Australian new car sales are continuing apace and, in May, sales of SUVs overtook passenger car sales…

SUVS IN MAY were the best-selling vehicle type, outselling passenger cars sales (38.5% Vs 37.7%, respectively). Sales of commercial vehicle came in third place with 20.6% of the market in May.

More than this, May saw a record number of new car sales compared with May 2016, the market up 6.4%. The market is down year-to-date by 0.9% compared with the same period last year.

May was all about SUVs with medium SUVs showing the strongest growth in that segment growing 23% compared with May 2016, 4×4 light commercials were the third-largest vehicle segment, and large SUVs the fourth.

Diesel sales continue to dominate the light commercial market but dipped during May in the SUV private (down 5.5 per cent over May 2016) and non-private (down 1.4 per cent) categories, according to VFACTs.

The Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Tony Weber, said the May market rebound was not unexpected given the approach of the end of the 2016-17 financial year. 

“Light commercials and SUVs were again strong performing segments, both up by 9.4 per cent on the result of May 2016 but it was also interesting to see small passenger cars as our country’s most popular vehicle category,” Mr Weber said.

Following on the April pattern, Australia’s top-selling vehicle during May was the Toyota Hilux on 4,154 sales, followed very closely by the Ford Ranger on 4,069 sales. The third top seller was the Toyota Corolla (3,160 sales), followed by the Hyundai i30 (2,683) and Mazda3 (2,594).

Toyota continued to lead the market with a 19.3 per cent share during May, followed by Mazda (9.6 per cent), Hyundai (8.1 per cent), Ford (7.4 per cent) and Holden (6.7 per cent).