VFACTS March: Toyota losing grip on Aussie car market

The Toyota HiLux managed to narrowly overtake the resurgent Ford Ranger and claim bragging rights as the most popular new vehicle in Australia last month, but it was a hollow victory for the market-leading Japanese brand.

After two decades of sheer dominance, Toyota is beginning to lose its grip on the new car market this year as supply constraints from the factory and delays at Australian ports weigh heavily on many car-makers and buyers turn to other brands – including new players such as Tesla and BYD pedalling sought-after EVs.

Toyota managed 4583 HiLux sales last month to narrowly overtake the Ford Ranger (4508), but the Blue Oval brand’s Aussie-developed ute remains the top-selling vehicle overall by more than 1000 units after the first quarter of trading – 13,730 to 12,653.

Where supplies of Ranger were running dry at this time last year, and the HiLux was racking up record monthly sales of more than 6300 in March 2022 alone, the tables have well and truly turned; HiLux sales were down 27.5 per cent last month while Ranger was up 52.3 per cent.

What’s more, for a brand accustomed to having most of the top five positions filled, there was only one other Toyota model in the top 10 – the RAV4 at a lowly ninth (1778, -61.4%) – while the likes of Corolla (996, -48.2%), LandCruiser 300 (767, -9.1%), Prado (915, -59.0%), Camry (548, -40.4%), C-HR (369, -26.8%) and Kluger (305, -58.6%) were left out in the cold.

Indeed, only the niche Supra (24) and Coaster (34) recorded a positive result last month, along with the relatively new-to-market Corolla Cross (429), which wasn’t around a year ago when Toyota’s market share was running at an accustomed 21.6 per cent.

Last month, Brand T’s share tumbled to 13.6 per cent as its sales fell 39.4 per cent to 13,223 units, leaving it with a 15.2 per cent share for the year to date. Its YTD sales are down 29.5 per cent – the most of any of the leading car brands.

Of course, Toyota’s not alone in suffering a downward sales trajectory this year.

Still in its long-held second spot, Mazda’s 8243 sales dropped 26.7 per cent in March (-15.1% YTD), while Ford – once known as the Falcon Motor Company, but now banking 85 per cent of its sales with Ranger and the related Everest SUV – moved into third position with 6485 sales (+52.8% March; +43.0% YTD).

Kia was fourth with 6403 sales, snatching 5.8 per cent growth despite having no runners in the top 10, and for the year to date the Korean brand is up 5.5 per cent – maintaining its edge over sister company Hyundai, which took sixth last month (5369, -17.6%) but holds fifth behind Kia in YTD terms (-3.5%).

Mitsubishi took a top-five placing in March with 5863 sales, although the triple-diamond brand nonetheless suffered a 34.9 per cent downturn and holds sixth position YTD (-28.8%). Outlander is easily its best performer this year (6009 YTD, +29.4%), while Triton ute sales have fallen off a cliff – down 60 per cent.

By contrast, Isuzu Ute found itself in seventh position last month with 4534 sales (+37.1%), its two model lines both among the top 10 best-sellers – D-MAX third (2789) and MU-X 10th (1745), setting an all-time monthly sales record for the seven-seat off-roader.

Isuzu Ute is also holding 10th position overall this year with a 17.7 per cent uptick in sales, keeping other improving brands such as Volkswagen (+46.1%), Nissan (+1.2%) and GWM/Haval (+184%) at bay.

MG slipped to eighth position last month (4007, +1.1%) but holds seventh this year (+9.9%), while Subaru’s comeback trail continues with a solid ninth result in March (3852, +69%), helped by 1881 Forester sales, and holds eighth year-to-date (+41.2%).

Rounding out the top 10 last month was Tesla, which turned in 3578 sales that were evenly split between the Tesla Model Y SUV (1938, for fifth position among the top-selling cars) and Model 3 sedan (1640), although this was 19 per cent in arrears of the brand’s March 2022 sales performance.

The US electric car-maker holds ninth position overall this year with 10,407 sales, which is no mean feat and represents not only a 136 per cent increase over the first quarter of last year, but 60 per cent of all battery-electric vehicles sold Down Under this year.

Moving pictures

Tesla’s dominant performance is even more striking against Toyota’s supply woes, as total industry sales of EVs last month surpassed hybrid cars – 6612 to 5247 – and now places the battery-electric brigade ahead of hybrids for the year to date – 17,396 (+158%) compared to 16,101 (-21.8%).

We expect Toyota to mount a strong comeback at some point, but for now there’s some remarkable results on the table.

As well as those we’ve already mentioned, here’s one to mull over – BYD sold 1061 Atto 3 electric cars last month, underlining Aussie buyers’ appetite for affordable zero-emissions motoring.

This also contributed to China maintaining its position as the third most popular country of origin for new cars sold in Australia – behind Japan and Thailand, but now ahead of South Korea – with 15,124 fresh vehicle registrations lodged last month, taking China to 41,235 sales YTD.

In overall terms, the car industry was down 3.9 per cent in March with 97,251 sales, while across the first three months of the year it’s 2.5 per cent ahead of Q1 2022.

At this stage, it looks like a hard road ahead for at least the rest of the year.

Top 10 brands (2023 year to date):

Top 10 models (March 2023):

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