VFACTS August 2022: Brighter skies emerge for new car sales

New car sales in Australia hit a five-year high last month, with almost every mainstream brand in the top 10 boasting increases over August.

According to monthly results provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), it was the best August since 2017, with 95,256 units registered compared to 81,199 this time in 2021 which was boosted off the back of a COVID-19 decimated 2020.

It leaves the market up 17.3 per cent, or 14,057 vehicles, compared with August 2021.

Though most big brands posted a rise in sales, Nissan, Skoda and Volkswagen were among the worst affected of the main players, while Kia, Hyundai and Honda managed to swing things in the other direction.

As expected, New South Wales sold the most vehicles with 30,501 units shifted, followed by Victoria with 25,053 and Queensland on 21,379.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) said the positive result was encouraging amidst the global economic recovery from the pandemic. “The August sales are the best August result since 2017. This gives hope that the supply of vehicles to the Australian market is beginning to show signs of improvement," said Chief Executive Tony Weber.

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Utes were the country’s most popular vehicle type again last month when combining 4x4 and 4x2 variants, with the former accounting for 16,808 units of a 19,969 total.

There were 17,099 medium SUVs that left showrooms compared to 14,629 in August 2021.

All SUV categories posted growth last month, with upper large SUVs gaining the most with a rise of 76.7 per cent – with the overall SUV share of the market up 18.5 per cent for the month but down 0.1 per cent YTD. Total SUV sales sat at 48,571 for August and 375,036 for 2022 so far (versus 40,981 last month and 375,443 this time in 2021). For the year so far, medium SUVs and large SUVs were both up at 9.1 and 1.5 per cent.

Light-commercial vehicles increased its share by 16.8 per cent in August but dropped 1.2 per cent YTD, while passenger cars also made gains with a rise of 15.3 per cent of the market last month but lost 9.7 per cent YTD.

Micro cars, medium cars, sports cars and people-movers all grew by 40.6, 100.3, 76.7 and 26.7 per cent respectively.

Conversely, light, small, large and upper-large car sales fell by 1.7, 6.2, 12.9 and 1.6 per cent respectively for the month.

Comparatively, year-to-date micro, sports, light, small and upper-large cars were down year-to-date, while medium, large and people-movers were up.

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In the blossoming electric arena, in August, there were 4235 electric vehicles sold compared to 370 in August 2021 and 14,524 for 2022 so far – increases of more than 999 and 368.2 per cent.

The number of hybrids was also up from 6487 in August last year to 6864 last month, a rise of 5.8 per cent for the month, and up 13.3 per cent for the year-to-date. Plug-in hybrid numbers were up 83.7 per cent with 540 sold in August and 4059 for 2022 (compared to 294 in August last year and 2059 this time in 2021).

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

“We have seen strong sales of battery electric vehicles in August, with Tesla alone selling 3397 vehicles. In the month, EV sales were 4.4 per cent of the total market. This is the highest market share for pure battery-electric vehicles ever recorded in a single month in Australia," added Weber.

"Year-to-date EV sales are two per cent of the total market, hybrids are 7.6 per cent and plug-in hybrid vehicles are 0.6 per cent. Combined electrified vehicles are now just over 10 per cent of total sales in 2022."

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Top 10 models 🥇

The Toyota HiLux ute kept the top spot with 6214 for August and 44,626 YTD, compared to 4497 for its regular rival, the Ford Ranger, which came in second place for the month and year-to-date with 27,225 sales.

Coming in third was Australia’s most popular SUV, the Toyota RAV4, with 2482 units registered last month and also finishing third YTD with 25,292 sales, despite having a rocky start to the year when it dropped from the top 10 in January.

The Mazda CX-5's successes continued with another solid period in August selling 2325 cars coming in fifth place. Looking at the year-to-date results, the CX-5 was also fifth with 18,685 cars sold.

Top 10 spots also continued to be taken up by utes, with Isuzu’s D-Max and Mitsubishi’s Triton occupying ninth and seventh places respectively with 1928 and 2087 sales in August. For the year so far, Isuzu shifted 17,320 units of its D-Max, taking sixth overall, while Mitsi sold 20,886 Tritons to take fourth spot.

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Representing passenger cars in the top 10 were the ever-popular Hyundai i30, with 1975 finding homes last month (15,485 YTD), coming in eighth for August and ninth for the year to this point, and the Toyota Corolla – which, despite falling out of the top 10 multiple times since December last year is back in good for m, achieving 2115 sales in August with making it sixth, but seventh YTD with 17,251.

Meanwhile, its Prado sibling came in 10th spot last month with 1903 units shifted, but did a little better YTD taking eighth position with 15,928 sold.

Rounding out the top models so far for 2022 was the Tesla Model 3 in fourth – with its 2380 examples sold enough to push the MG ZS out of the top 10 altogether with only 1463 due to being hampered by recent supply issues. For the year so far though the ZS squeezed into 10th with 13,072 while the Model 3 YTD result was 7037.

Narrowly missing out on a spot were the Mitsubishi Outlander with 1568 sold, Mazda CX-30 posting 1516, the Toyota Kluger with 1682, and the Hyundai Tucson with 1719 – the latter having recently enjoyed strong results due to improved stock arriving on our shores.

Top 10 cars in Australia: August 2022

Top 10 cars in Australia: YTD 2022

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Top 10 car brands 🥇

August was another decent month for the market’s dominant brand Toyota, with 20,616 sales, up three per cent compared to this time last year – mostly down to COVID-19 related production problems. Year-to-date it has notched up 162,558 units.

Mazda followed in second place with 8824 units sold last month (up 15 per cent) and 66,635 year-to-date, followed by Kia with 6780 cars shifted in August (up 34 per cent) and 52,910 this year so far up 10 per cent.

That put traditional third place Mitsubishi behind in fifth with 6380 vehicles sold in August, but back in third year-to-date with 53,739.

Hyundai came in fourth place last month with 6643 sales (up 32 per cent) versus fifth for the year so far with 51,602 units registered (up six per cent).

Ford took sixth spot last month and year-to-date with 5839 and 38,840 units sold (up 15 per cent and down 20 per cent respectively).

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MG held its seventh position for the year with 30,599 registrations (down 16 per cent), and took eighth in August – despite the ZS disappearing from the top 10 vehicles list – with 3074 sales.

Isuzu Ute had a bad month, falling out of the best-sellers list for August with 2800 vehicles shifted – down 9.6 per cent for the month, but rose to eighth place YTD with 24,337 units sold and down just four per cent.

Subaru popped into ninth for August with 2960 units sold, an identical position YTD with 22,779 vehicles shifted.

Missing from the month's top 10 was Volkswagen on 2868, instead pipped to the post by Mercedes-Benz – which achieved 2886 sales combining cars and vans, with a YTD result of 22,144 and took 10th in both categories.

Ups and downs 🔼 🔽

Outside the top 10, successes came for other household names, with BMW (up 52 per cent), Citroën (up 80 per cent) Porsche (up 43 per cent) and Ram (up 56 per cent), Renault (up 44 per cent), Ssangyong (up 37 per cent) and Suzuki (up 105 per cent) all posting large increases in August.

Meanwhile, not so lucky were; Fiat (down 84 per cent), Jaguar (down 39 per cent), Skoda (down 39 per cent), Volkswagen (down 24 per cent), Lexus (down 20 per cent) and Nissan (down 23 per cent) who were the biggest strugglers among mainstream brands.

Top 10 brands: August 2022

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Top 10 brands: YTD 2022

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In charts 📊

August 2022 – Top 10 models

August – Top 10 brands

August 2022 – Overall segment sales

August 2022-2021 category sales

August 2022-2021 category YTD sales

2022 Sales race

August 2022 Australian sales map

August 2022 buyer type