VFACTS March 2022: New car sales return to form as Tesla reports figures

Electric vehicle popularity gained momentum in March, with both Tesla and new-kid-on-the-block Polestar contributing to a healthy overall sales total for the month in Australia.

Today was the first time both the American and Swedish brands’ sales figures were reported as part of the monthly results provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), and showed the EV boom is just beginning.

In March, there were 5532 electric vehicles sold compared to 600 in February and 411 last March – though the numbers will be slightly skewed for last month as Tesla’s year-to-date 4417 sales are all grouped in the one month, so we’ll need to wait to see April’s postings to get a more accurate representation. There were 6752 EVs sold year-to-date.

It follows a “human error” blamed for a misreporting of Tesla’s 2021 sales figures – the true number being 12,094 compared to the roughly 15,000 first claimed.

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Although the number of hybrids remained relatively stable with 7474 shifted versus 8143 in February and 6549 in March last year, plug-in hybrid numbers were up with 427 sold (compared to 305 last month and 286 this time in 2021).

Rising petrol prices are partly responsible for the electric boom, though state-based incentives, such as those in NSW, VIC and recently announced in QLD, have also played a part.

Overall it was the best March since 2018, with 101,233 units registered according to official industry figures. It leaves the market up 1.2 per cent, or 1228 vehicles, compared with March 2021, but down 0.5 per cent year-to-date.

As expected, New South Wales sold the most vehicles with 32,224 units shifted, followed by Victoria with 27,155 and Queensland on 21,214 – with supply issues easing for the second month in a row.

“This is historically a unique time in which supply rather than demand is determining the size of the market," said FCAI chief executive Tony Weber.

"This is due to manufacturers recovering from the pandemic-related shutdowns and the ongoing global shortage of micro processing (semiconductor) units. Consumer inquiries and demand for new cars remains strong. Manufacturers are working hard to match this demand with supply."

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Toyota continued to hold top spot among all the carmakers, followed by Mazda and Mitsubishi rounding out the top three. However, sister companies Hyundai and Kia swapped positions in fourth and fifth respectively.

Outside the top 10, Subaru (down 46 per cent), Honda (down 37 per cent), Skoda (down 31 per cent), Audi (down 33 per cent) and BMW/Mini (down 28 and 44 per cent), struggled the most amongst mainstream brands.

Though Jaguar and sister firm Land Rover both struggled in February, posting significant drops, in March they both rebounded – rising 35 and 21 per cent.

Successes came for other household names too, Fiat (up 32 per cent), Citroën (up 209 per cent), Porsche (up 27 per cent), Ram (up 25 per cent) and Suzuki (up 31 per cent) all posting large increases in March.

Bad news came for Peugeot however with a decline of 21 per cent, despite doing well in February.

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Utes were the country’s most popular vehicle type again last month when combining 4x4 and 4x2 variants, with the former accounting for 21,345 units of a 56,618 total.

There were 18,512 medium SUVs that left showrooms compared to 18,133 in March 2021. Large and light SUVs both showed growth with 7 and 5 per cent increases, as the overall SUV share of the market barely changed – down by just 0.3 per cent year-on-year with 50,893 sales for March and 135,425 for 2022 so far (versus 51,705 and 135,900).

Light-commercial vehicles grew its share by four per cent in March and 7 per cent YTD, again at the expense of passenger cars that though up 3 per cent of the market last month were still down 10 per cent YTD.

Small cars, micro cars, upper large cars and sports cars lost the most last month, each down 25, 25, 30 and 27 per cent respectively, followed by large cars down 18 per cent. Medium car sales however boomed, up 176 per cent for March and 68 per cent for the year.

Top 10 models

The Toyota HiLux ute kept the top spot with 6324 compared to 2960 for regular rival, the Ford Ranger – which came in sixth place for the month, but came in fourth year-to-date with 9660 sales.

Sneaking in between the HiLux and Ranger were Australia’s most popular SUV, the Toyota RAV4 – taking another month in second with 4610 units registered (10,489 and third YTD) after it dropped from the top 10 in January – and fellow ute, Mitsubishi's Triton in fourth with 3808 (10,495 but second YTD).

Confusing matters due to Tesla reporting the first quarter of sales all at once in March, the Tesla Model 3 came in third by default with 4417 cars sold, but as a result did of course not make the top 10 for the year so far.

After a bad month in February for the Mazda CX-5, it bounced back with 3772 cars shifted thanks to the launch of the new model, coming in fifth place. Due to the inclusion of the Model 3, its stablemate the Mazda CX-30, which placed eighth in February, fell out of the top 10 with 1829 units. Looking at the year-to-date results, the CX-5 was also fifth with 8250 cars sold, up from sixth the month before.

The sole passenger car offering in the top 10 remained the Hyundai i30, with 2455 finding homes last month (5853 YTD), coming in seventh for March and eighth for the year to this point.

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Despite a couple of recent price rises, Isuzu’s D-Max continued to be popular with 2447 registrations in March and 6272 year-to-date, ranking eighth and seventh respectively.

After falling out of the top 10 multiple times since December last year, Toyota’s Corolla made a comeback in March with 1924 sales (5037 YTD) and put it in tenth place both for the month and year, meanwhile its Prado sibling just pipped it to ninth spot with 2230 units (7574 YTD but rose to fifth position).

Narrowly missing out on a spot in the top 10 after appearances in February were the Mitsubishi Outlander with 1619 and the MG ZS with 1756 – the first time the latter has not appeared for several months after booming in popularity in 2021, possibly due to a new model expected later this year.

The new Kia Sportage also continued to do well with 1530 units shifted and a surprise top 20 contender included the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport on 1669.

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Elsewhere, EV sales have been bolstered this year by the recent arrival of the Kia EV6, Polestar 2, Peugeot 508 GT PHEV, Jaguar I-Pace and Porsche Taycan to name a few.

With Spanish brand Cupra also set to descend on our market in the second half of the year with its own EV offerings, Chinese carmaker BYD bringing us its Atto 3 SUV, and companies such as Kia and MG delivering new versions of the Niro and ZS EV, expect sales to climb even further.

Posting its first VFACTS result, 115 examples of the Polestar 2 found homes in March.

Top 10 models: March 2022

Top 10 models: YTD 2022

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Top 10 brands

March was a slightly better month for the market’s dominant brand Toyota with 21,828 sales, up two per cent compared to this time last year when it shifted 21,319 vehicles, despite suffering a nine per cent loss in January versus January 2021 – mostly down to COVID-19 related production problems. Year-to-date it has notched up 58,047 units, up three per cent.

Mazda followed in second place with 11,248 units sold last month and 29,835 year-to-date, followed by Mitsubishi, which has been climbing up the ladder due to boosted sales of its new Outlander SUV, with 9007 cars shifted in March and 23,353 this year so far.

Hyundai and Kia continued to battle it out for the higher spot of fourth place, with the former winning this time around with 6516 sales in March versus Kia’s 6051, but was knocked down to fifth for the year with 17,293 compared to Kia’s 17,452.

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Though Tesla snuck into the top 10 with 4417 sales in March, placing sixth, it strictly needs to be discounted for grouping three months of sales in just one. As a result, Ford was pushed down to seventh spot last month with 4245 units, but regained sixth year-to-date with 13,383 sold.

Tesla bumped Subaru from the monthly top 10 by default, putting the Japanese marque down in 12th place with 2279 units sold, behind Mercedes-Benz with 2761. Year-to-date however Subie retained its top 10 spot with 8152 sales. For the year at this point Mercedes has sold 6799 vehicles.

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MG equalled its seventh position for the year with 11,267 registrations, with a rise of 29 per cent YTD, but for the month appeared in eighth place with 3962 units sold.

Isuzu and Nissan rounded out the top 10 in ninth and tenth position with 3306 and 3168 sales, registering a four per cent increase and 31 per cent decrease respectively over March 2021. For 2022 so far the two companies have shifted 8806 units and 8322, up nine and down 31 per cent.

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Top 10 brands: March 2022

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Top 10 brands: YTD 2022

In charts

March 2022 – Top 10 models

March – Top 10 brands

March 2022 – Overall segment sales

March 2022-2021 category sales

March 2022-2021 category YTD sales

2022 Sales race

March 2022 Australian sales map