VFACTS October: 1 million units and counting

The Australian new-car market notched up its 1 millionth sale of 2024 last month, which proved to be the second-strongest October on record, with 98,375 new vehicles being delivered across the 31 days.

The market’s rolling total now sits at 1,025,621 units with two months of trading to go before the new year – some 1.9 per cent up on the first 10 months of 2023 – however the downward trend of monthly results has continued and now strongly forecasts a year of negative growth.

Despite October 2024 being the second-best October on record, the monthly total was down 7.9 per cent on the record-breaking October 2023 and means the new-car market has now posted three consecutive months of negative growth.

It’s worth noting neither Tesla’s nor Polestar’s sales figures are factored into these results, the former of which has become the dominant force in local EV sales.

“While not at the record levels of 2023, the October result is solid,” FCAI CEO Tony Weber said.

“However, we remain concerned about the continuing performance of the private buyers segment which was down 14.2 per cent this month following a reduction of 17.2 per cent in September.

“This does indicate that economic pressures are a concern for families across the country.”

These hardships were reflected in the fact six of the 10 most-popular brands last month posted sales dips compared to October 2023, however they were nowhere near enough to shake Toyota’s iron grip at the top of the table.

The Japanese brand sold 18,471 vehicles compared to Ford’s 8581 and Mazda’s 7656.

As for the rest, Hyundai got one back on Kia to claim fourth place with 7086 deliveries vs its sister brand’s 6602 tally which earned it fifth ahead of Mitsubishi in sixth (5590), MG in seventh (5206), Isuzu Ute in eighth (3651), GWM in ninth (3350) and Volkswagen in tenth (3279).

In terms of the best-selling models, the Toyota RAV4 snatched another month at the top with 4841 deliveries, narrowly edging out the Ford Ranger (4757) which again bested the Toyota HiLux (4523) to take second.

Outside of the top three, the Ford Everest nabbed fourth (2668) ahead of the Isuzu D-MAX (2295) while the Kia Sportage (2136) led a quartet of medium SUVs – Mitsubishi Outlander (1901), Mazda CX-5 (1833), Hyundai Tucson (1803) – occupying sixth to ninth, leaving the compact Hyundai Kona (1800) to round out the top 10.

SUVs continue to be Australia’s favourite class of vehicle – specifically medium SUVs – ahead of light commercials (read utes) while the traditional passenger market continues to steadily wain.

Petrol remains the country’s fuel of choice ahead of diesel in terms of sheer volume, however both have lost ground to hybrids – sales of the self-charging electrification technology were up almost 55 per cent last month compared to October 2023 while petrol and diesel sales were down 12.3 and 19.5 per cent respectively.

Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) likewise continue to grow in popularity – up 36.8 per cent year-on-year – while battery-electric vehicles head in the other direction, something the FCAI views as a reflection of the diversifying market.

“Many of these new EV sales are in the highly competitive medium passenger segment which already records almost 50 per cent of sales being electric but the segment accounting for just over four per cent of total sales,” Weber said.

“Conversely, we are now witnessing the introduction of new plug-in hybrid models in the SUV and light commercial segments which have previously been dominated by petrol and diesel models.?

“This activity across segments and models highlights the competitiveness of our market and the increasing choice available to consumers across vehicle and fuel types.”

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