VFACTs: Ford Ranger was the best-selling vehicle in Australia in 2024

The Ford Ranger has ended 2024 just as it started the year: On top of the 4x4 sales charts.

In fact, the Ranger remained the best-selling 4x4 vehicle for every single month of 2024. In December, the Ranger registered 4231 sales, positioning it ahead of the Toyota HiLux and Prado.

On the year-to-date charts, the Ranger’s success transcends the 4x4 charts and positions it as the best-selling overall vehicle in Australia – when 4x2 and 4x4 sales are combined. A total of 62,593 Rangers were delivered to customers throughout 2024, placing it ahead of the Toyota RAV4 (58,718) and Toyota HiLux (53,499) on the final podium.

Despite this dominance, Ranger sales slipped in December 2024 (4493 sales) compared to the same month in 2023 (7767 sales). This significant decline of 42.2 per cent is reflective of the trends of the overall market, where LCV sales have started to slow.

A total of 270,351 LCVs found new homes in 2024, but 274,185 LCV sales were registered in Australia in 2023. Diving a bit deeper in the LCV segment reveals that the PU/CC 4x4 category– which accounts for a vast majority of sales within the segment – also dipped compared to 2023 (203,176 versus 208,716).

The SUV segment held the bulk of sales in 2024, finishing with 695,566 sales. That’s 57.0 per cent slice of overall sales, and an increase of 1.2 per cent compared to 2023 which saw 679,462 sales registered.

Still in its infancy, the all-new LandCruiser Prado continues to perform well on the charts, with the SUV notching up 2687 sales and ending December as the the fourth best-selling vehicle for the month – only below the RAV4, Ranger and HiLux. In fact, five of the ten best-selling vehicles in December are ones we drive here at 4X4 Australia: Ranger, HiLux, Prado, Everest and D-MAX.

However, FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber expects new-found challenges will disrupt consumer preferences in 2025.

“While overall consumer preferences remain clear with SUVs and Light Commercial vehicles continuing to dominate the market and especially the top ten sales, many vehicles in these segments are either difficult or expensive to decarbonise,” Weber said. “This will prove to be a significant challenge in meeting the extremely ambitious targets of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) which began on 1 January 2025.

“The industry is responding to NVES by increasing the range of zero and low emission vehicles on offer. However, a continuation of current customer buying preferences will inevitably lead to the accrual of substantial penalties under the Government’s new scheme, which will create price inflation within the new vehicle market.”

Diesel and petrol sales were down in 2024 compared to the previous year – diesel sales dropped from 379,512 in 2023 to 369,842 in 2024; while petrol sales dipped from 588,596 sales in 2023 to 528,978 in 2024.

On the flip side, the Hybrid and PHEV segments registered improved sales in 2024 compared to 2023. A total of 172,696 hybrid vehicles were sold in 2024, up from 98,105 in 2023. A total of 23,163 PHEVs were sold, up from 11,572 sold in 2023. The EV segment dropped by 14.5 per cent, with 74,612 sales confirmed in 2024 compared to 87,217 in 2023.

In the battle of the Upper Large SUVs, the Nissan Patrol outsold the LandCruiser 300 Series by just 15 units in December – 726 to 711 sales – but neither of these vehicles could sneak into the top 10 on the 4x4 sales charts for December.

The Chevrolet Silverado (HD included; 362) outsold both the Ford F-150 (344) and RAM 1500 (277) in December; and the GWM Ute remains the popular budget choice (687 sales in December), preferred by consumers over the LDV T60 (454) and SsangYong Musso (113).