If gambling is your thing, it’s pretty hard to go past the Australian new vehicle sales as we’re betting the record will be broken this year. This year to date, in Australia 784,380 new vehicles have been sold which is an increase of 3.0% from last year (761,440).
It’s this consistent increase in new vehicle sales which keeps the industry going, not only for the dealerships selling these vehicles, but for those in any sector of the automotive industry such as servicing and parts.
So what’s the news?
The VFACTS figures reveal there’s no real surprise this month with New South Wales leading the charge selling 31,788 new vehicles up 4% in sales from this time last year. Victoria sold 27,096 (up 10%), Queensland 18,062 (down 1%), Western Australia 8,144 (down 3%), South Australia 5,785 (up 14%), Tasmania 1,743 (up 2%), ACT 1,410 (down 3%) and Northern Territory 881 (up 14.9%).
Without surprise, “Demand for SUV’s and Light Commercials continues to drive the market, with both these segments increasing sales by over 10 per cent compared with August 2015”, the Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Tony Weber said.
Sales of passenger motor vehicles declined by 4.2 per cent in August 2016 compared with the August 2015 sales, with year-to-date results now down by 5.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2015.
“While passenger motor vehicles continue to lead the market in terms of overall volume with 41.3 per cent of total 2016 sales, the quite discernible trend towards SUVs and light commercials continues. SUVs now account for 37.3 per cent of the total sales year to date 2016, while in 2015 this figure was 34.8 per cent. Similarly, with light commercials, the current market share year to date is 18.7 per cent compared with 17.4 per cent in 2015,” Mr Weber said.
Top Brands
Despite all efforts by competitors, Toyota is continuing their domination by a long stretch, selling 18,560 units. This figure is twice as much as the next on the ladder being Mazda, selling 9,258 vehicles and rounding out the top three was Holden with 7,667 new vehicle sales. In fourth was Ford with 6,849 new vehicles and Hyundai closed the top 5 manufacturers selling 6,535 new vehicles.
Top Models
Assisting in the dominance of Toyota’s brand is the fact they hold the first and second place on the top model ladder. The Corolla and Hilux had figures of 3,554 and 3,331 whilst the Ford Ranger took the last place on the podium with 2,964. Other models which had a good August were the Mazda 3 (2818), Toyota Camry (2,458), Holden Commodore (1952), Mazda CX-5 (1,902), Hyundai i30 (1,864), Mitsubishi ASX (1,781) and Toyota RAV4 (1,766).
Overall, the Passenger Vehicle Market is down 1,728 vehicle sales (4.2%) over the same month last year; the Sports Utility Market is up by 3,496 vehicle sales (10.6%); the Light Commercial market is up by 2,330 vehicle sales (16.2%); and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle Market is up by 106 vehicle sales (3.9%) versus August 2015.
