Car sales driven by pandemic recovery, with Toyota most popular brand

Car sales have recovered from their 2020 woes with surging sales of Ford Rangers making it Australia’s most popular model.

Ford Ranger Wildtrak

Car sales have recovered from their 2020 woes, lifting 14.5 per cent from the pandemic doldrums, with Toyota remaining the country’s most popular brand.

The Toyota HiLux — across its 4x4 and 2x4 models — remained the country’s highest-selling car with 52,801 sales.

The Ford Ranger was the second most popular, with 45,986 sales.

Electric-vehicle sales in Australia have soared, with December sales up 191.1 per cent on 2020 levels, but despite the surge they remain just 0.49 per cent of the total car market.

However, American EV player Tesla does not report its sales data to the FCAI.

But not all is well in the car market, with the latest data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries showing vehicle sales in December 2021 down 18 per cent on where they were in 2020.

Australians snapped up 1.04 million vehicles in 2021, a 14.5 per cent lift on 2020 levels.

However, 2020 vehicle sales figures represented a low base, with the year marred by lockdowns that saw dealerships closed and total volumes down 13.7 per cent on 2019.

Australians bought 5149 EVs in 2021, up from 1769 in 2020, but FCAI chief executive Tony Weber stressed they represented a small slice of market share.

“In this context, we must recognise the policy objective should be to lower our CO2 emissions rather than meeting sales targets of particular types of technology,” Mr Weber said.

Australians continued a long trend of favouring SUVs and light commercial vehicles.

Retailers sold 531,7000 SUVs in 2021, up 16.9 per cent on the 2020 figures.

Sales growth in light commercial vehicles were up 23.2 per cent on last year, with a total of 253,254 sold in the year.

Passenger vehicles declined 0.2 per cent, with 221,556 sold through the whole year.

2022 Ford Ranger Wildtrak

Mr Weber said the new vehicle market remained positive, despite supply issues and pandemic restrictions.

“Despite the pandemic restricting access to showrooms in 2021, Australian consumers found ways to purchase new vehicles and did so in solid numbers,” Mr Weber said.

“The global shortage of microprocessors, compounded by the pandemic, had an impact on the number of cars sold throughout Australia. Automotive manufacturers are continuing to work to strengthen supply chains in 2022.”

Toyota topped the tables for the highest-selling brand, with 21.3 per cent of the total vehicle market.

Mazda sold the second-highest amount of vehicles, capturing 9.6 per cent of vehicle sales with 101,119 leaving the lot in the year.

This was followed by South Korean carmaker Hyundai, which sold 72,872 vehicles, taking in 6.9 per cent of the car market.

US carmaker Ford took fourth place, just behind Hyundai, with 6.8 per cent of total vehicle sales, with 71,380 sold.

This article has been amended to clarify that, across the 4x4 and 2x4 models, the Toyota HiLux was the country’s highest-selling car in 2021.