Hot on the heels of a record June, the new car market has backed up with a record July to match.
Total sales for the year are up 7.9 per cent so far, with 731,898 vehicles sold compared to 678,618 at this time in 2023.
While the July figures were up 2.7 per cent to 99,486 sales.
However, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries’ (FCAI) Tony Weber has sounded a warning, with the implementation of the new vehicle efficiency standards looming.
“This is a remarkable achievement in an economy featuring widespread cost of living pressures,” he said.
“It was also interesting to note that while sales in the business and Government segments were up 13.7 per cent and 37.5 per cent respectively, private sales were down 4.2 per cent.”
Mr Weber added that the July figures would have topped 100,000 sales had if Tesla and Polestar sales were included in the VFACTS numbers.
Toyota was the market leader with sales of 22,705 in July, followed by Mazda (8476), Ford (7749,) Kia (6620) and Hyundai (6021).
The RAV4 was Australia’s top selling vehicle with sales of 5933 in July followed by Ford Ranger (4915), Toyota Hilux (4747), Toyota Corolla (2688) and Toyota Landcruiser (2464).
Sales in the ACT were down 1.4 per cent on July 2023 to 1418; NSW sales was up 2.9 per cent to 30,361; Northern Territory was up 4.9 per cent to 947; Queensland increased 6.2 per cent to 20,937; South Australia increased 4.7 per cent to 6921; Tasmania had a decrease of 12.0 per cent to 1564; Victoria decreased 1.6 per cent to 26,667 and Western Australia increased 8.9 per cent to 10,671.
Consistent with trends in many overseas markets, sales of hybrid vehicles are up 88.4 per cent and plug-in hybrid vehicles are up 128.9 per cent compared with July 2023.
Sales of battery electric vehicles – with the inclusion of the reported Tesla (2592) and Polestar (103) results – are currently at 6.6 per cent of the market, down from 7.0 per cent in 2023.
