The traditionally strong result for new vehicle sales in June to mark the end of the financial year has continued with 110,664 sales being recorded by VFACTS. Significantly, the new vehicle sales result for the first six months of 2021 is 567,468 compared with 442,415 for the corresponding period of 2020, an increase of 125,053 or 28.3 per cent. Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries Chief Executive Tony Weber said the June result was consistent with buying patterns usually recorded at this time of year.
“Expectations for a strong result in June had remained high given the traditional end of financial year demand from business and private buyers driven by Government incentives such as the extension of the depreciation allowance announced in the Federal budget coupled with intensive marketing activity from vehicle brands,” he said.
“In spite of some States being forced into COVID-19 lockdowns towards the end of June, the acquisition of a new vehicle remains a popular option for buyers across all market segments.”
Mr Weber noted that Government purchases were up 10.4 per cent compared with the same month last year while sales across all vehicle types for the Rental market were up 192 per cent for the same period.
Toyota was the market leader in June recording sales of 21,076. It was followed by Mazda (12,225), Ford (8,456), Kia (7,890), and Hyundai (7,357). The Ford Ranger was the highest selling vehicle (6,058) followed by the Toyota Hi-Lux (5,412), the Isuzu Ute D-Max (3,167), Mazda CX-5 (3,018) and the Kia Cerato (2,711).
The breakdown of vehicle sales by fuel type provided some interesting reading with sales of petrol-powered vehicles actually declining by 3.5% for June when compared to June in 2020. Electric vehicle sales are up almost 200% for the year to date, but overall, they still only represent 0.4% (2,217 units excluding sales of Tesla vehicles) of all sales of Passenger, SUV and Light Commercial vehicles. Hybrid vehicle sales are up by 57.8% for the year to date and overall these represent 6.7% of all sales of Passenger, SUV and Light Commercial vehicles.
Taking a look at some of the luxury vehicle marques shows varied results with Ferrari sales down by 20.9% year to date while McLaren sales are up by 50%. Lamborghini sales are also up by 50% and this has been thanks largely to increased sales of the Urus. Aston Martin are also seeing good results thanks to their SUV with year-to-date sales being up by 70% with 31 out their 68 sales coming from the DBX.
Although SUV sales continue to surge across all manufacturers there was some interesting reading to be had in sales of ‘coupe’ style SUVs. BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche all saw declines in their sales of these vehicle shapes for the X4/X6, GLC-Class Coupe and Cayenne Coupe respectively. The Porsche Cayenne wagon also saw a big drop in year to date sales, down 41.7%, while the hot model in the Porsche lineup is the Taycan with 369 units sold so far in 2021.
After a strong 2020 it appears that RAM truck sales are beginning to plateau with RAM seeing just a 9.3% increase so far for 2021. Some other notable figures are an increase of 61.4% for Volvo cars, a 70.7% increase for Jeep, a 105.4% increase for Skoda and a 309.5% increase for Genesis, but they were starting from a very low base figure in 2020.
“The delivery challenges caused by microprocessor shortages and bottlenecks in the supply chain are yet to be fully resolved, however, all parties are continuing to find ways to meet the strong demand for customers across all sectors. It is our expectation that these issues will begin to be resolved as the global economy continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19.”
“Right now, we would expect customer demand across all segments to remain strong for the second half of 2021 which has the market on track to return to a result in excess of one million vehicles,” concluded Mr Weber.
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.