According to VFACTS October 2020, Australian new car sales last month were down just 1.5 per cent below the same month last year.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has seen positives from VFACTS October 2020’s sales new car sales results, revealing that new car sales in Australia totalled 81,220 units – only 1236 fewer year on year despite Victoria’s continuing lockdown
The VFACTS result is an ‘encouraging’ one for the automotive industry, given that Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, was in stage-four lockdown during the month.
In fact, excluding Victoria from the report, overall the market was up 10% on October 2019.
“After a very challenging year, we are seeing ‘green shoots’ in the Australian new vehicle market. Every state and territory except Victoria and Tasmania have seen significant growth and, given the circumstances, Victoria’s result is seen as encouraging,” said Tony Weber, the FCAI’s chief executive.
The VFACTS October sales result has lifted year to date sales in 2020 to 726,111 vehicles. That’s nearly 168,000 fewer than for the same 10-month period in 2019. According to VFACTS, the year to date figure for 2020 amounts to a shortfall of 18.8 per cent over 2019.
And although the sales result last month was better than expected, it continued the trend of declining sales.
“These results mark the 31st month of decreasing sales for the industry, which has experienced a series of financial and market challenges during the period,” said Weber.
“However, the green shoots that we are seeing in October give us great hope that we may begin to see further recovery during the coming months.
“Nationally, the state of industry operations is returning to normal as COVID-19 restrictions ease. Additionally, Government initiatives such as a constructive budget that included the instant asset write off, along with more accessible finance for consumers, is also acting as a welcome stimulus for the industry.
“Electrified vehicles also experienced a surge during the month, more than doubling in their total sales compared to October 2019. This shows that Australian consumers are willing to explore new drive train technologies.”
Broken down, the October 2020 results reveal that passenger cars continue to sell in ever smaller numbers – down 24.5 per cent, year on year – while SUVs sold in higher numbers last month than they did in October 2019 – a jump of 6.7 per cent, year on year, for a figure of 41,220 (or about 50.8 per cent of the entire market for the month). That surge from SUVs during the month was mostly driven by private buyers. Sales of light commercial vehicles also rose last month, up by 11.6 per cent for 19,152 sales.
Audi has bucked the trend, up 10%, as the sole brand with a high profile to post more sales for the month and for the year to date than it did last year. Audi’s main rivals such as Mercedes-Benz (-11.5%), BMW (+3.2%) and Volvo (+1.2%) experienced mixed fortunes.
Brands to perform strongly according to VFACTS October 2020 results included Fiat (+48%), Haval (+47%), Isuzu Ute (+16%), Jeep (+41%), Lamborghini (+40%), LDV (+123%), Mazda (+17%), Porsche (+33%), Skoda (+15%), SsangYong (+9.7%.
Toyota grew 14% off the back of improved HiLux 4×4, RAV4 and Prado sales, Kia edged out a 4.8% gain thanks to 1,214 Seltos SUV sales, while MG had another huge month, up 119% via the MG3 and ZS.
Top 10 brands for the year to date:
Toyota – 158,127
Mazda – 68,031
Hyundai – 51,170
Ford – 46,682
Mitsubishi – 46,467
Kia – 46,000
Volkswagen – 32,696
Nissan – 30,106
Subaru – 24,896
Honda – 23,910
The top 10 brands have all lost sales for the year to date, but Ford’s sales loss in October was not as much as Mitsubishi’s, allowing Ford to slip back into the number four position for the year, relegating Mitsubishi to fifth place.
Top 10 vehicles for the month:
Toyota HiLux – 4444
Ford Ranger – 4217
Toyota RAV4 – 4084
Toyota LandCruiser – 2429
Toyota LandCruiser Prado – 2207
Toyota Corolla – 1943
Isuzu D-MAX – 1932
Mazda CX-5 – 1912
Hyundai Tucson – 1678
Kia Cerato – 1619
Further reading:
What does today’s car-buying journey look like?
Australian new car inventory to improve
Dealer Finance launches on carsales
