Toyota RAV4 best-selling 2023 Medium SUV

The most hotly contested segment in the country has a familiar winner but with reduced margins as new players enter the fray.

The Medium SUV segment saw an increase of 24.3 per cent in 2023 to outperform the overall Australian new-car market’s 12.5 per cent gain, with 268,480 Medium SUVs sold last year.

The Toyota RAV4 was the best-selling Medium SUV for the fourth straight year, ahead of the Mitsubishi Outlander and Mazda CX-5 – but all only the Outlander managed to improve its volume over the previous year.

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SUV sales were up across all segments in record-setting 2023, but the RAV4’s 29,627 sales were well short of its 34,845 figure from 2022.

While a lower sales number, it was still easily more than Outlander’s 24,263 despite the Mitsubishi being the newest model of the top trio, introduced in 2021, and the only one of the three to increase its sale number.

The RAV4 wasn’t the sales leader all year, either, with the CX-5 leading the segment in January, the Outlander slipping into second by March, both ahead of the Toyota.

The RAV4 jumped in front of both rivals to lead the CX-5 by only 100 units at the end of April, the Toyota the only model in the segment to crack 10,000 year-to-date in May.

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It remained at the top of the tree for the rest of 2023.

It’s another impressive feat for Toyota – which continues to be the best-selling car brand in Australia by a substantial margin – given the supply issues that created long waiting lists for RAV4 and undoubtedly sent buyers unwilling to wait to rival manufacturer’s showrooms.

Toyota has also loaded significant price rises onto the RAV4 as a result of stock shortages, but the SUVs popularity remains solid with its ongoing success boding well for 2024 with a new RAV4 due in Australian showrooms.

The Mitsubishi Outlander’s sales grew substantially, outselling its 19,546 2022 result by 24.1 per cent while RAV4 and CX-5’s sales declined 14.7 and 15.0 per cent respectively.

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The Outlander’s 2023 effort saw a close battle with the Mazda CX-5, which it overtook in July and slowly crept ahead of to stretch to finish 1180 units ahead of the Mazda by the end of the year.

The Mazda CX-5 was a former best seller, having been the sales leader in 2019, yet its sales performance remains strong after annual updates to the current generation that has been on sale since 2017, the same year the RAV4 debuted.

The CX-5 started the year ahead of RAV4 – topping the segment in January 2023 – but minor updates couldn’t keep it ahead of the Toyota and Mitsubishi as RAV4 stock arrived here.

Missing the podium by a slim margin was the Hyundai Tucson with 21,224 sold, its freshly updated range to be bolstered in mid-2024 with the arrival of a hybrid model to help it tackle the dominant RAV4 which has seen hybrid models the strongest sellers.

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The Subaru Forester was fifth (16,381) ahead of the Kia Sportage (15,747), but the biggest mover in the field was the BYD Atto 3 with 11,042 sold – the seventh best and final Medium SUV to sell more than 10,000 units in 2023.

The Atto 3 started the year with only 267 sales in January – versus RAV4’s 1958 that month – but took a 5.4 per cent share of the segment for the year as the best-performing Chinese brand in the segment, ahead of MG.

That also makes the Atto 3 the best-selling electric Medium SUV in 2023.

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The Atto 3’s formidable performance helped reduce RAV4’s 2022 leadership share from 19.6 per cent to 14.6 per cent.

That continues was downward trend for the segment leader as competition increases, with RAV4’s 2021 share 23.6 percent, having been 25.1 per cent in 2020.

The largest declines in the segment were recorded by the Citroen C5 Aircross, which saw sales fall from 64 to 41 for a 35.9 per cent decline, while the MG HS declined 25.8 per cent.