New vehicle dealers across Australia watched sales fall by 15.3% in November 2021 from the previous corresponding period to 80,638 units due to international supply chain shortages rather than a decline in demand from the market.
But the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) says the market is only 29,000 units short of reaching 1 million new vehicle sales in the 2021 calendar years
Toyota was the market leader in November 2021 recording 15,239 sales.
This was followed by Hyundai with 6854 sales. Third place went to Ford with 6215 sales. Mitsubishi sold 5720 vehicles and Mazda came in fifth with 5295 vehicles sold.
The Ford Ranger was the highest selling model with 4429 sold. The Toyota Hilux came in second with 4228 sold. Third went to the Hyundai i30 with 2254. The Toyota Corolla was the fourth highest selling model with 2104 sold. Fifth place went to the Toyota RAV4 with 1820 new vehicles sold.
Sales of rental and hire fleets continued to grow off the back of October 2021 sales. An increase of 90.7% per cent year to date on 2020 figures has been recorded which shows rental providers are continuing to prepare for an increase in travel as pandemic restrictions continue to ease.
Sales in Western Australia were down by 19.8% with 7081 vehicles sold.
Queensland saw 16,001 vehicles sold which is a decline of 19.5%.
Victorian sales decreased by 19.4% with 21,445 new cars leaving showrooms.
Sales in Tasmania were down by 12.8% with 1450 vehicles sold.
South Australia saw 5,052 vehicles sold which represents a decrease of 10.6%.
The Northern Territory was down 8.5% with 714 vehicles sold. Finally, the ACT recorded 1,406 new cars sold which was down 3.1% on last year’s figures.
“Demand across the sector remains strong with the drop in sales reflecting well recognised international supply chain issues,” FCAI chief executive Tony Weber says
“This includes constraints around microprocessor supplies as well as the ongoing impact of the pandemic restricting factories.”
“Car makers are competing with many other sectors, such as white goods manufacturers, for microprocessors across the globe. Some new vehicles sold in the Australian market can require up to 3000 of these parts, so this shortage is definitely being felt by the industry,” he says.
