The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries has released the July sales results.
Let’s take a look.
The market segments that saw growth compared to July 2021 were SUVs (6.4 per cent) and heavy commercial vehicles (4.0 per cent). The stragglers were passenger vehicles (-9.0 per cent) and light commercial vehicles (-4.4 per cent).
Only two states recorded increased sales, NSW (10.9%) and SA (13.3%). In comparison, Victoria was down 5.8 per cent.
Now let’s dig into sales by vehicle category and fuel type. First cab off the rank, battery electric vehicles. In July, 609 battery electric vehicles sold. The Polestar 2 was the highest selling electric vehicle (94 sales), followed by the Kia Niro EV (79 sales) and the Kia EV6 (52 sales). Due to shipping issues, only four Tesla Model 3 vehicles were delivered.
Next up, 578 plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles were sold – an increase of 77.8 per cent over July last year.
Hybrids, I hear you ask?
6,779 hybrid vehicles were sold, up by 31.6 per cent over July last year.
Petrol and diesel sales paint an interesting picture. There were 44,039 petrol vehicles sold in July this year, down by 4.2 per cent over July last year, and year-to-date petrol vehicle sales are down by 12.3 per cent.
Next, 28,785 diesel vehicles were sold in July this year, down by 0.5 per cent over July last year, and year-to-date diesel sales are down 0.6 per cent.
Lamborghini sold 27 vehicles, compared to nine buyers in July 2021. Sadly, I wasn’t one of them.
It will be a fascinating few months ahead. Interest rates are expected to keep rising and I suspect this will restrain consumer demand for many goods and services. That goes for new vehicles too.
Data source: FCAI
Words: VACC CEO Geoff Gwilym. As featured in the Herald Sun on 12 August 2022.