VFACTS December 2022: 20 years on top for Toyota as the market breaks through the COVID years to find recovery

The new car market has closed 2022 on a high, with almost 10,000 more vehicles shifted than last year – as leader Toyota also celebrates 20 years at the top.

According to monthly results provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), it was a better December than last year, with 87,920 units registered compared to 78,402 this time in 2021 – albeit down on 2020 in which 95,652 cars were sold.

It puts the market up 12 per cent for the month and three per cent up for the overall year, which finished with 1,081,429 vehicles sold – the best performance for a single 12 month period since 2018.

Though most leading brands posted positive results, Hyundai suffered the biggest mainstream loss at 23 per cent down, while Chinese brand GWM entered the top 10 – appearing in seventh place with a 117 per cent boost for the month.

New South Wales sold the most vehicles with 25,798 units shifted, followed by Victoria with 24,005 and Queensland on 20,204.

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FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said the pathway through COVID-19 recovery, microprocessor shortages and bottlenecks due to global shipping issues had created great challenges for carmakers and their dealer networks in 2022.

“While 2022 has been a year of resilience and recovery, 2023 is shaping up as one of the most significant in recent history, particularly in terms of the development of policies that set the direction for the future decarbonisation of the light vehicle fleet.

“As the peak representative body for vehicle distributors, FCAI has advocated for a fuel-efficiency standard for many years. We are optimistic that the Federal Government will take action in 2023 and introduce a standard that achieves the policy outcomes that lead to emission reductions while enabling Australians to drive the vehicles that they need and want.

“The FCAI and its members will do all it can to promote the development of sound policy, based on solid data and in the context of the unique nature of the Australian market.”

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Toyota took top place for the 20th year in a row and achieved its strongest number of deliveries in 14 years, with Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations, Sean Hanley, saying:

“We are extremely grateful – and humbled – to report that our order bank remains very strong due to the trust placed in our brand and our vehicle line-up by so many Australian companies and individuals.

“While it remains difficult to make predictions in this evolving supply situation, we can assure you that we will be working harder than ever to deliver more than 200,000 vehicles to our customers yet again in 2023.

“We recognise that Toyota is extremely fortunate that well-recognised nameplates like HiLux, Corolla and LandCruiser – all of which have more than half a century of heritage and success in Australia – continue to deliver on the unique motoring needs and requirements of diverse buyers across the country.

“We are also energised by the knowledge that electrification through our hybrid technology continues to lead the industry in supporting our customers with practical and affordable ways of substantially reducing their emissions today, and every day.”

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Top 10 models 🥇

The Toyota HiLux was the unsurprising winner for 2022, with 64,391 sales achieved, up 22 per cent – though didn’t enjoy as healthy a December as its arch-nemesis the Ford Ranger. The latter pipped it to first place for the month with 4663 sales versus the HiLux’s 4271, working out to an equal 12 per cent rise each. The Ranger dropped six per cent for December also.

However, December was another strange month in that only those said two utes appeared in the top 10 – with Isuzu’s D-Max and Mitsubishi’s Triton both nowhere to be found. Both appeared for the year overall however, taking seventh and fourth respectively with 24,336 (down three per cent) and 27,436 sales (up 43 per cent) respectively.

Last month was a better one than was often seen in 2022 for sedans, with both the Corolla (also a hatch, we don’t have the exact split at this time) and Tesla Model 3 earning spots on 1843 (up 45 per cent) and 1806 sales each, putting them in seventh and eighth place.

For the whole of 2022, 25,284 Corollas were shifted to put it into sixth (down 12 per cent), but the Model 3 missed out with just 10,877 cars sold. Since Tesla only began reporting figures to the FCAI last year we don’t yet have a comparison to make for its percentage increase/decrease.

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The Chinese-made MG ZS also did well in December, jumping right up the ladder to third place with 3056 sales (up 54 per cent), but appearing in a more usual eighth for the year with 22,466 (up 22 per cent).

Australia’s favourite SUV, the Toyota RAV4, continued to do well both in December and for the whole of 2022 – earning fourth and third places respectively with 2193 (down 27 per cent) and 34,845 units (down three per cent) sold.

In December, Mazda’s CX-3 stormed into the top 10 to nab an unlikely fifth spot, giving the Japanese marque not one but two models on the leaderboard – with its evergreen CX-5 medium SUV taking 10th for the month and fifth for the year. Last month 2068 CX-3 small SUVs were sold (up 192 per cent) and 1637 CX-5s (down 24 per cent), while the CX-3 fell back out of the rankings for the year, the CX-5 remained with 27,062 examples sold (up eight per cent).

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The new-generation Outlander also remained a popular choice for buyers since its launch earlier in the year, taking sixth for December on 2052 sales (up 53 per cent), but missed out for the year as a whole with its 19,546 units not enough to get it over the line.

Finishing out the top 10 was the Hyundai Tucson, which beat its Kia Sportage cousin to gain a place, selling 1643 examples in December (up 57 per cent). Like the Outlander however, it was missing from the top 10 for the year, replaced instead by the Hyundai i30 sedan/hatch on 21,166 sales in ninth and the Toyota Prado large SUV in 10th on 21,102 (down 17 and one per cent respectively).

Top 10 cars in Australia: December 2022

Top 10 cars in Australia: Whole of 2022

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Top 10 car brands 🥇

December was a good month for the market’s leader Toyota, with 16,274 sales putting it roughly on par with December 2021, though down on November 2022’s result – up just 0.2 per cent for the month but up 33 per cent for the year in total. Year-to-date it has notched up 231,050 units.

Mazda again slid into its traditional second place after a few months falling down the charts with 8500 units sold last month (up 20 per cent) but down year-to-date with 95,718 cars shifted and a five per cent loss.

In another turn of events, Ford for another month found third place thanks to 6165 of its vehicles finding homes, with rivals Kia, Mitsubishi and Hyundai further down the rankings than we’ve seen in recent months.

Kia took fourth for December with 5630 sales and was up 15 per cent, while MG sneaked into fifth from its usual seventh spot with 5194 units shifted, up 59 per cent. Mitsubishi dropped to sixth with 4927 sales, down 13 per cent, and Hyundai suffered another bad month – most likely due to supply issues as that’s been the main factor in seeing rises and falls month-to-month during 2022 between manufacturers – selling 4434 cars and down 23 per cent.

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Bringing up the rear were Subaru, surprise entrant GWM, and Volkswagen, with 4071, 3295, and 3059 sales each representing percentage changes of 45 per cent up, 117 per cent up and 25 per cent up respectively.

For 2022 so far the picture looks a little different and a tad more familiar to what we’re used to seeing. Toyota and Mazda were at the top of the rankings as mentioned above, while the middle of the pack shifted around to end up with Kia in third on 78,330 cars registered, up 15 per cent, Mitsubishi fourth on 76,991 and up 14 per cent, Hyundai in fifth with 73,345 and up just one per cent, and Ford finishing sixth with 66,628 and down seven per cent.

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At the back, MG comfortably rounded off 2022 in seventh with 49,582 sales and up 27 per cent, with Subaru next in eighth with 36,036 but down three per cent, Isuzu Ute selling 35,323 vehicles and down one per cent, and Mercedes-Benz cars and vans combining to achieve 31,281 sales, down five per cent.

While GWM had a great December, it didn’t quite make the annual top 10 list, with its 25,042 vehicles not quite enough to earn a place despite a very healthy 36 per cent rise throughout 2022.

Top 10 brands: December 2022

Top 10 brands: Whole of 2022

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Ups and downs 🔼 🔽

Toyota continued to hold top spot among all the carmakers, with second place taken by Mazda, and Ford rounding out the top three.

Meanwhile, Nissan was out of the top 10 – thanks to GWM (down six per cent) as were Mercedes-Benz and Tesla who narrowly missed out. Among other household names to have a tough month were; BMW (down 47 per cent), Fiat (down 93), Genesis (down 47), Honda (down 39), Jaguar (down 77), and Peugeot (down 50 per cent).

Successes came for other household names though, with Chevrolet (up 65 per cent), Ram (up 40 per cent), Ssangyong (up 170 per cent) and Volvo (up 81 per cent) all posting increases in the final month of 2022.

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Segments

For another month, despite both the Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux continuing to hold top spots, utes were not the country’s most popular vehicle type in December when combining 4x4 and 4x2 variants, with the former accounting for 15,342 units of a 17,601 total.

Instead top billing went to medium SUVs, with 18,809 leaving showrooms compared to 15,192 in December 2021.

In total utes were up just one per cent for the year, while SUVs overall were up eight per cent.

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All SUV categories posted growth last month – with the largest margin coming from the upper-large section, which enjoyed an increase of 129 per cent. For 2022, again all types grew with the exception of small SUVs, which were down slightly by 0.5 per cent.

Total SUV sales sat at 49,095 for December and 574,632 for 2022 (versus 531,700 this time in 2021).

Light-commercial vehicles however decreased its share by almost two per cent in December and one per cent for the year, again at the expense of passenger cars that were down eight per cent of the market in 2022 – though it’s worth noting that last month a couple of examples did well, including the Hyundai i30 and Mazda 3 hatches/sedans.

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All types of passenger cars were down in December, with the exception of medium and sports cars, which enjoyed increases of 62 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. Micro, light, small, large, upper large and people-mover cars were all down by 52, seven, one, 26, 24 and 11 per cent respectively for the 30 day period.

Comparatively, for the whole of 2022 three of these categories experienced growth – with medium-sized cars, large and people-movers gaining percentage rises of 25, four and seven in that order. Micro, light, small, upper-large and sports, meanwhile, all fell by 33, four, 19, 24 and 12 per cent each.

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In what has been a bumper year in Australia, 5084 electric vehicles were sold compared to just 552 in December 2021 and 33,410 for 2022 as a whole – increases of 821 and 549 per cent for the month and year.

Almost 1300 of those came from new entrant the BYD Atto 3, while Tesla sold 1806 examples of the Model 3 to give it a top 10 spot for December thanks to a number of ships coming in to the country in recent months to bolster supply.

The number of hybrids increased too from 5852 this time last year to 7082 last month, a rise of 21 per cent for the month, and a 16 per cent increase for the year. Plug-in hybrid numbers were also up by 45 per cent with 460 sold in December and 5937 for 2022 (compared to 318 in December last year and 3372 this time in 2021).

Fluctuating petrol prices hit sales of such vehicles last year, with sales down five per cent overall.

In charts 📊

December 2022 – Top 10 models

December – Top 10 brands

December 2022 – Overall segment sales

December 2022-2021 category sales

December 2022-2021 category YTD sales

2022 Sales race

December 2022 Australian sales map

December 2022 buyer type