Australia’s Favorite Automotive Brands Revealed

The land down under is a massive place. You could fit all of Europe, including the United Kingdom, on its landmass and still have land to spare. With a country that large, it’s no surprise that cars are a large part of the average Australian’s daily life. But what makes and models get their attention?

Similarweb metrics tell the story.

Key takeaways

• Toyota.com.au is Australia’s favorite manufacturer. Despite losing a 2.36% share of voice over the past year, its website still attracts more than 22% of the sector’s traffic.
• Toyota’s brand equity is the highest among its competitors, as the branded keyword for “Toyota” generated 1.6 times more search traffic than its closest competitor, Tesla.
• The erosion of Toyota’s traffic has continued into 2023. Over the last three months, website traffic was down 23% from the same period last year.
• In the electric vehicle space, Tesla is in a world of its own, commanding more than 50% of traffic in the electric vehicle segment.

Toyota’s share of voice drops

Despite maintaining its position with the largest digital share of voice (SoV) among OEMs in the Australian market, Toyota is currently experiencing a drop in its traffic share owing to growing competition in the industry.

In 2022, Toyota’s digital SoV fell 2.36% Year-on-Year, but the Japanese manufacturer was leagues ahead of its closest rival – Mazda.

Search trends show Toyota coroll-ing over the competition

When it comes to branded keyword searches, Toyota is far-and-away the most sought-after manufacturer in Australia.

Toyota’s brand equity is clearly the highest among its competitors. The branded keyword “Toyota” generated 1.6 times more search traffic, with 768K visits, than its closest rival, Tesla (491K).

Although Toyota is clearly an Aussie favorite, when it comes to specific models, Hyundai shines with its i30 the only model to reach six-figure search traffic in 2022.

A shift in gears

While the leading players we’ve covered so far are traditional manufacturers that have long dominated the Australian automotive scene (at least since Holden left the country), emerging electric vehicle players are gathering momentum.

In the electric vehicle category, Tesla.com is light years ahead, with more than half of the sector’s traffic.

But the competition is charging up. Polestar and Cupra only recently announced their Australian launches and have seen strong YoY traffic growth of 391.3% and 2299.2% respectively. 

Similarly, Subaru only announced plans for its first electric vehicle – Solterra – in May last year and has seen its EV traffic boom by almost 10,000%.

While EVs are only relatively new entrants to the Australian vehicle market, it’s clear there is growing consumer interest. Range anxiety in such an immense country has traditionally been the largest hurdle EVs have had to overcome, but as these challenges are answered, the challengers will start to accelerate.

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Methodology

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by Similarweb