The FCAI, the peak body for Australia’s automotive industry, has today released new vehicle sales figures for March 2022.
A total of 101,233 vehicles were sold in March bringing the year-to-date total to 262,436. This year‑to-date result represents a slight decrease of 0.5 per cent on the comparative 2021 period to March 2021.
FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said the relatively stable result reflected the challenges facing the global automotive industry.
“This is historically a unique time in which supply rather than demand is determining the size of the market. This is due to manufacturers recovering from the pandemic-related shutdowns and the ongoing global shortage of micro processing units.
“Consumer inquiries and demand for new cars remains strong. Manufacturers are working hard to match this demand with supply,” Mr Weber added.
Australians are purchasing zero and low emission vehicles in greater numbers, with the FCAI pleased to report on two members’ sales for the first time, Tesla and Polestar.
“The addition of Polestar and Tesla further cements VFacts as the premier source of new motor vehicle sales data in Australia. Mr Weber also noted that in interpreting the data for March 2022, care should be taken as the Tesla data represents the company sales for the first three months of 2022.
Tasmanian sales increased by 8.2 per cent with 1,768 vehicles sold. Victorian sales increased by 5.3 per cent with 27,155 vehicles sold. Sales in Western Australia were up 5.3 per cent with 10,016 vehicles sold. Sales in the Australian Capital Territory were down 6.2 per cent compared with the same month in 2021, with 1,560 vehicles sold. New South Wales sales was down 0.8 per cent with 32,224 sold. Northern Territory sales decreased by 0.2 per cent with 916 vehicles sold. Queensland sales were down 1.7 per cent with 21,214 vehicles sold and South Australian sales decreased by 0.1 per cent with 6,380 vehicles sold.
Toyota was the market leader in March 2022 with 21,828 vehicles sold. Toyota was followed by Mazda with 11,248, Mitsubishi with 9,007, Hyundai with 6,516 and Kia came in fifth place with 6,051.
Toyota’s Hilux was the highest selling model with 6,324 sold. The Toyota RAV4 came in second place with 4,610 sold. The Mitsubishi Triton took out third place with 3,808 vehicles sold. Mazda’s CX-5 was fourth with sales of 3,772 and Tesla Model 3 was fifth with sales of 3,097 (March only – this number excludes earlier Tesla sales from January and February 2022 that have not been previously reported in VFacts).
VFACTS MARCH 2022
Summary by Class:
Key Points:
(Note caution in interpreting these points due to the impact of year-to-date Tesla data inclusion).
- The March 2022 market of 101,233 new vehicle sales is an increase of 1,228 vehicle sales or 1.2% against March 2021 (100,005) vehicle sales. Both March 2022 and March 2021 had 26.5 selling days and this resulted in an increase of 46.3 vehicle sales per day.
- The Passenger Vehicle Market is up by 639 vehicle sales (3.0%) over the same month last year; the Sports Utility Market is down by 812 vehicle sales (-1.6%); the Light Commercial Market is up by 939 vehicle sales (4.0%) and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle Market is up by 462 vehicle sales (12.5%) versus March 2021.
- Toyota was market leader in March, followed by Mazda and Mitsubishi. Toyota led Mazda with a margin of 10,580 vehicle sales and 10.5 market share points.