Community
16 September, 2024
SUVs dominate car market
SUVS and mostly dual-cab utes now dominate the new vehicle market in Australia.
According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, the SUV segment represents 57.5 per cent and light commercial vehicles make up 22.9 per cent for more than 80 per cent of the total market.
Last month 98,328 new vehicles were sold – the second-best August result on record.
FCAI chief executive Tony Weber said it was a good result despite August 2024 being down 10.6 per cent on last year’s August number.
“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 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 new vehicle market.
“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,” Mr Weber said.
Toyota was the market leader with sales of 21,490 in August, followed by Ford (8890), Mazda (8263), Kia (6903) and Hyundai (6211).
Sixth was Mitsubishi (5516), then Isuzu Ute (3924), MG (3561), Nissan (3376) and Subaru (3004).
The Toyota RAV4 (mostly hybrids) was Australia’s top selling vehicle with sales of 6712 in August followed by Ford Ranger (5431), Toyota HiLux (4496), Isuzu Ute D-Max (2548) and Toyota Landcruiser (2504).
Ford Everest was sixth (2273), then Mitsubishi Outlander (2188), Kia Sportage (2051), Mazda CX-5 (1927) and Toyota Corolla (1855).
