Car Sales for Australia recorded 98,328 new vehicle sales in August 2024 making it the second-best August result on record.
FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said that this was a good result despite August 2024 being down by 10.6 per cent on last year’s August number.
Record sales again
“This is a positive result in historic terms with this being the second highest August ever in Australia,” he said. “The outlier in the data is the 2023 number which broke the previous best August result (2017) by 13.8 per cent. Year to date the market is up by 5.3 per cent.
“Once again, the new car market is showing signs of resilience. As cost-of-living pressures and interest rates continue to impact the economy. Consumer preferences for the types of vehicles they want to drive is demonstrated. With the Passenger segment representing only 15.4 per cent of the total market. The SUV segment represented 57.5 per cent. Light Commercial vehicles made up 22.9 per cent making these two segments more than 80 per cent of the total market.
Low emission sales
“Consumers continue to embrace low emission vehicles with hybrid sales up 44.9 per cent on August 2023 while sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles are up 119.8 per cent. However, in line with the experience in many global markets, sales of battery electric vehicles are disappointing. This is despite the supply of battery electric vehicles increasing significantly with more brands and EV models having entered the Australian market,” he said.
Top Ten Brands
Toyota was the market leader with sales of 21,490 in August, followed by Ford (8,890), Mazda (8,263), Kia (6,903) and Hyundai (6,211). The Toyota RAV4 was Australia’s top selling vehicle with sales of 6,712 in August followed by Ford Ranger (5,431), Toyota HiLux (4,496), Isuzu Ute D-Max (2,548) and Toyota Landcruiser (2,504).
- Australian Capital Territory were down 21.9 per cent on August 2023 to 1,338;
- New South Wales was down 13.9 per cent to 29,831;
- Northern Territory was down 8.1 per cent to 911;
- Queensland decreased 7.5 per cent to 21,310;
- South Australia also decreased by 2.0 per cent to 6,813;
- Tasmania had a decrease of 13.0 per cent to 1,604;
- Victoria decreased 10.6 per cent to 26,039 and
- Western Australia decreased 9.9 per cent to 10,482.
Car Sales Summary by Class:
Car Sales Key Points:
- The August 2024 market of 98,328 shows a decrease in new vehicle sales of 11,638
(-10.6%) compared to August 2023 (109,966). There were 26.8 selling days in both August 2024 and August 2023 which resulted in a decrease of 434.3 vehicle sales per day in August 2024. - The Passenger Vehicle Market is down by 4,170 vehicle sales (-21.6%) over the same month last year; the Sports Utility Market is down by 5,772 vehicle sales (-9.3%); the Light Commercial Market is down by 1,535 vehicle sales (-6.4%) and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle Market is down by 161 vehicle sales (-3.8%) versus August 2023.
- Toyota was market leader in August, followed by Ford and Mazda. Toyota led Ford with a margin of 12,600 vehicle sales and 12.9 market share points.