Australia’s new‑vehicle market hit a new record of 1,241,037 sales in 2025, but behind the breakdown of combustion-powered, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars, there is data that shows which buyer group was most attracted to which vehicle type.
At a high level, buyers are splitting into four distinct camps:battery-electric vehicles (EVs),plug‑in hybrids (PHEVs), hybrids (HEVs), and the still-dominant world ofpetrol- and diesel-powered vehicles – including mild-hybrids (MHEVs).
Based on 2025 volume, that looks like:
- EVs: 103,270 sales (8.3 per cent of the market) – including just two hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs)
- PHEVs: 53,484 sales (4.3 per cent) – including a small slice of extended‑range electric vehicles (EREVs)
- Hybrids (no‑plug): 199,133 sales (16.0 per cent) – conventional hybrids plus self-charging systems like Nissan e‑Power
- Combustion (petrol/diesel, including MHEVs): 884,944 sales (71.3 per cent)
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The numbers show EVs are now a meaningful part of the market but they’re still largely a private and business purchase, not a rental one.
PHEVs are even more private buyer‑led, and rental fleets have barely touched them.
Regular hybrids are no longer a niche ‘electrified’ footnote, thanks in large part to Toyota. They’re a mainstream chunk of the market and, importantly, they have a much healthier rental market presence than EVs or PHEVs, suggesting they’ve become the low‑risk fuel‑saving option for fleets.
Meanwhile, combustion vehicles (petrol/diesel plus mild-hybrids) remain the default choice across every buyer group simply because they still account for more than seven in every 10 new vehicles sold.
EVs
In 2025, Australians bought 103,270 battery-electric vehicles, accounting for around 8.3 per cent of the total market.
EVs were driven primarily by private buyers, but business remained a major contributor apart from rental companies which were barely involved.
Across EV sales where buyer type could be split cleanly, EVs were66.2 per cent privateand31.1 per cent business.
That’s a very different profile to conventional petrol/diesel vehicles, for which rental buyers represent a much more meaningful slice of demand.
PHEVs
In 2025, 53,484 plug‑in hybrids were sold – 4.3 per cent of the total market – making them the most private buyer‑led of the major powertrain categories.
The plug‑in hybrid split is as follows:
- Private buyers: 34,758 (65.3 per cent)
- Business: 17,652 (33.1 per cent)
- Government: 664 (1.2 per cent)
- Rental: 175 (0.3 per cent)
Hybrids
Hybrids (totalling 199,133) have become a mainstream part of what Australians are buying, and they’re also shaping fleet behaviour.
The hybrid split by buyer type looks like this:
- Private: 115,588 (58.0 per cent)
- Business: 59,549 (29.9 per cent)
- Government: 7,575 (3.8 per cent)
- Rental: 16,421 (8.2 per cent)
Conventional hybrids had the highest rental share of the three “no‑plug” sub-categories (petrol/diesel-only, mild-hybrids, and conventional hybrids). Rentals accounted for 16,157 hybrid sales in 2025 – 8.3 per cent of all hybrids – compared to 6.4 per cent of petrol/diesel-only vehicles and 3.2 per cent of mild-hybrids.
That suggests hybrids have become the “low‑risk electrification” option for fleets that want better fuel economy without changing refuelling habits or charging infrastructure.
Petrol and diesel
If we combine petrol/diesel vehicles and mild-hybrids (which includes members of the Toyota HiLux, Mazda CX-80 and Suzuki Swift lineups), that tallies up to 884,944 sales in 2025 – 71.3 per cent of the entire market.
Of this, mild-hybrids accounted for 94,642 sales.
The overall combustion (plus mild hybrid) bucket splits by buyer type as follows:
- Private: 408,938 (46.2 per cent)
- Business: 398,591 (45.0 per cent)
- Government: 24,024 (2.7 per cent)
- Rental: 53,391 (6.0 per cent)
It’s a much more balanced picture than EVs or plug‑in hybrids. Private buyers still lead, but business is close behind, and rental remains a meaningful part of demand.
Overall, it appears that while EVs are growing, they’re largely being bought by private customers and businesses (which we would hazard a guess includes small-business ABN holders) but not rental agencies.
Plug‑in hybrids have become a major second wave, even more private-led than EVs, and almost completely absent from rental fleets. And while petrol and diesel vehicles still dominate in terms of volume, hybrids – especially conventional hybrids – are now a core part of Australia’s ‘combustion-era’ market, including a meaningful slice of fleet demand.
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