New car sales plummet in July as lockdowns bite

Despite sweeping lockdowns Aussies continued to buy new cars in big numbers, and these are the ones that enticed buyers into showrooms.

Lockdowns hit the Aussie car industry hard in July.

More than 84,000 new vehicles found a home in the past month, which is 25,000 fewer sales compared to June.

The month long lockdown in NSW had a major impact with sales in the nation’s most populous state suffering a decline on the lockdown affected July 2020.

Every other state experienced an increase compared to 2020, including Victoria which had its own two week lockdown in July.

Utes continue to power the Aussie new car market. Photo by Thomas Wielecki

These states helped boost the market by more than 16 per cent compared to the same month in 2020.

Tony Weber, the head of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, was positive and said the market remained strong despite several challenges.

“The growth of 16.1 per cent shows the underlying strength, confidence and resilience in the market in spite of the challenges being presented due to lockdowns and ongoing delivery issues caused by microprocessor shortages and shipping delays,” he says.

The sales were again driven by utes with the Toyota HiLux (4610) the best selling vehicle in the country, followed by the Ford Ranger (4064) in second and the Isuzu D-Max (2427) in fourth spot.

Toyota’s HiLux was the country’s favourite vehicle in July.

SUVs again proved popular with the Mazda CX-5 (2389) and Toyota RAV4 (2345) taking out fifth and sixth position.

The big four-wheel drive Toyota Prado (2251) was the seventh best selling vehicle in the country as it capitalised on the bigger LandCruiser selling out ahead of the arrival of the new 300 Series model later this year.

Aussies warmed to government electric car incentives with sales of the zero emissions up more than 270 per cent in July and more than 200 per cent for the year. Victoria and NSW were the big drivers of this growth.

Electric cars are becoming increasingly popular.

Chinese maker MG shows no sign of slowing down with sales increasing by 197 per cent in the past month and more than 230 per cent this year.

Its compact ZS SUV is leading the sales charge with 1786, which made it Australia’s 10th-highest selling vehicle

Kia has continued its stellar 2021 with the new Cerato small car notching up more than 1500 sales.

MG is fast becoming a mainstream brand.

The battle for the third-best selling brand in the country is heating up as Mitsubishi posted solid results on the back of strong Outlander SUV sales and Hyundai benefited from the arrival of its new Tucson SUV along with continued interest in the i30 small car.

The Arrival of the new Land Rover Defender luxury off-roader has propelled the brand into the black with sales up about 180 per cent in July and more than 16 per cent this year.

Honda recently switched to an agency model in July, which saw it shrink its dealership network and means head office owns all the stock and prices are non-negotiable with dealers in charge of delivering vehicles and servicing.

It hasn’t been the ideal start for Honda with the formerly top 10 brand selling just 822 vehicles in the past month compared to about 2200 in July 2020. Honda’s sales are down 38 per cent on the year.

Honda Australia said the result was about 20 per cent below it expectations for July but the company’s focus is shifting from the quantity of sales to a quality customer experience, which means chasing volume is no longer the main focus or measure of success.

Subaru had a rough July, too, with sales declining 17 per cent. Nissan also had a tough month with about 220 fewer sales in July this year than 2020.

TOP 10 SELLING VEHICLES IN JULY

Toyota HiLux – 4610

Ford Ranger – 4064

Toyota Corolla – 2535

Isuzu D-Max – 2427

Mazda CX-5 – 2389

Toyota RAV4 – 2345

Toyota Prado – 2251

Hyundai i30 – 1914

Mitsubishi Outlander – 1792

MG ZS – 1786

TOP 10 SELLING BRANDS IN JULY

Toyota – 17,643

Mazda – 8919

Ford – 5569

Mitsubishi – 5302

Kia – 5202

Hyundai – 5062

Volkswagen – 3840

Isuzu – 3403

MG – 3313

Mercedes-Benz – 2385