VFACTS: New car sales down 15.3pc for November

BY MATT BROGAN | 3rd Dec 2021

NEW CAR sales in Australia have dropped 15.3 per cent on the same time last year with 80,639 units sold in November 2021.

The decrease of 14,566 vehicle sales comes despite an additional selling day compared to November 2020 (25.7 selling days versus 24.7), resulting in a decrease of 716.7 new vehicles per day.

Ongoing availability constraints related to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated microprocessor supplies continue to impact Australian new vehicle supply, with some manufacturers seeing wait times on popular models extending up to 12 months.

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) chief executive Tony Weber said this month’s statistics are representative of ongoing issues related to the shipping of new vehicles globally, and that new vehicle demand is otherwise strong.

“Demand across the sector remains strong with the drop in sales reflecting well recognised international supply chain issues. This includes constraints around microprocessor supplies as well as the ongoing impact of the pandemic restricting factories,” Mr Weber said.

“Car makers are competing with many other sectors, such as white goods manufacturers, for microprocessors across the globe. Some new vehicles sold in the Australian market can require up to 3000 of these parts, so this shortage is definitely being felt by the industry.

“Challenges aside, we are less than 29,000 vehicles away from 1 million new cars being put into the hands of Australian motorists in 2021,” he added.

Those challenges see the passenger vehicle market down by 3879 units (-18.7%) over the same month last year, the SUV market is down 10,283 units (-20.6%) and the light commercial vehicle market down 1030 units (-4.8%). Only the heavy commercial vehicle market is up for November 2021 by 626 units (19.4%).

The state-by-state breakdown sees Western Australia down by the largest percentage, the black swan state selling just 7081 units for the month of November, a fall of 19.8 per cent. Queensland sold 16,001 units (-19.5%), Victoria 21,445 (-19.4%), Tasmania 1450 units (12.8%), and South Australia 5052 units (-10.6 per cent).

Only the Northern Territory and the ACT saw single digit declines with 714- and 1406-unit sales representing falls of 8.5 and 3.1 per cent respectively.

Of the almost 81,000 new cars sold nationally this month, it’s Toyota (15,239 unit sales) that takes top place on the market ladder, leading Hyundai (6854 units) with a margin of 8385 units or 10.4 market share points. Ford ranked third for the month of November with 6215 units sales ahead of Mitsubishi (5720 units) and Mazda (5295 units).

But it was Ford that continued its model dominance of the monthly sales charts, its Ranger clocking 4228 unit sales despite the announcement of an all-new model. The Toyota HiLux placed second for November 2021 with 4228 units sales, beating the Hyundai i30 (2254 units), Toyota Corolla (2104 units), and Toyota RAV4 (1820 units).

November VFACTS figures also show a strong increase in the volume of rental and hire fleet sales, indicating some positivity in market bounce back following COVID-19 related lockdowns and associated travel restrictions.

An increase of 90.7 per cent year on year was recorded for November, showing “rental providers are continuing to prepare for an increase in travel as pandemic restrictions continue to ease”, the FCAI said.

VFACTS: Top 10 Brands in November 2021

Brand Sales Share (%)

Toyota 15,239 18.9

Hyundai 6854 8.5

Ford 6215 7.7

Mitsubishi 5720 7.1

Mazda 5295 6.6

Kia 4915 6.1

MG 3742 4.6

Nissan 3509 4.4

Volkswagen 3098 3.8

Subaru 2712 3.4