VFACTS August 2026: EVs Hit Record 24.9% of Market

One in Four New Cars Sold in Australia Last Month Was Electric

by Dylan Anderson

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Editor

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September 06, 2026

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3 min read

Australia has never bought this many electric cars in a single month. Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries figures for August put battery electric sales at 27,089, which is 24.9 per cent of the entire new vehicle market and the highest monthly BEV total the country has recorded.

The market overall was steady rather than spectacular. VFACTS logged 100,939 sales in August, up 0.4 per cent on the same month last year, with 811,388 sales year to date.

The electric number is the story

BEV sales were up 171 per cent on August 2025, which is close to a tripling in twelve months while the overall market stood still. Within VFACTS, plug-in hybrids accounted for 10.5 per cent of the month and conventional hybrids 18.5 per cent.

Five of the top 10 brands are now Chinese

BYD, GWM, MG, Geely and Chery took a combined 26,610 sales in August, or 26.4 per cent of the VFACTS market. Toyota still leads on 19.5 per cent, and the rest of the top 10 is Kia, Mazda, Hyundai and Ford.

Chinese manufacturers also supplied five of the ten highest-selling models: the BYD Sealion 7, Chery Tiggo 4, Geely EX5, GWM Haval Jolion and Zeekr 7X. The FCAI does not publish the order of those five within the top 10, so treat the list as a group rather than a ranking.

What the industry is worried about

Tony Weber, chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, said the results pointed to a structural shift rather than a good month, and used the occasion to push on charging:

These changes continue to reinforce the need for infrastructure settings that keep pace with the market. Accessible and dependable charging will remain critical to consumer confidence, particularly on highways, in rural and regional areas and for motorists without access to charging at home.

What it means if you're buying

More competition at the affordable end, which is where most of the Chinese volume sits, and more pressure on the established brands to answer it on price. If you are shopping electric, the charging point Weber makes is the practical one: the car is now the easy part, and where you plug it in on a long trip still is not.