The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), the peak body for the automotive industry in Australia, today released the new vehicle sales figures for March 2021.
A total of 100,005 vehicles were sold in March 2021, up 22.4 per cent on March 2020 sales when 81,690 vehicles were sold. This positive result was reflected across all states and territories other than the ACT (down 43.8%). The Northern Territory (43.4%), Queensland (32.7%), Tasmania (30%) and Western Australia (30.5%) all recorded growth above 30 per cent for the month.
SUV sales were up 32 per cent and Light Commercial vehicles were up by 28 per cent. Eight of the top ten selling vehicles for the month were SUVs or Light Commercials, driven by increasing demand from the Private buyers.
FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said new vehicle sales continued to show growth as the economy gradually emerged from the economic impacts of COVID-19.
“This is the strongest March result in two years with Private buyers representing the largest proportion of new vehicle purchasers,” Mr Weber said.
“It is possible that the result could have been even stronger if some brands had not been impacted by delivery constraints in global factory supply chains. It is our expectation that these delivery issues will continue to be resolved during the coming months.”
Sales of electric vehicles reached 411 in March, an increase of 248 compared with the same month in 2020.
Toyota was the leading brand in March with sales of 21,319 vehicles (21.3 per cent of the market), followed by Mazda with 10,785 (10.8 per cent), Hyundai with 6,852 (6.9 per cent), Mitsubishi with 6,430 (6.4 per cent) and Ford with 5,977 (6.0 per cent).
The Toyota Hilux was the best-selling vehicle in March 2021 with sales of 5,319 vehicles, followed by the Ford Ranger (3,983), the Toyota RAV4 (3,522), the Toyota Landcruiser (3,392) and the Mazda CX-5 (3,022).
VFACTS MARCH 2021
Summary by Class:
Key Points:
- The March 2021 market of 100,005 new vehicle sales is an increase of 18,315 vehicle sales or 22.4% on March 2020 (81,690) vehicle sales. March 2021 had 26.5 selling days compared to March 2020 with 25.5 and this resulted in an increase of 570.2 vehicle sales per day.
- The Passenger Vehicle Market is down by 423 vehicle sales (-1.9%) over the same month last year; the Sports Utility Market is up by 12,543 vehicle sales (32.0%); the Light Commercial Market is up by 5,090 vehicle sales (28.0%); and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle Market is up by 1,105 vehicle sales (42.8%) versus March 2020.
- Toyota was market leader in March, followed by Mazda and Hyundai. Toyota led Mazda with a margin of 10,534 vehicle sales and 10.5 market share points.