After 20 consecutive months of year-on-year gains and 5 straight monthly record, the Australian new car market marks a pause in June at -4.2% to 119,659 units. Now that customers have received vehicles that were ordered months or even years ago, we are witnessing a cooling down of the market as expected given the challenging economic conditions. This month may be a sign of things to come for Australian car sales. The year-to-date tally is however up a solid 8.7% to 632,412, a new record after 6 months, eclipsing the previous H1 high mark of 605,522 from 2018. BEV sales are down -13.2% year-on-year to and 8% share vs. 8.8% a year ago, and up 16.5% year-to-date to 50,219 and 7.9% share. Petrol is off -16% to 50,403, diesel down -1.5% to 36,918, HEVs shoot up 70% to 15,336 and PHEVs soar 165.2% to a still modest 1,949. Private sales outpace the market slightly at -1.9% to 60,720 units, business fleets match it at -4.4% whereas rental sales sink -26.5% to 5,139. Government sales help reduce the overall loss at +33.7% to 3,917.
SUV registrations drop -5.5% to 65,248 and 54.5% share vs. 55.3% last year and 52.5% in June 2022, light commercials edge down -3.3% to 27,880 and 23.3% share vs. 23.1% a year ago and 23.9% in June 2022, and passenger cars surprise with a 3.3% year-on-year gain to 21,065 units and 17.6% share vs. 16.3% last year and 18.5% in June 2022. Heavy commercials hold 4.6% of the market at 5,466 sales. 7 states and regions are down year-on-year this month, with the odd one out being the Australian Capital Territory, unchanged at 1,856 sales. New South Wales are down -2.1% to 36,246, Victoria off -4.7% to 32,356, Queensland down -6.3% to 26,265, Western Australia off -7.6% to 12,079, South Australia edges down -0.5% to 7,932, Tasmania is at -1.4% to 1,897 and Northern Territory at -5.3% to 1,028. Looking at sales by country of production, Japan soars 14.9% to 34,602, Thailand gains 5.6% to 26,470, China uncharacteristically skids -19.8% to 18,642, South Korea drops -9.3% to 15,625 and Germany is up 3% to 6,413.
Over in the brands ranking, Toyota (-0.2%) is stable but can only muster a 17.5% share, compared with 19.2% so far this year where it is up 31.5%. Ford (+22.4%) lodges a 4th straight month in 2nd place thanks to a splendid year-on-year uptick, leaving Mazda (-2.3%) at #3. Kia (+8.9%) impresses once again at 6.9% share while Mitsubishi (+48.9%) catches up on a paltry year-ago result to reach 6.5% share vs. 6.3% year-to-date. Hyundai (-20.2%), Tesla (-33.3%) and Subaru (-9.3%) struggle unlike Isuzu Ute (+23.1%) and Nissan (+55.6%) rounding up the Top 10 in stellar fashion. MG (-29.8%) seems to have peaked and falls outside the Top 10 for the first time in 3 years, since May 2021. Fellow Chinese fare GWM (+7.1%) continues to progress year-on-year but falls three spots on last month to $12. Chery (+78.9%), Honda (+34.2%) and Land Rover (+34.1%) shine below.
Model-wise, the Ford Ranger (+17.9%) manages an 8th monthly victory out of the past 9 months, keeping the Toyota Hilux (-8.3%) at bay. The Ranger’s gap with the Hilux year-to-date is now over 5,000 units. The Ranger dominates the lucrative 4×4 ute segment with 5.842 sales vs. 4,976 for the Hilux, and in other bad news for Toyota, the Hilux doesn’t even top the 4×2 ute charts, outsold by the Isuzu D-Max at 654 vs. 659. The Toyota RAV4 (+36.7%) holds onto the third spot while the Mitsubishi Outlander (+87.5%) sports a fantastic year-on-year gain to climb into 4th place, a ranking record also hit in March 2023. The Tesla Model Y (-47.7%) is up 10 spots on May to #5 but implodes year-on-year. The rest of the Top 10 vastly outpace the market, with the Toyota Camry (+121.7%) the most dynamic ahead of the Ford Everest (+96.6%), Mazda CX-5 (+48.3%), Toyota Corolla (+31.1%) and Isuzu D-Max (+15.2%). The BYD Sealion 6 lands directly at #65, becoming the best-selling recent launch in the country above the Volvo EX30 (#69), MG 4 (#70) and MG 5 (#75).
Full June 2024 Top 49 All brands and Top 316 All models below.