This early in the year sales figures are distorted by back orders and ships arriving. Trends are difficult to spot.

However, the top selling vehicle for the month was the new Ford Ranger, followed closely by the HiLux.

In the top ten vehicles 3 were Utes, 6 were SUV’s and one a passenger car.

SUVs continue their growth with over 55% of the sales followed by LCV with about 22%

Petrol is still the dominant fuel source with over 52% of sales followed by diesel with 31% and EVs account for 5%.

Some brands like Audi have had an almost 75% increase in sales and some like BMW are down 6% om YTD from last year.

Toyota again was the top selling brand followed closely by Mazda, then Ford, Kia and Hyundai. Mitsubishi, MG and Subaru are the next three. Tesla makes a surprise appearance at number 9 then Isuzu Ute round out the top ten brands.

It will be an interesting year.

This is a Motoring Minute

Im Rob Fraser

TO LISTEN TO THE CAR SALES RADIO REVIEW CLICK BELOW

Key Points

• The January 2023 market of 84,873 new vehicle sales is an increase of 9,010
  vehicle sales or 11.9% against January 2022 (75,863). There were 24 selling days
  in both January 2023 and January 2022, resulting in an increase of 375.4 vehicle sales per day.
• The Passenger Vehicle Market is up by 865 vehicle sales (5.5%) over the same month last year; the Sports Utility Market is up by 7,101 vehicle sales
  (17.9%); the Light Commercial Market is up by 287 vehicle sales (1.6%) and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle Market is up by 757 vehicle sales (33.3%) versus
  January 2022.
• Toyota was market leader in January, followed by Mazda and Ford. Toyota led Mazda with a margin of 3,956 vehicle sales and 4.6 market share points.

More January Car sales notes

Australia’s automotive industry delivered 84,873 vehicles during the first month of 2023, which represents a 11.9 per cent increase on the same period in 2022.

“This data is the best January result since 2018 and shows that the industry is continuing to recover following years of supply chain disruption and delay,” FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said.

The Tesla Model 3 was the third highest selling car in the market. This is the first time a pure battery electric model has been ranked so highly. In addition, the MG ZS, which includes battery electric variants, and the Mitsubishi Outlander which includes plug-in hybrid variants were also in the top 10.

Sales of battery electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles accounted for 12.28 per cent (10,426) with battery electric vehicles representing 5.71 per cent (4,852).

Sales were up across all buyer types. Private sales increased by 8.6 per cent; business (13.6 per cent), government (0.5 per cent) and rentals (31.9 per cent).

The consumer preference for larger vehicles has continued, with sales of SUVs (46,698) and Light Commercial vehicles (18,546) accounting for 76.9 per cent of total vehicles sold.

Sales across all States and Territories were up.

• ACT increased by 18.6 per cent with 1,394 vehicles sold;
• New South Wales, 15 per cent (26,484);
• Queensland, 14.3 per cent (18,766);
• South Australia, 11.9 per cent (5,786);
• NT, 7.8 per cent (665);
• Victoria, 9.7 per cent (22,367);
• Western Australia 4.3 per cent (7,901) and
• Tasmania, 2.9 per cent (1,510).

Toyota led the market with a total of 13,363 vehicles sold.  Mazda was second with 9,407, followed by Ford (6,624), Kia (6,006) and Hyundai (5,809).

The Ford Ranger was the highest selling model with 4,749 sales reported. Toyota’s Hi-Lux followed with 4,131. Tesla’s Model 3 was third with 2,927 followed by Mazda’s CX-3 (2,417) and Mazda’s CX-5 (2,189).

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