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Most Australians are aware of automobiles just like the Toyota RAV4, Ford Ranger, and Mitsubishi Outlander, however even when these well-known nameplates have been round for fairly a while, they actually don’t paint a full image of their respective model’s native historical past.
That’s why we’ve determined to match the primary automobiles to be offered in Australia by every of our top-10 best-selling auto manufacturers with their latest nameplates. It’s supposed to be a lighthearted take a look at then versus now, as an instance how far every common marque has come.
We’ve included solely the most recent present nameplates from every of those firms, since they’re new fashions that won’t have existed regionally beforehand.
There are many newer powertrains and variants than a few of these fashions, however that’s getting a bit of too far into the weeds and would shortly outdate this text given the tempo of the trendy auto business.
You’ll want to tell us within the feedback beneath in the event you’re enthusiastic about such a article – clearly there are numerous manufacturers we haven’t talked about right here, however we’re open to creating this a recurring sequence.
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Toyota: LandCruiser FJ25, Tundra
Toyota has lengthy been Australia’s top-selling auto model, and it might probably proudly hint its native beginnings again to 1959.
Uniquely, the institution of Toyota in Australia was initiated by an area businessman who drew the automaker in, relatively than Toyota looking for growth exterior Japan, earlier than Australia turned the primary export marketplace for what’s now the world’s largest automaker.
In 1958, a building firm owned by Leslie Thiess turned the primary Australian firm to win a contract from the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme in New South Wales.
To assist his firm’s work, he privately imported round 12 Toyota LandCruiser FJ25s to make use of on the positioning.
The story goes that Sir Les was so impressed with the FJ25’s capabilities that he approached Toyota in Japan to turn out to be an official distributor in Australia. His software was profitable and, in 1959, Thiess Toyota turned the official Queensland distributor for Toyota business automobiles.
The transfer additionally made Australia the primary official export marketplace for Toyota, and 12 dealerships have been established in Queensland in 1959. Toyota says 69 LandCruisers have been offered throughout these dealerships in that 12 months.
Regardless of the arrival and success of numerous Toyota passenger automobiles and SUVs just like the Camry, Corolla, and RAV4 – to not point out a number of iconic sports activities automobiles borne out of motorsport – the FJ25’s notoriety means it’s maybe becoming that Toyota’s latest Australian nameplate can be a business car.
Enter the Tundra, a full-size American pickup that entered Australian showrooms in late 2024.
It’s transformed from left- to right-hand drive by Walkinshaw Automotive in Melbourne, and competes with different huge US rigs just like the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram 1500.
There aren’t some other new nameplates within the pipeline for Toyota, although a facelift for the bZ4X mid-size electrical SUV, in addition to the brand new bZ4X Touring, the primary LandCruiser Hybrid, and the next-gen RAV4 are all slated for launch within the coming months.
MORE: Discover the Toyota showroom
Ford: Mannequin T, Tourneo
There are two key dates in Ford’s Australian historical past. One is when the primary Ford was formally offered in Australia, and the opposite is when Ford Australia was formally established and started native manufacturing.
It’s believed that a minimum of one Ford arrived in Australia as early as 1904, however it wasn’t till 1909 that international model consultant for the corporate, RJ Durance, moved from Canada to Port Melbourne, the place he established an Australian Ford department and kicked issues off by promoting the Mannequin T.
Some have been imported totally assembled, whereas others have been imported in elements after which assembled regionally. Many have been then demonstrated in cities throughout Australia, attracting public curiosity and prompting numerous Ford companies to be recruited to promote the Mannequin T.
Greed and cash quickly took management although, as Ford distributors have been reported to be gouging sub-dealers and prospects. In response, Ford Canada despatched two executives to Australia in 1923, who then beneficial {that a} manufacturing plant be established in Tasmania.
Geelong was later chosen because the plant’s location, and the primary regionally manufactured Mannequin T produced by the newly established Ford Australia was accomplished in July 1925, regardless of the automotive being very outdated by that time.
Different Ford vegetation have been later in-built Adelaide and Brisbane, and milestones in Ford Australia’s storied 100-year historical past embrace the launch of the Falcon in 1960 and the Territory in 2004 (Australia’s first and solely home-brewed SUV). All good issues should come to an finish although, and native manufacturing concluded in 2016.
Ford Australia was charged with growth of the T6 platform that has now underpinned two generations of the Everest SUV and Ranger ute, which now gives plug-in hybrid variations and, quickly, beefy Tremendous Responsibility variations too.
Each fashions allowed Ford to keep up a big market share regionally. However whereas Ford has launched a plethora of recent variants and powertrains in recent times, none are strictly all-new nameplates and subsequently don’t match our standards. Ford’s latest native nameplate is the Tourneo, a folks mover primarily based on the Transit Customized van that launched in October 2024.
Ford has a lot extra on the best way too, with electrical and plug-in hybrid Transit Customs, an replace to the electrical Mustang Mach-E, and the Ranger Tremendous Responsibility for imminent launch.
MORE: Discover the Ford showroom
Kia: Sportage and Mentor, Tasman
Kia was formally launched in Australia in 1997, when it introduced two mannequin from its Korean homeland to get the ball rolling: the Mentor hatch and sedan, and the Sportage SUV.
A kind of caught higher than the opposite, however neither of those two automobiles was the primary Kia-badged mannequin to seem Down Below. That distinction goes to the Ceres, a small work truck dropped at Australia from 1991 by the use of non-public imports, however in first rate numbers – round 300 have been milling about by 1996.
However the Mentor and Sportage might be collectively credited with being the primary Kia fashions formally offered in Australia, as a result of the Korean model had little involvement in native Ceres gross sales earlier than it formally arrange store right here.
Whereas the Mentor solely lasted till 2000, the Sportage nonetheless exists immediately and is now Kia’s best-selling mannequin regionally by a substantial margin.
It’s an excellent factor that it took off too, as a result of Kia was on the point of chapter on the precise time it was first launched in Australia.
The Korea First Financial institution had even frozen Kia’s debt to delay its demise as manufacturers like Samsung, Daewoo and Ford took curiosity in claiming the model, however it was finally Hyundai that received out, securing a majority stake and writing off the corporate’s debt.
Kia has since gone from energy to energy in Australia, efficiently shifting away from its mid-2000s repute of providing solely low-cost and cheerful economic system automobiles. Now fielding a visually distinctive and usually trendy lineup, Kia’s latest nameplate right here is the Tasman ute, launched in 2025.
Like a few of the different manufacturers listed right here, Kia’s newest mannequin is designed to faucet into considered one of Australia’s hottest new-vehicle market segments. With a diesel engine and a typically conventional dual-cab method (aside from its exterior design), the Tasman returns Kia to its native roots and sews the seed for future business automobiles from the now-popular model.
Kia is ready to launch a brand new vary of battery-electric business vans, led by the PV5 in 2026, following on from a busy 2025 that introduced new nameplates together with the K4 small sedan and EV3 small electrical SUV.
MORE: Discover the Kia showroom
Mazda: T600, CX-80
Mazda holds the distinctive distinction of being the one model on this listing to have began in Australia with a three-wheeled car. This was the T600, first imported in 1959.
The T600 was first accessible regionally with a 596cc air-cooled engine, and it arrived right here in the identical 12 months it was launched in its Japanese house market.
It’s additionally vaguely fascinating that T600 is the export identify for this unusual three-wheeled truck, and it was generally known as the Mazda K360 in Japan. Kia additionally struck a deal to promote it in Korea because the Kia T600.
At slightly below 3m lengthy and 1.3m tall, the T600 bore a better resemblance to a tricycle than a correct motorcar. Its claimed prime velocity of 65km/h in all probability isn’t that far off a tricycle hurtling down a steep hill, both.
Mazda continued to develop in Australia after this, and by the late Sixties it was managing to promote greater than 10,000 automobiles a 12 months. It launched into its rotary renaissance all through the Seventies and Eighties, whereas additionally going loopy with a plethora of various manufacturers in Japan.
Quick-forward to immediately and Mazda is a favorite amongst Australian patrons. Like virtually all of its opponents, its lineup is now dominated by SUVs – though it nonetheless fields some smaller automobiles, together with the enduring MX-5 roadster.
The most recent in its swarm of SUVs are its ‘giant platform’ CX fashions: the CX-60, CX-70, CX-80, and CX-90. Australia is the one market globally to get all 4, and you’ll entertain your self by asking a non-car particular person, or perhaps a automotive particular person, to inform all of them aside in the event you’re bored.
The 60 and 90 have been first to reach in 2023, whereas the 70 and 80 have been launched just some weeks aside in late 2024, which implies the latter is the most recent Mazda nameplate in Australia. It’s the most important of the 4 and might be had with a alternative of mild-hybrid six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, or a four-cylinder PHEV in the event you’re so inclined.
A shoo-in for Mazda’s subsequent new mannequin in Australia is the 6e, an electrical sedan primarily based on the Chinese language-made Deepal L07.
MORE: Discover the Mazda showroom
Hyundai: Excel, Ioniq 9
In April 1986, auto media business stalwart John Mellor wrote in Automotive Australia that Hyundai “poses little or no risk to any present automobiles”, and supplied “little or no incentive to purchase” the 1986 Excel – the South Korean model’s first mannequin in Australia.
Quick-forward to February 1987 and Mr Mellor had backflipped, warning readers to “stand by for the Korean invasion” and likening Kia’s arrival to Toyota’s some 20 years earlier. He was proper to take action, even when the Korean newcomer’s pioneering Excel didn’t initially set the gross sales charts alight.
This was regardless of the very fact it was Australia’s solely automotive to be priced beneath $10,000 in 1986. With a beginning value of $9990 at launch (the inflation-adjusted equal of about $32,500 in 2025), it was cheaper than a base Toyota Corolla at roughly $11,600 (round $37,700 immediately).
Hyundai was first launched in Australia by Alan Bond, who partnered with one other Western Australian businessman John Hughes to import the Korean model, beginning with only one dealership in Perth, and the Italian-designed Excel turned Australia’s top-selling imported small automotive by 1988, setting the stage for the model’s fast rise within the Australian market.
Hyundai Motor Firm Australia was based in 2003, across the time when a few of its present staple nameplates, together with the Santa Fe and Tucson SUVs, first appeared globally.
Now, Hyundai is persistently a top-five model in Australia and fields a broad portfolio of numerous fashions, together with a handful of business automobiles such because the Staria Load.
However electrical automobiles are arguably the place Hyundai has made its most spectacular developments in recent times. It’s in that class the place we discover the Korean model’s latest nameplate to reach in Australia, the Ioniq 9, which was launched in 2025.
The massive electrical SUV is the most recent EV to bear the Ioniq identify, following the Ioniq 5 SUV and Ioniq 6 sedan. Curiously, the Ioniq identify was launched with a multi-powertrain hatch in 2018, which was accessible as a plugless hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electrical car.
Hyundai is now gearing as much as launch its up to date Palisade giant SUV, and has a number of different EVs ready within the wings.
MORE: Discover the Hyundai showroom
BYD: Atto 3, Sealion 7
BYD is among the latest Chinese language manufacturers in Australia, and regardless of launching regionally solely in 2022 it seems to have cemented its place among the many 10 best-selling producers right here, surpassing a number of Western manufacturers within the course of.
The mannequin that kicked all of it off was the Atto 3, a small-medium electrical SUV that now seems comparatively tame in comparison with BYD’s newest automobiles.
It’s nonetheless one of many model’s best-sellers regionally, however it has since been overtaken by new plug-in hybrids just like the Sealion 6 mid-size SUV and the Shark 6 dual-cab ute.
You’ll discover BYD has a robust concentrate on electrified automobiles. It is because the automotive division of the overarching BYD firm is a comparatively small a part of its whole operations and BYD began out as a battery producer.
Enjoyable truth: BYD’s earliest work with electrical automobiles resulted in a car generally known as the BJ6490D – constructed from a knock-down package of a Holden VN Commodore wagon and powered by golf cart batteries.
Regardless of its brief native historical past, BYD has grown to area six fashions within the Australian market. Till very lately, the model was imported right here by unbiased distributor EVDirect, however BYD took direct management of its Australian operations in July 2025.
Its most up-to-date new nameplate (and the final to be launched by EVDirect) is the Sealion 7 launched in 2025. It’s one other electrical SUV, albeit bigger than the Atto 3, and BYD’s most direct rival to the top-selling Tesla Mannequin Y thus far.
Issues are nonetheless shifting shortly for BYD Australia, which is now gearing as much as launch 4 new fashions by the tip of this 12 months. One in all them would be the cute little Seagull electrical hatch, which known as the Dolphin Surf within the UK however, sadly, will likely be rebranded because the Atto 1 for Australia.
Moreover, BYD’s luxurious model Denza will likely be launched in Australia in November 2025 with two giant plug-in hybrid off-road SUVs.
MORE: Discover the BYD showroom
GWM: V240 and SA220, Haval H7
GWM holds the excellence of being the primary Chinese language auto model to seem in Australia, by way of unbiased importer Ateco Automotive in 2009. A factory-backed operation took over in 2016, and Ateco is now chargeable for Renault, Ram, Maserati, and LDV.
In fact, GWM was initially generally known as Nice Wall Motors, and model’s first two native fashions have been forgetably named dual-cab pickups – the V240 and SA220. Everybody remembers them, proper?
Granted, the names of these two utes in China would have been ripe for ridicule in Australia. The V240 was generally known as the Wingle 3, whereas the SA220 was badged barely much less comically because the Sailor. Neither was a terrific match for a market dominated by mighty Falcons and Commodores, and later HiLuxes and Rangers.
Whereas the Wingle, er, V240 lasted right here till 2014, the SA220 survived for less than two mannequin years earlier than being changed by the V200 in 2011. The V200 was differentiated by its turbo-diesel engine, whereas the V240 continued to return with a naturally aspirated petrol engine.
Nice Wall continued to introduce extra SUVs and utes till 2020, when it started morphing into the extra trendy GWM model that we all know immediately.
The Ute Cannon was the primary mannequin offered beneath the brand new banner, in 2020. It straight changed the Nice Wall Steed, which had been a staple within the Chinese language model’s international lineup – the final era was generally known as the Wingle 6 in China.
Since then, GWM has continued bringing new fashions, even launching a handful of sub-brands within the Australian market, beginning with the SUV-focused Haval model, which gave us GWM’s latest native mannequin: the 2025 Haval H7 mid-size SUV.
Regardless of preliminary efforts to ascertain a number of particular person manufacturers regionally, because it has in China, GWM has introduced every of its manufacturers again beneath the GWM umbrella right here, permitting Australians to stroll right into a GWM dealership and select from a variety of GWM utes, Haval SUVs, Tank off-roaders, and even Ora electrical car.
GWM has a number of new fashions and types on their ‘Wey’ to Australia, together with Wey, a extra luxury-focused model scheduled for native launch in mid-2026.
MORE: Discover the GWM showroom
Mitsubishi: Colt Galant, Eclipse Cross
Mitsubishi has an fascinating relationship with Australia, the place its first mannequin pre-dated the founding of the totally fledged Mitsubishi Motors Australia in 1980.
The primary Mitsubishi mannequin launched in Australia was the Colt Galant, which first appeared right here in 1970. It was round this time that Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Company joined forces with America’s Chrysler, which acquired a stake in Mitsubishi in 1971.
As Chrysler Australia had operated a car meeting plant within the Adelaide suburb of Tonsley Park since 1964, the Mitsubishi deal allowed it to construct and promote a number of Mitsubishi-designed automobiles as Chryslers in Australia.
That meant we acquired automobiles just like the Chrysler Valiant Galant and the Chrysler Sigma till 1980, when the tide turned and Mitsubishi acquired virtually all of Chrysler Australia. Mitsubishi Motors Australia was thus born in October of that 12 months.
Native manufacturing of automobiles just like the Sigma, Colt, Magna, and 380 continued till 2008, when Mitsubishi shuttered Australian manufacturing for good, though Mitsubishi Motors Australia remains to be headquartered in Adelaide.
Since native manufacturing ended, all-new Mitsubishi mannequin releases have been few and much between. The vast majority of the model’s present nameplates have been in existence for a minimum of a decade, whereas others such because the Lancer have been discontinued as Mitsubishi shifted its focus to SUVs and utes.
Its latest nameplate in Australia is subsequently the Eclipse Cross, which was launched regionally in 2017 and follows the development of uninspiring crossover SUVs borrowing their identify from sportier and extra well-known fashions, as most automotive fans know the Eclipse because the sports activities coupe that starred in Quick and Livid.
The small SUV gained plug-in hybrid energy in 2021, forming Mitsubishi’s PHEV duo alongside the Outlander PHEV, which dates again to 2014.
A change in Australian auto security rules spelled the tip for the Eclipse Cross in Australia earlier this 12 months. Not like the equally affected ASX, which has discovered new life due to the Renault Captur, there’s to date been no data on an area alternative for the Eclipse Cross.
MORE: Discover the Mitsubishi showroom
Tesla: Roadster, Mannequin Y
It took Tesla three years to formally carry its first mannequin to Australia, with the Roadster electrical convertible formally arriving in 2011, after its US launch in 2008.
The bottom-breaking Roadster was seen on native soil earlier than that, although. In a well-publicised transfer, Adelaide-based businessman Simon Hackett took supply of the primary right-hand drive Tesla Roadster in Australia in 2008.
Mr Hackett had truly waited for his Roadster since inserting an order in 2006, and then-Tesla Australia normal supervisor Rudi Tuisk additionally used one of many fashions to advertise EV expertise to numerous governments and companies round Australia.
A notable stunt was driving a Roadster from Sydney to Bathurst on a single cost, adopted by a lap of the enduring Mount Panorama circuit.
The Tesla Mannequin S giant sedan and Mannequin X giant SUV got here and glided by 2020, once they departed from Australian showrooms as a result of finish of right-hand drive manufacturing. However by then the brand new Mannequin 3 mid-size sedan had arrived to a lot fanfare regionally in 2019.
It was joined in 2022 by its SUV sister mannequin, the Mannequin Y, which remains to be the most recent Tesla nameplate launched in Australia. It has proved tremendous common too, changing into Australia’s and the world’s favouite EV since then.
There have been whispers of the controversial Cybertruck electrical pickup making its approach Down Below since its US debut in late 2023, however Australian security rules have to date stored it off native roads aside from a handful of public demonstration runs.
The Mannequin Y acquired a facelift earlier in 2025, however except for the six-seat L model now supplied in China, and the price range Normal variant being revealed within the US lately (in lieu of an all-new smaller and cheaper EV), there have been no new Tesla nameplates for fairly a while.
MORE: Discover the Tesla showroom
MG: MG 6, U9
To make clear, the fashions listed above fall beneath the Chinese language-owned MG Motor umbrella, which has operated regionally beneath the MG Motor Australia identify since 2016.
In fact, the British MG model has a storied historical past that dates again to the1920s, lengthy earlier than its acquisition by SAIC Motor in 2007, however that is far faraway from the model that operates immediately, and concrete data on the primary British-built MG automobiles offered in Australia is scarce.
What is understood is that the British Motor Company, which owned MG on the time, opened its first Australian manufacturing unit in Zetland, Sydney, in 1952. It first constructed the MGA and, regardless of forming a big native manufacturing presence, mechanical elements and physique panels have been imported from the UK.
Succeeding the MGA, roughly 9000 examples of the MGB sports activities automotive have been in-built Australia from 1963 to 1972 – solely the Roadsters, not the extra highly effective GTs. After 1972, most MGs that discovered their technique to Australia have been privately imported, a minimum of till 1997, when the convertible MG F was introduced right here.
The final British MGs offered regionally disappeared after 2005, and after a seven-year hiatus MG returned to Australia beneath Chinese language possession, with the introduction of the MG 6 in 2012.
Obtainable in each sedan and hatch physique kinds and with a guide transmission, the MG 6 was derived from the Roewe 550, which is what Rover turned after SAIC’s acquisition. Funnily sufficient, which means the MG 6 was distantly associated to the Rover 75, manufacturing of which led to 2005.
The MG 6 didn’t final lengthy in Australia, the place it was pulled from sale after 2014, regardless of persevering with to be offered in abroad markets together with New Zealand. The MG model has come a good distance since then and, following the beginning of official manufacturing unit distribution right here virtually a decade in the past, it now threatens to turn out to be a top-10 model alongside a number of different Chinese language marques in Australia.
Tapping into Australia’s love of utes, MG’s latest mannequin right here is the U9 dual-cab, launched in 2025. It’s the model’s first ute and it brings fascinating options like unbiased rear suspension and a folding ‘mid-gate’ between the cab and tub, though it’s in any other case a rebadged model of the Terron 9 ute from fellow SAIC model model LDV.
The U9 will quickly be joined by new MG fashions together with the S6 EV in 2026. In the meantime, the MG 7 giant sedan, which was scheduled to launch regionally in October 2025, has mysteriously fallen off the radar however remains to be anticipated to achieve Australian showrooms finally.
MORE: Discover the MG showroom
