VFACTS 2023: Top 10 best-selling cars in every state and territory

Amid a record year for motor vehicle sales in Australia, the sales race for top honours in each state and territory tells a different story about the cars local buyers added to their driveways in 2023.

Nationally, the Ford Ranger emerged victorious among the more than 1.2 million vehicles sold – dethroning the Toyota HiLux for the first time in seven years, and giving the Blue Oval its first annual sales chart win since 1995.

However its ever-popular Japanese rival was more popular in most of the country – and the Ranger's overall victory is thanks to one Australian state.

There was also a first for electric cars, with US giant Tesla leading the way in the Australian Capital Territory – marking the first time a battery-powered vehicle has become the best-seller in any region across a calendar year.

Thanks to additional data supplied by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), Drive can reveal the Top 10 most popular cars in each state and territory for 2023.

Australia’s largest new-car market provided the closest battle between the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger, with just 22 examples between the pair at the end of the year.

Despite being knocked out of the national Top 10 for the first time on record, the Toyota Corolla achieved its highest jurisdiction result in New South Wales, where it outsold its Hyundai i30 rival. 

Victoria was one of just three jurisdictions where the Ford Ranger outsold the Toyota HiLux, with its massive lead of 8354 vehicles between the two nameplates leading to the Blue Oval-badged ute’s national win by a far slimmer margin of 2245 sales.

The Ford Everest also made its only appearance inside any Top 10 chart in Victoria, where much of the design and engineering behind the Ranger and Everest siblings was conducted.

Queensland continues to love a ute, with four models appearing in the top eight of the state’s rankings – headlined by a sweep of the first three spots by the Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max (the head office of the lattermost's manufacturer is in Brisbane).

As with Queensland, buyers in Western Australia favoured the most popular utes, though the Top 10 also included a traditional passenger car (the Hyundai i30) and two ladder-frame four-wheel-drive wagons (the Toyota Prado and LandCruiser).

The sales race between the Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger was tight in South Australia, with less than 300 examples splitting the popular models.

The Mitsubishi Outlander recorded its highest ranking of any state in South Australia – where the car maker's Australia head office is located, and most of its media evaluation vehicles are registered – missing out on a podium to the D-Max but edging ahead of the Toyota RAV4 by just 20 examples.

Aside from Victoria, Tasmania was the only other state where the Ford Ranger was the top-selling model, edging ahead of the Toyota HiLux – though both nameplates were well ahead of the third-placed MG 3, which made its only Top 10 appearance in the Apple Isle.

Subaru also had its strongest chart positions in Tasmania, with the Outback and Forester outselling the Outlander and Isuzu’s popular D-Max ute.

Australia’s highest-salaried jurisdiction became the first state or territory to have an electric car as its number-one seller, with the Tesla Model Y SUV beating its Model 3 sedan sibling to claim the top two spots.

The ACT’s result represented the only area where neither the Ford Ranger or Toyota HiLux were the best-selling vehicles, placing third and fifth respectively.

Toyota continues to rule in the Top End, with six of the 10 best-selling models in the Northern Territory being sold by the Japanese car giant last year.

Not only were there more examples of the Toyota HiLux sold in the NT throughout 2023 than more populous areas such as Tasmania and the ACT, but the 4x4 version of the Toyota HiLux alone outsold any single car maker in the region.

Data above supplied by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.