VFACTS: April sales slip 12.2%

THE Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has released new-vehicle sales figures for April 2022, during which 12.2 per cent fewer units were sold compared with the corresponding month last year.

The FCAI says 81,065 vehicles were sold across 23 selling days last month –11,282 units fewer than in April 2021, which had 23.6 selling days. The decrease translates to an overall loss of 388.4 vehicle sales per day compared to April last year.

Overall, the numbers for April limit the 2022 year-to-date sales total to 343,501 units. The passenger car market is down by 2620 vehicle sales (14.5 per cent) over the same month last year, while the SUV market is down by 6806 units (13.8 per cent).

Despite usually notching up strong numbers, the light commercial vehicle market also slowed (by 9.6 per cent – 2078 units). However, the heavy commercial vehicle market defied the trend, growing 6.5 per cent (222 units) across the month of April.

Toyota again led the Australian market in April, ahead of Mazda and Mitsubishi. Toyota leads its Japanese rivals with a margin of 10,578 unit sales (13.1 market share points). The big T led the market with a total of 17,956 sales overall for the month, while Mazda sold 7378 new vehicles, Mitsubishi 6463, Kia 6180 and Hyundai 5552.

The top 10 for April closely reflects that of March (2022) with Toyota, Mazda and Mitsubishi retaining the top three spots. Hyundai and Kia swapped fourth and fifth place, Ford held on to sixth, and MG, Isuzu, Nissan and Subaru held their positions to round out seventh through tenth positions.

The Toyota HiLux remains Australia’s best-selling model with April sales of 4493 units ahead of the Ford Ranger (3581), Toyota RAV4 (3373), Mazda CX-5 (2701) and Isuzu D-Max (2374).

The Tesla Model 3 fell out of the top 10 for the month of April, while the Toyota RAV4 moved from second to third place. The Ford Ranger, meanwhile. moved up from sixth to second place in April, while the Mitsubishi Triton moved from fourth to sixth.

On a state-by-state basis, April’s new-vehicle sales figures fell across every state and territory. Western Australia fell furthest with a 20.4 per cent drop compared with the corresponding month last year year, with the state selling just 7896 vehicles.

ACT sold just 1201 new vehicles sold during the month (-14.9 per cent), with New South Wales at 25,432 units (-12.7 per cent), Queensland at 17,424 (-11.2 per cent), Victoria at 21,339 (-11.0 per cent); Tasmania at 1466 (-7.9 per cent), South Australia at 5459 (-6.2 per cent) and the Northern Territory at 848 (-4.8 per cent).

State and territory sales rankings remain unchanged from last month.

“We know this is not a reflection on the demand for new vehicles in the market. This is a reflection on the global automotive industry’s ability to supply vehicles to not only the Australian market, but all markets throughout the world,” said FCAI CEO Tony Weber.

“Automotive manufacturers continue to suffer from a shortage of microprocessor units, which is impacting their ability to ramp up production to pre-pandemic levels.

“COVID-19 continues to impact manufacturing and supply, particularly where factories have been forced to close and shipping operations are yet to fully recover. This is being reflected in the extended delivery times for new vehicles.”

Top 10 vehicle sales by make (April 2022):

Top 10 vehicle sales by model (April 2022):

State by state (April 2022):