The Australian new car market has shown signs of recovery as manufacturers reported a total of 85,340 vehicles sold in February. The month had 24 selling days resulting in 56.8 vehicle sales per day.
According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industry (FCAI), this represents a 1.6 percent increase from February 2021. This also ended the negative growth that the industry has experienced in the last four months.
Four States experienced an uptick in new car sales. Queensland sold 18,962 vehicles (up 3.8 percent), South Australia sold 5,810 vehicles (up 8.9 percent), Tasmania sold 1,561 vehicles (up 16.6), while Victoria sold 22,177 vehicles (up 5.5 percent).
On the other hand, sales were down in the Australian Capital Territory with 1,356 units sold (down 2.6 percent). The same goes for New South Wales with 26,360 vehicles sold (down 3.5 percent), Northern Territory with 705 vehicles sold (down 5.6 percent), and Western Australia with 8,409 units sold (down 1.7 percent).
The passenger vehicle segment continues to drop with only 3,509 vehicle sales (down 18.3 percent from the same period last year. Meanwhile, other segments have enjoyed a positive month with the sports utility market selling 2,284 vehicles (up 5.4 percent), the light commercial market selling 23,83 vehicles (up 12.3 percent), and the heavy commercial vehicle market selling 205 units (up 7.3 percent).
Toyota continues to dominate the market with a share of 22.5 percent and sales volume of 36,219 unit. Trailing behind in second to 5th place are Mazda (11.5 percent market share), Mitsubishi (8.9 percent market share), Kia (7.1 percent market share), and Hyundai (6.7 percent market share).
Meanwhile, the top five best-selling car models for the month are the Toyota HiLux (4803 units sold), Toyota RAV4 (4454 units sold), Mitsubishi Triton (3811 units sold), Ford Ranger (3455 units sold), and the Toyota Prado (2778 units sold).
FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said that despite the supply chains still not fully stabilizing from the impacts of the pandemic, this is good news.
“Global supply chains for microprocessor units are still some distance from full recovery, so we are pleased to see this small increase on 2021 figures.”
“The consumer demand for new cars in Australia remains strong, and manufacturers are continuing to work hard to get cars into the hands of motorists,” Mr Weber added.
