February Car sales figures released

New car sales figures have been released and show a slight 1.8% increase in sales for February with 88,878 vehicles delivered to customers..

Of the top ten vehicles sold in February three were Utes, five were SUVs, one electric car and one hatchback.

SUVs account for 55% of sales, Light Commercial Vehicles another 22% and the rest are passenger cars.

Petrol cars account for over 50% of sales, followed by diesel with some 30% of sales

Battery electric vehicles accounted for 6.8 per cent of car sales with 5,932 sold in February. Almost 60% of those were from Tesla that had a delivery arrive. However, when you add in the hybrids the total was closer to 14%.

This shows that the market embraces hybrids as a practical solution. Toyota still sell more hybrids than anyone else.

The top ten brands so far this year are Toyota, by a reduced margin, followed by Mazda, Ford, Kia and Hyundai. Next is Mitsubishi, MG Subaru. Tesla makes a surprising appearance then Isuzu.

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I’m Rob Fraser

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FCAI Full Release.

Australia’s automotive industry delivered 86,878 vehicles during February 2023, which represents a 1.8 per cent increase on the same period in 2022.

“This is the best February result since 2019. It is particularly pleasing given global and domestic supply constraints,” FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said.

Battery electric vehicles accounted for 6.8 per cent of sales with 5,932 sold in February.

“Growing sales of electric vehicles proves that where a battery electric product exists which suits the driving habits, needs and finances of Australian motorists, they will purchase these vehicles,” Mr Weber said.

Zero and low emission vehicle sales, which includes battery electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles accounted for 13.9 per cent (12,102).

“The number of low emission vehicle sales demonstrates that there is an appetite among Australians for environmentally friendly vehicles. However, if we wish to accelerate this transition to a broader range of consumers in all parts of the country, Australia needs to adopt a fuel efficiency standard,” Mr Weber added.

A total of 13,625 vehicles were sourced from China, making it the third highest country of origin for new vehicles in February. Japan remains the largest source of new vehicles in the Australian market (24,805), followed by Thailand (18,557). Korea is the fourth highest country of origin (12,246).

Car Sales by state and brand

New Car Sales in the ACT increased by 7.2 per cent with 1,454 vehicles sold; New South Wales, 4.7 per cent (27,600); Northern Territory, 2.8 percent (725) and Western Australia, 16.7 percent (9,815).

Sales in Queensland decreased by 2.8 per cent (18,427); South Australia, 4.5 per cent (5,549); Tasmania 9.4 percent (1,414); and Victoria 1.3 percent (21,894).

Toyota led the market with a total of 14,332 vehicles sold.  Mazda was second (7,667), followed by Ford (6,022), Kia (6,000) and Hyundai (5,504).

The Ford Ranger was the highest selling model with 4,473 sales reported

Toyota’s Hi-Lux followed with 3,939. Tesla’s Model 3 was third with 2,671 followed by Mazda’s CX-5 (2,600) and Mitsubishi’s Outlander (2,166).

Key Points:

• The February 2023 market of 86,878 new vehicle sales is an increase of 1,538
  vehicle sales or 1.8% against February 2022 (85,340). There were 24 selling days
  in both February 2023 and February 2022, resulting in an increase of 64.1 vehicle sales per day.
• The Passenger Vehicle Market is up by 750 vehicle sales (4.8%) over the same month last year;
• the Sports Utility Market is up by 2,953 vehicle sales (6.6%);
• the Light Commercial Market is down by 2,959 vehicle sales (-13.6%) and the
• Heavy Commercial Vehicle Market is up by 794 vehicle sales (26.4%) versus February 2022.
• Toyota was market leader in February, followed by Mazda and Ford. Toyota led Mazda with a margin of 6,665 vehicle sales and 7.7 market share points.

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