Our 2023 crystal ball: From the new Chinese heavyweights to a perennial favourite - and a surprising comeback story - these are the three new-car brands that will TAKE OFF this year

While 2022 was a year of great unknowns — what with Covid, semi-conductors, stock shortages, factory shutdowns and shipping woes all combining to wreak havoc on deliveries — we have our fingers firmly crossed that 2023 will bring some sort of stability back to Australia’s new-car marketplace.

But that doesn’t mean every car brand in Australia (and there are a lot) will be a winner next year. Like diamonds, some will shine brighter than others. And so we here at CarsGuide have gazed into our crystal ball to figure out which brands are destined for the tippy top of our sales charts.

So read on, because if you’re in the market for a new car next year, there’s a good chance it will be from one of these manufacturers.

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Chinese brands (GWM, MG, LDV and BYD)

The importance of Chinese car brands in Australia has been steadily growing for years now, but in 2022 their popularity exploded.

Leading that charge was MG, but full credit to brands like GWM, LDV, and all-electric newcomer BYD, who are all proving to be sharply priced, and quick to respond to customer feedback.

An example? With most manufacturers, a vehicle is launched, then updated about four years later, and then replaced entirely at around the eight-years mark. But the Chinese brands are proving far more nimble, often taking on customer feedback and making important changes part-way through a vehicle’s life.

Take the new GWM Haval Jolion S, for example. One of the annoying things about the Jolion more generally was the fact that you had to dig through the multimedia screen options to control things like the air-con. GWM heard about, and they fixed it. Simple.

LDV is rolling out Australia’s first all-electric ute in the eT60. (Image: Tom White)

“In response to customer feedback, the Jolion S has now adopted hard buttons for AC controls making it easier to adjust cabin temperature while on the move,” the brand said.

Then there’s LDV, rolling out Australia’s first all-electric ute in the eT60. Or BYD delivering cost-effective electric motoring to the masses with the Atto 3. Or MG, which simply can’t seem to put a foot wrong at the moment.

Little wonder, then, that China is now the fourth-largest source of new cars in Australia behind Japan, Thailand, and Korea, and is now responsible for one in 10 vehicle sales in our market.

Expect those numbers to only increase in 2023.

Toyota (LandCruiser, RAV4, Corolla Cross…. and everything else)

Toyota is going to sell a lot of cars in 2023. Ok, so maybe that isn’t the most shocking news – the brand has been a sales giant in Australia for decades. But the numbers are still plenty eyebrow-raising.

Toyota was properly crippled by a number of factors in 2022. For one, they didn’t have an EV to sell here at a time when electric motoring was booming. Then the factories that produce some of its most popular models were regularly shuttered, both by COVID and by parts shortages. Then the brand was forced to actually stop people ordering its models, given it wasn’t entirely sure when it would be able to deliver them.

Despite all that, the brand behemoth absolutely dominated our new-car sales race to a point where it’s actually hard to believe.

Toyota has been a sales giant in Australia for decades and will continue to remain so. (Image: Tom White)

Put it this way, over the first 11 months of 2022, Toyota moved 214,776 vehicles in Australia. Mazda, which is running second, sold 87,218.

That’s a big gap, but it gets better. Add Kia, which is third place with 72,700, and Toyota managed to outsell them both combined. In fact, you have to add Mitsubishi (fourth with 72,064 sales) to overtake Toyota, and even then only by about 17,000 cars.

Those are big numbers in a challenging year. And if Toyota gets its production right next year — and it surely will — the sky seems to be the limit for Australia’s most popular new-car brand.

Nissan (Pathfinder, X-Trail, Qashqai)

Nissan was hurting in 2022, crippled by ageing models and a shortage of stock. The Patrol was a bright spot in the brand’s sales list, but elsewhere there was no shortage of red ink.

In fact, the brand’s circa-24,000 sales in the first 11 months of 2022 was down almost 40 percent on the circa-38,500 sales it managed over the same period in 2021, seeing it slip well outside the country’s top-10 brands.

But the tide is now turning for Nissan, with the rapid-fire launch of four new models that should breath plenty of new life into the marque, with the Nissan Z, X-Trail, Pathfinder and Qashqai all landing on our shores towards the end of 2022.

Around 1700 people are already in queue for the new Qashqai.

Each has been well received, and well reviewed, and should act as a shot in the arm as the brand finally clears out its ageing models with exciting new stock.

So with new metal finally arriving in Australia — and with 1700 people already in the queue for Qashqai, 2500 people in the queue for X-Trail and around 800 orders for Pathfinder — the brand could be at a turning point.

In fact, Nissan says it belongs in Australia’s top 10, and has every intention of getting back there.