The Toyota Hilux remained Australia’s best-selling new vehicle in March 2023 by a margin of 75 units over the Ford Ranger, in spite of fewer light commercial vehicle sales to private, business, government and rental fleet buyers.
The Hilux led the Australian new vehicle market with 4583 sales, followed by the Ranger on 4508. The Isuzu D-Max was third with 2789 sales, followed by the Mitsubishi Outlander (2169) and the Tesla Model Y (1938).
Australian new car dealers delivered 97,251 vehicles during March 2023, which represents a 3.9% decrease on the same period in 2022.
Toyota led the market with a total of 13,223 vehicles sold. Mazda was second (8243), followed by Ford (6485), Kia (6403) and Mitsubishi (5863).
“March was a solid month for new car sales given the supply constraints car makers are facing both domestically and internationally,” Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) chief executive Tony Weber says.
“Year to date sales have increased 2.5% which is a better indicator of the underlying strength of the market,” he says.
Looking at the market broadly in March 2023, the passenger segment (17,182) was down 21.9% for the month and down 6% for the year to date. The SUV segment (53,526) is up 5.2% for the month and 9.4% for the year to date.
The light commercial segment (22,012) is down 9% for the month and down 7.6% for the year to date.
The heavy commercial segment (4531) is up 9.3% for the month and up 20.5% for the year to date.
Across the combined passenger, SUV, and light commercial segments in March 2023, private sales (51,176) were down 7% for the month, but business sales were up 0.8% (34,072). Government sales were down 0.2% (2632) and rental sales were down 13.5% (4840).
Battery electric vehicle sales grew by 19.5% on March 2022 figures along with plug-in-hybrids which increased by 33.3%.
Year to date, sales of vehicles sourced from China have increased 70.7% with 15,124 vehicles sold in March. Japan remains Australia’s largest source of vehicles (25,538). Thailand is the second largest (21,729) and Korea fourth (12,771).
Sales in the ACT increased by 1% with 1576 vehicles sold; Queensland, 4.9% (22,244); South Australia, 2.6% (6543); and Western Australia, 1.1% (10,129).
Sales in New South Wales decreased by 6.1% (30,256); Northern Territory, 15.3% (776); Tasmania 8.4% (1620); and Victoria 11.2% (24,107).
