Australians bought 107,493 new vehicles in October 2026, up 6.8% on October 2025. The year-to-date total is 1,065,191, up 2.5%.
Two outlets read the month in opposite ways. CarExpert led with diesel overtaking EVs. The Driven led with EVs outselling petrol for a third month running. The table below supports both.
| October 2026 | Units | Share | Year-to-date share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diesel | 25,649 | 23.9% | 24.3% |
| Battery-electric | 24,845 | 23.1% | 19.3% |
| Petrol | 23,605 | 22.0% | 27.5% |
| Hybrid | 18,434 | 17.1% | 16.8% |
| Plug-in hybrid | 11,745 | 10.9% | 9.1% |
Diesel beat battery-electric cars by 804 sales, which ended two months in which EVs had outsold every other powertrain. Battery-electric cars beat petrol by 1,240. CarExpert makes the first comparison and The Driven the second, which is why one headline says EVs fell and the other says they kept winning. Neither is wrong.
EV here means battery-electric only, as in our September post. Hybrids and plug-in hybrids are counted separately. The EV share was 24.2% in September and 23.1% in October.
Against a year earlier, EVs rose from 7,361 sales (7.3% of the market) in October 2025. Petrol fell 35.9% and diesel 14.7%. Over the year to date, petrol still leads on 27.5%, ahead of diesel on 24.3% and EVs on 19.3%.
The total combines two sources. VFACTS, from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, does not cover Tesla and Polestar, so CarExpert adds Electric Vehicle Council data for them. Cadillac, Mahindra and Smart appear in neither report.
Best-selling models in Australia, October 2026. The list stops at five, the depth where the figures were confirmed.
The Toyota HiLux took first place for the first time this year, with 5,954 sales. The Ford Ranger had won four months of 2026, including September, and was second on 4,841, but it still leads year to date by 129 units on 42,699. The RAV4 was third and the Tesla Model Y fourth. The BYD Sealion 7, which has yet to win a month, sold 2,524.
Toyota remained the largest brand on 20,649 sales, up 4.7%. BYD was second on 10,025, up 153.2%, its second month above 10,000 in Australia. BYD has held second place every month since April. Ford was third on 7,310, ahead of Kia (5,801) and Mazda (5,730). Over the first ten months BYD has sold 86,639 cars, plug-in hybrids included, against 68,414 for Ford.
Tesla sold 4,050 cars, up 342.1%. By country of origin, cars built in China totalled 41,671, up 104.2%.
CarExpert says Lepas, a newcomer brand, is not expected to report deliveries until the November VFACTS report.
Source: FCAI VFACTS and Electric Vehicle Council data, via CarExpert
