Nissan Australia falls from top 10 brands in July

The occasional shift in manufacturer sales rankings is to be expected, but for a mainstay top 10 brand to disappear from the chart altogether is a rarity – and that’s exactly what’s happened to Nissan during its sales slump last month.

With only 2691 sales to its name in July 2021, according to the VFACTS industry data, Nissan’s fallen out of the top 10 altogether after a slip to 9th place in June, being overtaken by Volkswagen and MG.

Overall this year, Nissan’s in a somewhat better position, placed 7th year-to-date ahead of VW in 8th, MG in 9th, and Subaru coming 10th.

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2021 Nissan Juke

Historically, Nissan has held a comfortable position around the middle of the top 10 pack, hovering around 5th or 6th place for most of the century so far. So, what happened in July?

While the Covid-19 pandemic has hit most major manufacturers hard, and a current global semi-conductor shortage has been indiscriminate with which brands and specific models are affected, Nissan appears to have experienced more significant supply issues than its competitors last month.

"The semi-conductor shortage is continuing to impact the global auto industry and Nissan is not immune to that," a spokesperson told Wheels. However the company says it has higher hopes for the months ahead.

"The encouraging news is that on the back of great support from our Nissan customers, we have a strong order bank [and] stronger production volumes for the coming months which will result in additional stock arriving at our Australian dealerships and then being delivered to these committed customers."

Lockdowns across the three major Eastern states would have affected each brand almost identically, but thanks to the parts shortage, Nissan lost almost a quarter of its market share, dropping to just 3.2 per cent compared with the 4.0 per cent it held in June last year, or the 4.1 per cent it holds overall this year so far.

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2021 Nissan Qashqai

Sales of most vehicles in its line-up aren’t particularly bad compared to previous Julys either – with the brand’s most popular model, the Navara, selling 1209 units. This is the most July sales the Navara has had since 2016 which is likely to be attributable to a new generation Navara being released this year. The Juke and Patrol were also similarly popular compared to recent years.

Only the X-Trail is looking a little behind, with 430 July sales compared with the approximate 1500 sales a month seen pre-pandemic at this time of year. However, the next generation X-Trail is expected to land next year.