Record November sales have kept the Australian motor industry on target for another best-selling year, according to the latest results released by the industry’s statistical service VFACTS.
Industry sales rolled past the 1 million mark for the year to date as the November total reached 101,365, a gain of 2.5 per cent on the same month last year.
This keeps the industry running at 0.6 per cent ahead of last year’s record pace. New sales records have been posted for seven of the 11 months of 2017.
Comparing last month with the same period last year, small cars showed a 6.4 per cent upswing against a general decline in passenger car sales. The majority of the market momentum was again with the small and medium SUVs, and the 4X4 utilities. The small SUV segment was the star performer, rocketing up 31.1 per cent on the back of some fresh competition arriving in the marketplace.
SUV sales generally were up 8.6 per cent and light commercials up 7.9 per cent compared with November last year. Year to date, the two segments have risen 4.7 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively.
Two light commercial vehicles and five SUVs were among the nation’s top 10 best-selling vehicles in November.
Strong sales were recorded across all states except for the two territories which suffered slight falls.
Business buyers returned in force to the November market. While sales to private buyers fell 3.4 per cent on the November 2016 result, business purchases of SUVs and light commercials rose by 12.9 per cent and 14.6 per cent respectively.
The Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Tony Weber, said that with less than one month remaining, he remained confident that the industry would surpass last year’s record total.
“The momentum built in the market over the past few months appears to be continuing so we’re on target for another record year,” he said.
Toyota remained the runaway market leader with an 18.6 per cent share of the November sales, followed by Mazda (9.2%), Hyundai (8.7%), Holden (7.8%) and Mitsubishi (6.6%).
The Toyota Hilux was Australia’s best-selling vehicle in November with 4,103 sales, followed by the Ford Ranger (3,576), the Toyota Corolla (2,959), Mazda3 (2,464) and the Mazda CX-5 (2,358).
