VFACTs April 2023: Ranger remains most desired 4x4 in Australia

Fewer 4x4 sales were registered across the board in April, but the Ford Ranger once again proved to be the most desired vehicle in the segment.

A total of 3152 Ranger 4x4s were delivered for the month - 725 fewer than the preceding month - with the Toyota Hilux once again cementing second spot with 2817 sales of its 4x4 variants. The Ranger has now outsold the Hilux by a total of 2843 units on the year-to-date 4x4 charts.

Isuzu’s D-MAX and MU-X continue to perform consistently, with 1345 and 1095 monthly sales respectively.

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When combining 4x4 and 4x2 variants, the Ford Ranger remained the best-selling vehicle with 3567 sales (-0.4% compared to April 2022). It pipped the Hilux by just 41 sales, with the Hilux registering a total of 3526 sales (-21.5% compared to April 2022).

The D-MAX sits seventh on the overall charts, behind the RAV4, Tesla Model Y, Hyundai i30 and Mitsubishi Outlander.

In the budget segment, the LDV T60 has reappeared on the Top 10 4x4 charts for the month with a total of 683 sales. The GWM Ute fell from the Top 10 in April but clings on to tenth spot on the YTD charts.

In the battle of the big utes, RAM (511 sales of its 1500) outsold Chevrolet (206 sales of its Silverado) on the 4x4 charts for April. In addition, RAM sold 66 2500s and four 3500s for the month.

Top 10 best-selling 4x4s in Australia: April 2023

Overall 4x4 sales have dipped in April 2023, with the PU/CC 4x4 segment in particular showing weaker performance compared to the same time last year. In April 2022, a total of 14,411 PU/CC 4x4s were sold; in April 2023, that figure dropped to a total of 12,197 units.

That is reflected with a sales drop of 7.5 per cent on the year-to-date charts. So far in 2023, 56,694 PU/CC 4x4s have been sold; at the same time in 2022, the total was 61,304. Despite this, sales of SUVs and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) still accounted for 76.8 per cent of total vehicle sales in April.

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Breaking it down a bit further, monthly passenger car sales were down 1.6 per cent compared to the same month last year; SUV sales were up by 8.6 per cent; and LCV sales were down 13.1 per cent.

Delving a bit deeper, total diesel sales are down 9.1 per cent for passenger, SUV and LCVs on the year-to-date charts. There has been a slight rise in the sale of petrol-powered vehicles (+2.5%), but sales of both electric vehicles (+214.1%) and PHEVs (+19.7%) have sky-rocketed so far in 2023.

The best-selling brand in Australia for the month was Toyota, with 12,029 vehicles. It was followed by Mazda (6926), Kia (6200), Hyundai (5732) and Ford (5047).

Top 10 best-selling 4x4s in Australia: year-to-date