by Chris Becker
Car sales in 2019 dipped nearly 8% year on year according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, with just over 1 million new vehicles sold.
Some details via VFACTS:
- The data shows that SUVs accounted for 45.5 per cent market share, up from 43 per cent in 2018. Passenger cars managed 29.7 per cent share, and light commercials 21.2 per cent.
- Toyota topped the charts with 205,766 sales for the year, down 5.2 per cent. Mazda fell by 12.3 per cent but hung on to second place with 97,619 cars counted as sold. Hyundai scraped into third with 86,104 sales, despite volumes falling by 8.6 per cent.Holden hung onto the final spot inside the top 10 with 43,176 sales, despite falling a massive 28.9 per cent. It edged out Subaru, whose distributor recorded a sales dip of 20 per cent to 40,007.
- Chinese brands are growing too, led by MG (8326, up 176.9 per cent), LDV (6480, up 6.9 per cent), Haval (1706, up 169.5 per cent), and Great Wall (1401, up 78.7 per cent). Another big grower was Ram Trucks, which converts pickups to right-hand drive locally and grew three-fold to 2868 units.
- The most common source countries for vehicles were Japan (334,075), Thailand (271,120), Korea (150,630), Germany (84,166), and the USA (41,275).
- Sales declines by State/Territory: NT (down 16 per cent), ACT (down 11.7 per cent), Victoria (down 8.7 per cent), NSW (down 8.4 per cent), Queensland (down 7.2 per cent), SA and WA (both down 5.4 per cent), and Tasmania (down 2.3 per cent).
The numbers on electric/hybrid cars are self reporting but don’t include the No.1 seller – Tesla, which doesn’t provide data to the FCAI. Estimates on 2019 Tesla sales are around 3000 or so, which combined with the reported numbers shows a near doubling, with the RAV4 hybrids up above 30,000 sales or 53% higher. Still not a lot out of 1 million total sales, but its a trend worth watching, with Norway recently reporting 42% of all sales now electric in 2019, compared to only 5% in 2013.
And the reason for the falls?
Tony Weber, chief executive of the FCAI, commented at the release of the sales results. “2019 reflects a tough year for the Australian economy, with challenges including tightening of lending, movements in exchange rates, slow wages growth and, of course, the extreme environmental factors our country is experiencing.”
I’d put wage growth at the top of that list:
But don’t count on Scott from Marketing to provide the non-fossil fuel car sector with any support post this bushfire crisis, even though its a near perfect time to get the incentive ball rolling.