VFACTS: MG hits Top 10 sales jackpot again

MG has proved its February sales result was no fluke, by securing a second consecutive month as a Top 10 brand.

The British-turned-Chinese brand sold 3303 vehicles in March, according to official Australian industry figures released today. It was sufficient to place it 10th in the best-selling automotive brands list for the month, pipping Mercedes-Benz by 28 units and trailing ninth-placed Volkswagen by just 50 units.

The rapid rise of MG is remarkable, considering it sold only 600 vehicles in 2017 and still offers only three models. Its 2021 total up to the end of March is already more than its entire sales in 2018 – 3007 units.

After the first three months of 2021, MG has sold 8728 vehicles – more than half of its 2020 sales total, thanks to 163 per cent year-to-date growth.

MG’s MG3 city car, ZS compact SUV and HS mid-sized SUV are all contributing, with the showroom boosted by new variants in the form of the HS PHEV (plug-in hybrid) and the ZS EV that is currently the country’s most affordable electric vehicle.

With 1510 sales in March – up a massive 328 per cent on March 2020 – the ZS wasn’t far off becoming the first Chinese-made car to make it into a Top 10 Most Popular Models list.

The ZS is also up more than 300 per cent year to date.

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The older MG3 accounted for 1238 sales in March, up 96 per cent month on month and 95 per cent year to date.

MG registered 555 HS models last month – a 127 per cent increase compared with this time last year. The SUV is up 124 per cent year to date.

When taking year-to-date figures into account, however, MG isn’t yet installed in the Top 10 Brands list. A first-quarter total of 8728 sales puts it just outside, with Mercedes-Benz occupying 10th place with 9073.

(That Mercedes figure includes van/ute sales, which we count for a true comparison with other brands but are separated in official VFACTS figures.)

MG wasn’t the only Chinese brand to enjoy a successful March.

LDV, another former British brand, was up 188 per cent to 1468 units, with consistent growth throughout its product line-up.

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And GWM/Haval was up 173 per cent for 1021 units, with big contributions from the Haval H2 (up 218 per cent month on month) and the new, sharply priced GWM Ute (418 sales).

Cars imported from China have increased 165 per cent year to date – up from 5776 vehicles in March 2020 to 15,275 vehicles in March 2021.

China is now the fourth-highest source of cars for Australia, ahead of Germany (10,436 YTD) and only behind Japan (94,434), Thailand (56,132) and Korea (36,997).

MORE: New car sales results for March 2021
MORE: All VFACTS stories

MARCH 2021: TOP 10 MODELS

1. TOYOTA HILUX - 5319 - up 49.6% YTD
2. FORD RANGER - 3983 - up 28.2% YTD
3. TOYOTA RAV4 - 3522 - up 17.8% YTD
4. MAZDA CX-5 - 3022 - up 74.3% YTD
5. TOYOTA COROLLA - 2892 - up 2.8% YTD
6. HYUNDAI I30 - 2514 - up 35.5% YTD
7. MITSUBISHI TRITON - 2492 - up 37.5% YTD
8. TOYOTA LANDCRUISER - 2244 - up 78.0% YTD
9. ISUZU D-MAX - 1994 - up 35.9% YTD
10. NISSAN X-TRAIL - 1932 - up 46.0% YTD

TOP 10 BRANDS

1. TOYOTA - 21,319 - up 21.2% YTD
2. MAZDA - 10,785 - up 58.2% YTD
3. HYUNDAI - 6852 - up 29.1% YTD
4. MITSUBISHI - 6430 - up 7.1% YTD
5. FORD - 5977 - up 23.1% YTD
6. KIA - 5802 - up 2.6% YTD
7. NISSAN - 4559 - up 30.2% YTD
8. SUBARU - 4212 - up 39.3% YTD
9. VOLKSWAGEN - 3358 - up 17.0% YTD
10. MG - 3303 - up 167.7% YTD