Winners and losers: June 2026 new car sales

June 2026’s record-breaking new-car sales result masked a significant shake-up beneath the surface, with Chinese brands led by BYD, Geely and Chery surging while established players including Subaru, Mazda and Nissan lost ground.

Australia’s record 131,134-sale June masked a brutal reshuffle beneath the headline numbers. While Toyota narrowly held off BYD for outright top spot, the real story sits deeper — which brands and nameplates are genuinely moving, and which are stalling.

Winners

BYD is the clear headline act, recording 18,881 sales – up 131 per cent year-on-year – and finishing just 243 units shy of toppling Toyota. Three consecutive months in second place suggests this is no longer a short-term spike but a sustained shift.

At the model level, the Sealion 7 delivered 4730 sales (+163.5 per cent) in June 2026, while the Shark 6 ute added 3398 (+13.5 per cent).

Omoda Jaecoo delivered the biggest percentage surge of any volume brand, jumping from 380 sales in June last year to 2541 sales in June 2026. The J5 alone contributed 2096 units as a new nameplate, while the J7 slipped slightly to 301 (-5.0 per cent), showing the growth story is still heavily model-dependent.

Geely’s growth is arguably even more dramatic. The brand more than quadrupled to 3507 sales, led by the EX5 (2303, +180.2 per cent) and the all-new Starray EM-i (1204), a clean-sheet addition with no June 2025 comparison.

Chery continued its upward trajectory, adding 1481 sales to reach 4505 (+49 per cent). Its gains were driven by the Tiggo 4 Pro (2329, +31.7 per cent) and Tiggo 7 Pro (1179, +102.9 per cent), reinforcing its position as a fast-scaling mainstream contender.

MG rounded out the winners on a brand level, up 28 per cent to 5001 sales, though its core models tell a more nuanced story. The ZS fell 6.1 per cent to 1827 and the MG3 dipped 1.8 per cent to 898, showing that growth is being driven by newer additions deeper in the range rather than its established nameplates.

Losers

Subaru suffered the steepest fall of any major brand, down 37 per cent to 2902 sales. Its key models struggled heavily, with the Forester dropping to 1083 (-24.1 per cent) for June 2026.

The Crosstrek slid to 725 (-53.2 per cent), highlighting a lack of competitive electrified offerings – something that may change with the introduction of the new Subaru Trailseeker.

Porsche’s 33 per cent decline to 342 deliveries appears stark, but the detail tells a different story.

The Cayenne Coupe (120, +27.7 per cent) and Cayenne Wagon (84, +44.8 per cent) both grew strongly, with the slump largely explained by the Macan, which plunged 83 per cent from 241 to just 41 units, following the brand’s switch from petrol to pure EV.

Nissan dropped 33 per cent to 2337 sales despite relatively modest declines in key nameplates, with the X-Trail down 1.4 per cent to 1325 and the Patrol falling 13.0 per cent to 630.

Land Rover fell 31 per cent to 615 deliveries, dragged down by the Range Rover Sport (182, -41.7 per cent) despite a smaller drop for the evergreen Defender (303, -7.1 per cent).

Mazda, still a top-10 brand, shed 23 per cent overall, falling to 7278 sales from 9405 the year prior. The CX-5 was down sharply to 1697 (-34.3 per cent) as previous generation vehicles are run out and the new model rolls into showrooms. Meanwhile the CX-3 slipped to 1486 (-5.8 per cent).

In other movements that show Australian car buying behaviour is changing quicker than Melbourne weather, a second wave of Chinese brands is rapidly gaining ground.

Zeekr surged to 1954 sales from just 111 a year ago – an increase of well over 1000 per cent.

Deepal rose from 32 to 143 and Leapmotor jumped from 60 to 250 units for the month of June.

Denza recorded 790 sales from effectively a standing start, and newcomers Farizon (74) and Foton (158) both registered their first meaningful volumes.

Even Omoda Jaecoo’s near six-fold rise sits within this broader trend of new entrants scaling rapidly.

However, not every Chinese brand is benefiting.

LDV fell 22 per cent to 1229 sales, while JAC dropped 70 per cent to just 35 units from 118, highlighting growing internal competition within the Chinese cohort itself.

Year-to-date sales figures reinforce the same pattern. Deepal leads all brands on growth, up more than 640 per cent to 737 sales thus far in 2026, while Geely has surged nearly 495 per cent to 10,970 sales.

Leapmotor is up 152 per cent to 779 sales in the first six months of 2026 and BYD – with 52,335 sales (+124 per cent), remains the standout at scale.

Chery rounds out the biggest movers, up 77 per cent to 24,964.

On the flip side, Toyota – despite winning June – is down 21 per cent year-to-date, falling from 120,978 in the first half of 2025 to 95,141 in the same six months of 2026.

Jeep is down 69 per cent to just 322 units and JAC has dropped 52 per cent to 437.

Peugeot is down 41 per cent to 427, and Nissan has declined 33 per cent to 13,854.

Total market volume is effectively flat for 2026, down just 0.3 per cent to 606,793, meaning gains from BYD, Geely and Chery have largely come at the direct expense of other brands.

June’s results underline a clear shift in the Australian new-car market, with electrified line-ups (particularly affordable models, and mostly from Chinese brands) increasingly dictating success.

With BYD now within 0.2 percentage points of Toyota for the month of June and a growing list of fast-scaling newcomers entering the market, the second half of 2026 will test whether established and mainstream car brands can respond. They will need sharply-priced hybrid, PHEV and EV offerings to do so, or risk losing market share in a rapidly evolving landscape.

With more challenger brands locked in to launch in Australia in the next six to 12 months, the game is well and truly changing.

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