VFACTS November 2022: HiLux back on top as SUVs outsell LCVs

November was a strong month for new car sales in Australia, with almost all leading brands posting good growth throughout the 30 days.

It was also another notable achievement for some of the Chinese players such as MG and GWM, that continued to take top 10 spots – knocking out more established rivals. Furthermore, another Chinese newcomer – electric vehicle maker BYD – entered the sales charts for the first time.

According to monthly results provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), it was a better November than last year, with 95,080 units registered compared to 80,639 this time in 2021 – albeit down on a COVID-19 struck 2020 in which 95,205 cars found homes.

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It puts the market up 18 per cent for the month and 2.3 per cent up with 22,080 more vehicles sold year-to-date.

Though most leading brands posted positive results, Hyundai suffered the biggest mainstream loss at 20 per cent down, though Toyota and Mazda managed to swing things in the other direction up 32 and 43 per cent respectively during the period.

New South Wales sold the most vehicles with 29,545 units shifted, followed by Victoria with 25,534 and Queensland on 20,621.

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“The automotive sector is continuing to recover from pandemic related shutdowns, a global shortage of microprocessors and the general supply chain uncertainty we experienced over the last two years,” FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said.

“The industry will deliver the one millionth vehicle to the market in 2022 next week. While this is positive news, many customers are still facing extended wait times for their vehicle, with expected delivery dates for some models beyond 12 months.”

Toyota continued to hold top spot among all the carmakers, with second place taken by Mazda and Ford rounding out the top three.

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Top 10 models 🥇

The Toyota HiLux ute climbed back onto the top spot with 5440 sold for November and 60,120 YTD.

Compared to its regular rival, the Ford Ranger, which dropped back to second place for the month with 5073 registrations in November – and came in second year-to-date with 42,816 sales.

However, November was a strange month in that only two utes appeared in the top 10 – with Isuzu’s D-Max just missing out with 1580 vehicles sold. Also absent was the Mitsubishi Triton with just 1498 shifted last month. Both made the top-10 year-to-date, in seventh and fourth place respectively.

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Last month was a great one for the Corolla hatch/sedan taking third spot with 3732 sales notched up (up 77 per cent), and it also did fairly well YTD coming sixth with 23,441 cars sold (up 22 per cent).

The Chinese-made MG ZS also played a blinder up 94 per cent, coming in fourth for November with 3051 units shifted and knocking several usual contenders such as the Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5 and Mitsubishi Outlander down the charts – with the trio filling out fifth, sixth and seventh on 2282, 1949 and 1875. YTD the ZS held a more typical tenth place with 19,410 sales (up 18 per cent).

Closely behind was another trio of medium SUVs: the Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson cousins, which are quickly cementing themselves as top-10 players, coming eighth and tenth with 1844 and 1734 shifted respectively with newcomer the Tesla Model Y sandwiched between with 1805.

For the year so far though all three were replaced in the charts by the Mitsubishi Triton and D-Max utes, as well as the Hyundai i30 sedan/hatch on 20,014 and Toyota Prado large SUV on 20,132.

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Top 10 cars in Australia: November 2022

Top 10 cars in Australia: YTD 2022

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Top 10 car brands 🥇

November was a better month for the market’s leader Toyota, with 20,107 sales, up 32 per cent compared to this time last year. Year-to-date it has notched up 214,776 units.

Mazda has jumped back into its traditional second place after a few months falling down the charts with 7549 units sold last month (up 43 per cent) but down year-to-date with 87,218 cars shifted and a seven per cent loss.

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In another turn of events, Ford found third place thanks to 7165 of its vehicles finding homes, putting Korean firms Kia and Hyundai further down the rankings than we’ve seen in recent months on fourth and sixth respectively with 6120 sales but still up 25 per cent on last November for Kia and 5519 for sister Hyundai, though down 20 per cent – with Japanese Mitsubishi nestled in between with 5559 sold and a slight dip of three per cent for the month.

For 2022 so far the picture looks a little different, with the Asian trio rising to third, fourth and fifth and knocking Ford back down to sixth having sold 60,463 vehicles compared to Kia’s 72,700, Mitsubishi’s 72,064 and Hyundai’s 68,911.

There were successes for Chinese brands too as MG held its seventh position for the year both for the month and year-to-date with 5497 registrations (up 47 per cent) in November and 44,388 for the year (up 24 per cent), and GWM again appeared in the top 10 sitting in tenth place with 2914 sales last month, up 48 per cent. It was knocked out of the charts for the year though by more traditional players such as Isuzu Ute (32,818) and Mercedes-Benz (29,219) compared to its 21,747 cars sold.

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Subaru also made the cut for November in eighth with 3701 units sold (but down seven per cent), and for the year came ninth selling 31,965 vehicles, joined at the lower end of the top 10 by Volkswagen on 3045 cars (down two per cent). Volkswagen was pushed out of the yearly chart though with its 27,887 sales not enough to get it over the line. Also missing was Nissan only shifting 23,951 vehicles for 2022 to date.

Top 10 brands: November 2022

Top 10 brands: YTD 2022

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Ups and downs 🔼 🔽

Outside the top 10, Fiat (down 93 per cent) and Nissan (down 51 per cent) were the biggest strugglers among mainstream brands.

Successes came for other household names though, with Chevrolet (up 58 per cent), Ram (up 80 per cent), Ssangyong (up 70 per cent) and Volvo (up 59 per cent) all posting large increases in November.

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Segments

Unusually, utes were not the country’s most popular vehicle type again last month when combining 4x4 and 4x2 variants, with the former accounting for 16,939 units of a 19,423 total.

There were 20,274 medium SUVs that left showrooms compared to 13,967 in November 2021.

All SUV categories posted growth last month – and the overall SUV share of the market also grew by 32 per cent for the month and seven per cent YTD. Total SUV sales sat at 52,395 for November and 525,537 for 2022 so far (versus 491,351 this time in 2021). For the year so far, medium SUVs and upper large SUVs increased the most by 45 and 251 per cent.

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Light-commercial vehicles also increased its share by six per cent in November and 1.5 per cent YTD, again at the expense of passenger cars that were down one per cent of the market last month and nine per cent YTD.

Micro, medium, upper large and people-mover cars were all down by 53, 0.4, 38 and 17 per cent respectively for the 30 day period.

Meanwhile, light, small, large, and sports cars were all up by nine, four, 22 and nine per cent in that order for the month.

Comparatively, year-to-date all these categories experienced decline with the exception of medium, large cars and people-movers, which were all up by six, 22 and nine per cent.

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Though not their best month this year by a way, there were still 4457 electric vehicles sold compared to 568 in November 2021 and 28,326 for 2022 so far – increases of 685 and 516 per cent. Almost 850 of those came from new entrant the BYD Atto 3, while Tesla sold 391 examples of the Model 3 and 1805 of the Model Y. Polestar by comparison shifted just 240 of its Polestar 2 sedans last month.

The number of hybrids increased too from 4983 this time last year to 8529 last month, a rise of 71 per cent for the month, and a 16 per cent increase for the year-to-date. Plug-in hybrid numbers were also up a tad by three per cent with 429 sold in November and 5477 for 2022 (compared to 415 in November last year and 3054 this time in 2021).

Fluctuating petrol prices are partly responsible, though state-based incentives and greater interest and investment from the new Federal Government are also likely to have played a part throughout the last 11 months.

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In charts 📊

November 2022 – Top 10 models

November – Top 10 brands

November 2022 – Overall segment sales

November 2022-2021 category sales

November 2022-2021 category YTD sales

2022 Sales race

November 2022 Australian sales map

November 2022 buyer type