The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) released official VFACTS data today showing annual car sales for 2011 tipped 1 million vehicles for the fourth time, but this total was down 2.6% on 2010, with December 2011’s sales nearly 5% below December 2010.
FCAI chief executive Ian Chalmers put a positive spin on the result:
These figures represent a decrease in volume of 2.6 per cent (or 27,137 fewer sales) compared with 2010 – which can be attributed to challenging market conditions and significant supply shortages during the year.
2011 full year sales are an exceptional result given the effects of natural disasters both at home and abroad throughout the year. The uptake of new vehicles was impacted early in the year by economic uncertainty, closely followed by natural disasters in the key markets of Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland.
Sales were further subdued by Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, with a resulting shortage of export vehicles from that country a secondary outcome of the extreme loss of life experienced by the Japanese people.
The resilience of the Australian marketplace, combined with strong industry resolve, saw sales recover strongly in the fourth quarter, with total sales finishing just 3.9 per cent behind the FCAI’s forecast of 1,050,000 for the year.
The main percentage falls in sales were from Tasmania, slumping over 13%, following by “booming” WA down nearly 7%, with the dominant NSW and Victorian markets flat and falling nearly 5% to cushion overall falls.
As I mentioned in this morning’s links, the quintessential Australian car, the Holden Commodore, was outsold in 2011 by the ubiquitous Mazda3 hatch:
It seems more Australians are choosing SUV’s over passenger cars, with the former rising from 21.4% to 27.1% of total sales, the latter slipping to 55.5%.
Overall, a flat year for the Australian car industry, although a repeat of 1 million car sales is predicted for 2012.