The latest new car sales results have been released and July has been a record month. With 96,859 new vehicles delivered. It smashed the previous record by some 4,000 vehicles from 2017.
However, this figure reflects orders that were placed sometimes up to 12 months ago. Supply is slowly catching up after the last few years.
There is a lag effect and with tighter economic conditions the economy is going through now, what will the sales be like in another 6 months.
The trend towards SUVs continues with almost 59% of sales. Most of those are in the small to medium segment. Passenger cars are now down to 17.7%
Of the top ten models sold for July, three were Utes, four were SUVs, one was an electric car and two were passenger cars.
Toyota remains the top selling brand, but significantly down on last year. They were followed by Mazda, Kia, Ford Hyundai. The next five brands are Mitsubishi, MG, Tesla, Subaru, and Volkswagen.
Petrol remains the most popular fuel choice followed by diesel. Hybrid and PHEV accounted for around 10% of sales for the month as well. Pue electric vehicles were around 7.0%, mostly from Tesla reported sales.
This is a Motoring Minute
I’m Rob Fraser
You can find more new car sales results for YTD June 2023 HERE
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New Car Sales YTD July 2023 more details
New vehicle sales achieved the highest July result on record as Australian customers took delivery of 96,859 new vehicles.
This is an increase of 14.7 per cent on the same month in 2022 and breaks the previous July record of 92,754 in 2017.
FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said that the July 2023 result was an indication that the market continued to recover from supply shortages resulting from COVID plant shutdowns, microprocessor shortages and logistics and shipping bottlenecks.
“During the past twelve months the issue has been one of securing supply for consumers, however as these pressures ease, we are starting to see a return to more stable market conditions,” Mr Weber said.
“Many of these vehicles were ordered several months ago, so it is important to monitor the broader economic conditions through 2023 and their impact on private and business demand.
What is selling most?
Mr Weber added that sales in the passenger vehicle segment remained at an historically low level, however many of these sales have transitioned into the SUV category.
“Passenger vehicles now represent 17.7 per cent of the market in July while the SUV category now sits at 58.9 per cent. However, contrary to widely held opinion, not all SUVs are large vehicles as 75 per cent of SUV sales are in the medium, small and light categories.”
Sales of zero and low-emission vehicles continued to grow with 17.9 per cent being battery electric, hybrid or plug-in hybrid models. Battery electric vehicles accounted for 7.0 per cent of July sales.
China continues to grow in importance as a country of origin with 15,853 new vehicles being from that country. That is an increase of 130.1 per cent on the same month last year.
Sales by State
Car Sales across every State and Territory increased this month compared with July 2022.
- Sales in the Australian Capital Territory increased by 22.4 per cent (1,438);
- New South Wales 11.3 per cent (29,516);
- Queensland 4.3 per cent (19,719);
- South Australia 17.0 per cent (6,612);
- Tasmania 33.9 per cent (1,777);
- Victoria 22.7 per cent (27,097);
- Western Australia 21.6 per cent (9,797) and
- Northern Territory 19.4 per cent (903).
Sales by brand and model top ten highlights
Toyota was the highest-selling marque with 19,191 sales.
Mazda followed with 8,307 then Ford (7,109), Hyundai (6,521) and Kia (6,150).
The Ford Ranger was the top-selling vehicle recording 5,143 sales.
It was followed by Toyota Hi-Lux (4,670), MG ZS (3,852), Tesla Model Y (3,330) and Toyota RAV4 (2,750).
VFACTS July 2023
Summary by Class:
Key Points:
- The July 2023 market of 96,859 new vehicle sales is an increase of 12,398
vehicle sales or 14.7% against July 2022 (84,461). There were 26 selling days
in both July 2023 and July 2022 and this resulted in an increase of 476.8 vehicle sales per day. - The Passenger Vehicle Market is up by 1,108 vehicle sales (6.9%) over the same month last year; the Sports Utility Market is up by 12,299 vehicle sales
(27.5%); the Light Commercial Market is down by 795 vehicle sales (-4.0%) and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle Market is down by 214 vehicle sales (-5.8%) versus
July 2022. - Toyota was market leader in July, followed by Mazda and Ford. Toyota led Mazda with a margin of 10,884 vehicle sales and 11.2 market share points.
Car Sales Results
Source: VFACTS
Top 10 individual models (by sales volume): State/Territory results (by sales volume):