Australia’s automotive industry delivered 84,873 vehicles during the first month of 2023, which represents a 11.9% increase on the same period in 2022.
Toyota led the market with a total of 13,363 vehicles sold. Mazda was second with 9407, followed by Ford (6624), Kia (6006) and Hyundai (5809).
The Ford Ranger was the highest selling model with 4749 sales reported.
Toyota’s Hilux followed with 4131. Tesla’s Model 3 was third with 2,927 followed by Mazda’s CX-3 (2417) and Mazda’s CX-5 (2189).
“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,” Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Tony Weber says.
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% (10,426) with battery electric vehicles representing 5.71% (4852).
Sales were up across all buyer types. Private sales increased by 8.6%; business (13.6%), government (0.5%) and rentals (31.9%).
The consumer preference for larger vehicles has continued, with sales of SUVs (46,698) and Light Commercial vehicles (18,546) accounting for 76.9% of total vehicles sold.
Sales across all States and Territories were up. The ACT increased by 18.6% with 1394 vehicles sold; New South Wales, 15% (26,484); Queensland, 14.3% (18,766); South Australia, 11.9% (5786); the NT, 7.8 (665); Victoria, 9.7% (22,367); Western Australia 4.3% (7901) and Tasmania, 2.9% (1510).
