Market Insight: May sales reveal surprises

MORE than three years on, Australia’s automotive sales are still being shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic as the industry continues to break the mould with a series of unpredictable and unprecedented movements.

A lot of what is happening defies logic. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industry’s VFACTS sales report for May shows a few unexpected results and from these, two stand out as indicative of how hard it is for all players to predict any trend.

The two are: Suzuki Jimny’s sales record despite orders for one variant being frozen for five months; and Volkswagen’s T-Roc outselling the traditionally more popular Golf and Tiguan.

Suzuki sales for May totalled 1696 units, with its best-seller being the Jimny, a model which Suzuki Australia paused orders for on January 18 this year.

Despite the hold – which is still in place – on the automatic version of the Jimny that was installed as demand heavily outweighed the ability to supply, the Jimny had a record month in May with 748 sold. 

That is up 91.8 per cent on the same month in 2022 and in the first five months of 2023, up 29.8 per cent on the same period to May 30 last year. 

Jimny volume last came close to the May 2023 figure when it hit 674 sales in September 2022.

There have been 2589 Jimny sales this year to date. In perspective – and still remembering that Suzuki has pulled the auto version and is still having problems getting a smooth delivery flow – that is more units than Toyota has sold Camrys.

It is also more than the total YTD sales of Porsche and Jeep, and even betters the popular Hyundai Santa Fe (2391 sales) and Kia Rio (2414).

More amazingly, the orders have yet to be fulfilled with a backlog still holding up potential customers from signing up for one.

Volkswagen’s small SUV, the T-Roc, had a bumper month in May with 950 sales that bettered Golf (189), Amarok (645) and Tiguan (713).

Much of this is to do with delivery cycles and hiccups with the other models but it is still a great result for a model that used to churn out about 400 a month prior to 2022. In May 2022 the T-Roc, battered by production and logistics hold-ups, sold only 29 units.

The T-Roc was also up 180 per cent in the first five months of 2023 compared with 2022, selling 3360 units. That is the best result for all the Volkswagen models and more than double the sales of the Amarok – although the ute is now emerging from a full generation change cycle, with VW confident of supply from its South African source.

Good news also from the Lexus camp. Fresh from launching its second battery electric vehicle, the RZ450 which found 44 buyers in its first month at the dealerships, Lexus had its best month ever.

In May 2023 it sold 5419 vehicles, with the NX medium SUV being top seller, finding 549 homes last month – up 137.7 per cent on May 2022 – and 2121 in the first five months of the year, up 45.2 per cent.

The baby Lexus SUV, the UX, also performed well with sales up 252.4 per cent in May (compared with May 2022) and up 84.6 per cent for the year.

As a brand, Lexus is up 63.2 per cent YTD and 163.8 per cent for May. Its sales in May now exceed those reported from brands including Audi (1623 units) and Suzuki (1696) and YTD, beats Volvo (4986) and is closing in on Honda (5642).

Just for perspective, a decade ago the 2013 calendar year saw Honda sell 39,258 units while Lexus lagged with 6920 units. The difference this year reflects changing buyer tastes and how vital it is for car-makers to continually be product-driven.