HondaAustralia has posted its best monthly sales result since June, with its ZR-V crossover SUV having one of its best months yet.
The brand was up 139.3 per cent on last November, admittedly a disappointing month for the brand in 2024.
The ZR-V was up 266.9 per cent on last November to 433 units, with the CR-V – the brand’s other mid-size SUV – up 625.5 per cent to 399 units and the Civic up 675 per cent to 124 units, the latter from a low base.
The result sees the Japanese brand surpass its entire 2024 result a month early, having delivered 14,194 cars in the first 11 months of 2025 compared to 14,092 for the entire 2024 calendar year.
If its December 2025 sales can match its year-to-date 1290 monthly average, Honda is on course for 15,484 sales, its best effort since 2021 – though still a far cry from just last decade when it was regularly shifting over 40,000 vehicles here annually.
Honda Australia CEO Jay Joseph predicted the brand would hit around 15,000 sales this year after the 27-year Honda US veteran took over as CEO in April.
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The year-to-date gain means Honda is one of only two Japanese brands to increase its sales so far in 2025, with its 9.1 per cent growth better than Lexus’s 8.0 per cent.
Other key Japanese rivals have posted losses, the biggest from Suzuki (-27.4 per cent) followed by Nissan (-18.7 per cent), Mitsubishi (-17.5 per cent), Mazda and Subaru (both -4.9 per cent).
Even perennial sales leader, Toyota – unbeaten in Australia since 2003 – has posted a 0.6 per cent fall though it still dominates the market.
November saw the best result yet for the ZR-V – the smaller of its two mid-size SUVs – with its 433 sales just shy of its peak of 540 in March 2024, but its best result since 440 in June the same year. It’s sitting at 3588 sales year-to-date.
It saw the ZR-V overtake the larger CR-V SUV as Honda’s best-seller for the month, but the CR-V remains the brand’s hottest property year-to-date with 5210 sales, up 2.4 per cent.
The HR-V took the final podium spot with 352 sales for the month contributing to 4451 sales year-to-date, a gain of 44 per cent year-on-year to be ahead of its 12-month total of 3350 in 2024.
Mr Joseph told CarExpert the company will stick with its agency sales model, which it changed to in 2021 amid controversy – and legal action – which saw it shrink its lineup and retail network and dramatically reduce its sales targets.
At the time this new model was announced, Honda expected to sell just shy of 20,000 vehicles annually – a target it has yet to hit.
“Currently we’re building our business there, so we’re in a building phase,” Mr Joseph (pictured, below) told media in a roundtable conference early last month.
“Of course, we all know five years ago we changed our business model, and we also made decisions about our lineup that dramatically affected volume. But we’re now poised to be in a much stronger position, and we’re beginning to grow that share back.”
The move to the agency model included set pricing, eliminating customer ‘haggling’, which Honda Australia managing director Rob Thorp, who was appointed to the role in April with Mr Joseph, said was a positive step.
“When we look at our customer feedback, a lot of customer feedback suggests that they appreciate the fact that it’s just clear, simple and transparent,” Mr Thorp said during a media event in June.
Part of the 2025 ‘building phase’ saw the introduction of free servicing and reduced prices of its SUV lineup in October after its previous eight-year extended warranty offer expired.
An all-new Honda Prelude sports car has been confirmed for Australia in mid-2026, with the hybrid coupe shown off at the Japan Mobility Show (JMS) in Tokyo in October.
It will be joined by the cute Super-One electric vehicle (EV), a diminutive ‘Kei class’ sized vehicle as a premium alternative to the BYD Atto 1 electric hatch, and the first EV Honda will offer in Australia.
Honda Australia has also said it will almost immediately expand its electric lineup, with all models from the futuristic 0 Series line, first shown in the metal in early 2024, being considered. It has yet to confirm which will be locked in.
Updated versions of both the ZR-V and CR-V have been confirmed for 2026, including new hybrid powertrains for Australian showrooms.
On the flip side, it has ruled out a return of its Odyssey people mover and said the future of the Accord and Civic is not assured here, saying the pair will have to earn their place in the local lineup.
Combined, the Accord and Civic have made up less than seven per cent of Honda Australia’s total year-to-date sales, with 91 and 845 sales respectively year-to-date.
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