The world is watching Australia’s new-car market

Australia’s new-car market has become a case study for the rest of the world and according to senior Nissan execs, governing bodies from overseas are flying in to study the impact of the brand explosion from challenger car companies.

According to Nissan Oceania managing director Steve Milette, the pace of change has been startling.

“I started my job in April, and there are more brands today than when I started,” he said.

“You wouldn’t see that in other markets,” said the executive who has spent his multi-decade career working for GM and Nissan in North America.

He said the influx of affordable Chinese-built vehicles, particularly EVs, is what sets Australia apart.

“I think it’s different because of the Chinese influence. There’s more accessible [EVs], or a number of EVs that have proliferated over the last few years.”

And the rest of the world has noticed.

Milette said he met Canadian counterparts at the Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) convention, who were there specifically to learn.

“I met [representative of] the Canadian version of the AADA,” he said.

“There’s a lot of governing bodies that are coming and just learning, and just studying what the impact is.”

Nissan Australia’s senior corporate communications manager Angus Thompson explained the numbers game.

“The top 15 odd brands, they’re doing around 900,000 of those 1.2 [million] sales.

“So you’ve got a proliferation of how many other brands, 60, 70, by next year maybe 90, fighting [for] 300,000 sales.”

The pieces of the pie are getting smaller and September 2026 VFACTS data reveals vehicles built in China are up 72.8% year-to-date to 281,359 sales, while Japanese-built vehicles are down 19.9% to 218,747.

BYD alone has more than doubled its volume, up 102.0% to 76,614, while newcomers such as Zeekr, Geely, GAC, Xpeng and Denza are all posting big percentage sales gains.

The overall market, meanwhile, is flat, down just 127 sales to 914,312. In other words, every sale the newcomers win is coming from someone else.

Milette also noted the Chinese influence has reshaped Australia's most popular segment, with the medium SUV class up 22.3% to 256,445 sales.

The Nissan Oceania chief said his employer has no intention of retreating, and is instead rebuilding its mid-term plan with more Chinese-sourced Nissan product, more electrification and a return to growth.

For the rest of the world, Australia is the canary in the coal mine. What happens here over the next couple of years will likely shape how other mature markets respond when the Chinese wave reaches their shores.

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