√VFACTS December 2022: New-car demand remains strong amid year of major upsets

Demand for new motor vehicles in Australia remains strong despite interest rate rises and delivery delays, however some major upsets have revealed our changing taste in cars.

Australian new-car sales remained steady last year despite interest rates rises and ongoing delivery delays – but buyer tastes are changing and waiting times still stretch three months to two years, depending on the model.

Figures released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries show 1,081,429 new motor vehicles were reported as sold in 2022, an increase of 3.0 per cent compared the prior year – but 9.0 per cent less than the record of 1,189,116 set in 2017 and 5.8 per cent less than the five-year average prior to the pandemic.

It was the 14th time in the past 16 years Australians purchased more than 1 million new cars in a calendar year.

The majority of new cars reported as sold in 2022 were ordered months or even years prior to delivery, as the global automotive industry continued to struggle with unprecedented demand in the wake of the pandemic.

Although the annual new-car sales tally for 2022 was in positive territory, the result fell short of expectations due to production slowdowns and delivery delays caused by the ongoing global semiconductor shortage.

Car dealers say they continue to take more orders than they have vehicles to deliver, but there is a growing acceptance around waiting times for new cars.

Some car manufacturers have started stripping certain safety features from their vehicles to keep production lines moving.

However, most car companies have been praised for maintaining their full suite of safety technology, even if it prolongs waiting times.

Market leader Toyota notched up its 20th annual win in a row – representing approximately one-in-five of all new motor vehicles reported as sold in Australia last year – and posted its strongest result in 14 years (since 2008).

Toyota is, to date, the only car company in Australia to have sold more than 200,000 cars in a calendar year, a milestone it has achieved in 18 of the past 19 years, including the past 11 years in a row.

Toyota Australia’s 2022 new-car sales tally of 231,050 was its third-highest result on record after the previous record highs of 238,983 in 2008 and 236,647 in 2007.

The Toyota HiLux ute was the top-selling vehicle outright in Australia for the seventh year in a row.

Not since the Holden Commodore’s 15-year winning streak more than a decade ago has a nameplate led the Australian car market for so long.

The Toyota HiLux tally in 2022 was also the highest sales result for any new car since the Holden Commodore topped the Australian charts in 2005.

Toyota HiLux sales for 2022 – when counting 4×2 and 4×4 variants combined, as is industry practice – amounted to a record 64,391 deliveries (up 22 per cent), ahead of the second-placed Ford Ranger (47,479, down 5.6 per cent) which stalled during a changeover between old and new models.

An incredible achievement amid stock shortages, production delays, and shipping bottlenecks, the Toyota HiLux had already eclipsed its previous annual record by the end of October 2022, with two months of the year remaining.

The Toyota HiLux was also Australia’s top-selling four-wheel-drive vehicle of any type last year, setting a new record of 47,329 sales for the category.

In a major upset, Chinese brand MG finished fifth in December 2022 – its highest monthly ranking to date – and outsold South Korean car-maker Hyundai and Mitsubishi for the first time, though the surge is widely regarded by industry observers as a sign of things to come.

MG finished in seventh place in calendar year 2022, climbing the charts from ninth spot in 2021. Five years ago MG ranked 30th in annual new-car sales results in Australia.

MG has grown faster than any other car brand in Australia in memory, with a meteoric rise from 3000 sales in 2018, in its first full year on sale locally under Chinese ownership, to 49,582 last year.

MG has now embedded itself among the Top 10 sellers in Australia for the past two years in a row.

In another major upset Hyundai was outsold by its sister brand Kia in the annual sales race for the first time in Australian automotive history.

And Hyundai lost third place on the podium – a position it had held for six years – to stablemate Kia.

For the past three decades – since Hyundai and Kia arrived in Australia as budget car brands in the 1990s – Hyundai has historically dominated its South Korean sibling.

However the tables turned after Hyundai grappled with severe stock shortages in 2022.

Tesla was the clear leader in the electric-car sales race, with a record 19,594 vehicles delivered in Australia in 2022, almost double the more than 12,000 reported as sold the prior year.

The result elevated Tesla to 16th on the new-car sales charts – ahead of Audi, Honda, and Volvo – as it also accounted for close to two out of every three electric cars reported as sold in Australia in 2022.

Despite the increasing popularity of electric cars, they still only represented 3.1 per cent of the total new-car market in Australia last year (33,410 of 1,081,429 sales).

Affordability and availability remain roadblocks to the take-up of electric cars in Australia, prompting some industry analysts to question why electric vehicles should be awarded tax exemptions and incentives when there are already long queues of customers waiting to buy them.

Toyota continued to dominate the hybrid-car sales race, delivering a record 72,815 petrol-electric vehicles in Australia in 2022.

Across all automotive brands, a total of 81,786 hybrid vehicles (excluding plug-in hybrids) were reported as sold last year – 7.6 per cent per cent of all new-car sales – making it by far the most popular choice of vehicle emissions reduction technology.

The cumulative total number of Toyota hybrid cars sold in Australia since 2001 has now eclipsed 315,000.

Petrol-electric technology accounted for almost one-third (31.5 per cent) of Toyota’s new-car sales locally last year.

Because hybrid technology halves the emissions of petrol cars, Toyota says its tally of 315,000 hybrid vehicles over the past 20 years is equivalent to putting 95,000 electric cars on the road.

The Toyota RAV4 was both the top-selling SUV and the top-selling hybrid vehicle in Australia in 2022. Of the 34,845 Toyota RAV4s reported as sold last year, 26,547 (76 per cent) were hybrid variants.

Although sales of hatchbacks and small sedans have declined amid the boom in SUV sales, the Toyota Corolla clocked up its 10th annual win in a row as Australia’s top-selling passenger car last year.

Meanwhile, the Tesla Model 3 electric car ended the Toyota Camry’s 29-year winning streak in the mid-size sedan category.

Australian new-car sales over the past 10 years

2022: 1,081,429
2021: 1,049,831
2020: 916,968 (weakest result since 2003)
2019: 1,062,867
2018: 1,153,111
2017: 1,189,116 (record)
2016: 1,178,133
2015: 1,155,408
2014: 1,113,224
2013: 1,136,227
2012: 1,112,032

Data below compiled by Paul Gover and Ben Zachariah. Source: Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

Top 10 Car Brands Full-Year 2022

Rank	Brand	Sales in full-year 2022	Change year-on-year
1	Toyota	231,050	up 3.3 per cent
2	Mazda	95,718	down 5.3 per cent
3	Kia	78,330	up 15.3 per cent
4	Mitsubishi	76,991	up 13.7 per cent
5	Hyundai	73,345	up 0.6 per cent
6	Ford	66,628	down 6.7 per cent
7	MG	49,582	up 27.1 per cent
8	Subaru	36,036	down 2.6 per cent
9	Isuzu Ute	35,323	down 1.2 per cent
10	Volkswagen	30,946	down 24.1 per cent

Top 10 Cars Full-Year 2022

Rank	Model	Sales in full-year 2022	Change year-on-year
1	Toyota HiLux	64,391	up 22 per cent
2	Ford Ranger	47,479	up 11.8 per cent
3	Toyota RAV4	34,845	down 2.5 per cent
4	Mazda CX-5	27,062	up 8.4 per cent
5	Mitsubishi Triton	27,436	up 42.7 per cent
6	Toyota Corolla	25,284	down 12.1 per cent
7	Isuzu D-Max	24,336	down 3.1 per cent
8	MG ZS	22,466	up 21.9 per cent
9	Hyundai i30	21,166	down 17.2 per cent
10	Toyota Prado	21,102	down 0.9 per cent

Top 10 Car Brands December 2022

Rank	Brand	Sales in December 2022	Change year-on-year
1	Toyota	16,274	up 0.2 per cent
2	Mazda	8500	up 20.1 per cent
3	Ford	6165	up 13.5 per cent
4	Kia	5630	up 15.4 per cent
5	MG	5194	up 58.9 per cent
6	Mitsubishi	4927	down 12.9 per cent
7	Hyundai	4434	down 22.7 per cent
8	Subaru	4071	up 45.2 per cent
9	GWM Haval	3295	up 116.8 per cent
10	Volkswagen	3059	up 25.1 per cent

Top 10 Cars December 2022

Rank	Model	Sales in December 2022	Change year-on-year
1	Ford Ranger	4663	up 12 per cent
2	Toyota HiLux	4271	up 11.8 per cent
3	Toyota RAV4	2193	down 26.9 per cent
4	Mazda CX-3	2068	up 191.7 per cent
5	Mitsubishi Outlander	2052	up 52.9 per cent
6	Toyota Corolla	1843	up 45 per cent
7	Tesla Model 3	1806	Data not available
8	Hyundai Tucson	1643	up 57.2 per cent
9	Mazda CX-5	1637	down 23.8 per cent
10	Subaru Forester	1586	up 21.4 per cent

Passenger cars: Top Three in each segment in December 2022

Micro	Kia Picanto (488)	Fiat/Abarth 500 (6)	Mitsubishi Mirage (1)
Light < $25k	MG 3 (1280)	Mazda 2 (448)	Suzuki Swift (417)
Light > $25k	Mini Hatch (74)	Audi A1 (15)	Citroen C3 (1)
Small < $40k	Toyota Corolla (1843)	Mazda3 (1194)	Hyundai i30 (1152)
Small > $40k	Audi A3 (204)	Mercedes-Benz A-Class (161)	BMW 2 Series (41)
Medium < $60k	Toyota Camry (333)	Mazda 6 (213)	Skoda Octavia (80)
Medium > $60k	Tesla Model 3 (806)	Mercedes-Benz C-Class (315)	Polestar 2 (259)
Large < $70k	Kia Stinger (81)	Skoda Superb (30)	Citroen C5 X (12)
Large > $70k	Mercedes-Benz E-Class (20)	BMW 5 Series (17)	Audi A6 (15)
Upper Large < $100k	Chrysler 300 (0)
Upper Large > $100k	BMW 7 Series/i7 (20 total, 10 each)	Porsche Panamera (11)	Mercedes-Benz S-Class (5) BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe (5)
People Movers	Kia Carnival (739)	Hyundai Staria (90)	Mercedes-Benz V-Class (52)
Sports < $80k	Subaru BRZ (121)	Ford Mustang (88)	Nissan Z (45)
Sports > $80k	BMW 4 Series coupe/convertible (33) Mercedes-Benz C-Class (33)	Chevrolet Corvette (19)	Porsche Cayman (16)
Sports > $200k	Porsche 911 (34)	Ferrari sports cars (17)	BMW 8 Series (7)

SUVs: Top Three in each segment in December 2022

Light SUV	Mazda CX-3 (2068)	Toyota Yaris Cross (746)	Kia Stonic (438)
Small SUV < $40k	MG ZS (3056)	Haval Jolion (1184)	Subaru XV (944)
Small SUV > $40k	Volvo XC40 (556)	Audi Q3 (476)	Volvo C40 (209)
Medium SUV < $60k	Toyota RAV4 (2193)	Mitsubishi Outlander (2052)	Hyundai Tucson (1643)
Medium SUV > $60k	Tesla Model Y (460)	Lexus NX (393)	Mercedes-Benz GLC (311)
Large SUV < $70k	Kia Sorento (1252)	Toyota Prado (970)	Isuzu MU-X (944)
Large SUV > $70k	Mercedes-Benz GLE (346)	Volkswagen Touareg (175)	BMW X5 (166)
Upper Large SUV < $100k	Toyota LandCruiser wagon (1544)	Nissan Patrol wagon (727)
Upper Large SUV > $100k	BMW X7 (85)	Mercedes-Benz GLS (37)	Lexus LX (26)

Utes and vans: Top Three in each segment in December 2022

Vans < 2.5t	Volkswagen Caddy (33)	Peugeot Partner (15)	Renault Kangoo (5)
Vans 2.5t-3.5t	Toyota HiAce van (643)	LDV G10 (263)	Ford Transit (197)
4×2 Utes	Toyota HiLux (1159)	Ford Ranger (550)	Isuzu D-Max (181)
4×4 Utes	Ford Ranger (4113)	Toyota HiLux (3112)	Isuzu D-Max (1380)