Australian vehicle sales for June 2019 (VFACTS)

The Australian vehicle sales figures have been released in the form of the June 2019 VFACTS charts. Sales continue a downward trend as we cross the mid point of the year, with total sales down 8.4 per cent year-to-date (YTD).

Starting with the most popular brands, it’s no surprise Toyota is the clear favourite. Toyota has been in top position for many years now, with no sign of anybody else catching up. However, sales for the Japanese brand are down 6.3 per cent YTD, proving that even it is affected by the market’s slump. And this is despite huge sales in the ute sector, including HiLux sales that pushed over 5000 units for the month.

In other parts of the top 10 list, Mitsubishi swoops into fourth position from sixth in the previous month. Kia moves up from seventh to fifth, while Holden falls from eighth down to tenth compared with the previous month. See below for the top 10 best-selling car brands for June 2019:

1. Toyota – 21,200 (up from 18,220 in May 2019 sales)
2. Mazda – 10,806 (up from 8578)
3. Hyundai – 10,001 (up from 8106)
4. Mitsubishi – 8891 (up from 5120)
5. Kia – 7200 (up from 5533)
6. Ford – 7155 (up from 5788)
7. Honda – 6232 (up from 3697)
8. Volkswagen – 5793 (up from 4520)
9. Nissan – 5514 (up from 3970)
10. Holden – 4817 (up from 4392)

At the top of the vehicle models, the HiLux has well and truly planted itself on the throne. This was no doubt helped by the last month of the financial year, with ABN holders likely making their last purchases before the tax threshold. Likewise, the Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton also sold in unusually large numbers compared with previous months.

Passenger cars were topped by the Hyundai i30. It outsold its popular rivals, the Corolla and Mazda3. In fact, the Mazda3 looks like it is slipping behind a bit. Again, this could be due to the financial year coming to an end and fleet buyers and the such turning to the i30 and Corolla. The top 10 best-selling vehicle models for June 2019 were as follows:

1. Toyota HiLux – 5396 (up from 4206 in May 2019)
2. Ford Ranger – 4851 (up from 3972)
3. Hyundai i30 – 3343 (up from 2901)
4. Toyota Corolla – 3137 (up from 2467)
5. Mazda CX-5 – 2911 (up from 2100)
6. Kia Cerato – 2832 (up from 2024)
7. Mitsubishi Triton – 2695 (up from 1382)
8. Mazda3 – 2533 (up from 2359)
9. Toyota RAV4 – 2449 (down from 2917)
10. Hyundai Tucson – 2344 (up from 1710)

Small Cars under $40,000 – Kicking off the vehicle segments, we look at the popular Small Car class. And for the second month in a row the Hyundai i30 has come out as the most popular model. Toyota’s ever-popular Corolla sits not too far behind, but as mentioned, it’s the Mazda3 that catches our attention. Mazda recently launched the new model but it doesn’t seem to be making a big impact yet. The Kia Cerato managed to push past it for third place. Segment sales overall are down 18.1 per cent YTD. The top 10 best-selling small cars in June 2019 were as follows:

1. Hyundai i30 – 3343 (up from 2901)
2. Toyota Corolla – 3137 (up from 2467)
3. Kia Cerato – 2832 (up from 2024)
4. Mazda3 – 2533 (up from 2359)
5. Volkswagen Golf – 1613 (up from 1398)
6. Honda Civic – 1437 (up from 812)
7. Subaru Impreza – 545 (up from 440)
8. Mitsubishi Lancer – 387 (up from 358)
9. Ford Focus – 344 (up from 282)
10. Hyundai Elantra – 312 (up from 192)

Small Cars over $40,000 – After introducing this segment in the previous month, we can start to see which vehicles are consistently the favourites. And it looks like the Mercedes A-Class remains at the top by quite a margin. We’ve decided to trim the best-sellers list from 10 to five models. There are only 10 models on sale in this segment overall, but it looks like the Volvo V40 and V40 Cross Country are not reporting any sales, while the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer and BMW i3 are reporting very low numbers. The top five best-selling vehicles in this segment during June 2019 were as follows:

1. Mercedes-Benz A-Class – 622 (up from 462 in May 2019)
2. BMW 1 Series – 288 (up from 224)
3. Audi A3 – 272 (down from 302)
4. Mercedes-Benz B-Class – 150 (down from 174)
5. MINI Clubman – 27 (equal)

Medium Cars under $60,000 – Here we see the Toyota Camry is still going strong, but most rivals are diminishing down to two-digit figures. Segment sales overall are down 14.1 per cent YTD, and down 22.9 per cent compared with June last year. The top five best-selling models in this class for June 2019 were as follows:

1. Toyota Camry – 1242 (down from 1633)
2. Mazda6 – 299 (up from 177)
3. Skoda Octavia – 271 (up from 199)
4. Volkswagen Passat – 103 (up from 90)
5. Hyundai Sonata – 78 (up from 44)

Medium Cars over $60,000 – Into the premium stuff, and we see the Mercedes C-Class continues to dominate. This is despite BMW recently introducing the fantastic new 3 Series (review coming soon). BMW 3 Series sales are less than half of C-Class efforts. Further down the list the Mercedes CLA comes into fifth spot, booting out the Audi A5 from the previous month. Segment sales are down 14.9 per cent YTD. The top five best-selling vehicles in this class during June were as follows:

1. Mercedes-Benz C-Class – 708 (up from 421)
2. BMW 3 Series – 339 (up from 266)
3. Lexus IS – 121 (up from 92)
4. Audi A4 – 111 (up from 110)
5. Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class – 73 (up from 38)

Large Cars under $70,000 – Humble sedans are fast-becoming a thing of the past. Here we see the Holden Commodore is losing momentum. And it’s interesting that sales haven’t spiked at the end of the financial year. Rewind about 10 years and you’d normally see a spike in Commodore (and Falcon) sales, with business owners and sales representatives snapping up the big wagons. Nowadays, that market is turning to SUVs and utes. Overall segment sales drop 33 per cent YTD, and down 39.5 per cent compared with June last year. The top five best-selling vehicles in this segment for June were as follows. Soon we will have to cut this list down to three vehicles.

1. Holden Commodore – 550 (down from 670 in May)
2. Kia Stinger – 200 (up from 157)
3. Skoda Superb – 126 (up from 68)
4. Hyundai Genesis– 0 (0)
5. Peugeot 508 – 0 (0)

Large Cars over $70,000 – Moving up a class and things are a little bit different. Segment sales have dropped across YTD, but by only 6.2 per cent in comparison to the above segment. The Mercedes E-Class remains as the favourite from the previous month, and the BMW 5 Series isn’t far behind. The top five best-selling vehicles in this class in June 2019 were as follows:

1. Mercedes-Benz E-Class – 125 (up from 95)
2. BMW 5 Series – 96 (up from 45)
3. Maserati Ghibli – 24 (up from 15)
4. Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class – 19 (down from 20)
5. Audi A7 – 10 (down from 11)

Sports Car under $80,000 – Fun cars are lead by the Ford Mustang. However, as we reported a couple of weeks ago, there could be a supply issue in the US for RHD models for Australia. Sales are still dwindling for the iconic muscle car. Across YTD, Mustang sales are down 16.4 per cent, and down a whopping 41.9 per cent compared with June last year. In other areas, the BMW 2 Series maintains second position, followed by the Toyota 86. Overall segment sales are down 28.5 per cent YTD. The top five best-selling vehicles in this segment for June were as follows:

1. Ford Mustang – 369 (up from 348 in May)
2. BMW 2 Series Coupe/Convertible – 97 (down from 98)
3. Toyota 86 – 52 (down from 56)
4. Mazda MX-5 – 48 (up from 42)
5. Subaru BRZ – 35 (down from 44)
   (Subaru WRX – 101 [up from 82] – not officially in this segment, shown for comparison)

Sport Cars over $80,000 – Higher up the market the Mercedes C-Class two-door models carve an ever-deeper track into this segment. It easily outsold all of its rivals. It’s almost like the model is competing in another class, reporting almost five times as many sales as its nearest competitor; the E-Class two-door. Overall segment sales are down 10.9 per cent YTD. The top five best-selling models in this class for June 2019 were as follows:

1. Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe/Convertible – 238 (up from 197)
2. Mercedes-Benz E-Class Coupe/Convertible – 54 (down from 66)
3. BMW 4 Series Coupe – 32 (up from 30)
4. Lexus RC – 30 (up from 26)
5. Audi A5 – 29 (down form 39)

Sport Cars over $200,000 – The king of sports cars in the top end of the market is the Porsche 911. Sales are consistently at the top, and in fact 911 sales are up 5.3 per cent YTD and up 26.1 per cent compared with June last year. This is no doubt helped by the arrival of the new model. Down the list we see Ferrari is still posting decent numbers for such an exotic carmaker, followed by sales of the Mercedes-AMG GT. Overall segment sales are down just 5.4 per cent YTD, which, interestingly, is the lowest drop of all sports car segments. The top five best-selling vehicles in the segment during June 2019 were as follows:

1. Porsche 911 – 58 (up from 48 in May)
2. Ferrari (not specified) – 18 (down from 26)
3. Mercedes-AMG GT – 16 (up from 14)
4. Lamborghini (not specified) – 15 (up from 5)
5. Aston Martin coupe/convertible – 14 (up from 9)

Combined 4×2 and 4×4 ute – HiLux sales obviously continue to dominate in this area. However, we notice the Ranger actually outsold the HiLux in the 4×4 class, specifically. Ford sold 4396 Ranger 4×4 models, to 3891 HiLux 4×4 sales. The Ranger can’t keep up with the HiLux 4×2 though, with just 455 sales to 1505 sales.

In other parts of the combined lineup we notice the Mitsubishi Triton moves up into third spot, while the Mercedes-Benz X-Class jumps back into the top 10. The rest of the lineup remains in consistent standings. The top 10 best-selling utes (4×2 and 4×4 combined – excludes LandCruiser) for June 2019 were as follows:

1. Toyota HiLux – 5396 (up from 4206 in May)
2. Ford Ranger – 4851 (up from 3972)
3. Mitsubishi Triton – 2695 (up from 1382)
4. Holden Colorado – 2149 (up from 1719)
5. Isuzu D-Max – 2027 (up from 1419)
6. Nissan Navara – 1499 (up from 1116)
7. Mazda BT-50 – 1346 (up from 1039)
8. Volkswagen Amarok – 1120 (up from 744)
9. LDV T60 – 455 (up from 307)
10. Mercedes-Benz X-Class – 236 (up from 142)

The overall best-selling SUV for the month was again the Mazda CX-5, with sales up 0.8 per cent YTD. Meanwhile the most popular premium SUV was the Mercedes-Benz GLC, with its sales up 5.3 per cent YTD.

The ‘Medium under $60,000’ class remains as the favourite, with 20,143 sales during June, down 3.5 per cent YTD. Following that is the ‘Small under $40,000’ segment, reporting 13,769 sales in June, down 4.2 per cent YTD. Rounding out the top three, it’s the ‘Large under $70,000’ segment. It reported 10,843 sales in June, down 6.2 per cent YTD.

Interesting observations include the Honda HR-V storming through the entry SUV class into second position, meanwhile the BMW X1 jumps to the top of its class. The Isuzu MU-X has also moved into third position in its respective segment, while at the very top end of the SUV market, BMW is continuing to receive plenty of interest in its new X7 mammoth. The top three best-selling SUVs in all segments for June 2019 were as follows:

• SUV Small under $40,000:
  Mitsubishi ASX – 2206 (up from 1044 in May 2019)
  Honda HR-V – 1769 (up from 1164)
  Mazda CX-3 – 1708 (up from 1250)
• SUV Small above $40,000:
  BMW X1 – 303 (up from 260)
  Volvo XC40 – 276 (up from 258)
  Mercedes-Benz GLA – 273 (down from 308)
• SUV Medium under $60,000:
  Mazda CX-5 – 2911 (up from 2100)
  Toyota RAV4 – 2449 (down from 2917)
  Hyundai Tucson – 2344 (up from 1710)
• SUV Medium above $60,000:
  Mercedes-Benz GLC – 753 (up from 577)
  BMW X3 – 452 (up from 406)
  Audi Q5 – 369 (up from 364)
• SUV Large under $70,000:
  Toyota LandCruiser Prado – 2045 (up from 1776)
  Toyota Kluger – 1085 (up from 958)
  Isuzu MU-X – 970 (up from 710)
• SUV Large above $70,000:
  BMW X5 – 379 (up from 304)
  Lexus RX – 273 (up from 199)
  Range Rover Sport – 260 (up from 200)
• SUV Upper Large under $100,000:
  Toyota LandCruiser – 1363 (down up 1399)
  Nissan Patrol – 200 (up from 195)
• SUV Upper Large above $100,000:
  BMW X7 – 82 (down from 152)
  Audi Q8 – 49 (up from 44)
  Lexus LX – 42 (up from 34)

Total new vehicle sales in Australia in June were up on May figures. During June, Australian consumers bought 117,817 vehicles according to VFACTS, compared with 92,561 in May. Overall sales for the month are down 9.6 per cent, and down 8.4 per cent year-to-date.