Key PointsAustralians purchased 1,216,780 new autos final yr.The Ford Ranger was Australia’s top-selling automobile in 2023.It outstripped the Toyota HiLux, knocking it off its perch for the primary time in eight years.
Price-of-living pressures have didn’t dampen Australia’s love affair with the automotive, with gross sales reaching new heights in 2023 regardless of successive rate of interest hikes.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries on Thursday revealed Australians purchased 1,216,780 new autos final yr – eclipsing the earlier annual document set in 2017 by greater than 27,000.
Utes and SUVs dominated the marketplace for one other yr, accounting for nearly 80 per cent of all gross sales and all the prime 10 hottest fashions.
For the primary time, the Ford Ranger was Australia’s top-selling automobile, outstripping 2022’s hottest automotive the Toyota HiLux by 2245 gross sales and knocking it off its perch for the primary time in eight years.
The result’s the fruits of a three-year comeback after COVID-19 decimated provide chains and triggered new automobile gross sales to slide under a million in 2020.
“This extraordinary result’s a testomony to the adaptability and resilience of each business gamers and customers alike,” FCAI’s chief government Tony Weber stated.
“Regardless of the provision chain disruptions confronted in latest occasions, customers now have better entry to a broad vary of decisions, fostering elevated accessibility out there.”
However as customers expend pent-up demand fuelled by COVID-era provide shortages, the business is readying itself for a 2024 slowdown.
Economists predict family buying energy to decrease additional as the results of 13 rate of interest rises since Could 2022 and lingering excessive inflation proceed to eat into document financial savings collected throughout the pandemic.
“Price-of-living pressures and elevated rates of interest will impression the market and we anticipate a difficult 2024,” Weber stated.
However he was optimistic the federal authorities’s proposed gas effectivity commonplace reforms would result in emission reductions whereas enabling Australian customers to drive the autos they want and wish.
Electrical automobile gross sales . Greater than 87,000 EVs had been offered final yr, accounting for 7.2 per cent of the market in comparison with 3.1 per cent in 2022.
Australians can have much more electrical automobile fashions to select from in 2024, with new entries anticipated from Jeep, Nissan and competitively priced Chinese language producer BYD.
Toyota will lastly introduce its first battery electrical automobile – the 516km-in-one-charge succesful bZ4X – to the Australian market in February.
Toyota was the preferred model for the twenty first yr operating, with greater than 215,000 models offered in 2023, accounting for 17.7 per cent of the overall market.
Mazda, the following closest competitor, managed lower than half that, with 100,008 autos offered.
Gross sales had been bolstered by decrease supply wait occasions, which had come right down to a “cheap” 4 to 6 months within the second half of final yr, Toyota vice chairman of gross sales, advertising and marketing, and franchise operations Sean Hanley stated.
“That pattern will speed up this yr with a stronger allocation of worldwide manufacturing destined for Australian clients,” he stated.
It is a marked enchancment for the business, which was nonetheless struggling supply delays of over 12 months in 2022.
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