The traditionally strong result for new vehicle sales in June to mark the end of the financial year continued this year with 110,664 sales being recorded.
The 2021 result is an increase of 430 vehicles – or 0.4 per cent – on the 2020 result. Significantly, the new vehicle sales result for the first six months of 2021 is 567,468 compared with 442,415 for the corresponding period of 2020, an increase of 125,053 or 28.3 per cent.
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries Chief Executive Tony Weber said the June result was consistent with buying patterns usually recorded at this time of year.
“Expectations for a strong result in June had remained high given the traditional end of financial year demand from business and private buyers driven by Government incentives such as the extension of the depreciation allowance announced in the Federal budget coupled with intensive marketing activity from vehicle brands,” he said.
“In spite of some States being forced into COVID-19 lockdowns towards the end of June, the acquisition of a new vehicle remains a popular option for buyers across all market segments.”
Mr Weber noted that Government purchases were up 10.4 per cent compared with the same month last year while sales across all vehicle types for the Rental market were up 192 per cent for the same period.
“The delivery challenges caused by microprocessor shortages and bottlenecks in the supply chain are yet to be fully resolved, however, all parties are continuing to find ways to meet the strong demand for customers across all sectors.
“It is our expectation that these issues will begin to be resolved as the global economy continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19,” Mr Weber said.
“Right now, we would expect customer demand across all segments to remain strong for the second half of 2021 which has the market on track to return to a result in excess of one million vehicles.”
Toyota was the market leader in June recording sales of 21,076. It was followed by Mazda (12,225), Ford (8,456), Kia (7,890), and Hyundai (7,357). The Ford Ranger was the highest selling vehicle (6,058) followed by the Toyota Hi-Lux (5,412), the Isuzu Ute D-Max (3,167), Mazda CX-5 (3,018) and the Kia Cerato (2,711).
