VFACTS June 2022: New-car sales drop to lowest point in over a decade, Toyota remains on top

The Australian new car market has dropped to its lowest level of June sales in over a decade, as supply constraints continue to hamper deliveries.

New car sales data released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) shows just 99,974 cars were delivered last month, the first time June sales have dropped below 100,000 since 2011 when just 96,157 vehicles were sold.

It’s also a drop of over 10,000 units compared to the last two Junes, with even the COVID-impacted 2020 and 2021 years managing 110,234 and 110,664 examples sold respectively.

Last month’s sales were lower than March this year, the first time June has not been the biggest month of the year since 2000, when Sydney was preparing to host the Olympic Games and the VT Commodore was the best-selling car.

The drop in registrations not only resulted in a poor year-on-year result – down 9.7 per cent on 2021 – but it also affected the overall year-to-date registrations, as the 537,856 new cars sold this year is 5.2 per cent lower than the halfway point of 2021, where 567,468 vehicles had been sold heading into July.

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Of the top 10 best-selling manufacturers throughout June, seven posted higher sales than the same month a year prior, with Subaru, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Toyota, Mitsubishi and MG coming up as the big winners while Mazda, Ford and Isuzu suffered the most.

New South Wales was the state with the most registrations for the month, recording 32,027 sales (down 7.5 per cent), trailed by Victoria (25,764, down 12.2 per cent) and Queensland (21,983, down 13.2 per cent) with the Northern Territory becoming the only state or territory to improve on its 2021 figures, rebounding by 16.3 per cent to 1115 sales.

“Globally, carmakers are continuing to suffer from plant shutdowns,” said FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber.

“In Europe we have component supply heavily impacted by the conflict in Ukraine. Microprocessors continue to be in short supply and global shipping remains unpredictable.

“While demand for new cars remains strong in Australia, it is unlikely we will see supply chain issues resolve in the near future.”

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As expected, Toyota continued its reign at the top of the sales charts, now followed by Korean sister brands Kia and Hyundai in second and third place respectively, with Mazda dropping to fourth and Mitsubishi rounding out the top five.

Polestar pipped electric vehicle rival Tesla for the month, capitalising on the American manufacturer’s production woes to shift 29 more units, with the Swedes delivering 201 units of the Polestar 2 compared to 172 Model 3s.

Between 10th and 25th place in sales, a total of seven manufacturers recorded better sales results over last year’s efforts, with Porsche (up 53 per cent), Suzuki (up 35 per cent), GWM (up 18 per cent), RAM (up 17 per cent), Volvo (up eight per cent), Honda (up six per cent) and Audi (up one per cent) joining the list of brands finding success in June.

On the flip side, Nissan (down 53 per cent), LDV (down 40 per cent), Lexus (down 38 per cent), Volkswagen (down 36 per cent), Jeep (down 25 per cent), BMW (down 24 per cent) and Skoda (down 21 per cent) struggled the most out of the extended top 25.

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Utes continue to be Australia’s best-selling vehicle type, with the combined sales of 17,415 4x4 units and 3769 4x2 models accounting for a total of 21,185 examples sold throughout the month.

Medium SUVs trailed utes yet again, with the 19,254 units delivered representing a significant 16 per cent increase over the year prior, as large and small SUVs followed in third and fourth place respectively.

Despite small SUVs accounting for 11,561 sales in June, it was the third-largest drop compared to 2021 with 21 per cent less examples delivered, only just behind 2.5- to 3.5-tonne commercial vehicles (down 26.4 per cent) and small passenger vehicles (down 25.8 per cent) suffering bigger hits.

Overall, the heavy commercial segment was the only one to increase its sales over the same month last year, with 5165 vehicles delivered representing a 3.5 per cent increase.

Passenger vehicles suffered the most, dropping by 21 per cent to 18,450 units, followed by light commercial vehicles (down 16.5 per cent to 23,852) and SUVs (down 2.3 per cent to 52,507).

While petrol vehicles continue to be the most popular on the new car market with 51,388 sold last month, only electric vehicles, hybrids and plug-in hybrids posted higher sales than last year.

Diesel vehicles still sit in second on 35,306 sales, but demand for EVs is increasing at the most rapid rate, last month jumping up by 116 per cent over the year prior with 1137 registrations – although this is still behind the hybrid vehicle total of 6407 units, up 10 per cent.

PHEVs and hydrogen vehicles continue to linger at the bottom of the sales charts, despite PHEV sales rising by 79 per cent to 570 examples last month, while only one hydrogen car was sold.

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Top 10 models

Toyota’s HiLux continued its dominant run as Australia’s best-selling vehicle for 2022, retaining its position at the top of the charts with 7582 sales – the most of any month this year so far and an improvement of 40 per cent over June 2021, thanks mostly to 4x2 sales increasing by 100 per cent from 1112 to 2227 units.

Year-to-date, the best-seller is also well clear of its rivals with 31,971 sales at the halfway mark of 2022, more than 10,000 units more than the second-placed RAV4.

The Hyundai Tucson has made a surprise visit to second place, as the Korean manufacturer managed to shift 2840 units of its medium SUV – a staggering increase of 90 per cent compared to a year ago – although it still sits in 17th spot for the year with 7355 sales.

Continuing its run amongst the best-sellers was the Ford Ranger, holding third place with 2802 units sold – however, this represents a massive drop of 3453 sales and 57 per cent from last year, attributed in part to its next-generation model beginning to finally hit showrooms. The Ranger also sits third overall for the year on 19,794 sales.

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Battling for fourth place, Toyota’s Corolla edged out its RAV4 sibling, with the small passenger car recording 2605 sales compared to the crossover SUV’s 2586 – each improving over last year by 19.8 and 3.4 per cent respectively.

RAV4 continues to trail the HiLux for the year with 20,373 registrations (just 14 more units than last year) while the Corolla has dropped despite its strong June, with the 13,154 cars sold this year representing a drop of 4.8 per cent on 2021.

Despite Isuzu D-Max sales hitting a 24.8 per cent slump throughout June, it secured sixth place for the month to be the third amongst the utes with a total of 2383 deliveries, however it continues to also hang on to sixth for the year, just over 300 units clear of the Corolla with 13,462 deliveries.

Kia’s new Sportage was the marque’s most popular vehicle, managing to squeeze into seventh with 2044 sales, just 30 units clear of the eighth-placed Mitsubishi Triton, with particular praise given to the Korean SUV for a 136.8 per cent increase in sales over June 2021, attributing to its 106.5 per cent overall jump.

Hyundai’s i30 dropped by a place from May to ninth in June, with its 1801 sales down 22.7 per cent on the year prior, while it continues to hold on to ninth spot year-to-date on 11,752 deliveries.

Scraping in to the top 10, the MG HS was able to force its way into the final spot on account of its 1795 sales, an improvement of 79 per cent compared to June last year, boosting its annual sales to 5540 units so far (59.7 per cent higher than 2021.)

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The new Mitsubishi Outlander might have missed out on a top 10 placing, but it was able to beat its fellow SUV rival in the Toyota Kluger to 11th place, with the Japanese offerings recording 1714 and 1655 sales respectively.

Kia’s Cerato was the next-best vehicle with 1597 sales, while Toyota managed to get three LandCruiser-badged vehicles into the top 20, as the LandCruiser Prado (1578 sales), LandCruiser 300 Series (1518 sales) and LandCruiser 70 Series (1265 sales) took 14th, 15th and 18th place respectively.

Mazda’s CX-5 might have been the ninth-most popular vehicle in May, but a tough June saw it slip to 23rd, managing just 1116 deliveries compared to last year’s 3018 units, a drop of 63 per cent.

Other models to make it into the top 20 included the MG ZS (1402 sales), GWM Ute (1315 sales), Subaru Outback (1264 sales) and Ford Everest (1234 sales) – although the Outback is able to take home this month’s award for the most improved mass-market vehicle, recording a 266.4 increase over its June result in 2021, jumping by 919 units.

Top 10 models: June 2022

Top 10 models: YTD 2022

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Top 10 brands

Toyota remains the top dog in Australia, with its 22,561 sales in June nearly as much as second, third and fourth place combined. The Japanese marque was also able to improve on its deliveries over last year by seven per cent, boosting its year-to-date sales to 121,377 units – two per cent higher than the midway mark of 2021.

Kia pipped its Korean stablemate Hyundai to second spot by just 221 units, recording 8480 and 8259 sales respectively – an improvement of 7.5 per cent and 12.3 per cent for each brand.

There’s little to separate the manufacturers year-to date as well, as Kia’s 39,419 sales sits just ahead of Hyundai’s 38,167 deliveries, although the latter has dropped by 1.2 per cent from last year while the former has rebounded by four per cent.

While Mazda still retains its second placing for the year so far, its June performance pushed it further away from Toyota, recording 6245 sales (a drop of 48.9 per cent, the largest of any manufacturer in the top 10), with its year-to-date sales standing at 49,932 – 17.4 per cent down.

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Mitsubishi continues its solid run in fifth place thanks to 5846 deliveries in June, a small improvement of 3.6 per cent over its form 12 months prior, although its overall sales are up by 11.5 per cent to 41,748 units.

Ford might have been able to retain sixth place but it wasn’t made easy for the Blue Oval, as sales fell by 41.2 per cent last month to just 4972 units – now becoming the top 10 brand to take the biggest hit of the year, as sales have gone down by 24.6 per cent to 28,562 units year-to-date.

Chinese manufacturer MG continued to show good form, improving by just over two per cent to record 4403 deliveries last month, edging ahead of Mercedes-Benz’s combined cars and van sales of 4267, a 10 per cent boost for the three-pointed star.

The battle for ninth place was tight between Subaru and Isuzu, but it was the former which took the spot thanks to 3575 deliveries (up 18 per cent) while Isuzu managed 3457 sales – undoubtedly disappointed at the 12 per cent drop which ultimately led to it falling to the edge of the top 10.

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Volkswagen missed out on a top 10 spot and on cracking past 3000 sales, managing 2993 deliveries through the month with a big drop of 36 per cent compared to 2021 – pushing the German marque’s annual sales to 37.5 per cent lower than last year with 13,055 deliveries.

One of the biggest improvers in June was Suzuki, jumping up to 12th place thanks to a 35 per cent sales increase from 2536 deliveries, edging out GWM (2440 sales, up 17.6 per cent) and BMW (2327 sales, down 24.4 per cent) as the final brands with more than 2000 units shifted.

Of the mainstream brands in Australia, Nissan was hit hardest, recording a year-on-year drop of 52.8 per cent with just 1907 sales throughout June, as its year-to-date performance fell to 36.4 down.

Only Chevrolet, Land Rover, Lotus, Jaguar and Alpine suffered greater sales percentage drops in June, although none of the aforementioned brands cracked 500 deliveries.

Top 10 brands: June 2022

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Top 10 brands: YTD 2022

In charts

June 2022 – Top 10 models

June – Top 10 brands

June 2022 – Overall segment sales

June 2022-2021 category sales

June 2022-2021 category YTD sales

2022 Sales race

June 2022 Australian sales map