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Car market declines due to supply shortages

Car sales in Australia have dropped 15.3 per cent on November 2020 sales, with 80,639 new vehicles sold in November 2021.

“Demand across the sector remains strong with the drop in sales reflecting well recognised international supply chain issues,” FCAI Chief Executive Tony Weber said.

“This includes constraints around microprocessor supplies as well as the ongoing impact of the pandemic restricting factories.”

Sales in Western Australia were down by 19.8 per cent with 7,081 vehicles sold. Queensland saw 16,001 vehicles sold which is a decline of 19.5 per cent. Victorian sales decreased by 19.4 per cent with 21,445 new cars leaving showrooms. Sales in Tasmania were down by 12.8 per cent with 1,450 vehicles sold. South Australia saw 5,052 vehicles sold which represents a decrease of 10.6 per cent. The Northern Territory was down 8.5 per cent with 714 vehicles sold. Finally, the ACT recorded 1,406 new cars sold which was down 3.1 per cent on last year’s figures.

“Car makers are competing with many other sectors, such as white goods manufacturers, for microprocessors across the globe. Some new vehicles sold in the Australian market can require up to 3,000 of these parts, so this shortage is definitely being felt by the industry.”

“Challenges aside, we are less than 29,000 vehicles away from 1 million new cars being put into the hands of Australian motorists in 2021,” Mr Weber said.

Sales of rental and hire fleets continued to grow off the back of October 2021 sales. An increase of 90.7% per cent year to date on 2020 figures has been recorded which shows rental providers are continuing to prepare for an increase in travel as pandemic restrictions continue to ease.

Toyota was the market leader in November recording 15,239 sales. This was followed by Hyundai with 6,854 sales. Third place went to Ford with 6,215 sales. Mitsubishi sold 5,720 vehicles and Mazda came in fifth with 5,295 vehicles sold.

The Ford Ranger was the highest selling model with 4,429 sold. The Toyota Hilux came in second with 4,228 sold. Third went to the Hyundai i30 with 2,254. The Toyota Corolla was the fourth highest selling model with 2,104 sold. Fifth place went to Toyota RAV 4 with 1,820 new vehicles sold.

VFACTS NOVEMBER 2021

Summary by Class:

Key Points:

  • The November 2021 market of 80,639 new vehicle sales is a decrease of 14,566 vehicle sales or 15.3% on November 2020 (95,205) vehicle sales. November 2021 had 25.7 selling days compared to November 2020 with 24.7 but this resulted in a decrease of 716.7 vehicle sales per day.
  • The Passenger Vehicle Market is down by 3,879 vehicle sales (-18.7%) over the same month last year; the Sports Utility Market is down by 10,283 vehicle sales
    (-20.6%); the Light Commercial Market is down by 1,030 vehicle sales (-4.8%) and the Heavy Commercial Vehicle Market is up by 626 vehicle sales (19.4%) versus
    November 2020.
  • Toyota was market leader in November, followed by Hyundai and Ford. Toyota led Hyundai with a margin of 8,385 vehicle sales and 10.4 market share points.