VFACTS July: RAV4 knocks Ranger, HiLux down a peg

VFACTS figures for July 2024 show a substantial uptick in sales, as 99,486 vehicles were registered, marking the strongest July result on record.

This represents an overall sales increase of 2.7 percent compared to July 2023, which was also a record sales month, and bucks last month’s downturn.

Buyer appetite for hybrids is showing no signs of waning – especially if it has a Toyota badge. Hybrid sales rose by 88.4 percent for the month, with much of the heavy lifting undertaken by Toyota.

Toyota also had four of the top five selling vehicles for the month, with the HiLux ute, Corolla small car, and LandCruiser 300 Series all finding favour.

The Toyota RAV4 was the top-selling vehicle for the month with 5933 sales, representing a massive increase of 115% compared to the same month a year prior. It’s an all-time record in a single month for the in-demand SUV, with the majority of RAV4 sales now hybrids.

Last year, Toyota was still grappling with long vehicle delivery times for popular vehicles such as the RAV4, a hangover from pandemic-related production stoppages and semiconductor shortages, but delivery times have dropped from years to months insists Toyota, which will continue to bear fruit for the brand for the remainder of 2024.

While the Ford Ranger was the second-best-selling vehicle in Australia in July with 4915 units, sales were off slightly (down 4.4%), but 4747 Toyota HiLux, 2688 Toyota Corolla, and 2464 Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series sales were all trending northwards, with the Corolla and LandCruiser recording significant 25 and 16 percent increases compared to the year prior.

As Toyota’s supply lines improve, its market dominance continues unabated with 22,705 sales recorded in July, while the next closest brand, Mazda, managed 8476 sales.

Ford sold 7749 vehicles in third place, while Kia (6620) and Hyundai (6021) rounded out the top-five sales performers for the month. See below for the top 10 list.

Sales of battery electric vehicles (EVs) were down by almost 41% for the month of July, but those figures do not include EV market leader Tesla, which recorded 2592 (down from 4683), a drop of 44 percent compared to the month prior.

Year-to-date sales of EVs are still up by 8.7% on the previous year, despite Tesla and Polestar sales no longer included in the tally.

The two battery electric vehicle brands pulled out of industry sales reporting following a spat with the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) over the impending New Vehicle Efficiency Standard or NVES, which comes into effect on January 1, 2025, and is designed to compel importers to sell cleaner cars in Australia.

July sales would have eclipsed 100,000 sales if the two EV brands were included in the VFACTS figures, but as it stands, FCAI chief executive Tony Weber called the 99,486 record “…a remarkable achievement in an economy featuring widespread cost of living pressures.

“It was also interesting to note that while sales in the business and government segments were up 13.7 percent and 37.5 percent respectively, private sales were down 4.2 percent.”

Sales of diesel vehicles rose slightly (+5.3%) for the month and are up by almost 10 percent year on year while sales of petrol vehicles dropped (-12.9%) for the month and were down 8.1% year on year.

Meanwhile sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) soared, up 128.9% for the month and 129.4% year on year.

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV continues to win over buyers and the BYD Sealion 6 plug-in hybrid mid-size SUV has also seen strong results, with 556 sales in July. That puts it only 14 units behind the challenger brand’s best-selling model that month, the BYD Seal sedan.

“While the first seven months of 2024 have exceeded expectations, the industry remains cautious about the future pending the implementation of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard coupled with the economic conditions,” said Weber.

Top 10 brands (2024 year to date):

Top 10 models (July 2024):

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