Australia’s latest‑vehicle market hit a brand new record of 1,241,037 sales in 2025, but behind the breakdown of combustion-powered, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars, there may be data that shows which buyer group was most drawn to which vehicle type.
At a high level, buyers are splitting into 4 distinct camps: battery-electric vehicles (EVs), plug‑in hybrids (PHEVs), hybrids (HEVs), and the still-dominant world of petrol- and diesel-powered vehicles – including mild-hybrids (MHEVs).
Based on 2025 volume, that appears 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 prolonged‑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 at the moment are a meaningful a part of the market but they’re still largely a non-public and business purchase, not a rental one.
PHEVs are much more private buyer‑led, and rental fleets have barely touched them.
Regular hybrids aren’t any longer a distinct segment ‘electrified’ footnote, thanks largely to Toyota. They’re a mainstream chunk of the market and, importantly, they’ve a much healthier rental market presence than EVs or PHEVs, suggesting they’ve grow to be the low‑risk fuel‑saving option for fleets.
Meanwhile, combustion vehicles (petrol/diesel plus mild-hybrids) remain the default alternative across every buyer group just because they still account for greater than seven in every 10 latest vehicles sold.
EVs
In 2025, Australians bought 103,270 battery-electric vehicles, accounting for around 8.3 per cent of the whole market.
EVs were driven primarily by private buyers, but business remained a significant contributor other than rental firms which were barely involved.
Across EV sales where buyer type might be split cleanly, EVs were 66.2 per cent private and 31.1 per cent business.
That’s a really different profile to traditional petrol/diesel vehicles, for which rental buyers represent a far more meaningful slice of demand.
PHEVs
In 2025, 53,484 plug‑in hybrids were sold – 4.3 per cent of the whole market – making them essentially the most private buyer‑led of the main 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 grow to be a mainstream a part of what Australians are buying, and so 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 very best rental share of the three “no‑plug” sub-categories (petrol/diesel-only, mild-hybrids, and standard hybrids). Rentals accounted for 16,157 hybrid sales in 2025 – 8.3 per cent of all hybrids – in comparison with 6.4 per cent of petrol/diesel-only vehicles and three.2 per cent of mild-hybrids.
That means hybrids have grow to be the “low‑risk electrification” option for fleets that want higher fuel economy without changing refuelling habits or charging infrastructure.
Petrol and diesel
If we mix petrol/diesel vehicles and mild-hybrids (which incorporates members of the Toyota HiLux, Mazda CX-80 and Suzuki Swift lineups), that tallies as much as 884,944 sales in 2025 – 71.3 per cent of your entire market.
Of this, mild-hybrids accounted for 94,642 sales.
The general 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 far more balanced picture than EVs or plug‑in hybrids. Private buyers still lead, but business is close behind, and rental stays a meaningful a part of demand.
Overall, it seems that while EVs are growing, they’re largely being bought by private customers and businesses (which we might hazard a guess includes small-business ABN holders) but not rental agencies.
Plug‑in hybrids have grow to be a significant second wave, much more private-led than EVs, and almost completely absent from rental fleets. And while petrol and diesel vehicles still dominate by way of volume, hybrids – especially conventional hybrids – at the moment are a core a part of Australia’s ‘combustion-era’ market, including a meaningful slice of fleet demand.
This Article First Appeared At www.carexpert.com.au
