VFACTS April 2022: New car sales slump as supply chains break

New car sales in Australia suffered a fall last month, with almost every mainstream brand in the top 10 struggling.

According to monthly results provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), it was a worse April than last year, with 81,065 units registered compared to 92,347 this time in 2021 – which was boosted off the back of a COVID-19 decimated 2020.

It leaves the market down 12 per cent, or 11,282 vehicles, compared with April 2021, and also down 3.5 per cent year-to-date.

Though most brands suffered losses – with Nissan, Ford and Mazda the worst affected of the main players – though Kia, Isuzu and MG managed to swing things in the other direction.

As expected, New South Wales sold the most vehicles with 25,432 units shifted, followed by Victoria with 21,339 and Queensland on 17,424.

11

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) said supply was far outstripped by demand, with ongoing production and delivery issues not providing a true indictator of the industry's strengths.

“We know this is not a reflection on the demand for new vehicles in the marketplace," said FCAI chief executive Tony Weber.

"This is a reflection on the global automotive industry’s ability to supply vehicles to not only the Australian market, but all markets throughout the world.

“Automotive manufacturers continue to suffer from a shortage of microprocessor units, which is impacting their ability to ramp up production to pre-pandemic levels.

"COVID-19 continues to impact manufacturing and supply, particularly where factories have been forced to close and shipping operations are yet to fully recover. This is being reflected in the extended delivery times for new vehicles.”

11

Toyota continued to hold top spot among all the carmakers, followed by Mazda and Mitsubishi rounding out the top three, while sister companies Kia and Hyundai kept their positions in fourth and fifth respectively.

With electric brand Tesla now posting monthly results, the true picture of its sales pattern was clearer and it fell from its one-month top 10 placement with just 52 Model 3s flogged Down Under during the period – which meant it was outsold by new rival the Polestar 2, of which 93 were shifted.

Outside the top 10, Subaru (down 52 per cent), Honda (down 37 per cent), Skoda (down 36 per cent), Alfa Romeo (down 38 per cent), Volkswagen (down 45 per cent), Lexus (down 39 per cent), Peugeot (down 44 per cent) and Jeep (down 42 per cent) were the biggest strugglers among mainstream brands.

Successes came for other household names though, with Fiat (up 50 per cent), Citroën (up 667 per cent), Porsche (up 36 per cent), Ram (up 86 per cent), Renault (up 103 per cent), Chevrolet (up 63 per cent) and Suzuki (up 37 per cent) all posting large increases in April.

11

Utes were the country’s most popular vehicle type again last month when combining 4x4 and 4x2 variants, with the former accounting for 15,047 units of a 18,662 total.

There were 16,274 medium SUVs that left showrooms compared to 16,686 in April 2021.

All SUV categories posted losses last month, with upper large SUVs worst affected with a 56 per cent drop – though the overall SUV share of the market barely changed, down by just one per cent for the month and down 0.2 per cent YTD.

Total SUV sales sat at 42,370 for April and 177,795 for 2022 so far (versus 49,176 in 2021 and 185,076 by this point the year before). For the year so far, medium SUVs and large SUVs however grew by two and four per cent.

Light-commercial vehicles increased its share by 0.7 per cent in April and 1.4 per cent YTD, again at the expense of passenger cars that were down 0.5 per cent of the market last month and 1.6 per cent YTD.

11

Micro cars, small cars, medium cars, sports cars and people movers all suffered falls of 13 per cent, 21 per cent, 15 per cent, 44 per cent and 37 per cent respectively.

Light, large and upper large car sales, however, grew seven per cent, 19 per cent and two per cent for the month.

Comparatively, year-to-date all these categories experienced losses – with the exception of medium cars, which were up 45 per cent.

In April, there were 866 electric vehicles sold compared to 286 in April 2021 and 7618 for 2022 so far – increases of 203 and 507 per cent.

Although the number of hybrids dropped from 7585 in April 2021 to 6277 last month, a decrease of 17 per cent for the month, things were still looking positive with a 13 per cent hike for the year-to-date.

Plug-in hybrid numbers were up 153 per cent with 628 sold in April and 1675 for 2022 (compared to 248 in April last year and 877 by this time in 2021).

Unstable petrol prices are partly responsible for the electric boom, though state-based incentives, such as those in NSW, VIC and recently announced in QLD, have also played a part.

Top 10 models

The Toyota HiLux ute kept the top spot with 4493 for April and 18,671 YTD, compared to 3581 for its regular rival, the Ford Ranger, which came in second place for the month – but came in third year-to-date with 13,241 sales.

Coming in third was Australia’s most popular SUV, the Toyota RAV4, with 3373 units registered – though for the year so far it bested the Ranger, swapping into second YTD with 13,862 sales, despite having a rocky start to the year when it left the top 10 entirely in January.

11

After a bad month in February for the Mazda CX-5, its successes continued off the back of March with another solid period in April, selling 2701 cars thanks to the recent launch of the new model coming in fourth place – though that figure is down on March’s 3772 units. Looking at the year-to-date results, the CX-5 was fifth with 10,951 cars sold, an equal result to this time last year.

Top 10 spots also continued to be taken up by more utes, with Isuzu’s D-Max and Mitsubishi’s Triton occupying fifth and sixth places respectively with 2374 and 2357 sales in April. For the year so far, Isuzu shifted 8646 units of its D-Max, taking seventh overall, while Mitsi sold 12,852 Tritons to take fourth spot.

11

Representing passenger cars in the top 10 were the ever-popular Hyundai i30, with 2071 finding homes last month (7924 YTD), coming in eighth for April and for the year to this point, and the Toyota Corolla – which, despite falling out of the top 10 multiple times since December last year – achieved 2202 sales in April making it seventh, but ninth YTD with 7239.

Meanwhile, its Prado sibling came in 10th spot last month with 1031 units shifted, but did much better YTD taking sixth position with 9205 sold.

Rounding out the top models so far for 2022 was the MG ZS, remaining a popular choice with Australian buyers, with 7220 examples leaving showrooms. For the month the ZS took ninth, selling 1923 cars.

Narrowly missing out on a spot were the Kia Sportage with 1327 sold, besting its Cerato sibling, which no longer enjoys a top 10 spot regularly, the Toyota Kluger with 1381, and the MG 3 with 1615 – the second time the latter has done well in 2022 with it posting a strong start and making the best-sellers list earlier this year.

Top 10 models: April 2022

Top 10 models: YTD 2022

11

Top 10 brands

April was another difficult month for the market’s dominant brand Toyota, despite a rebound in March, notching up 17,956 sales, down 11 per cent compared to this time last year when it had 22,208 – mostly down to COVID-19 related production problems. Year-to-date it has sold 76,003 units.

Mazda followed in second place with 7378 units achieved last month (down 27 per cent) and 37,213 year-to-date, followed by Mitsubishi, with 6463 cars shifted in April (down 14 per cent) and 29,816 this year so far.

Hyundai and Kia continued to battle it out for the higher spot of fourth place, with the latter winning this time around with 6180 sales in April (up eight per cent) versus Hyundai’s 5552 (down four per cent), with a similar picture for the year overall with Kia selling 23,682 compared to Hyundai’s 22,845.

11

Though Tesla snuck into the top 10 with 4417 sales in March, placing sixth because its quarter one results were grouped together due to it reporting them to the FCAI for the first time ever, in April it posted just 52 cars sold – leaving it well outside of contention for best-selling brand.

With Tesla falling back down the ranks, Ford took sixth spot last month with 4974 units (down 30 per cent), and also came sixth year-to-date with 18,357 vehicles sold.

MG held its seventh position for the year with 4773 registrations (up 59 per cent), despite just the ZS appearing in the top 10 vehicles list, and achieved 16,040 sales YTD.

11

Isuzu Ute also had a good month – not only did it remain in the best-sellers list for April with 3032 vehicles shifted and up six per cent for the month, but it rose to eighth place from ninth in March when it sold 2962 units. Year-to-date it held eighth place, with 11,838 sold compared to 8806 the month prior.

Subaru didn’t make the cut for April, with 1644 units sold, its place taken by Mercedes-Benz with 2682. Year-to-date however, Subie retained its top 10 spot with 9796 sales and Merc was ousted – its 9481 vehicles not quite enough to get it over the line.

Nissan finished up in 10th place for April and ninth position for 2022 so far, with 2050 sales (down 41 per cent) last month and 10,372 for the year.

Top 10 brands: April 2022

11

Top 10 brands: YTD 2022

In charts

April 2022 – Top 10 models

April – Top 10 brands

April 2022 – Overall segment sales

April 2022-2021 category sales

April 2022-2021 category YTD sales

2022 Sales race

April 2022 Australian sales map