Australia’s top 20 best-selling cars among rental fleets in 2023 was quite different to the list of overall best sellers.
Many of the overall best sellers on the VFACTS sales charts feature in this list, with the Toyota HiLux – the second best-selling vehicle in Australia last year – sitting in the top spot.
But the Toyota Corolla jumped from 12th position in overall sales to 2nd when looking just at rental fleet sales, with the MG ZS climbing from 5th to 3rd, and the MG 3 from 18th to 5th.
The MG HS also leapt from 42nd overall to 4th in rental sales, and the Kia Carnival from 27th to 9th.
Australia’s best-selling vehicle in 2023, the Ford Ranger, sat at only 10th in rental sales, with the third best-selling Isuzu D-Max sitting at 11th.
The vehicle with the highest percentage of sales going to rental fleets was the Cupra Ateca, with 56.7 per cent.
The Renault Koleos cracked the top 20 best-selling vehicles to rental fleets, with 1396 sales – or 50.3 per cent of its total sales.
Only a handful of other vehicles saw more than 30 per cent of their sales go to rental fleets: the Skoda Scala (43.8 per cent), the BMW 5 Series (42.8 per cent), the Renault Captur (39.5 per cent), and the Peugeot 508 (34 per cent).
The most popular vehicle overall with the highest retail sales percentage was the MG HS, at 29.7 per cent.
The Mitsubishi ASX, long a fixture on rental fleets, was nowhere to be seen in the top 20. Only 8.7 per cent of ASXs sold in 2023 were to rental fleets.
While rental fleet sales may not be the most glamorous, they can help raise awareness of a new brand, which may explain why the Cupra Ateca’s rental sales are high, or why 14.9 per cent of all Chery Omoda 5s went to rental companies.
| Model | Total sales to rental companies | Percentage of total sales |
|---|---|---|
| Toyota HiLux | 5297 | 8.7% |
| Toyota Corolla | 4600 | 23% |
| MG ZS | 3916 | 13.3% |
| MG HS | 2412 | 29.7% |
| MG 3 | 2396 | 15.5% |
| Mitsubishi Outlander | 2352 | 9.7% |
| Toyota RAV4 | 2284 | 7.7% |
| Toyota Camry | 2269 | 21.4% |
| Kia Carnival | 2140 | 18.9% |
| Ford Ranger | 1783 | 2.8% |
| Isuzu D-Max | 1609 | 5.2% |
| Kia Sportage | 1594 | 10.1% |
| Toyota Prado | 1546 | 7.5% |
| Mazda CX-5 | 1468 | 6.4% |
| Renault Koleos | 1396 | 50.3% |
| Isuzu MU-X | 1392 | 9.8% |
| Volkswagen Tiguan | 1322 | 18.1% |
| Kia Stonic | 1285 | 18.4% |
| Ford Everest | 1237 | 8.2% |
| Subaru Forester | 1223 | 7.5% |
MORE: VFACTS 2023: Tesla Model Y was Australia’s best-selling new car with private buyers
MORE: VFACTS 2023: All-time Australian sales record, Ford Ranger tops charts
