VFACTS September 2022: Supply boost gives car brands bumper month – with Tesla Model Y nabbing a top 10 spot

New car sales in Australia hit a seven year high last month, with almost every mainstream brand in the top 10 doing well – and Tesla breaking into the best-sellers list to take seventh place.

According to monthly results provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), it was a better September than last year, with 93,555 units registered compared to 83,312 this time in 2021, if slightly down on August’s 95,256 posting.

But it leaves the market down 0.6 per cent, or 5010 vehicles year-to-date.

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Though most leading brands posted positive results, market leader Toyota suffered the biggest loss at 27 per cent down. Kia and Mitsubishi managed to swing things in the other direction, both up more than 40 per cent each.

As expected, New South Wales sold the most vehicles with 28,945 units shifted, followed by Victoria with 25,367 and Queensland at 20,364.

The FCAI said that it as encouraged by the signs that new car sales are showing signs of improving, but chief executive Tony Weber cautioned that logistical and supply chain issues will be with us for some time yet.

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It was the improvement in EV sales that had Weber most excited: “During September 2022, 7247 battery electric vehicles were sold, more than hybrid and plug-in-hybrid combined...while the overall market share of battery electric vehicles remains low (2.7 per cent), there is a clear market trend towards zero-emission technology.

“Car makers are encouraged by the release of [the electric vehicle] discussion paper. Australia’s pathway to decarbonising light transport is complex and requires and holistic policy framework. This paper addresses many of the issues that will need to be resolved."

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Top 10 models 🥇

The Toyota Toyota HiLux ute kept the top spot with 5170 sold for September and 49,796 YTD, compared to 4890 for its regular rival, the Ford Ranger, which came in second place for the month – and came in second year-to-date with 32,115 sales.

Coming in third however was a shock for Toyota, with Australia’s most popular SUV, the Toyota RAV4, knocked well down the charts by the Tesla Model Y taking third with 4359 of the latter sold, though we don’t have data for that yet year-to-date as it has only recently been released locally. The RAV4 achieved just 1856 registrations, putting it in eighth spot and down 44 per cent, but back up YTD in third with 27,148 and up seven per cent.

Also beating the RAV4 in September were Mazda’s CX-5, which had a great month on 2439, up 72 per cent, and still did well YTD in fifth on 21,124 sales, up one per cent.

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Closely behind were the Mitsubishi Triton and Isuzu D-Max utes, which continue to be top 10 players, coming fifth and sixth with 2319 and 1904 shifted respectively. Year-to-date the Triton took fourth with 23,205 sales, and the D-Max held sixth on 19,244.

Sneaking into seventh was the Mitsubishi Outlander SUV, which also has had a good September, selling 1879 units, up 80 per cent, though it fell out of the top 10 for the year.

Rounding out the top models so far for 2022 was the Hyundai i30 representing passenger cars and Kia’s Sportage medium SUV which has also risen in popularity throughout the year. The i30 sold 1733, but was down 15 per cent, while the Sportage shifted 1775 growing a huge 218 per cent.

For the year however, only the i30 earned a top 10 spot, with 17,218 cars finding homes and down 10 per cent – instead it was the MG ZS which took the final place on 14,066 for the year so far, up two per cent.

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Top 10 cars in Australia: September 2022

Top 10 cars in Australia: YTD 2022

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Top 10 car brands 🥇

September was a difficult month for the market’s dominant brand Toyota, with 14,852 sales, down 0.2 per cent compared to this time last year – mostly down to production problems. Year-to-date it has notched up 176,410 units.

Kia followed in second place with 7290 units sold last month (up 41 per cent) and 60,200 year-to-date, followed by Mazda – which narrowly missed second spot as it shifted 7259 cars in September (up 11 per cent) and 73,894 this year so far.

Mitsubishi took fourth place, selling 6784 units in September and 60,523 YTD and posting a 47 per cent growth, followed by Ford – which climbed to fifth spot last month with 6635 units (up 15 per cent), and came sixth year-to-date with 45,575 vehicles sold.

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That nudged Hyundai into an unusual sixth place for the month despite its 6501 sales and 19 per cent bump, but it managed to pick things up for the year so far to take fifth with 58,103 cars finding homes and a seven per cent growth.

MG held its seventh position for the year with 33,860 registrations (up 17 per cent), despite just the ZS appearing in the top 10 vehicles list (YTD). MG was pushed down the monthly rankings by newcomer Tesla into ninth, achieving 3261 sales.

While at this stage we have no percentage increases or decreases to compare to for Tesla, as it only began sharing its sales results with FCAI early this year, we can see it took seventh for September with 5969 cars shifted – showing all those ships coming in are making a real difference. Year-to-date however, Tesla is knocked well out of the top 10 with just 14,023.

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Isuzu Ute unfortunately did not have a good month, not making the top 10 – but YTD continues to hold eighth spot with 27,155 sales, though even that is down 10 per cent.

Subaru made the cut for September, with 3167 units sold, but bested by Volkswagen which nabbed eighth with 3698 sales. Year-to-date, Subie retained its top 10 spot with 25,946 sales and VW was ousted – its 21,643 vehicles finding homes not quite enough to get it over the line. YTD Mercedes entered the best-sellers as it achieved 24,790 sales.

Top 10 brands: September 2022

Top 10 brands: YTD 2022

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Ups and downs 🔼 🔽

Outside the top 10, Fiat (down 83 per cent) and Lexus (down 41 per cent) were the biggest strugglers among mainstream brands.

Successes came for other household names though, with Genesis (up 138 per cent), Ram (up 102 per cent), GWM Haval (up 69 per cent), Ssangyong (up 71 per cent) and Volvo (up 63 per cent) all posting large increases in September.

For the first time in months, utes were not the country’s most popular vehicle type last month when combining 4x4 and 4x2 variants, with the former accounting for 17,245 units of a 20,091 total.

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There were 21,563 medium SUVs that left showrooms compared to 14,031 in September 2021.

All SUV categories posted growth last month, except large SUVs which were down by two per cent – though the overall SUV share of the market also grew by 22 per cent for the month and two per cent YTD. Total SUV sales sat at 49,643 for September and 424,679 for 2022 so far (versus 416,275 this time in 2021). For the year so far, medium SUVs and small SUVs increased by 54 and nine per cent.

Light-commercial vehicles also increased its share by 11 per cent in September and 0.1 per cent YTD, again at the expense of passenger cars that were down six per cent of the market last month and nine per cent YTD.

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Micro, light, small and upper large cars were all down by 17, one, 25 and 22 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, medium, large, people-movers and sports cars were all up by 34, 14, 47 and 18 per cent in that order for the month.

Comparatively, year-to-date all these categories experienced decline with the exception of medium, large cars and people-movers, which were all up by 26, five and 10 per cent.

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In September, there were 7247 electric vehicles sold compared to 466 September 2021 and 21,771 for 2022 so far – increases of more than 1000 and 510 per cent.

Although the number of hybrids actually fell from 6959 this time last year to 4616 last month, a drop of 34 per cent for the month, but still looking good with a seven per cent increase for the year-to-date. Plug-in hybrid numbers were up by 74 per cent with 525 sold in September and 4584 for 2022 (compared to 301 in September last year and 2360 this time in 2021).

Rising petrol prices are partly responsible for the electric boom, though state-based incentives, a host of new models and greater public debate have also played a part.

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In charts 📊

September 2022 – Top 10 models

September – Top 10 brands

September 2022 – Overall segment sales

September 2022-2021 category sales

September 2022-2021 category YTD sales

2022 Sales race

September 2022 Australian sales map

September 2022 buyer type