Australia recorded 98,328 new vehicle sales in August 2024, making it the second-best August result.
FCAI chief executive Tony Weber says this was a good result despite August 2024 being down by 10.6% from last year’s August number.
“This is a positive result in historical terms, with August 2024 recording the second-highest August ever in Australia,” he says.
“The outlier in the data is the 2023 number, which broke the previous best August result (2017) by 13.8%. To date, the market has been up by 5.3%. Once again, the new car market shows signs of resilience as cost-of-living pressures and interest rates continue to impact the economy,” he says.
Consumer preferences for the types of vehicles they want to drive are demonstrated, with the passenger segment representing only 15.4% of the total market. The SUV segment represented 57.5%, and light commercial vehicles made up 22.9%, making these two segments more than 80% of the total market.
“Consumers continue to show a readiness to move into low emission vehicles with hybrid sales up 44.9% on August 2023 while sales of plug-in hybrid cars are up 119.8%,” Weber says.
“However, in line with the experience in many global markets, sales of battery electric vehicles could be better. This is despite the increase in the supply of battery electric vehicles with more brands and EV models coming to the Australian market,” he says.
Toyota was the market leader, with sales of 21,490 in August, followed by Ford (8890), Mazda (8263), Kia (6903), and Hyundai (6211). The Toyota RAV4 was Australia’s top-selling vehicle, with sales of 6712 in August, followed by the Ford Ranger (5431), Toyota Hilux (4496), Isuzu Ute D-Max (2548), and Toyota Landcruiser (2504).
Sales in the Australian Capital Territory were down 21.9% in August 2023 to 1338; New South Wales was down 13.9% to 29,831; Northern Territory was down 8.1% to 911; Queensland decreased 7.5% to 21,310; South Australia also decreased by 2% to 6813; Tasmania decreased 13% to 1604; Victoria decreased 10.6% to 26,039, and Western Australia decreased 9.9% to 10,482.
The August 2024 market of 98,328 shows a decrease in new vehicle sales of 11,638 (-10.6%) compared to August 2023 (109,966). There were 26.8 selling days in August 2024 and August 2023, resulting in a decrease of 434.3 vehicle sales per day in August 2024.
The passenger vehicle market is down by 4170 vehicle sales (-21.6%) over the same month last year, the SUV Market is down by 5772 vehicle sales (-9.3%); the light commercial market is down by 1535 vehicle sales (-6.4%), and the heavy commercial vehicle Market is down by 161 vehicle sales (-3.8%) versus August 2023.
In August, Toyota was the market leader, followed by Ford and Mazda. Toyota led Ford with a margin of 12,600 vehicle sales and 12.9 market share points.
