Market Insight: Off-road SUV surge
BY SCOTT NEWMAN | 4th Nov 2024
OFF-ROAD SUV sales are surging with a number of key models scaling new peaks as Australian buyers want to have their cake and eat it too, thanks to these vehicles’ unique combination of ruggedness, towing ability and family friendliness.
Traditionally the large off-road SUV segment has been dominated by the Toyota LandCruiser Prado, which has averaged about 20,000 sales per annum for much of the past decade.
However, with stocks of the previous generation exhausted (just a solitary example was sold in September) and the all-new model only just hitting showrooms, Prado deliveries have plummeted 72.5 per cent year-to-date as of September 30, with only 3523 finding homes.
The Prado’s mantle has been picked up by the Ford Everest in an emphatic manner. Everest sales are up a whopping 79.3 per cent year-on-year and the 18,613 sold as of September 30 already sets a new full-year record, easily surpassing 2023’s 15,701 units.
Ford’s new-generation Everest has been a revelation for the Blue Oval brand. Whereas annual sales of 6000 units were deemed a good result for its predecessor, the latest Everest’s popularity has vaulted it well into the overall top 10 and the September result was a key contributor to Ford nabbing second place overall on the sales charts.
A Ford Australia spokesperson told GoAuto that the company is "extremely pleased with how many customers are choosing Everest this year” given it is the nation’s seventh most-popular model overall and leading its segment at end of September.
“We have a good supply of most Everest variants in Ford dealers now, with campaigns in market to drive awareness.”
The segment’s star performer in terms of percentage increase is the Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, with sales up 93.7 per cent YoY.
In part, this result is a consequence of a soft 2023, Mitsubishi telling GoAuto supply was constrained in the first half of last year, while this year’s numbers (5901) are bolstered by a run-out campaign on MY23 models ahead of the recent arrival of the facelifted MY24.
Another model enjoying record sales is the Isuzu MU-X, its 14,228 units YTD (as of September 30) up 31 per cent YoY and already eclipsing last year’s record full-year result of 14,129.
Like the Everest, Isuzu’s new-generation MU-X has been well received, sales climbing steadily and substantially since its introduction.
The segment's newest arrivals, the GWM Tank siblings, are also enjoying moderate success.
After a slow start – which explains its eye-opening 685.5 per cent YoY improvement – Tank 300 sales have settled at about 300 a month, with the larger Tank 500 adding a further 200.
Records are also at play in the sub-$120K upper large SUV segment, home of Australian off-road stalwarts the Nissan Patrol and Toyota LandCruiser. The former’s late-life renaissance continues, 2024 YTD sales up 5.6 per cent on 2023’s 7812 record – itself a 36.5 per cent increase over the 2022 record – a remarkable result for a model that was launched internationally in February 2010.
The LandCruiser 300-Series' interminable wait lists are now seemingly a thing of the past, its 2024 sales up a healthy 13.5 per cent putting the model in with a strong chance of recording the strongest result in its long and storied history, beating the 2020 record of 15,078 deliveries.
Unfortunately, not every manufacturer is popping champagne. LDV D90 sales are down 26 per cent year-on-year and, at the other end of the pricing scale, the Land Rover Defender is down 17 per cent over its 2023 results.
Of most note, for all the wrong reasons, is the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Despite recent heavy price cuts, just 519 Grand Cherokees have left the showroom this year, a 48.8 per cent fall YoY and a mere shadow of the 16,582 that were sold a decade ago.
It appears buyers have not been swayed by the more premium positioning (and pricing) of the latest generation introduced in 2022.
Looking at these results, it is clear to see why car-makers lobbied so hard to have this segment classified as light commercial vehicles (LCV) rather than passenger cars for the forthcoming New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES).
Combined with an increase in the proposed LCV limit, this means that the average emissions produced by an off-road SUV must be 110g/km by 2029, rather than 58g/km had they been classed as passenger cars.
The only remaining question is how hard the new-generation Toyota Prado bounces back and whether it can wrestle top spot back from the Ford Everest in 2025.